A nice bargain Gold Edition to play when everything else seems so je ne c'est quoi.

User Rating: 9 | Disciples II: Gold Edition PC
After looking for some bargain strategy games that jumps out saying "buy me, buy me", I finally found one that caught my fancy. Disciples II: Gold Edition. Looking at the back cover already stated that the strategy is turn-based, to my liking. But it does have some pors and cons much of which is really my subjective opinion just like all my reviews I have made so far Gamespot, in case you are reading this.

The game was cheap at that time, and easy to install despite the eight CD-ROMs it has in its box. It come with not just the game but all of its expansion as well. So that's another plus for value for money. The gameplay is simple enough, building anything requires gold and takes up a day. You can choose whichever faction and select a portrait for you leader, give it a name and choose difficulty level. You get to be human, dwarves, undead or demons. Later in expansions you can be the elves.

Turns are measured by days, magic has to be research once a day provided you have enough resources and they ca only be used once a day. Resources include gold and four different kinds of mana which can be harvested through certain characters with a plant-rod ability.

You can upgrade you soldiers, magicians etc by building certain monuments in a city. You can earn XP, carry items and heal or revive others. You can also employ other leader type characters each with its own unique ability and the number of troops it can take.

The voices and narration was fair, and the graphics wasn't too bad for an old game. The music wasn't too bad either. The environments you explore were actually done quite nicely in from trees to the sea, and how the land can transform from being luscious or infernal overtime depending on which faction you chose in the first place. The story is good and the scenarios are consistent to it. Even the stories of each faction all revolve around a common thing of war and gods.

While the story scenarios differ with each faction, the missions are fun to go through and its worth finishing them to see how each story progresses. The expansions are good to by building further to the Disciples universe. The artwork, be it demons, undead, dragons etc are all well drawn to give each its character.

It's a good game in my opinion, since it's catered to my tastes.