Disciples in Pink Feathers - Review of "Disciples III: Resurrection"

As an epigraph to the review, I would like to take a phrase from Sergey Sosedov from the Ukrainian X-factor – "You expected Liza Minnelli to come out before you in pink feathers, but instead, you got Oksana Shavkun". But then, we'd have to explain too much: who Sosedov is, who Oksana Shavkun is, and why she was expected to have pink feathers, so let's skip, gentlemen, the involvement of unnecessary entities.

Time, gentlemen, does not heal everything: clinical observations show that, for instance, for cancer, gonorrhea, and the emotional wounds inflicted by the continuation of the cult series Disciples, its healing properties do not apply. And in the case of the latter, the problem seems to be that the community was waiting but did not receive that very "Liza Minnelli".

I would not want to start the conversation with preachings, but most fans of the second part of Disciples lacked a philosophical approach to the issue. They were short on some internal resources to accept that what we have is not a remake of [Disciples II](/games?search=Disciples II), but a new game, from which it is rather absurd to expect that it will repeat the genius of its predecessor perfectly. Discontent spilled over like a spring flood, and "Akella" could not bring the waters back to a normal level, no matter how hard they tried. The expansion "Hordes of the Undead", which eliminated half of the problems of "Renaissance", was met rather coldly, while "Rebirth" drank deeply from the well of fan hatred once again. However, there is an opinion that this hatred is not particularly deserved. I suggest we consider this opinion.

"[Disciples III: Rebirth](/games?search=Disciples III: Rebirth)" - at first glance, is simply a fusion of "Renaissance" and "Hordes of the Undead", but in its essence, it is something completely different. When you tackle "Rebirth", you will hardly recognize the game that gamers initially disliked: literally everything has been redone to the extent that the developers could reach in their quest to atone for their sins before the discontented. Most of the promises made to the players were kept by the developers. For starters, content: the storyline has hardly changed, but all maps have been significantly revamped. The game has been enriched with a number of new objects, spells, and creatures, characters with additional quests, and many hours of gameplay. There is now the possibility to explore the aquatic space. There is nothing particularly special here to boast about, but the fact alone is already pleasing.

Secondly, the user interface, while not changing externally, has become significantly more convenient and user-friendly. This change bypassed the original third part and the expansion, but in the full version, anyone will finally be able to enjoy the ability to study without unnecessary problems and hassles with whom they will have to deal in battle.

Thirdly, the battles themselves: they did not become better or worse, they simply changed. In a way, an optimal middle ground was found between total hardcore and peaceful sipping tea-coffee during auto-battles. In the campaign of "Renaissance", the overwhelming number of battles at certain stages was won by the continuous absorption of potions, because at that time the concept of "balance" was known to the developers only by hearsay, and the main striking forces of our squad were smashed like tissue paper in two attempts. When trying to entrust the battle against the simplest neutral army to the computer, we risked losing the rune for summoning some powerful creature capable of both saving and ending many lives, and by the end of the act, when enemy squads began to more actively emerge from their hideouts, it was sometimes only possible to find a shovel and bury oneself in the ground. "Hordes of the Undead" managed to oppose this with a great opportunity to annihilate all living things with the power of a single unit – the Werewolf, - immune to any physical damage. And now, in "Rebirth", a moderate alcoholism, the need to thoughtfully plan battle tactics, and the possibility to radically ruin the lives of the entire enemy army with one simple cast have finally made friends.

To speak more specifically and bring examples, it is worth recalling not only the werewolves, to whom a ritual should be placed on any attempts to engage them in melee. The witch from the Legion of the Cursed – is quite a character! She can kill the enjoyment of fighting a strong and thick-skinned opponent at its roots, turning him into an imp with half health. When this same witch gains the ability to perform that same trick on several units at once after another transformation in later campaigns, the battle turns into a series of button presses for skipping turns, and only after the witch's casting does exterminatus begin. The same witch can be taken down in two hits, but the computer does not always guess about that.

However, there is a silver lining: transformations still need to be awaited. After two not-so-successful iterations, the developers have finally returned the sense of celebration that fans of the second part experienced during the first transformation. Thus, the strength of the squad entrusted to us now grows evenly and adequately to the changing conditions of the environment, and battles with low-level units are moderately easy, while those with high-level ones are moderately challenging. Auto-battle cannot be entrusted to the computer yet, because the AI is still quite primitive, but the need to replay battles five times while exhausting potions of healing and resurrection has disappeared. However, almost all races can complain about the presence of mournful abominations, whose corpses must be regularly transported across the entire map to the nearest temple.

No longer can one calmly shoot at the enemy with ranged units, cowardly hiding them behind the backs of thicker-skinned allies. The battlefield has become smaller, and archers and mages now need to move not only their hands during the strike but also their feet to reach the point from which they can deal that strike. The chance of getting a club in the face among the first such archer is increased proportionally to the need to think more carefully about the tactics of each battle.

In "Rebirth", a player can finally fully focus on magic: besides the "native" pools, various types of mana clumps are now carefully scattered across the map, allowing for the exploration and use of spells beyond the second level early in the campaign stages. The hero development system has changed: it is no longer possible to allocate points to core attributes, but instead, one can endow the "leader" with various abilities that provide specific bonuses. Some of them are almost certainly useless, but most are quite helpful and provide additional points to movement range on the global map and in battle, to speed, leadership, the influence of some parameters on others - and other similar perks. The role of equipment has grown – and the possibilities have expanded.

In "Rebirth", there finally appeared what many have long considered indispensable in any turn-based strategy – the ability to play on neutral maps against the computer or similar players, online, or in hotseat mode, as any race that pleases the heart with convenient settings. The "gothic" atmosphere, without which many suffered greatly, has returned. However, it was not without bugs: according to feedback, no one has yet managed to enjoy completing the main story without dancing with tambourines at the end of some acts.

To sum up, it must be said that "[Disciples III: Rebirth](/games?search=Disciples III: Rebirth)" has finally become the very game that it was meant to be from the beginning. Hex Studio has used the achievements of .dat in the best way, correcting all earlier mistakes. But convincing the disgruntled community will now be extremely difficult: sometimes it seems that trust has been lost completely. While all discontent is expressed in the key of "I haven't played, but I condemn", it is not easy to explain to the haters that "Rebirth" is a completely new game, different in essence. That [Disciples III](/games?search=Disciples III) have indeed been reborn and are worthy of carrying their name. Especially amusing are certain remarks about the third part being a dead-end and that they will supposedly wait for the fourth. Although I would think three times before doing something for an ungrateful consumer who wants to see only [Disciples II](/games?search=Disciples II) in each subsequent part. In pink feathers.