60 Second Preview of…

Disciples 2 at E3 2001

The Specs

In Disciples II: Dark Prophecy the four races return once again to do battle. You can play as the Empire, the Mountain Clans, the Legions of the Damned, or the Undead Hordes in this turn-based strategy game of light city-building and more involved troop management. If you've ever played the Heroes of Might and Magic series, you'll recognize a lot from those games in the Disciples series. Disciples II goes a bit beyond the Heroes series to offer more roleplaying elements — your heroes have much more impact on the battles — and arguably more interesting combat that requires careful positioning and use of special abilities to prevail. Some of the new features in Disciples II include 800 x 600 16-bit resolution (the first game was 640x480), improved AI, more interactive neutral creatures, and an upgraded battle system. And like the first game, Disciples II should sport some of the coolest spell graphics to be found.

The Speculation

Tom's Comments: More of the same is a good thing when the same is so good to begin with. But is this perhaps too same? We were given a copy of the playable build running at E3 and it's nice to get back into the Disciples groove. But to be perfectly honest, Disciples II doesn't feel too dramatically different from playing Disciples Gold. [Insert here the standard debate about how much should be changed in a sequel.] I'm not complaining, though. There are very few companies brave enough to do this sort of elegant design. Strategy First burst onto the scene with Disciples and they've been coming on gangbusters ever since. As far as I'm concerned, if they want to revisit their roots with something half-way between a re-make and a sequel, I'm all for it.

Mark's Comments: Disciples II should really be named Disciples 1.5. At first and second glance, you won't notice much that's new about it. When the biggest change is moving to the higher 800x600 resolution, that tells that the mold is being refined instead of recast. That said, Strategy First has already delayed this game for more than six months, so they're obviously really polishing it. I tried out the playable build they gave us and enjoyed playing the one scenario included. It's just a well-designed game.