Disciples III yay or nay?

[ibex333]

So I saw many, many negative reviews both for Disciples III and its expansion. But I decided to play it anyway, because a lot of reviews nowadays seem to be biased.

Although I'm only playing for day one, and only a few hours, I feel like I can already start commenting on the topic, being an avid fan of the original Disciples and Disciples 2. I played both games to death, and beat every single expansion, playing with every race.
As I keep playing I will update this thread for those who are interested.

Some complaints I see are the ones about horrible voice acting and bad music. Well, this isn't the first game suffering from horrible voice acting, and I doubt any other game in the series will benefit from the likes of masterpiece music of the original. Putting both of these drawbacks aside, lets focus on another thing that also keeps coming up in the negative reviews on a very large scale. Namely, the complaints about repetition and tedium.

It seems the reviewers have forgotten that repetition and tedium is the name of the game for games like these. There was indeed always a lot of repetition in Heroes of Might and Magic, Disciples, and other games such as these. The formula is simple, explore the map, kill monsters, find loot, upgrade your hero, again, again, and again, until you become so powerful that you end up just being frustrated about your next turn not coming up fast enough for you to effortlessly slaughter huge hordes of enemies, pressing on in hopes of finding something that can remotely challenge you.... That, or a nice ending cut-scene. ; )

So what is up with the reviewers these days? I purposely found the reviews for Heroes of Might and Magic V and VI to compare them to Disciples III. The funny thing is, the reviews of these games also mention repetition and tedium, yet they brush this off in the text of the review, and they clearly do not factor this "drawback" in the final grade. It feels more like they are saying, "yes the problem with repetition exists, but it really isn't anything to make the game "bad" or that would make it not worth playing." Yet, in case of Disciples III everyone decided to focus on this particular "issue".

Perhaps people simply had enough? But then this would also be the case for HOMM V and VI as well. Don't mean to be one of those silly conspiracy theorists, but I am feeling like Ubisoft paid someone off and Akela didn't.

However the case may be, so far I am not finding the game bad at all. It certainly doesn't have that grim, gothic feel to it overall, which the original Disciples did, despite the excellent art design. Perhaps due to the lack of appropriate music, but it is still a quite enjoyable game, and if/when it can be had for $5-10 for the original+expansion I think its worth your money if you're a fan of the series.

Have you played disciples III? What do you think about it?

 

[AlexAL]

If you play Disciples 3, make sure it is Rebirth/Reincarnation. There is a lot of lore to catch up to in it. Lotsa fun.

 

[yepp]

Resurrection is currently part of Bundle Stars.

 

[Craig234]

What is bundle stars?

 

[yepp]

Something similar to Humble Bundle. There are others like Groupees, Indie Royale etc...

 

[Wardawg1001]

I haven't played Disciples 3, but I'll just point out that if a game shines in other areas it is much easier to brush off some minor annoyances. If Disciples 3 is just bad all around, then it isn't going to get a pass on anything. A much better overall game will often get a pass on some things because they will often be much less noticeable and less annoying as long as you are still having fun.

 

[Dankk]

What is bundle stars?

http://www.bundlestars.com/

Another cheap PC games bundle website.

 

[sunzt]

A good story and game environment with engrossing game play will always hide the repetition. The campaigns in HOMM 5 were varied and had decent story. Every game can be repetitive, but better games makes that repetition enjoyable or frames it differently enough to keep the gamer engrossed. Not sure if Disciples 3 does it, never played it.

 

[ibex333]

A good story and game environment with engrossing game play will always hide the repetition. The campaigns in HOMM 5 were varied and had decent story. Every game can be repetitive, but better games makes that repetition enjoyable or frames it differently enough to keep the gamer engrossed. Not sure if Disciples 3 does it, never played it.

Very good point. After playing for about a week, I realized that Disciples III, sadly, IS as bad as they say. I think you hit the nail on the head with what you said. I could have put it better myself.

Whats really sad is that they did great with art design and graphics. It feels like all that effort went to waste because just about everything else sucks. I would expect them to redeem themselves with the expansion, but it doesn't look like they have.

 

[sunzt]

Very good point. After playing for about a week, I realized that Disciples III, sadly, IS as bad as they say. I think you hit the nail on the head with what you said. I could have put it better myself.

Whats really sad is that they did great with art design and graphics. It feels like all that effort went to waste because just about everything else sucks. I would expect them to redeem themselves with the expansion, but it doesn't look like they have.

The repetitiveness is especially risky for those making turn based strategy games. HOMM3 was a huge success because it makes us WANT to click for 1 more turn. However, if you think about, it could have easily been a complete failure if the player felt wore out after just a few turns.

 

[shortylickens]

Played. Did not like.
Went back to Disciples 2.

Actually, to this day I am sure I've spend considerably more time in Heroes 3 and Age of Wonders.

 

[Craig234]

I haven't played Disciples 3, but I'll just point out that if a game shines in other areas it is much easier to brush off some minor annoyances. If Disciples 3 is just bad all around, then it isn't going to get a pass on anything. A much better overall game will often get a pass on some things because they will often be much less noticeable and less annoying as long as you are still having fun.

Lot of truth to that. The very best products IMO usually have big flaws also.

 

[Borealis7]

i'm an avid TBS fan. played all Heroes games, CIVs, many space 4Xs, i'm actually playing "Disgaea: Hour of Darkness" right now! but Disciples made me go FFFFUUUUUUUU and rage quit every time i played it.
i simply hate the system where you have 1 of each creature and they die so easily. i finished the first human campaign despite all the bugs and uninstalled. i played the disciples 2 demo a few years ago and i thought this game would be better but it isn't.