14 DAY TRIAL // Two weeks ago I was writing about the death of the point-and-click adventures, now I'm posting about another dying genre - the fantasy turn-based strategy one. Unlike the adventure games, TBS titles were never very popular, even though some of the most hardcore strategy fans are still surrounded by their hexagonal worlds, trying to find the fastest way to destroy the enemy. But I'm not talking about that type of games, either - I'm talking about the under-populated fantasy turn-based strategy games here, a genre that, in my opinion, reached its peak during the Heroes III - Disciples II era, just to crash and burn instantly.
In both titles the line between strategy and role playing is very, very narrow and that's exactly one of the main advantages of the genre - which, unfortunately, was never fully exploited. However, by combining these two genres, then adding a few hundred items, weapons, armors and creature types, you will get an almost infinite replay level thanks to the customization options. And that is something us, gamers, really love - as proof comes the fact that even today player-made HoMM III maps are created and shared over the internet.
Disciples II, on the other hand, was a bit different: it offered far less customization options and an overall simpler gaming experience, but it did a great job and proved to be very addictive, especially because of its building and creature upgrade system - which allowed you to choose one of the two pre-defined paths. And these two games combined offer much more than most of the recently released titles, no matter what genre they belong to.
However, just as I was saying at the beginning, this genre is dying too. Heroes of Might and Magic V was released quite a while ago in order to revive it but the game was poorly done and did not manage to touch the HoMM III hearts. It became more Disciples-like in some areas (such as building construction), while other things that worked flawlessly in previous iterations were changed (such as the fighting system). To put it simple, HoMM V was not the game we were all expecting. Period.
Now it's all up to Disciples III, the upcoming Akella TBS to revive the genre or kill it for good. Although in the past I liked Heroes of Might and Magic more, I have high hopes in what regards this upcoming Disciples series, because it promises to keep things as close to the original as possible, while adding enough extra touches to keep it entertaining. This is the game every fantasy turn-based strategy fan is putting his/her hopes in: it has to do it right to keep this absolutely great genre alive and to prove its fans that there's a bright future ahead. It would be just too much for some (including me): a gaming world without classic adventures and games like Disciples or Heroes of Might and Magic... it would be horrible!