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Disciples II: Rise of the Elves

Sol Invictus

Erudite
Joined
Oct 19, 2002
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Pax Romana
Disciples 2 is a pretty sweet turn-based game developed and published by Strategy First, in case you've never heard of it. Rise of the Elves is a huge expansion of that game, that comes with the original stuff in it as well.

The game plays similar to Heroes of Might and Magic but combat is much, much better in terms of both strategy and tactics. You only have 5 slots for units and 1 for the hero, and some units take more than a slot. There are a variety of heroes, each of which posesses his own capabilities and uses, and all units can be levelled up and upgraded to new types of units, which is based on a small tech tree.

What truly sets D2 apart from HOMM is the fact that it is not based on numbers, but rather on the tactics of initiative and choosing your targets properly and the placement of these units (casters at back, warriors in front) and the strategy of choosing which units to assemble your parties with.

It's also one of the best looking games I've ever played, artistically.

It's a pity this game had very little notice from the gaming press and from the gaming community itself due to SFI's inability to advertise. I urge you to check it out, though. It shouldn't cost more than 12 dollars now.
 

Otaku_Hanzo

Erudite
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Messages
3,463
Location
The state of insanity.
I agree. I have all the Disciples games including the second one and all it's expansions. Not only does the series have tremendous gameplay (battles reminded me of Ogre Battle, and that's not a bad thing as I loved that setup), but the art throughout the entire series has been consistently gorgeous. I'm not one to pimp good graphics normally, but when they combine the beautiful art from this series with the excellent gameplay, I can't help but love it for what it is.
 

Shagnak

Shagadelic
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
4,637
Location
Arse of the world, New Zealand
Exitium said:
It's also one of the best looking games I've ever played, artistically.

It's a pity this game had very little notice from the gaming press and from the gaming community itself due to SFI's inability to advertise. I urge you to check it out, though. It shouldn't cost more than 12 dollars now.

Aye,'tis an excellent game - kicks HOMM 4's arse IMHO.

I bought it in a "fantasy pack" released by Australian(?) game publisher/maker Auran.

In the pack I got:
- the original Disciples 2 : Dark Prophecy
- the first two expansions - Servants of the Dark and Guardians of the Light
- Prince of Qin
- Dragon Throne
- Robin Hood : The Legend of Sherwood

The last two are possibly crap, but for the price of 40 south-pacific pasetas (about 20 US dollars) I reckon it was worth it for the rest.

By the way Ex, is it wiorth me getting The Rise of the Elves? Does it add very much? (goes to Google to hunt for some product descriptions..)
 

Sol Invictus

Erudite
Joined
Oct 19, 2002
Messages
9,614
Location
Pax Romana
It uses an upgraded engine with higher resolution and Direct3D for better rendering, and the new 8-mission campaign for the Elves is pretty neat. Not to mention that if you enjoy Skirmish you'll get a whole new side to play with, especially since it comes with a ton of Skirmish maps.

Beats the hell out of HOMM4, I'll tell you that.

You can probably get it for less than 10 US dollars now.
 

Sol Invictus

Erudite
Joined
Oct 19, 2002
Messages
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HOMM4 sucked for a variety of reasons. It should be pointed out that a crappy saxophone has no place in any game, or music, whatsoever.
 

Sheriff05

Liturgist
Joined
Sep 24, 2003
Messages
618
Location
Chicago
Exitium said:
HOMM4 sucked for a variety of reasons. It should be pointed out that a crappy saxophone has no place in any game, or music, whatsoever.

I'm totally agreeing with you. HoMM 4 sucks...Disciples is pretty damn good, BTW
Loved the first one, got to get around to number 2.
 

PennyAnte

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 10, 2004
Messages
769
Location
Here instead of playing an RPG.
Does D2: ROE contain the previous expansion packs (servants of the dark and guardians of the light?) I did some knocking around quickly on the official site and that seemed to be the case, but I wasn't sure.

I've never played a Disciples game, but enjoyed HOMM3. I've thought about checking it out. Does it have a random map generator?
 

Shagnak

Shagadelic
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
4,637
Location
Arse of the world, New Zealand
PennyAnte said:
Does D2: ROE contain the previous expansion packs (servants of the dark and guardians of the light?) I did some knocking around quickly on the official site and that seemed to be the case, but I wasn't sure.

I've never played a Disciples game, but enjoyed HOMM3. I've thought about checking it out. Does it have a random map generator?

No, I think each of the expansion packs are actually stand-alone, in the sense that they contain the original game plus whatever extra stuff that particular expansion pack provides. So D2:ROE only contains the OC plus the elves campaign (according to press).

Sounds weird, I know, but basically if you buy each separately you have several copies of the original game plus each expansion pack. Each can be installed to update an existing installation, however (so you only ever have one installation, with whatever extra material each expansion pack that you installed provides).

You only get multiple expansion packs all at once if you get some special edition collection thingy that incorporates multiple expansion packs (which is what was included in the "fantasy pack" I detailed above).

There has been some criticism in the press of the way they have done this, as in "the expansion would have been cheaper if it didnt have the original game and only the new bits" , and "why the fuck do I have to keep re-buying material I already have to get new stuff" kind of bullshit.
Given that theyre all pretty cheap now, and the end effect is the same, it doesnt really matter.
 

Astromarine

Erudite
Joined
Jan 21, 2003
Messages
2,213
Location
Switzerland
If you have no need for the physical cds, you can buy the game through Stardock, in their totalgaming.net website. It's down ATM though. It includes all the expansions released so far.

I found out I dislike HOMM-style gameplay, though. Pity
 

tnanh

Novice
Joined
Nov 25, 2004
Messages
13
The game is quite repetitive for me, especially when you can not move your units around.. in case you want to flank or anything. But it's very fun for a while.
And yeah, the art work is excellent.
 

Kotario

Liturgist
Joined
Aug 21, 2004
Messages
187
Location
The Old Dominion
I bought the game when it was first released, so I was miffed at the way they handled the expansions. Breaking up the Dark and Light expansions (released at the same time) was a rather conspicuous attempt to increase profits. It was very annoying at the time.

Now that the prices have come down (and I have been reminded) have to see about acquiring the three expansions.
 

Human Shield

Augur
Joined
Sep 7, 2003
Messages
2,027
Location
VA, USA
I got the game when I signed up for stardock's total gaming thing. It is very cool design but it disappointing that you can only take up hero with you to the next level, any XP the other heroes get is wasted.
 

Fez

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,954
The game got trashed in the reviews I read. I tried the demo a while back and although I thought the art was great the combat seemed like a simplified FF7 affair. Going by what others have said and my limited play with it, the game also seems to lack any real strategy other than boosting a hero unit group to a high level, the player that wins the first duel between the hero units wins the game as they end up too powerful to beat and it goes downhill from there. It seems to be a similar problem to War3 and the hugely powerful hero units in that.

Feel free to point out what you think of the combat and strategy though as I was interested in the game before I was put off by all the negative comments
 

DarkSign

Erudite
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Messages
3,910
Location
Shepardizing caselaw with the F5 button.
Otaku_Hanzo said:
I agree. I'm not one to pimp good graphics normally, but when they combine the beautiful art from this series with the excellent gameplay, I can't help but love it for what it is.

Holy Hell. You just got Jesus to make love to The Devil.
 

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