Disciples 3: Reincarnation

Disciples 3

A turn based strategy game with tactical combat, a strategic map, and rpg elements.

Overview

Disciples 3: Reincarnation follows the long tradition of tactical combat on a strategic map. You control one or more heroes who command a small squad. You roam the map looking for goodies while following the story line. Your hero and followers can gain levels and equipment, and you can build your home base.

I lost interest with this game before finishing the first scenario, so this review might be skewed.

Story

The story seemed pretty generic and I wasn't engaged. On the other hand, it didn't get in the way very much. If thought of as a loose reason to move from fight to fight, it was sufficient. I liked the setting, though. It is a little more grungy medieval without a lot of the high fantasy elements you generally see in a game with wizards and angels.

Combat

What should be the meat of the game feels very bland. Combat is only a small step up from Final Fantasy style. There are few real decisions because most moves are obvious. Frequently you overpower the enemy so you can auto-resolve the combat. Unfortunately the AI is not very good so don't be too liberal with this. Also, auto-resolving the "most fun" parts of a game does not bode well.

Strategic Map

The exploring the map is a bland experience. There are a lot of resources to be collected, but it isn't exciting. Really it's just a mechanic to get from fight to fight. Some fights are too difficult and must be avoided and it's a little tedious examining enemy forces to make that determination. 

There is very little time pressure so you can wander around to pick up all the treasure and fight the easy fights, then go back and fight the harder encounters once you are higher level. That sounds extremely boring to me, but the alternative is sub-optimal play.

Often treasures are difficult to see because they might be under a tree or something. You can get around this by rotating the map, but what a pain.

This game triggers one of my biggest pet peeves in turn-based games. After a combat, you don't automatically heal. This means that you might intentionally drag combat out a few turns to give your healer a chance to catch up. This is both mechanically annoying and breaks the fiction. If my healer can cast a spell every minute in combat, why can't he cast a spell when I am spending days to travel across the map?

RPG Elements

You can have more than one hero, although it looks like you only really want one squad for fighting. Perhaps a second hero might make sense for picking up treasure.

Heroes gain levels and have a skill tree. Most of the skills in the tree are very bland and just points on the way to the interesting powers. Even the "interesting" powers weren't exciting to me. Equipping items are similarly bland. Generally they are things like +15% fire resistance.

Followers also gain levels. With each level they gain a predetermine skill. Every three levels they can be promoted to a more powerful unit. This feels exactly right. There is just enough variety to be interesting without having to micromanage mundane choices.

Buildings

Buildings allow your followers to be promoted. In the first scenario, money isn't a problem and buildings are mostly an automatic process with no real decision making. You can choose if you want your mages to be wizards or elementalists but the game could have that decision be made when your follower is ready for promotion. There is no building time or building prerequisites. 

Art

I like the art. The design is good. The animations are good, but they get old quickly. After half an hour I set the animation speed to maximum, and it was still clunky.

Conclusion

Despite my criticisms, Disciples 3 is a fine game for the genre. The tactics aren't complicated but they aren't totally brain-dead simple. You can get attached to your squad as it levels up. The story is light, but it isn't bad. For a similar game, I would recommend Mordheim: City of the Damned.