Almost 20 years have passed since I first played in Disciples. And either due to the fact that the grass used to be greener, and the pixels are more pleasant, or because I have a lot of memories connected with it, or just because of senile dementia-this is still one of my favorite games. And today I wanted to talk about her. But before moving to the second part, let’s find out how the Disciples series appeared at all.
The developers and publishers of the first part are the Canadian company Strategy First. The old people could see their logo, for example, on the Jagged Alliance series. However, Strategy First did not develop games, they bought up small developers, mostly also Canadian, who were already under their sign and their money, made games. It also turned out with the first part, where a young team of 15 people who worked on several strategic games decided to make her heroes. However, they looked not only at the heroes, but also at Final Fantasy, Warlords and Ogre Battle for Nintendo 64. Everyone burned with their project and wanted to make the best game. Because of this, many elements have made dissimilar. So, buildings are built only in the capital, units gain experience and thus turn into more powerful creatures, and the battles themselves resembled battles from JRPG, with a limited set of units and alternating exchange of a slap in without the ability to move. The style itself and the world were gloomy, and in the plot the most popular words were revenge and betrayal.
However, not everything was so good. Visually, the game greatly lost not only its competitor, but also other games of that time. Because in the same 1999 the second Age of Empires and the third heroes who looked an order of magnitude better came out. And this is not counting Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament who came out in the same 99.
The game was not sold by some huge circulation (Gamespot at one time even gave her a reward “The best game of which no one played”), but for a small publisher and a young team it was a success. The game was able to take its niche, and soon work began on the continuation. And it became for a series of those who the second part of Diablo was. If not in terms of sales, then in terms of improving the initial concept. Instead of an experiment, which was the first part, they concentrated precisely on grinding gameplay and visual.
Gameplay is a mixture of a step -by -step strategy and jrpg. On the one hand, you have a strategic map with locks, resources and monsters that protect treasures and important passages. On the other hand, the attitude to the fighters and pumping closer to RPG.
On the global map, we control the kingdom. We capture cities, fight for the lands and resources, rebuild buildings, study new spells, explore the territories, create mesallangs. We besiege enemies and most often try not to destroy all the enemies, but to complete some task.
The cards themselves were originally drawn on paper and only then were transferred to the game editor. Therefore I think so they have such a large amount of water and rivers.
And what is worth saying right about is that the game is quite simple, especially by the standards of step -by -step strategies. There are no complex mechanic, moral systems or sophisticated diplomacy. However, with all its simplicity or call it accessibility, the game complicated other points. Yes, there is only one resource – gold. But mana 5 types. You can build only in the capital, but it will not work to build all the buildings and you have to choose. Units do not move during the battle, they do not own any skills except attacks and represent the old Russian fun “wall to the wall”-hit until one of the sides falls. But types of attacks 9, and there are also armor, shields, immunities, and leaders themselves can still use potions, spheres and talismans.
Not hundreds of units go to Disaples on the battlefield, and not even one unit with a dial shows that there are actually 347, and a specific fighter. On average, 4 warriors from each side participate in the battle. The fact that you capture the cities of a maximum of 6 warriors by the game, by the way, is not explained in any way.
However, you can’t talk about the fight in Disiciples and not mention misses. With every attack, the warrior has a chance to miss. Misses are the basis of the game. This is a thing from which the player burns when it happens at the wrong time. This is the hope that the enemy can deign too, well, at least sometimes, miss. This is a joy when it finally happened. Mims are an emotional roulette in which you always look forward to the result. However, this is true only with equal combat. In all other cases, a quick battle button is pressed.
However, the balance in the campaign and on many cards of the script is made quite sensible. There are always several strong creatures on which it is too early for you to climb and a decent amount of the average strength of opponents on which you fill in experience, trying to minimize losses. Speaking of losses, unlike other strategies, where the dead warrior immediately disappeared, here he remains in the group’s detachment and he can be resurrected with a special potion even during the battle. And this is not a super rare potion. Such bottles are first issued a couple of pieces. Plus in cities you can resurrect and cure fighters for some bribes.
You cherish and cherish each such fighter, you are attached to everyone. This is due to the fact that you cannot take and buy a paladin, only to train, starting from the bottom. Therefore, when a simple cultist before your eyes becomes death (literally), this is fraught with the appearance of a mean paternal tears.
Gameplay, compared with the first part, was greatly improved. Starting with the fact that they increased the accuracy of creatures from 75% to 80%. During the battle itself, units learned to expect and defend themselves. Lengthened by pumping branches, and the creatures themselves, after reaching the “ceiling” of evolution, continued to gain experience and strengthen their characteristics. Even in the second part, all creatures, at the end of the course, were cured by 5% of the maximum of lives, etc. D. All these improvements are pointed, and at first glance are insignificant, but together they all improved the process so much that it makes no sense to play in the first part and not even the schedule, but in the gameplay. In the second part, everything is just done better.
Well, do not forget one of the main features of step -by -step strategies – t. n. “Another move”. Only you decided to close the game, pressed the end of the move, so that the next time the computer is not waiting for the next time, when suddenly the gear of the nodon pops up from the fog of the war, who clearly intended the unkind. So your warrior is a little left to the new level. And in a couple of moves it will be possible to build an imperial guild. And then a dilapidated tower appeared on the horizon. What is there inside? I can continue, but the essence, I think, you understand. Compared to some civilization, there will be less such hooks in the disaPip. And starting the game for half an hour, you can wake up after three or four hours.
The font of the logo in Disciples, this same legendary Papyrus. Until I started making a blog, I didn’t even notice.
The developers were very seriously related to criticism of the game, including its visual part. They completely got rid of the archaic 640 × 480 in favor of the more “modern” 800 × 600, and they improved color renders to 16 bits, and then there are a lot of work of artists and – voila – visually the game looks quite nice today. Permission, of course, leaves much to be desired and has to choose between smeared giant pixels of 800 × 600 or small, but neat in 1280 × 1024.
The very graphics were redrawn from scratch at least twice and if you delve into the Internet, you can find screenshots from old versions, and in stores they often put screenshots from a prevalization version.
But before talking in more detail about the schedule, it is worth discussing the system of seizure of resources – it is quite unusual. In the game you can’t just approach the golden mine and it immediately becomes yours and begins to bring income. No, so things are not done in Neendaar. In order to receive the resource, it is required that the mine is located on your land. And here we approach one of the main features of the game. Each race has its own unique type of land and spreads it with the help of cities and special wands. In people, these are green flowering lands, in demons – red lava, in non -life – gray dead, and the gnomes – white snowy.
The chip is interesting and visual. Just looking at the map, we can say on whose territory this or that resource is located, without switching to additional filters, screens or displaying flags. However, she also imposes a number of restrictions. Firstly, several players of the same race cannot be present on the map-only one representative. Therefore, to find out which of you is the best gnome. Secondly, the landscape must comply with all types and combinations of land, without it looked at the vigilant. Typically, cards designers are bothering like this, but this moment partially fits the player’s shoulders in Disaples, because, depending on your actions or actions of your rivals, the “painting” of the map changes.
Because of this, the picture looks a little https://maximalwins.co.uk/ like a mishmash of gray colors-after all, the landscape, I repeat, should fit all combinations. And with all the grayness, some elven houses are poorly adjacent to lava lands. The game redraws many elements depending on the ground, for example, the same trees. For recognition of the landscape – this is not a problem. However, skipping units without special flags is quite simple.
Let’s play a small game – calculate how many creatures.
This is largely due, of course, with the lack of even minimal animation in units on a strategic map. But not only, here you have a screenshot of 3 heroes. No movement, but you can easily notice them all.
But okay, it’s all my nit -picking. The game looks atmospheric and many gray tones emphasize it. Yes, and if we say, even the lands of demons look pretty nice. Not as much as green pastoral meadows in people, but, in its own way, beautifully. And many times better than presented in the third part, where there was a feeling that you were covered with something brown with something.
But if the global card has become more beautiful by an order of magnitude, then fights for several. Since the fighters do not move around the battlefield, and their number is small, this allowed to close the camera as much as possible and draw in detail both the background and the characters themselves. And since animations need to be drawn less, they pulled out on the animation of the attacks of creatures with might and main. And the powerful creature, the more epic animation.
In battles, the game looks many times more beautiful and the developers made such a strong jump in just 3 years. Backgrounds have become more beautiful, more detailed and diverse. And the models look worthy and today.
I would like to note the design of the characters, their portraits and art games. Portraits are really a work of art. ARTETRACE, to be honest, completely crazy. Patrick Lambert was responsible for him. If in the first part he only painted portraits, then in the second he was already responsible for almost the entire art. And you just look at the number of details: each mustache, each wrinkle, scales or part of the armor is drawn with such care that it becomes somehow uncomfortable. Portraits of characters in the game look like these are paintings, and the frame only emphasizes it stronger.
If you describe the style, then this is a baroque with a strong bias in the Japanese, especially in the first part and early versions of the second. However, it was decided to make a greater bias on the release precisely on its European part. Dressing gray-brown gamut, characters, as if snatched from the twilight and because of this fuzzy. Gloomy, semi -bad faces. In general, Caravaggio with his fetish on cut off his heads would fit well with local paintings.
Music fits into general gloom. Although it is difficult to call her music, it is not only and not so much music as her rafting with an emboss. Even if you take the soundtrack of the game, the embosses will not disappear anywhere. Singing birds, ringing of bells, mysterious prayers of heretics, the murmur of rivers, the sound of Moldovs and some indistinguishable conversations-all this is woven into the soundtrack. What can be said about music is that it, like the game of atmospheric. She instantly sets you up in the right way. Drums and pipes will prevail in combat scenes, creating stress.
The violins are whining on the strategic map and plays the piano, creating a feeling of autumn depression.
Such music could easily play in the comic inserts of the second Max Payne, and you would not even notice the substitutions. Music, even without a picture, creates a feeling of unfriendly world, doomed world.
The only question is who is the composer of the game. Most sources say that the author was Philip Sharron. However, in others – the author is already called Ralph Hiennas, and in the GOG version of the soundtrack is indicated precisely for its authorship. But whoever it is, he perfectly coped with his task.
All events take place in the world of Neendar. Christianity and German mythology are adjacent here. From the first here the God-Creator and the fallen angels, from the latter-Votan, Valkyrie and Valhalla.
In local history, God-father granted his favorite to an angel Sunbusan ability to create a world, the same nonsense. The world itself, people and animals, Votan – mountains and gnomes, Gallean – forests and elves, Soloniel – seas and marine residents created itself. And everything was fine, however, when the Almighty called the Almighty to evaluate his labors, he saw only wars, discord and suffering, which other angels provoked out of envy. He was angry and chained him into the red -hot core of the world. There, in anger and madness, left and devoted by all he was reborn into the monster. He promised to avenge everyone and created demons. They broke out of imprisonment and attacked the elves. In horror, the people of the elves had to run towards the lands of the gnomes, but they killed them. Gallean called on Votan to answer and demanded to punish his people, but Votan pulled out Gallaen’s heart and threw it into the sun. Soloniel, Gallean’s beloved, rushed to save his heart, but could not resurrect him, but she herself received terrible burns. I was distraught from grief, she turned into Mortis – the goddess of death. She raised the army unequal and it went to avenge the suffering of her mistress.
The plot continues the history of the first part. I would like to make a reservation about one plot feature. The canvas of history is the same, but the details also differ in the opinion of what exactly happened to all sides of different. The plot resembles either alternative universes, or informational wars, or banal mistakes of the screenwriters who forgot that, actually, have already died.
Take the story of people first. The human empire is torn to pieces because of the monarch, who grows about the loss of his wife and son. However, a rumor spreads on the ground that he wiped, his son, alive. And he even helps in the struggle against the presumptuous nobility. However, in fact, he turns out to be obsessed. And after the suppression of the uprising, kills his father and declares all the lands with his own. As a result, the heroes of people hardly kill him. But the monarch is dead, and the empire of people in decline. What to do is incomprehensible.
However, demons have their own opinion about this situation. Wiped was not obsessed with unproving, he received his strength, but all his actions were the actions of the Uther himself, and not insisted. Therefore, the suppression of the uprising and murder of his father is the choice of. T.e. He simply received demonic power, and all vices and villains come from the boy. All in all. Yes, there was a boy. Yes, he became a demon and posed a great danger, but they won it themselves (the legions of the damned), without the help of people.
So the plot is a little confused and often contradicts itself.
Most of it is served through videos, or rather briefings. Pictures are shown in front of you, with a small animation, ominous music plays, and the narrator reads the text and the devil, says well. Yes, all this is budget, but atmospheric.
Now let’s talk about the addition system and their very complex system. Not only did there be a lot of them, they all still went out, t. n. Stand Elons, t. e. independent and not requiring the original game for launching. In addition, the names were different in Russian versions, 2 publishers were engaged in their release. And various gold publications have different content.
So let’s start. There is an original Disciples 2 Dark Prophecy, translated with us like the eve of Ragnarka. There is an addition to Guardians of the Light (Guard of Light, Yeah), which at first glance is half the original. After all, in it you pass the original campaign for people or gnomes. Moreover, this applies not only to the plot, but also to ordinary scenarios. The only serious difference is three missions opening at the end of the plot, continuing it and requiring high -level characters.
Since there is a campaign for the bright ones, then why not cut the dough on amateurs of the dark side, continue the story of the undead and the legion of the damned. Servance of the Dark (supra -focusing guards of darkness) just provided you with this opportunity. Buyers paid $ 20 for half the game and six new missions (three for each side). And the guard guard was terribly amused. In which if she did not fly out in an hour of the game, then you just didn’t start her.
These two additions installed on one computer turned into a new addition – the return of Gallean. All these addons did not add new aspects of conflict or branches of the development of characters – only new missions, new scenarios and several new neutral creatures. Of course, one could say that there were other changes: like improving the interface, AI, automatic proportion buttons of a battle, increased size of maps, game resolution, etc. But all this came out with patches and for the original.
The next addition was Rise of the Elves (elves uprising). This is already a more serious addition. It included a completely worked out side, as it was easy to guess, the elves dedicated to them the campaign, the new mana, which no one except them used and so on. Nevertheless, the addition came out somewhat controversial. This time Patrick Lambert did not work on him and the elves design became much easier. This also applies to portraits of characters and especially the concept of art. And about the balance and the indistinguishability of their magic, many copies were broken and this topic I just do not want to raise.
Having stuffed a lot of cones on a separate issue of the guards, the addition also included the eve of Ragnark, but without the return of Galean. And even now, if you buy a gold edition in Goga, you will have two separate games Rise of the Elves and Gallean’s Return. In the stimen, games are completely sold separately. Moreover, in Gogh, 199 eternal eternal publication requires, and in Steam 169 for each. And in neither one nor in another store there is no Russian localization.
A rather rare situation occurred with Russian localization when two different companies translated the same game. Russobit-M and Akellla. About which one is better, disputes will not stop, and, basically, the winner is determined exclusively by the duckling syndrome – which first you played, it automatically becomes better.
However, with all my love for the game, one cannot help but admit that it is imperfect. And it’s not only about the spread of the picture or the excessive greed of the publisher. As I have already noted, she has an excessive simplification of some elements because of which it is available, it is empty. But maybe thanks to this they have achieved the perfect balance? Not either. There were patches, additional missions sold separately, add -ons with new races, but the main holes were not covered.
Magic just breaks the game. It doesn’t matter how a strong character you are, the enemy can easily throw you with spells, and the magician can actually cast all the spells twice. Therefore, in the later stages, it is enough to go out due to the fog of the war and your high-level character communicates with Votan about the problems of balance in Nelendaar.
If desired (and enough mana) you can not fight at all with enemy leaders. Well, maybe only for the sake of experience.
A similar situation with thieves. Hordes of thieves, steal all your uniforms, poison the detachment and change the position of fighters. And the latter is probably the most serious. Since it can easily turn out that your close -up fighter is behind and cannot attack anyone, and flimsy magicians with arrows take the slap of enemies directly.
The balance works in PV, but is not at all adapted for playing with another person. This is one of the reasons why the multiplayer part has not become popular. They played it, but much less often than the heroes.
The game was released in 2002 and received positive estimates from critics with an average score of 84 units. They praised the game for the visual, which delaying the gameplay, the atmosphere and the plot. However, she could not approach the sale of heroes. At the end of the year, she was again nominated for “the best game that no one plays”, but even there she could not win.
Three years later, Strategy First went bankrupt, was bought by Silverstar Holding for $ 1.5 million. They did not sponsor any new games, except, periodically, tried to publish such great games as Bad Rats. The rights to future parts of Disciples they sold Akelle and everything became completely sad.
And yet I think this game of one of the iconic games of my time. This is a unique game. She did not try to copy other games, she tried to go her own way.
Even if you are leaning all nostalgia, the game has passed the test of time, it is still interesting to play it. She still adds. There are still fan sites of the game on the network. Fans draw art and make cosplay. There are many games that, one way or another, drew inspiration from this part.
Perhaps she could not sell, as the studio bosses wanted and save the publishing house, but for the sake of her competitor – 4 heroes for the sake of her, also could not save 3do from bankruptcy.
And I will also remember this game, because it was able to give me a lot of emotions and memories. I hope you too.
Unlike many old games, it is easily sold in digital stores. About prices in the two most popular, I voiced a little higher, as well as about the lack of localization. I will only add that in the battle of two Yokozun – who is better than Akella or Russobit, I put it on the second. After all, Akella has a wonderful StarForce system, which does not allow you to launch itself on modern systems and turns the disk with the game, at best, into a collection item. And Russobit has no protection, as well as bindings to the disk.
The game itself is old and there may be difficulties with the launch on modern machines. Fortunately, the game has a program with settings. And if for some reason it does not start, then you can always jam with her. The most frequent problems go with sound, so if the application refuses to start with all configurations, I recommend turning off the sound – this solves percent of 80 cases.
Due to the simplicity of Disciples management, it would be nice to play on a tablet or phone. But the publisher’s plans are not yet. However, there is an opportunity to play. There is an Exague Strategies program that allows you to launch some old games on the phone, including Heroes of Might and Magic III and Fallout 2. And due to the fact that the game does not need one hundred percent accuracy, such as in third heroes, where the direction of attack plays an important role, it is almost perfect. To launch, you will need to be a unpacked game with an ordinary exoshnik without protection. The program also has a free version for several days to check its performance. So before rushing into it, money can be tested in action. Because, yes, you will have to dance a little with a tambourine for launch and swell in the settings.