Disciples: Sacred Lands Demo

Turn-based strategy games have the Heroes of Might and Magic series to take as comparison, but there were many other franchises almost just as worthy to carry the same honor. King’s Bounty is still alive and kicking today, not to mention X-COM, albeit the latter is a bit more tactical and not exactly on the same subject as the rest of the examples.

Disciples: Sacred Lands may have taken it’s inspiration from titles such as HoMM and King’s Bounty, but it also brought a lot of original ideas to the table and centered its entire gameplay on a totally different aspect. Moreover, the fantasy setting is a touch darker than usual, which is also highlighted by the unique artwork and visual style used to portray the world and the characters that are part of the action.

Speaking of which, the story presents the struggle between four different factions and the heroes that battle each other in order to gain more territory and eliminate the competition. It is not exactly groundbreaking, but it certainly gets exciting along the way, mainly due to the fact that you get to form parties, rather than nameless armies like in Heroes of Might and Magic.

Experience is a curious thing in turn-based strategy games, since it doesn’t really apply in the same way it does in a classical role-playing game. However, Disciples disregards the trend and makes every unit almost as important as the hero himself, because each level is liable to change the potential of your army and you simply cannot afford to lose certain units without handing out the game to the A.I..

Speaking of which, the artificial intelligence is clever enough to challenge your tactics during the game, even if you can still catch it by surprise after you learn the game’s intricate system by heart. However, since the gameplay revolves around your ability to expand your influence and get more territory under your control, rather than just killing the enemy hero, things cannot change too dramatically from one turn to the other.

In the end, Disciples: Sacred Lands is indeed a game worthy of your time, as well as a serious contender in the TBS genre, right next to the other giants out there. However, the slightly more tactical approach can also make the gameplay a bit dull from time to time, not to mention the fact that the battles can become rather predictable after a while.