Disciples 2; Dark Prophecy - a Worthy Treat for Gamers

The modestly priced Disciples 2 : Dark Prophecy takes the tale of the 4 Empires struggling to gain control one step further in all areas - the story, the graphics, and the units. For those who are not aware of the game, Disciples is an award winning turn-based franchise by Strategy Games. The basic premise of the game is this  - you play as one of the four races and try to accomplish specific tasks to complete missions to ultimately gain control (in a quest) or to attain a higher purpose in a Saga.

What makes this is an extremely addictive game is the unit progression. As each unit it exposed to more battles, it gains more and more experience, upgrading or completely transforming into a stronger and better unit. As such, you tend to get attached to your units, carefully picking the battles and sacrificing the lesser units to further advance the more experienced fighters. Another area that invokes curiosity is the spells. Beautiful and horrifying depending on the effects, the race, and the purpose, the spells are amazing! (seeing a celestial being drop a lightning charged  trident on your enemies, for example, is one of the joys of the game).

Excellent graphics - it takes a little while to get used to the "cluttered" map, but once you get the hang of it, you actually begin to appreciate it. Loading times are quick, and all the units are individually animated. This allows for a lot more exploration than your average game and you can spend quite a bit of time just getting to know and enjoy the various attributes of a unit without getting bored by it.

Excellent Sounds - The sounds of waters, your empire growing, the movement of the units, the swipe of the sword, or the breath of the dragon - they're just about perfect. Except for one little problem, they do become repetitive pretty soon.

Gameplay - This is where Disciples really shines. The learning curve is not steep at all, and you can master just about everything in the game in half an hour, though it does take longer to understand all of the computer moves and plan accordingly.