From my detailed preview, you already know that Disciples: Liberation is not a full-fledged continuation of the cult series and its great second part, but rather a spin-off, a variation on the theme. The topic is: “What would King’s Bounty look like in the world? Disciples». In the beta version it looked beautiful, quite correct from the point of view of the atmosphere and the world – even if the gothic became less and there was more sex, you still feel that this is a cruel and uncomfortable world Disciples. But there were questions about the gameplay – boring, drawn-out battles, lack of challenge, a lot of unnecessary equipment and a bunch of skills that improve something and add 2-3 percent. What has changed (or not) in the full version?
In god mode
Let me briefly remind you that Disciples: Liberation is clearly similar to the third part (not the most, let’s say, popular among fans), but at the same time it is even more similar to an adventure RPG in the spirit King’s Bounty — the strategy has practically disappeared, individual cities and capitals of different factions that need to be protected have disappeared. Instead, a single metropolis of Illyan appeared, a base for the main character Avianna and her companions – they allow the construction of barracks of any faction there (plus a market and a forge for pumping up equipment), and at any time, if you have the necessary drawing and a sufficient level of reputation, you can change the building, building elven barracks in place of the imperial barracks. And then return it all back.
But there are a lot of quests, dialogues, travel around the map and battles. The latter have become larger-scale (now rear fighters also participate in them, casting magic from the gallery on their turn) and resemble a modified version of the battles from Disciples III . And just like there, in the “beta” they seemed frankly drawn-out and boring.
In fights, I’ll say right away, little has changed. Yes, the authors, as promised, have added the ability to speed up the animation of units, as well as skip not very important battles – for example, with armies guarding mines and other sources of resources. If you wish, you will be shown the result immediately. And he will almost always be victorious – even the total number of health points and mana will not decrease one iota, none of your fighters will receive a scratch. That is, apparently, there is no invisible operation of the algorithm and no hidden calculation of results – the game simply automatically scores victory in all battles with opponents of more or less equal level.
If opponents are several levels weaker, then in theory they should not get into battle, but run away from us in their gardens.
A real challenge can only be obtained in battles with opponents of significantly higher level. For example, I, with a crowd of level 20 units, barely managed to cope with the only mage of level 35 guarding the chest. Then I saw a dragon of the 45th level and even a group of elves of the 65th level – I didn’t even dare to get into a fight with my Arkharovites of the 32nd. But these are, as a rule, optional “challenges”.
It’s better not to meddle with https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/4-crowns-casino/ this dragon for the time being, but according to the plot it’s not necessary. There’s an interesting side quest associated with it.
And in the main story, where there is no real resistance (in three days of play I didn’t lose a single battle, at most I lost a couple of players), the battles, even though they have become a little more dynamic (and some can be skipped), begin to tire. And their inadequate quantity ultimately makes you want to “skip” all fights, and not just individual ones.
Where is the balance??
The reasons for this imbalance of complexity are Disciples: Liberation some. Firstly, there are a lot of enemies and quests, while the enemy AI did not walk around the map in the “beta” and did not attack our sources of resources, and does not walk in the full version. The result is a one-sided, fast and little-restrained leveling: our fighters are getting stronger and growing by leaps and bounds. In addition, they can be strengthened with special crystals, and the main character’s powerful companions can also be equipped with weapons that can be upgraded. For Avi herself, we have prepared a whole set of equipment that can be improved at the forge – there is a lot of extra junk, which we immediately recycle into resources, but we also come across some cool things.
Secondly, since the “beta” the authors have not really weakened at least some of the many powerful skills in the arsenal and ordinary units, and especially Avianna’s companions. In the release version, I basically tried to play with a different composition than the one in beta, and started the campaign in other, more difficult regions, but the result was about the same. For example, at the very beginning I came across a necromancer companion, who not only deals strong area damage with both abilities, but also revives dead enemies who are already on our side.
In addition, I went through almost the entire game with elven dark casters (Shadow Caster) and former nuns, and now dead, memoryless Initiates from the Undead Hordes – and those other seemingly simple units from the first stage of development, but their skills (naturally, combining healing and massive damage) are too powerful and useful.
Needless to say, there is no particular need to worry about how their fighting spirit is, in particular due to the combination of different races in one detachment – in Liberation it has little effect. And you don’t have to worry too much about upgrading the barracks of a particular faction in order to hire units of a higher rank either. That is, yes, of course, it’s better to upgrade something from time to time (or hire more powerful fighters on the market) and try not to take into the army fighters from those factions with which you have bad relations. But due to the imbalance of complexity, this happens rather in the background, not requiring special analysis. I also didn’t experience any particular shortage of money and resources. And in the end, I basically gave up on upgrades in the forge.
I wonder how it will end
However, here’s the paradox! – play Disciples: Liberation it’s possible, and in some places it’s even interesting. First of all, thanks to a good story, characters with their own personal problems and many non-linear quests, where all our decisions, who to stand up for, who to hit, and so on, are reflected in relations with factions.
We negotiate with the leaders of all races of Nevendaar in order to conclude an alliance with them, and we escape from the dungeon several times, and we fight with dragons, and we take part in gladiatorial battles in the arena, and we try to save the Emperor by deceiving the elves pursuing him (although there is an option to fight or surrender His Majesty). At some point we find ourselves on a map where all the factions are fighting among themselves – we need to meet the leaders of each in turn and decide who to be with, so our choice in numerous quests immediately and strongly affects our reputation.
But I couldn’t get at least some of our companions to leave the squad because of our decisions (in the second half of the game we are joined by a colorful demoness and a red-haired vampire), they don’t agree, they ask us to act differently (to support, for example, the Empire, not the rebels), but they still stay with us.
The climax on the above map is a battle with a huge dead angel (no, it is not final), after which Avianna learns the secret of her origin (here there is a direct reference to the events of Disciples III). It’s just a pity that the battle with this boss turned out to be extremely drawn out and tedious: just remove your fighters from the highlighted red cells, which will be hit by artillery strikes from the boss and his minions, and attack him, gradually grinding down a huge supply of health – and so on for about 40 minutes, in a circle and yawning.
And the whole Disciples: Liberation seems drawn out. You get very tired of it, already when you have reached level 30-33, and yet the coolest chests in the throne room of the capital open only at level 50. And when will this end? The reason for this reaction is clear – the authors know what a good, modern adventure RPG should look like, what plot, quests and characters are needed, what mechanics should be, but they did not have enough experience, skill and a sense of proportion to correctly connect it all and make it combine and work correctly from the point of view of game design and balance. And they didn’t even think about updating, developing or at least repeating the mechanics of the cult Disciples II.
Pros: not a bad story; interesting characters with their own quests; an abundance of non-linear tasks that affect relations with factions; nice picture; excellent card design; there is expressive music and voice acting.
Cons: the game is more like King’s Bounty than itself Disciples; there is no challenge, normal balance and adequate AI on the map – the passage, especially the battles, seems drawn out and boring; a lot of unnecessary things among skills, equipment and spells; optimization problems; there is no Russian language on the release.