Disciples II: Gallean’s Return
!!!!! ON WINDOWS 7/10: !!!!!
Run with Direct3D turned on, stretch to fullscreen, and 800x600 res. Trust me btw, the 800x600 res looks INCREDIBLE b/c of the awesome textures in this game.
70 hours in at the time of this review, I just finished the 2nd campaign (there are 4, and this isn’t even the expansion set) on Average (normal) difficulty. This is a game that will challenge you, but also reward you. Whether you build massive armies or put all of your time and energy into one unit, you will be surprised how difficult it is to stop moving those little bastards around. Buy this game if you have the opportunity.
– Real player with 213.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Atmospheric Games.
One of the all times favourites games : Diablo2, Age of Empires 1&2, Disciples 1&2. Special mention for Civilizations 3 Heroes of might and magic 3. There was nothing like them at that time, and there still isn’t.
For fans of the genre and disciples 2 in special, i recommend checking Atlantica Online (cashgrabber and if you are not in an active strong guild there is no way to have the top mercs and craft top equipment, but the game itself is so much like Disciples 2, only mmorpg)
Disciples 2 had lots of room for improvement, but is a fantastic game, simply amazing. Disciples 3 unfortunately turned away from the style of the game, moving units in battle ruined the tactical pre-battle arrangement of troops.
– Real player with 135.3 hrs in game
Disciples II: Rise of the Elves
Introduction
Disciples II:Rise of the Elves is my favorite game but I will try to give it a fair review with pros and cons. I have spent about 400 hours on the game on GoG and started to play on Steam a bit. I will be referring Disciples as D to shorten it. Also, I will try to give as much details as I can about the game.
Review
Gameplay
D:II is a medieval dark fantasy game with 5 playable fractions.
| Faction Name | Simplified |
– Real player with 109.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Fantasy Games.
TL; DR Disciples 2: Rise of the Elves is a really good game and a fun turn-based strategy-RPG that will last many hours if or when you get into it. This version adds further variety to the base game both in terms of playstyle, balance changes, and in neutral enemies. I highly recommend it; however, the game did not work without a fix so be aware of that.
Note that Disciples 2: Rise of the Elves is an expansion that takes place after the events of Gallean’s Return. Not all campaigns are included in Rise of the Elves therefore Gallean’s Return should be played first unless you just want gameplay and the custom maps.
– Real player with 63.9 hrs in game
Heroes® of Might & Magic® III - HD Edition
Just get the original and the free 3rd party patch that ups it to HD. Then you can have all the maps, all the expansions and all the 3rd party mods. If you get back into this great game you’ll regret wasting the money on this version. It wouldn’t be so bad if they came out with the expansions already but my understanding this was a slighty rebrushing of the original w/o the expacs available. You can get all the expac maps converted to this edition but many of them also have bugs (i’m guessing when an expac item or monster you run into causes a total crash, which you can go in and delete but then you got to start the map over, not great for multiplayer).
– Real player with 341.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Turn-Based Strategy Multiplayer Games.
Not worth paying for it.
The achievement list is kind of cool, but who really wants to play 10 maps on every difficulty.
When you can buy H3 Complete on GoG and get the HD Mod instead, why bother just playing Restoration of Erathia.
I wish I never paid for this.
– Real player with 111.1 hrs in game
Worms
There are so many versions of Worms out there but the original is the one with–-
*Less cartoony graphics - pixel art here instead of smooth cartoons.
*Fewer items - you have a good selection of weapons, but the most exotic items are the exploding sheep and banana bomb - no Holy Hand Grenade, Carpet Bomb or jet pack in this version.
*Less polish - sound effects are fuzzy and the menus are a bit unwieldy.
*Worse AI - computer characters never use ropes, spam the teleport awkwardly, get stuck behind cover and never ever miss with ranged weapons.
– Real player with 18.5 hrs in game
i love womes and have been playing since i had it on my sega mega drive (similar to this version), while i have not played much of the newer ones - this version is simple at it’s best:
quick to start a game
no long loading times
fun short sharp matches
pleanty of weapons (not as much as later games of course)
pleanty of fun teams including teedies and waterloo (based on abba)
i really love this game - and i know some people might not like using the dosbox emulator - but for me (windows 7) works very nicely, with minimum errors
– Real player with 13.9 hrs in game
X-COM: UFO Defense
Super game! One of the true classics, and - according to me - one of the best games still in modern times!
Note: A patch openxcom.org fixes pretty much all of the bad usability issues in the original game. This is probably a must-have if you are going to enjoy the game today.
This game is super for people who likes strategy and management. Unlike the later series of X-Com (partly but mainly after Apocalypse (game #3)), the features of the game has been overly simplified to make the game suit a much wider audience. This game, however, is the real deal… superb for those who like a good challenge and the management involved.
– Real player with 177.6 hrs in game
There are games that are good. There are games that make you addicted. Then there is XCOM…
It’s the end of the 20th century. In response to growing alien threat, few governments decide to fund and XCOM organisation, solely dedicated to neutralising forementioned threat. Player becomes Commander of the force.
Game consists of two levels. On the Geoscape, you manage bases, research (come on, all this sweet loot left by deceased gray cabbage. I know you want it.), manufacture and more. Starting with single base (preferably western europe, you have radar coverage over whole Europe, part of Russia and Northen Afrcia), few soldiers and fighters equipped with conventional terrestial weapons. It is sufficient for the first few weeks, but after recovering UFOs and aliens, both dead and in custody, you will get better equipment: Laser weapons with unlimited ammo, powerful plasma-based armament, durable armors, UFO-looking fighters or even possibility to make your soldiers use their Psionical abilities against aliens. But to get this, you need to get some UFOs down. Send an Interceptor, and use his persuasive rockets to make aliens crash. Then, Tactical level starts.
– Real player with 154.3 hrs in game
Sid Meier’s Civilization® III Complete
Here’s what I think of this game, I’ll compare it to Civ 5 since most people consider that to be the best Civ game.
Music: Both Civ 5 and Civ III have fantastic soundtracks as with pretty much all Civ games. CIV 5’s soundtrack is better, but that doesn’t mean this soundtrack isn’t worth listening to.
Diplomacy: The diplomacy here in Civ III, in my opinion is better. You can trade maps technologies, change how agressive the AI is. The AI does get quite a bit agressive once you get to medium agressiveness although.
– Real player with 328.3 hrs in game
I will start this review in two seperate forms, one for interested newcomers and then the Old Guard.
I will list off the pros first before the cons of this game, Civilization 3 is a different twist of the game than you may be familar with 4 and 5. Go in understanding this switch:
-Its an old game, if you can run the actual game, there should be no real issues.
-Graphically, it’s a sound experience and not many real issues, the modding community can find you bug fixes or new skins. Its pleasing regardless and you won’t really be let down by this game.
– Real player with 325.2 hrs in game
MoonBase Commander
Chess meets Tower Defense
Originally realeased in 2002, this game shows its age. Nevertheless, its simple rules and complex gameplay are genius.
First, the only game mode I have spent any significant time in is singleplayer skirmish. I do not know if Multiplayer works yet, but if I try it, I will update this review to include it. Skirmish seems like the only gamemode that really shines; challenge mode is generally irrelevant / uninteresting, in my opinion.
Pros / things I personally like:
– Real player with 48.1 hrs in game
The best game that only I have played. My hours on Steam don’t do it justice - I’ve owned the game in physical form since the early 2000’s and I’ve put hundreds of hours into it.
It’s got great music, it’s graphically pleasing, and most importantly, it’s fun to play. It’s got that “easy to learn but tough to master” thing going for it, since with the golf-like controls and obstacles like water, wind and elevation, even an experienced player like myself can mess up sometimes. This can be an issue even against NPCs, as the campaign gets hard as nails towards the end. The AI isn’t perfect, but it mostly competent, and can definitely provide a challenge if you choose the tougher bots.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
Sid Meier’s Colonization (Classic)
This game is a gem, and still great fun to play more than two decades after its release. It starts in 1492; your sovereign grants you a few colonists, some tools and muskets and a ship to head into the vast unknown. It is up to you to turn that humble beginning into a vast colonial empire - and then rebel against the ever more oppressive rule from across the seas.
It is a game that is fairly simple to get into, but the more finnicky bits of growth and economy can take a while to get the hang of. Do you start a vast agricultural colony, raising new colonials through food, or do you start with cash crops and their refined versions to scrape together enough gold for new recruits from the old world? Perhaps you instead focus on spreading the good word of your faith to lure lost souls across the Atlantic, or use your military might and missionaries to subdue the local natives as converts? Perhaps all of the above, all the while bickering with your fellow European colonies and treading carefully around the sovereign’s steady requests for higher taxes, your day only brightened as founding fathers flock to your banner to aid you.
– Real player with 121.8 hrs in game
An oldie, but a goodie and, IMHO, superior to the 2008 remake.
Pros
1. Works fine on Windows 10 though my PC is a toaster from 2009ish so your mileage may vary.
2. Excellent soundtrack.
3. The same addictive formula as the other Sid Meier games.
4. Colonial setting. It’s not super historical or anything, but it’s still an interesting time period.
5. The ability to commence your own 1776.
Cons
1. Combat. I once had a unit with 15 attack lose to a unit with 5 attack… 15 reloads in a row. There was another case where a unit with 1.5 attack managed to defeat my artillery which had 20 attack. I’ve seen fishermen defeat dragoons more then once. These kind of upsets don’t happen constantly, but are frequent enough that I wasn’t surprised and would save before every attack just in case. TL:DR A higher attack doesn’t guarantee victory so your frigate could end up being sunk by a guy in a rowboat with a knife.
– Real player with 93.3 hrs in game
Annals of Rome
As with others here, I played this intensively when it originally came out. Back then the interface was nothing particularly unusual, and even today it isn’t difficult, just clumsy - it takes about 5 minutes to get used to it. There are certainly a few issues with it, primarily related to the display of information at appropriate times - it’s hard to play without making any separate notes (you pretty much have to keep track of the loyalty values of your available commanders, as that is only visible on the screen before you make decisions about who to assign where). But that isn’t anywhere near enough to outweigh the cleverness of the design and the fun value of trying to shepherd your Republic through dictatorship and the inevitable empire, trying to keep it alive through the ups and downs of barbarian migrations and rival nations waxing and waning. An amazing game considering the technical limitations it was created under.
– Real player with 51.7 hrs in game
Great classic game!
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
Etherlords
Yes, I don’t recommend it despite completing one of the campaigns (vitals), here is the pros and cons, if you can live with the cons go ahead and buy it, doesnt cost the world.
-
unique races with their individual card lineups
-
there is a learning curve to appreciate
-
I had no problems running it (on my old computer in admin mode)
-
challenging varied enemies
-
50h playtime if you do both campaigns I’d say
-
it felt a bit like offline Hearthstone with 3D battles, the age shows tho
- even if you turn off all the gimmick closeups etc, battles take their time
– Real player with 36.2 hrs in game
One of the old school classics.
Since the game was developed by Nival (Russian based), western market might not be familiar with the game.
However there are few points why you might be interested to play this game even though it has been 13 years since it was released:
-
Game is Hard. No kidding, even normal difficulty will have you thinking over on what kind of strategy and builds you must use to win every campaing map.
-
Game is played out on a strategic map (similar to HOMM) & tactical battles (collectible card game).
– Real player with 32.4 hrs in game