The first thing you notice about the game is its fantastic visuals. Everything about this game – user interface, unit design, world map – is gorgeously rendered with style and heavy attention to detail. I have yet to see a game come close to the Disciple series in terms of artistic property, it is just that good. The ingame movie sequences from the original Disciples: Dark Prophecy are showing their age a little now, but are the only element that has lost even a little of it’s sheen. However, art alone can’t make a game.

Which brings us to gameplay. I can honestly say that I have yet to play a turn based strategy game with as deep, and yet as simple to get into gameplay as Disciples 2. The upgrade trees for all the races are both unique and balanced (even the new Elven races’ one), units are varied and their effectiveness is governed not only by level but also placement within your hero’s party, and the heroes themselves can have varied builds that directly impact your success in the game. Add to this the area maps with their mana and gold resource points, cities, a host of enemies, and an added magic system and you have many, many hours of enjoyable gameplay to look forward too.

But what is gameplay without story? The overall plot of the series is engaging (and not yet concluded) and it keeps you coming back for more. However, some of the races stories are not as interesting as the others – the Dwarves and Demons tend to get overshadowed by the Empire, Mortis’s undead, and the struggles of the Elves. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through all the races campaigns and look forward to a Disciples 3.

If the game has a low point, it would have to be sound. The individual units and monsters all have decent enough voice clips and sounds effects, and magic spell sounds are quite good as well, but the voice over from Dark Prophecy, as well as the one from Rise of the Elves, is a bit forced. The music is sadly unvaried from race to race as well, a fact that lead me to turn it off and listen to my own music while playing.

The game does offer a multiplayer option online, with opponents facing off over maps with different races. Given the time consuming nature of the game, it’s pretty much only for the diehard player though.

I have yet to find a turn based strategy game as fun or visually impressive as Disciples 2, and that carries over to all the expansions encompassed in the Gold edition. If you are a fan of the genre, you simply cannot go wrong with this game.