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Associate Editor The most pleasant surprise of 1999 for me was Strategy First's Disciples: Sacred Lands. I've been a great fan of New World Computing's Heroes of Might and Magic series since its inception, so after I took my first look at Disciples, I figured it was nothing more than a watered-down clone. The 640x480 overland maps were arranged much like those of Heroes III, except that they looked worse; the colors were washed out and the tiny sprites that represented units and monsters didn't look very good at all. But I sat down and played it for about three hours straight in my first session. I didn't even bother with the manual; the basic gameplay seemed familiar enough, except that instead of monster stacks that would upgrade automatically, Disciples had war parties of single characters that advanced experience levels. Better still, these war parties spoke, and sometimes they sounded absolutely great. And thanks to the exquisite hand-painted portraits, they looked even better. Disciples' portrait art is truly beautiful. Its subdued colors and clean lines are extremely imaginative, and the mightiest heroes and most formidable monsters truly seem so, even though they're represented by nothing more than a portrait image the size of a postage stamp. Disciples really did turn out to be one of the most surprisingly enjoyable games I've played this year, thanks to its RPG structure and excellent art.
Audience Support Coordinator 1999 had a number of great sequels to great games: Age of Empires II, Quake III, Freespace 2, NASCAR Racing 3, Unreal Tournament, Alpha Centauri, and many more. OK, Alpha Centauri wasn't necessarily based on Civilization, but it was close enough. The practice of improving on what is already good is a sound business strategy; you have name recognition, you have a complete game to work with, and you have a loyal customer base to buy the game. It's a lot harder to surprise anyone though, and it's easier to disappoint the customers whose expectations are already high. The only game on my 1999 list of favorites that was a real surprise is Homeworld. I had expected something good - Sierra has a well-deserved reputation for innovation - but I wasn't expecting anything really groundbreaking. As soon as I tried the demo though, I was surprised. I hadn't played anything quite like it. The strategy elements were familiar, but the real surprise was the graphics and interface. I also loved the requirement to think and move in three dimensions. 3D is a good thing, and it was high time for the real-time strategy games to take the hint. Taking an axonometric view of a flat map with some extruded buildings makes everything look more solid, but it isn't really 3D. In Homeworld you have to use the third dimension strategically. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the real-time strategy genre catch up.
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