Disciples III: Renaissance

King's Bounty also offered more freedom. In Disciples III, the scripter's dagger-point is frequently at your throat. In the human campaign (there are also elf and demon sequences), you're tasked with protecting a mysterious celestial agent from the attentions of an over-enthusiastic Inquisition. You swear never to leave the lady's side, but a few turns later are forced, by the campaign writer, to hand her over without a fight. It's an annoying moment - an emasculating one - and totally at odds with the spirit of a true RPG. Opportunities for involving moral choices come and go while you look on, unconsulted and miffed.

Fortunately, outside of the story, there are lots of chances to stamp your personality onto proceedings. Each of the 19 campaign levels starts with the player assigned to a home city. What buildings you choose to construct in this settlement determines how party recruits upgrade.

You also get very fine control over your heroes. At any one time you can have up to three hero-led parties scampering about a map. When leaders level up, there are points to spend on attributes and new skills. Instead of a conventional tree, the latter are arranged on an irregular, maze-like grid (different for each class), meaning choices are far from simple.

Spellbooks and inventories provide further opportunities for customisation. Every turn, assuming you've got the requisite resources, you can learn and cast one spell (or two, if you've picked a magical character class). The fact that offensive bombshells like Heavenly Fury can be used on the level map means you come to rely on them as standard pre-combat softening-up steps. Spotted a gang of giants guarding a stat-boosting well? Stonk them with a divine bombardment then move in for the hexy melee. After coming to rely on such tactics, it comes as a bit of a shock when the campaign scripter hurls an unavoidable ambush at you, or one of your parties gets bushwhacked by a wandering enemy.

Ah yes, that's another important way in which Disciples III differs from its more colourful and unhinged peer. While neutral opponents sit tight at their assigned locations (usually guarding something or blocking a route) there's generally an enemy faction in play, which, like you, is trying to grab guardian nodes. While it doesn't always go about this particularly sensibly, the threat does add another ingredient to the strategic tasty stew.

Can a game be both a "tasty strategic stew" and a "hearty turn-based mixed grill"? Probably not. Whatever meaty meal Disciples III most closely resembles, one things for sure: there's enough of it in the box to feed a multitude. I've spent more time contentedly slaughtering my way through one of the campaign levels in this game than I did contentedly slaughtering my way through the entire campaign in the last thing I played. There's weeks of solid strategic sustenance here, and, surprisingly, the story that underpins it isn't complete hogwash.

Though it involves some extremely tired tropes (demonic taint infecting the land, old interracial alliances reforged...) and is narrated by a chap who sounds in urgent need of caffeine, mystery and quasi-religious menace is injected regularly enough to keep plot wheels turning in their ruts. Developments are conveyed through text pop-ups, which is a slight shame, as going on the evidence of the handsome load screens and character portraits, Akella's artists could have executed some stunning cut-scene art.