Windows PC
Disciples III: Renaissance
By Ryan Newman
Aug 3, 2010, 7 :49 am

Disciples III: Renaissance has been a long time coming. The last true Disciples title, as in a full-fledged release and not an expansion or compilation, was released in 2002. With Rise of the Elves, the last expansion for Disciples II: Dark Prophecy, released in 2003 and news that Akella would be taking the reins for part three announced in 2006, fans have had quite the wait to return to the lands of Nevendaar. For those itching to jump back into some dark gothic turn-based strategy goodness, Renaissance is bittersweet.

The vast majority of what makes Renaissance entertaining are those elements directly brought over from its predecessors. In fact, the new and old features interact more like worlds colliding than smoothly interweaving to form updated, more robust systems. Some of the new elements are certainly sound, and many have obvious benefits and great hooks to them, but it is unfortunate for those contenders that they are often forced into a framework that doesn't adequately support them.

For me and many others, what really set the series apart from its contemporaries, namely Heroes of Might and Magic, was the art and unit evolution system. Thankfully, both of have returned largely unscathed. The transition from sprite-based units to 3D models wasn't entirely smooth, however, with some units – namely some of the Elven and neutral race classes – looking a bit dull.  Still, a bit of the thrill from seeing just what a unit upgrade type looks like remains. And that also works well with the unit evolution system, which retains the branching method approach of a class' upgrade being determined by what structure is built in a faction's capital city. Like the previous Disciples titles, frontline units tend to diverge between having an emphasis on attack or health while support units tend to split by the amount of enemies they can engage, with either all of their energy focused on one target or spread out over several. With one upgrade type per map – you can't build every structure's add-on – it becomes a balancing act to determine which upgrade type is best for the units being faced during that act (level).  This is still an engaging approach, as seeing a knight upgrade to an angel or a watchman to a warden still holds a bit of magic, and leading a powerful squad remains very satisfying.

Those eager to see their favorite faction's facelift might be surprised to learn that not everyone from Dark Prophecy has returned. Instead of the four traditional factions – The Empire, Legions of the Damned, Undead Hordes, and Mountain Clans – from the first two, Renaissance features The Empire, Elven Alliance, and Legions of the Damned. The Mountain Clans and the Undead Hordes both play a role in the main storyline, but they aren't playable; however, it has been announced that the Undead Hordes will be added in a later expansion. Seeing as how Rise of the Elves had brought the series' faction count to five, three is a bit of a drop. It seems the reduction was in large part due to a desire to create a more cohesive and continuous storyline, a first for the series. The story begins with The Empire and continues straight through to the ending, finishing up with the Elven Alliance. While I can appreciate an epic storyline, I could have done with one that led to something more than elaborate fetch quests.

.dat's focus on a story-drive campaign directly affects more than you might imagine. Instead of being the ruler of a kingdom or a nameless general, you are one of three heroes: Lambert, captain of the Imperial Guard; Haarhus, servant to Bethrezen; and Arion, a rising star in the Elvish army. The downside to this approach is that the game becomes extremely linear. You still pick a hero trait at the beginning (warrior to regain some health each turn, wizard to cast two spells per turn, etc.) of the game, but now you start as one of the primary heroes whenever an act begins. Similar to the starting leaders in the previous games, you tend to stick with the hero throughout in an effort to level them up as high and as quickly as possible. While you can still hire leaders to direct your squads, including the new Thief leader, I found that they simply took away from the main hero's chance of success. One of the perks of this approach is that there is a concentrated effort to make the heroes more personable, which was done in a role-playing format with stat points and skills. While your soldiers will automatically level when they reach an experience cap, your heroes will instead receive experience points, which can be doled out to the traditional categories (strength, dexterity, agility, etc.), and skill points. Skills are now placed on a large grid made up of various tiles, representing enhancements, with one point unlocking one tile. Among the handful of standard upgrades, such as greater resistance to one of the elemental magic types or plus one to armor, there are hero-specific abilities and leadership skills. By shooting for leadership skills, you not only create a devastating character but also a small army, as the quest to hit the squad cap of seven inevitably unlocks several upgrades.

The ability to direct a hero's path is certainly an interesting feature, and it makes leveling all the more addictive. The trade-off, in terms of necessitating a more focused world design, is pretty stiff. While Renaissance's world map is similar to its predecessors, much has changed. Squads are still represented by their leaders and move a set amount of paces per turn, the spellbook can still be accessed to cast offensive and defensive spells, and terrain is still terraformed to the holding faction's land type. One of the more fundamental changes is how land and resources are claimed; the rod-placing leaders have been replaced by guardians, units that automatically level over time and protect nearby resources. I'm not terribly keen on the new approach, since the cat-and-mouse tactics of battling rod leaders has been replaced by many (many) boring battles. The very design of the world is also different. Instead of being open, the maps now consist of narrow pathways that funnel you towards the handful of random monsters to grind for loot, shops, buildings to clear, and cities to take. The sense of adventure and exploration is largely gone, replaced by a very strict set of encounters that change the game from a world of raging armies to one of rigid sets of encounters. The puzzle-like approach, also seen in other recent 3D turn-based strategy games, is so demanding that the opening stages of an act are uniformly frustrating. The beginnings are now all about constantly having to figure out which monsters or enemy squads to tackle in what order, less you find yourself on the end of a massive beatdown. And the game will beat you down.

Instead of having a clever AI that tests your mettle, the game instead uses ambushes and godly squads, which tend to always be at the ready to punish a mistake, to force you into the right routine. By throwing overpowered enemies at you until the squad breaks, you eventually find the right set of encounters to earn enough gold to build the right structures to level high enough and unlock the right spells to tackle the two or three juggernaut squads. A common example, and this is especially true for each faction's early missions, is your squad of four, whose highest unit is level five, finding themselves face to face with a six-unit squad with multiple 13s. Unless you are able to unload a ton of potions, runes, and spells on such stacks, you're dead. While the series has always had a short grind before being able to properly dispatch the enemy's top squads, they are scrappy puppies compared to Renaissance's raving wolf.

Combat has also undergone a significant change. Now, instead of the fast, static 2D battles with quick yet stylish animations, you're treated to hex-based 3D encounters with long spell animations, repetitive sound clips ("Gotcha!"), and fights that do little more than showcase the wanting AI. There are options to auto-battle and quick battle, with the latter being fairly decent with strong enough units, which help to cut down on the wait time considerably. One of the more disappointing aspects of Renaissance is that the new system had some real potential, with special hexes that offer bonuses for attack type (spells, melee attacks, and ranged) and a way to open up the combat to more tactical maneuvering. There are some decent fights to be had, but they never go beyond the basics; attack angle makes no difference, as far as I could tell, and the basic AI seemed to be only vaguely aware of what was going on. An enemy might flank or use one of the enchanted hexes, but they don't seem to know how to handle situations in which they face an enemy doing the same thing. But that's actually a step up from the computer's seeming inability to use the new cover system. In an effort to protect support and long-range units, the combat system now allows for adjacent units to intercept an enemy's assault by covering their ally; this allows the covering unit to get the first hit on an enemy, but that in turn shifts the enemy's focus to the covering unit. In the roughly 40 hours I put into Renaissance, I honestly cannot recall the computer ever taking advantage of covering. Instead, I would simply march my melee troops forward in line, and then watch as the computer would advance seemingly oblivious to the oncoming wall of pain. The suicidal behavior carried over into the world map as well, with the AI tossing weak squads against my stack of elite units without a chance of success. If you manage to survive for a half hour or so and squash the computer's two uber stacks, then the rest is an extended clean-up operation of such unbalanced fights; the computer has a very hard time catching up once you hand it a few sound defeats.

Let's say that you have no history with Disciples and you don't mind erratic encounters, you're just in the mood for a decent fantasy strategy game, then you might think you're in the clear. Unfortunately, that's not the case because, even though it might be easier to get into, you're still in for a bumpy ride. Out of all the problems with Renaissance, the biggest is that it's very, very buggy.  The most immediate problem is one I frequently encounter, though it could very well be an issue with Steam, and that is the game would always minimized itself at start-up. It could take up to seven or eight attempts before the game would finally hook and remain on-screen. Also, aside from some smaller rough bits (and the most lethargic narrator ever), there are graphical glitches and freezing issues. During combat, it wasn't uncommon for a unit, particularly cavalry, to simply slide across the ground because their running animation wouldn't play. There was actually one part on the world map where I thought I was stuck, seeing no place to go, but it turned out that the bridge I was supposed to cross simply hadn't loaded; it only loaded after my wild clicking highlighted a navigable path, which sent me seemingly walking on air. The biggest hassle was the freezing. I had the game freeze in the world map as well as in combat, all during the computer's turn.

Once you beat the story, you aren't really left with much else. Granted, the story can take a – very – long time to play through, but there is little else to return for after the three campaigns. The multiplayer mode is anemic and the Single (skirmish) mode almost non-existent. Multiplayer is limited to Hotseat, which is similar to its predecessors, but a bit of a letdown these days. The Single mode is nothing more than the Prologue and a challenge for the Legions of the Damned, in sharp contrast to the 14 Quests that shipped with Dark Prophecy. For a genre that oozes replayability, there wasn't much of an effort to accommodate.

Overall: 5/10

If Disciples II: Dark Prophecy is a beer-and-pretzels strategy game, then Disciples III: Renaissance is its light beer and fat free pretzel counterpart – similar, but not nearly as satisfying. This is a much lighter strategy game than its predecessors, and that should be kept in mind when going in. There's definitely potential with the new additions, especially with the new hero upgrade grid and expanded storyline, but it won't be fully realized until there's at least a solid patch (or two). Renaissance has a lot of what made its predecessors so addictive, but it currently lacks the polish to give it the same staying power.

(This review is based on a retail copy provided by the publisher.)