Posts from Added to my journal. Auto-translated

Borderlands 2.

And here is one of my favorite games; I replayed it the other day. I got acquainted with the series quite a long time ago—ah, how soulful it was back then, on cold winter evenings, blowing bandits' heads off with a revolver. All that was in the first part, which differs greatly from the second. I'd say that overall I like the first one more—it's "lampy," the general style is more interesting, and for me personally, the mechanics are more pleasant. But maybe I'll talk about it some other time; but for now: BUZZING AXES BLOOD CANNIBALISM MUTANTS FIRE ACID ELECTRICITY HEADSHOTS BANDITS MEAT MOTORCYCLES FOR TWO AND MUCH MORE!

Let's start, as usual, with the technical parameters:
The game's genre is a First-Person Shooter—shooting people, non-people, vehicles, and gasoline barrels from various weapons. Well, you know, like Crucis, hehe, or like Minecraft, but without squares and without crafting. And without let's players with cerebral palsy.
The graphics here can be characterized as "drawn." For me personally, this is a plus, as I love everything drawn, and specifically this style is just heartfelt. Despite the lack of some super-realism (for obvious reasons), everything is done very beautifully; it fascinates, strikes to the depths of the soul, provides sincere visual pleasure, and eats up a lot of PC resources. The general concept of the game—the madness happening across the expanses of Pandora—perfectly matches the artist's brush: dust, acid, burnt metal, blood, wonderful.
Well anyway, let's not talk about the fleeting. Better I'll say that in the game, heroes gain levels and level up! And for a level, you can take certain skills, just like in the blessed Diablo Two. This is what the skill trees look like:

Generally, the lower down, the stronger the skills are, and at the very bottom there's an ultimate—it only levels up to 1 (others up to 5 units) and hits hard. Level also affects damage/defense relative to enemies; low-level enemies will deal less dammage and take more. So, running straight to the end of the game to fight bosses is unlikely to work.

Just like in the god-like Diablo Dew, there are several characters here:

Axton, The Commando - An experienced soldier, formerly a sergeant in the DAHL corporation's military forces. He can throw his big gun in enemies' faces, which under certain circumstances illuminates the nearby area with a nuclear mushroom cloud. Throws many grenades if he wants to. Runs fast! Shoots fast! Doesn't die! A true fighter.
Maya, The Siren - A cutie possessing a special power; there are only six of them IN THE UNIVERSE and you can learn about the others as you progress through the plot; specifically, Maya can create various chaos, pulling enemies into corrosive clouds, binding them in her sparkling purple sphere, burning their little bodies with fire. A good girl.
Salvador, The Gunzerker - Takes two guns in his hands, runs forward, showering enemies with a wall of lead and foul language. A cheerful fellow (he really didn't get the height), reloads right while shooting, periodically gives enemies a chance to view his middle fingers. Shoots from two guns! THAT IS ALL HE DOES AND IT IS EXCELLENT.
Zero, The Assassin - This sneaky bastard stabs his sharp blade into enemies from invisibility. Masterfully handles the sniper rifle, runs fast, chops enemies to pieces in melee combat, throws knives with various elemental damage. One of the heroes who can complete the game almost without using guns, chopping everyone with a sword.
Gaige, The Mechromancer - An anime girl with a big-big robot that she periodically summons to the battlefield (and he ebows everyone). Can create shock damage everywhere she goes, knows how to miss at point-blank range with a shotgun, but if she suddenly hits, she takes away half of the bosses' health bars. Funny; you can build up the robot and complete the game on the first difficulty without any stress at all.
KRIEG, THE PSYCHO - LOVES TO CUT PEOPLE WITH A BUZZING AXE LOVES TO POUR GASOLINE ON HIMSELF AND SET IT ON FIRE LOVES TO HURL FIREBALLS IN RANDOM DIRECTIONS LOVES TO SHOOT INFINITELY FROM MACHINE GUNS LOVES TO SHOUT INSPIRING THINGS ABOUT MEAT MOTORCYCLES FOR TWO.
Each of the heroes has their own special ability, "Action Skill," and three branches of unique skills. You can check here.

What about guns? There are a certain number of weapon types in the game:
Assault Rifles - Fast-firing single burst like a Kalash; slower firing, but with the ability to shoot accurately while looking through a scope; huge ones that don't fire in bursts but are powerful; those that fire a lot, having a magazine five times larger than others, not very accurate.
Shotguns - Based on the double-barrel principle: boom, blew the enemy to pieces; automatic, many shots in a row without reloading, but weaker; something in between, high damage, eat several shells per shot, but have a couple or three in the magazine.
SMG (small rattle-guns like assault rifles, if anyone doesn't know) - Simpler here, they are all roughly of the same type, but those from DAHL shoot much more accurately. Shoot quickly, reload quickly.
Pistols - Unlike the first part, not as fun. Just pistols, shoot with medium accuracy and normal damage; you can get used to giving everyone headshots without a problem; automatic, shoot fast like an assault rifle but more accurate at short distances; something like revolvers, don't fire in bursts, powerful;
Snipers - Simple with these too. Ordinary ones: critical damage is extremely high, normal is extremely low; elemental ones: critical damage to the corresponding armor type is very high, normal damage to the corresponding armor type is acceptable, any other damage is around zero.
Rocket Launchers - Very strong, long reload, have few shells in the backpack, extremely effective against bosses or large clusters of enemies. Fire one or three rockets per shot.
Grenades - You just throw them and they explode)) So that's it. But they explode in dozens of different ways: split into small grenades, shower nearby enemies with fire or electricity, pull everyone toward themselves, lifesteal for the player. There are many of them.
Besides the fact that guns differ by themselves and their types, there is also the difference between manufacturers.

Each has its own features. For example, Jakobs produces only non-automatic weapons with physical damage, while Maliwan does the opposite. Torgue guns blast exploding bullets; for Tedior weapons, instead of reloading, the character simply throws it away and a second later gets a new one in their hands, already fully loaded (this is explained by the fact that manufacturing is so cheap that it's easier to use Digistruct technology, "printing" mechanisms with a magic beam of life).
Besides standard guns differing in parameters (damage, accuracy, level, reload speed, etc.), there are tons of legendary and simply unique items with their own fun mechanics.
What else can we equip our already poorly-assed character with to give them uniqueness? With things like these:
Class Mod - A thing that gives different classes various bonuses and pluses to skills. There are many, for every taste, each with its own possible bonuses.
Shield - Besides health, there is a shield bar in the game that restores after some time (depending on the characteristics of the item itself).
Grenade Mod - Essentially, your grenades. Many different ones: bouncing, flying for a million kilometers, homing.
Artifact - Grants various bonuses not tied to a specific class.
Besides ordinary physical (gun damage), there are five elements in the game: Incendiary (deals a lot of damage to enemies without shields, sets them on fire), Corrosive (dissolves armor, poisons), Shock (instantly wipes out shields), Explosive (pierces impenetrable armor elements, deals area damage), Swag Slag (coats the enemy in purple jam, which increases all other damage to them).
On the first difficulty levels, you don't even have to worry about elements, but if you want to complete the game on Hell, you'll have to use shock weapons additionally at a minimum.

Now you probably understand that the game is not an ordinary shooter like those we've been used to since the nineties (oldfag check ✓). I had never seen anything like this before, so my shock was total—my hands curled in spasms, breath knocked out of my lungs, drool flowed down my lip. Incredible! Genius! Why didn't anyone think of this before? And if they did, why didn't they do it properly? And if they did, where has it been all these years? Unthinkable to take a skill system from an action-RPG and transfer it into a shooter, thereby getting rid of many flaws of Diablo-like games.

Enough mechanics, let's talk about everything else!
Intro. After watching it, you can get some understanding, even just a little bit, of what is actually happening.

So, we are on Pandora, a planet once populated mainly by miners, scientists, various other workers, and military. Corporations flew here to dig for resources, but as it turned out, there weren't that many of them. In short, Dahl dug the most, lost the most, and eventually had problems with the Atlas corporation, which had the most advanced technologies at the time on its side. Other corporations also had their interests on Pandora, but to learn about them, you need to play other games in the series or read articles. They were digging, then, digging selflessly like square-headed schoolkids, and then suddenly a Vault—a shelter, a storehouse, whatever you prefer? Or better yet, use the skills of an excellent Russian translation and call it an Artifact Warehouse? Sounds good, especially since that's what it is in essence. People first thought that the Artifact Warehouse™ really was a warehouse of artifacts from another race, the Eridians—come, loot, get rich, dominate enemies, humiliate. But the only artifact contained in the Artifact Warehouse™ was the DESTROYER, which crawled out and started licking everything with its purple tentacles while firing lasers from its eye. Nice farming, much loot, such vault, wow. In the end, the giant eye was killed (spoiler), and it gave birth to tons of a magical purple element ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), called Eridium. This thing turned out to be very useful and expensive, so it began to be mined so intensively that half the planet turned into an industrial dump (from an ordinary dump).

I won't go into details of previous parts/events; the essence of the second part is:
The planet fell under the power of Hyperion and a new president who came to power over it through cunning manipulations. He has his own story, which you won't find out now (ha-ha), but the point is that he is the main villain of Borderlands 2.
Handsome Jack.

"See, this is what I don't get about you bad guys. You know the hero's gonna win, but you never just die quickly-- man, this one guy in New Haven, right? City's burning, people dying, blah blah blah. This guy rushes me with a spoon. A fricking spoon. And I'm just laughing. So I scoop out his eyeballs with it, and his kids are all, "aghhhhh!,” and, ah...you had to be there. Anyway, the moral is: you're a total bitch."

Russian translation power turn on, Handsome Jack... Arrrgh pain death blood.
Handsome Jack lures us (Vault Hunters™) into a trap. The train goes off the rails, we plow our faces through a couple of snowdrifts and end up at a snowy bus station, where our new friend(?) digs us out and hands us an ECHO-communicator connected to the local global network.
Claptrap.

"Allow me to introduce myself -- I am a CL4P-TP steward robot, but my friends call me Claptrap! Or they would, if any of them were still alive. Or had existed in the first place! Oh -- I’ve got something for you!"

We shoot the faces of local snow monkeys, make our way to a small town, then go shoot the faces of bandits and the bandit boss, sail by boat to our "new home," a town situated on a funny thing. It's called Sanctuary (hello Diablo))).
"Sanctuary. Built on the ruins of the Dahl corporation’s finest interplanetary mining ship, now the last refuge for thieves, murderers, and outcasts. Welcome home."
After completing a couple of missions for Roland, leader of the CRIMSON RAIDERS, we get inside, where we immediately meet other guys.
Scooter.

"Roland said we gotta have an exit strategery just in case he ever disappeared, hence all the fuel cells and whatnot. Bummer, though -- he really wanted to meet ya. Raiders ain’t gonna last without some new blood, and given how you shot them bandits up I’d say you and blood got an extra-special relationship. Like cousins takin' a bath together."

The local super-mechanic, owner of the Catch-a-Ride system, which allows you to get a brand new vehicle at any available point of its presence. He tells us that Mr. Roland is not around and it would be good to look for him (us). Let's visit the local doctor.
Dr. Zed.

"Oh, right, I was supposed to be studyin' the effects of these E-tech guns on bandits. Right now it looks like, uh…looks like if you shoot 'em a lot, they die. Did I mention I don't have a medical license?"

I hope a certain picture of what's happening has formed in your head; what do we do next? Tu-tu-ru! We follow the plot into the corridors of the bandit nest. We shoot off enemies' limbs, get stronger every minute, save the leader of the CRIMSON RAIDERS, find out that Handsome Jack found another Artifact Warehouse™, which contains a Magma Elemental from the fifth heroes called WARRIOR. We move further, kill everyone, acquire skills, grasp the intricacies of the plot (which there are none), and entertain ourselves in every way. I won't retell the plot; it's not where the whole essence lies anyway.
The essence is in the unique atmosphere immersed in the industrial chaos of the planet, the charismatic characters encountered by players throughout the game, and the excellent mechanical part that allows you to destroy legions of enemies stylishly, briskly, and craftily. The series has a decent history told across four games. Of course, it's full of assumptions and some illogical elements (completely illogical—you'll see when you play; in the first part, under Stalin, this didn't happen!), but overall, especially if you take the general concept, it's wonderfully told.
So what do we have? If you are a fan of shooters, buddy, then you will like this game. If you can't imagine yourself without leveling up your character, everything is good here too. If you love exploring a huge, practically open world, you are welcome here! Are you a casual player? Just came from the factory, hard worker—play Borderlands, low-stress and fun! Are you a hardcore nerd and not interested in these "games for casual workers"? Try completing Borderlands on all difficulties, reaching the highest level, and then kill the raid bosses, of which there are plenty here; tell me how it went. Do you love to grind gear for hours in a party of similar nerds? Great, get three more faces and go storm x4 buffed raid bosses or at least play through the x4 buffed game. Love non-standard solutions, the smartest, mommy's little inventor? Take Zero and crush everyone with a sword, take Krieg and crush everyone with an axe while screaming wildly, take anyone and invent your own super-build through whatever. Can't handle shooters at all? No matter, Commando and Mechromancer can complete the game on normal with minimal effort; go on, don't be shy, forward to adventures!

Of course, by the scribbles of a mentally retarded degenerate—which is how I've smeared the flawless whiteness of the digital papyrus of ХВ—it might not be entirely clear what this "game" actually represents. But I advise everyone to try it; sail into the cove or crawl through an underground passage to rutracker, and if you, brother-caviar-eater, are a rich kid, buy it for 800 rubles on Steam (if you're a smaller rich kid and have "Amber" processed cheese instead of caviar, wait for a sale; you'll buy it for maybe 150). Absolutely worth the effort, money, time, mental health—heartfelt.

Kindred spirits on the roof.

So, I slaughtered hordes of humans, elves, demons, and monsters from dark forests and bright meadows. I shot down a couple of hundred soldiers from corporations, burned EuroCorp, and forced people to commit suicide. I defeated the head of Haepirion on Pandora; the number of enemies killed there was in the thousands. I chewed gum and kicked ass. Well, it's time to play a visual novel about kissing girls. Uuuuu~ *blush*
What's the point? You click the mouse on the screen, and baskets of text fly in front of your eyes, which you have to read. You read the text, and once in a blue moon, you get to choose some insignificant thing. About three times, I think, throughout the game. You read, you read, you move along a plot that doesn't exist. Every game, there's no plot; is this the direction humanity is moving in? Oh well, it's okay; there are kissing girls here, what else do you need from life?
SO, YOU'RE IN SCHOOL. Just like that, welcome to anime. Not only are YOU IN SCHOOL, but you're also a GIRL IN SCHOOL. A hikikomori girl loved to hang out on the roof and one day saw two ghost girls there. The girls, as you've probably guessed, are... well, like a couple))0 yee))) The next plot twist is roughly like this: "You'll help us create a yuritopia (yuri + utopia), and we won't curse you." There are several potential couples in the school, and our main heroine, a super-hikikomori-cute-shy girl, begins to create conditions so that they confess to each other and all that.
"Something about this is... well, you know" - you'll say, and you'll be right. But what can you do? I senselessly wasted time playing this game, so you senselessly waste time reading it, haha. That's how this world works; spread your degeneracy to your neighbor.
There isn't really a plot in this game, although it seems like a visual novel. There are no mechanics, no choices, the texts are simple. There are no graphics. What even is it? It's hard to say; probably, there's nothing at all. Just some girls, a school, summer, racy pictures, a schoolboy's dream.
In the first third of the game, it was fun to get to know the heroines, their characters, and watch their romantic confessions and aspirations. In the second third of the game, I was already bored; there was no romance left, no mystery. In the last third, I half-clicked through it, not reading, and then there were even hentai scenes! What a perversion! I've never liked them in any games.
Perhaps, you'll want to ask, "Why did you, Vistritka, play this game if it's so mediocre?" I don't know; I just felt like playing a game about nothing, chewing on mental gum, and looking at cute girls. It happens, periodically; I got what I wanted! I have no complaints!
Look at these cuties; who do they resemble from the Heroes of Might and Magic? Nya-nya-nyahahaha.

I never liked them in any game.

I still think that it strongly depends on the context. For example, the scene where "Shiro transfers mana" was terribly forced into the narrative, which caused dissonance during the reading process. But if it is explained by preceding events, the atmosphere is right, and so on, then why not? Sometimes they are read deeply and explain the relationships between characters even better.

They are mostly suitable for those who want to get rid of excess mana... it becomes boring, and all the charm is immediately lost... brr.

King's Bounty: The Legend

There is probably no point in talking about this game on the Heroes community forum. If you happen to not know what it's all about yet, take a look at the corresponding section. In short: little heroes with their own campaign on a big, big global map with tons of quests, enemies, battles, various... things, well, you already know everything yourself. It came out like five hundred years ago, and before that, somewhere two hundred and fifty years BC, its predecessor was released, which people used to run on soot-covered cast-iron stew pots.
The graphics are pleasant, just like in Heroes V, but a bit better. You can rotate the camera, grab gold from the ground, peek into the houses of lonely milkmaids; overall, the possibilities are fine. Elements unnecessary for this kind of game concept have been removed: turn-based movement on the global map, your own castle, and dependence on weekly troop growth. I once saw a game that tried to implement such an idea, like solo heroes, but it was completely turn-based and everything was just done stupidly, so it faded into oblivion.
Battles here, in my opinion, are still not as tied to tactics as in Heroes, but they are still well-made and interesting. So if you, my dear random reader, love Heroes but haven't played King's Bounty, then play it anyway; it's a pleasant way to spend time.

I start, like any self-respecting fighter against the undead, naturally, as a Paladin. A fine fellow; you can tell right away that an army under his command will go into battle with incredible morale! I set the difficulty to Hard—I've been playing Heroes since I was eight, surely I can handle some casual strategy game from unknown developers? Ha-ha, forward, into battle, crush the undead and sip white wine from a crystal glass.
There aren't that many differences between classes in terms of skills. And there are three skill branches: punching faces, mental efforts, and throwing fireballs; essentially, two of them can be characterized as "combat," and it's completely unclear what the second one is for—collecting money and training inquisitors? This isn't the church you're looking for, warrior of light. Now, each class has two unique abilities (there are three classes, if you haven't guessed yet—mage, warrior, paladin) and they... are peculiar. While the mage truly has a unique thing for additional spellcasting per turn and alchemy that allows for more spell upgrades, the paladin has some runestone that gives runes of other classes. What kind of nonsense is this? I came here to chew church wafers and exorcise dead asses; why the hell do I need your runestone? A bit weak; I would have liked more class uniqueness. It's a sin not to quote a successful modern philosopher: "they could have done it better."

After completing the tutorial, I immediately ended up with the king, who sent me to look for some alternative money stolen by thieves. Leaving the gates of the "city" consisting of three and a half buildings, I, of course, didn't go looking for any alter-money. I rushed to the nearest village in search of adventure. I chopped carnivorous flowers into salad, gained a couple of levels, and thought: "I'm so great, nothing can stop me now." I ran into the forest, where I encountered the first moment of the game that made me loudly shower the developers with holy curses. What was there in the forest? Wolves with a howl that inflicts FEAR on the player's low-level troops. And what does fear do? Cut stats? Force them to run away from the enemy? No, it takes control of the troops away from the player, and they run around haphazardly attacking random targets. Superb; what could be better than random combat in a strategy game? I would have punched the face of that scoundrel who implemented such an idea in the game. Fool, despised by the church, I've confessed your mother in her sins. It would be one thing if the number of wolves somehow affected the situation, but no—three thousand peasants run in fear from the howl of two beasts.
Anyway, those cursed werewolves and forest sorcerers forced me to retreat, but I didn't lose heart. I caught a bear, fixed a talking stone, and completely by chance, while rushing about my business, stumbled upon the bandit who stole the royal pseudo-money. The king was glad, rewarded me with gold, and gave me a task to deliver something important to his brother. But the kingdom's affairs can wait, because a village resident urgently needs help—he has turned into a zombie! When I found the bandit responsible for this unpleasantness, it turned out that not only did the farmer suffer the ailment due to a cursed ring, but also the wife of this very fence! After fixing the ring by punching its guardians' faces, I, like a true Paladin, champion of good, holy warrior, noble man of the king, bought his zombie-wife from the fat merchant for five thousand gold. By reading a magic word, I turned her back into a human. That's how great I am!

Now I have a wife, the first child is on the way, and my combat mastery has grown immensely! Oh right, the king's errand—let's run to another location. The king's brother asks to deliver a letter to his beloved, whom he has never seen, ahem-ahem, somewhere in the swamp. The swamp turned out to be interesting; half of it is littered with graves and is a cemetery, while the other half swarms with snakes and spiders; also, three humanoid toads live here, possessing their own castles. The toads have a mania for hanging their flags on other toads' houses, humiliating and dominating them. I kill them all, trample the dust of wretched bony spawn into the ground, loot graves (of course, in the name of good).
Next, the king sends me to retrieve a certain artifact from the academy of magic. There they handed me a wonderful box, which I did not want to part with under any circumstances. Four spirits live in the box—a stone slab mindlessly mumbling "kill all mages," an ice girl adorned with technological trinkets and very proud of it, a swamp nuisance spitting poison, as well as Mr. Death, some kind of guardian of the temple of time. The gentleman with the scythe kills everyone; the others are on the verge of uselessness—who would have thought.
Off to adventure, we sail to the pirate islands! I hope there are undead and heretics there. So, I'm sailing across the sea, enjoying the beautiful view, and then some unshaven crooked face under pirate sails swims up to me. The face says "give gold," to which I, of course, board him, kill the pathetic pirate crew, and sink the ship. For the king! I repeated this several times until there were no pirates left at all. Dug up a couple dozen treasure chests, looted well, KILLED A HUGE KRAKEN THE TERROR OF THE SEAS BECAME A LEGEND. Time to return!
The next task places me first in the dwarf mines and then in the dwarven winter, where demons are everywhere. Also, they have an underground sea where there are also demons, and life somehow goes on two levels—above and below, in the mines. I rode a steam train, a submarine, defeated myself, then defeated my older self, saved everyone, and sealed the portal to the demons. In the name of light!
We sail to the lands of the elves, where one can hear the strange language of people from the island of Russia. Here, to my all-consuming rage, I discovered that an intellectually limited heretic, sodomite, dirty vagabond from Nival, by all appearances, got a job at Katauri and brought his favorite "miss" element into the game. It makes for a great picture in a strategy game where calculation and thoughtful action are important: first, a haze taking control of troops, then enemies you can simply accidentally miss—pure bliss.
If there were demons everywhere with the dwarves, then there is undead all around with the elves. An entire location where everything is dead and necromancers walk in formation, skeletons cover the ground by the thousands. Now that's work for a true Paladin, warrior of light! This is where the first "difficulty" in my journey arose. Some general who imprisoned the soul of the elf queen in a black crystal suggested I try to hit his bony face with my light-bearing fist. But it turned out not to be so simple, because first you need to destroy the crystal, which resurrects a bunch of undead every turn. In the end, I sat, thought, tried, used various strategies in storming the unfortunate citadel of filth, but achieved nothing. I had to gain a couple of levels, study higher magic containing teleports, and throw four thousand peasants straight into this crystal of evil, which shattered in a couple of turns. Saved everyone, killed everyone, looted even more graves—but these were graves in the realm of necromancers, meaning they were evil.
During my wanderings, my little wife has already given birth to four children. How wonderful it is to have such a fertile spouse! Especially considering that children provide decent stats.

So I returned to my homeland, appeared before the king, received a new title, and now I can hire heavily armed Knight in service! My path leads through the labyrinth of the ancient dragon into the land of orcs. I wandered through the labyrinth for quite some time, killed a bunch of dragons, helped another bunch of dragons. Finally made it to the land of orcs, where a bunch of green-skinned savages are preparing to fly far into space to escape the end of the world. Damn uneducated Barbarians! After dealing with a four-meter orc, the Paladin, warrior of light and good, flies on an orc spaceship onto the back of a huge turtle to defeat a bunch of dragons, thereby saving the world and a young princess. Woke up in a castle, my head hurt terribly, but the princess was indeed there and the world, seemingly, did not collapse. Or maybe I shouldn't have drunk that potion the shaman offered me.
But, in any case...
The magnificent paladin has once again saved the innocent, defeated evil, and dispelled the darkness!

Woohoo.

I suggest playing through Princess now. They've polished the combat and other nonsense, the hero has more interesting skills, all that good stuff, plus there's a purring little dragon.







Crossworlds is the same as Princess but with perks, while Light Warrior and Dark Side are already overcomplicated; they're only good for smashing some goons if you miss the combat and have played through Legend and Princess a million times.

As for misses and fear—as far as I know, wolf howl only works on low-level scrubs of level 1-2 or 1-3, although there are other scary units. For a while, I liked going around with a pack of fairies, but then I stopped liking it when resurrection was nerfed. Only one and a half units miss, and APPARENTLY in SOME VERSIONS magic and rage special abilities don't miss them.
In my last Walkthrough (darkside, succubus), I liked taking two stacks of vampires and just chilling; problems only arose with units that vampires couldn't feed on—various walking cacti and fellow grave-dwellers.

Want me to beat the Armored Princess campaign on the hardest difficulty?

Well, I told him about dragons, and he told me about princesses.

I'm talking about the difficulty level! Who needs all these princesses and dragons, anyway?

No one.

I haven't played on a difficulty level above average, and to be honest, I don't really want to, but to each their own.

After all, I'm my mother's strategist; I need an insurmountable wall to bash my head against.

After its release, which spawned a sea of positive reviews and swept through the entire RPG community in stormy waves, the game couldn't fail to interest me. I played it back when it first came out in cooperative mode. It was quite fun exploring this little world—or rather, a piece of it filled with all sorts of interesting things, puzzles, and challenging battles—but naturally, we didn't dive deep into the story, didn't pay much attention to the dialogues, and didn't read the descriptions. The game was full of bugs, but they were more amusing than critical; for example, you could break down doors into people's houses in broad daylight, everyone around would scream "guards!", but no one ever came, and everyone calmed down once the door was smashed to splinters. You could also combine certain skills to create slightly unfair things, such as these:
"Comeback kid" – upon taking lethal damage, the character survives with 1hp/"Lich" – while standing in a pool of blood, the character restores health. Most physical attacks on flesh creatures cause own abundant bleeding... thus, it's practically impossible to kill the character with weapons, hee-hee-hee; now that's what I call an OP build, not like your expedition builds (which only lead to death).
Despite the fact that playing was quite wonderful, we never actually finished it. And the reason for that was... many things:
1) A bunch of idiotic, completely illogical puzzles—or if they were logical, then on the level of clues in a mafia game.
2) Poor optimization of the conditions for completing these very puzzles.
3) Towards the end, due to an imperfect character progression system and other factors related to the frailty, decay, and fading of all existence around us, interest waned.
4) When you play a game with someone, you always have to be prepared for your partner to say "I don't want to continue." That is essentially where our adventures ended.
I am not very well acquainted with the Divinity series; that is, I've known for a long time that it exists, and there were even enthusiastic conversations among genre fans about the first part. But it was very rarely encountered among the people, and it was sold in almost a four-disc box, unattainable for the average schoolkid. Divine Divinity thus bypassed me, but I was very strongly attracted to Beyond Divinity, which came out then with an official Russian localization—I think even before the original; I really wanted to play it, but on my first computer it lagged and crashed, which I attributed to the weakness of the system. Later, after a number of years, I launched it on another, updated PC rig, but it crashed just the same, saves were corrupted, and it froze hellishly. I couldn't find a solution then and put it back on the shelf again, although I liked the game very much despite its antiquity. I could try giving this capricious primadonna a chance even now, but that requires a decision after careful thought.
But some time ago, on a pleasant dark evening, when all the strolling lords and ladies had already seen fit to shut their traps and go to sleep, I thought it would be nice to play some good RPG. I remembered Original Sin, steered the sails of my schooner toward known shores, from where I brought back some "Enhanced Edition," and it turned out—contrary to current trends—to be enhanced with the very best details. Bugs decreased, puzzles lowered their degree of retardoidness, a drop of logic appeared, the skill system was updated, quests were expanded, OP builds were cut, characters were re-voiced (though in not all cases this proved for the better, do you believe in gods, baby, eh...), and overall, a lot was balanced.
That is the story of my introduction to this "cutie" that I've come to love.

The game is an isometric RPG—that's the phrase I found on the internet. If you, like me, are that same unfortunate unlearned person without a higher engineering degree, then the approximate meaning of this word for us would be "top-down view." Visually everything looks pleasant and cozy; one immediately recalls various nuclear fallouts, devils, dungeons-and-dragons. Just don't think about zooming the camera in to the maximum; you risk diving too deep into a holey, moldy tub of memories. In terms of animation, everything is also quite good—several types of attacks for characters, different for each weapon, and all external effects have a direct impact on appearance (shock, weakness, fire, frost). The weather changes depending on the location: it's raining in some places, sunny over the hill; crossing a suspension bridge can easily land you in a sandstorm, and stepping carelessly into a portal will force you to experience all the joy of an ice storm. Along with the weather, of course, the landscape changes; plants, color schemes, and general style differ across locations.
And most importantly—all these eye-pleasing things directly affect the gameplay. In the rain, everything around gets wet, fire loses its effectiveness, but the power of water and air increases. Water makes the blazing skeletons of the Inferno weak; fire, conversely, heals them. And if you cast that very rain in a winter location, those it hits will simply be covered in a crust of ice. An archer cannot shoot enemies who are behind a hill or behind the backs of other characters; spells that hit in a straight line will also encounter an obstacle. Oil spilled on the road slows things down significantly, and a spark of fire can ignite it such that black smoke rises into the air, hiding the characters standing in it. The environment, landscape, objects around—all this directly affects your success in battle or exploring caves with treasures.
This is where I will move to classes, skills, and other mechanical-technical components of our exciting journey. Since there are many factors affecting progress, the question arises: "do all characters interact with these factors equally?". Well, of course not, ha-ha-ha, that would be stupid! Not all magic is equally effective at certain stages of the game; some can even be harmful. No one but a rogue can pass in some places, and if they do, it's by applying much greater effort. Also, cutting out some key character in an enemy squad won't be so easy without a helpful pair of daggers. No one except a warrior dressed in heavy armor is capable of taking a lot of damage, providing space for other party members. Not only classes but also the skills taken open certain paths to success. Approximately 80% of skills will be used throughout the game, giving free rein to the player's tactical abilities.
Warriors hit with melee, dealing physical damage, against which everyone here has some percentage of protection, but there is never immunity. They can also knock enemies to the ground like a bowling ball hits pins; deliver a punch in a heavy iron gauntlet to the head, providing the lucky fellow a couple of minutes of peaceful oblivion; maim, making it harder to deal damage; inspire allies to feats, increasing their characteristics; heal. Very useful and good—perhaps the most flexible class in the game. I will avoid the word "rogue" and call this class Bandit, hee-hee-hee. So, bandits are fast, fragile, have all possible debuffs in their skills, are invisible, jumpy, and run across lava without harm to their health. They don't perform school-style assassinations of enemy groups with one hit, so to be able to eliminate a distant mage or archer, you'll have to make a plan. Shooters stand at a safe distance and provide support with attacks, special arrows (of which there are about twenty types here), and skills aimed mainly at inflicting damage on a single target or group. Mages specialize in elemental spells and serve as the main generator of chaos in battle, since everything around interacts with each other; spells turn carefree blooming fields into an infernal poisonous-oily nightmare in seconds. Besides damage, they specialize in control: shock, freeze, blindness, many other things—all this is present in practically every direction of magic. Enemies, as a rule, have different elemental protection stats, so mages can be either effective or useless against opponents well-protected from their specific element. There are five magical directions in total: four elements and witch magic, full of buffs, curses, and summons.
In general, there are no fixed classes as such in the game; any character can take any skills they want—the only question is which characteristics you will level up and what equipment you'll put on. From my experience playing a battlemage, I can say that combining physical and magical damage makes practically no sense. Theoretically, such a character could be more versatile if they were a loner, but not in a group of four people.
The quests here are very diverse; many of them require exploring some location, followed by clearing it of enemies and a boss, but there are also assignments that have absolutely nothing to do with military affairs. From time to time, the caring developers will offer you to play a game, the essence of which is guessing what people you don't know—who may have had a few beers—had on their minds. This is where the agony begins: levers in the floor do nothing, NPCs don't answer, barriers don't disappear, the mafia wins. All this mess is solved in the best case by frantically cycling through all items in sight, pixel-hunting, or pushing through with "pyramids," and in the worst—a visit to a search engine. I've gone through many bone-crushing incomprehensible things in my life, but some puzzles were unsolvable even for me. And in the previous version of the game, some of them were EVEN MORE INCREDIBLE, almost to the point of random items moving to random places just to open a door.
Of course, not all quests are like that; most still require logic, ingenuity, and reason from the player, which is very pleasing. If a newly arrived traveler can overcome this layer of the unknown that the game throws in their face from the first minutes, then much interesting stuff awaits them further. In principle, if you set yourself the goal to complete the game without a single hint, you can fully feel the breath of wind from old times, where instead of the internet there was only the God-Emperor, ready to listen to as many desperate prayers as you liked.

...Once sacred healing magic—Source—has long since turned into a dirty, maddening power, the use of which is persecuted and punished by death. An order of hunters for this very hated magical element is tasked with searching for it and subsequently destroying it. In the human port city of Cyseal, suffering from an influx of undead, a mystical murder occurred; all facts point to the use of twisted magic. Two members of the order are sent to investigate this crime and subsequently punish the perpetrator. The shores of Cyseal greet the heroes with smoke and blood; orcs arriving on their wide ships storm the fortifications, waging a fierce struggle against the soldiers of the Legion who were sent here for protection from the undead. Surprisingly, the orcs follow the orders of the humans accompanying them in the attack. On the way to the city, the hunters find an ancient tomb, just robbed by an unknown scarlet witch and her minions. The woman immediately demonstrates her belonging to the cursed blood, unleashing hordes of undead upon the pursuers. Having fought off the living dead, the heroes break through to the city gates, where they are met by the city's high mage-shapeshifter, who brings them up to speed. After a short rest accompanied by a mug of beer in the local tavern, the hunters head to the crime scene to assess its scale with their own eyes. A legion soldier standing guard at the ill-fated room opens the door for them, advising them to exercise utmost caution. Before the hunters' eyes is complete devastation: broken furniture, blood, and a soot-covered floor. During the investigation, under piles of debris, the heroes find a glowing stone which, with a single touch, envelops them in lightning. In the next moment, they find themselves standing on the black stone floor of a stellar temple called the End of Time...

As for what happens next, you'll find out for yourselves. The main plot spine is not too convoluted and unlikely to shake your imagination, although who knows... certainly not you, my dear sole reader. Everything that grows around this very plot is much more interesting: locations, characters, situations the heroes fall into during their journey. We are often faced with a choice—always a difficult one—leading to the most diverse consequences. But finding the right path will not work, as there simply isn't one here.

Despite the first impression when the game seemed "not bad" but far from good, I still decided to try it again and didn't regret it at all. Even more so, I got immense pleasure from completing it, ignoring the downsides in most aspects. Character development may seem boring only at first glance, but anyone who spends a small amount of time on the game will quickly realize that everything is not so simple and the absence of fixed classes does not diminish diversity in the slightest. True, towards the end, levels no longer provide a strategic advantage due to imperfections in difficulty balance. How wonderful it would be if the developers added a couple more difficulties above maximum; this game would be priceless. By the way, there is an option for "mother's brave boys," called Honour Mode; in it, after every death of any character, the game automatically resaves the only save available for this difficulty, and if you die completely, that's it—the end. But it doesn't make the game harder; it just adds a drop of risk.
The characters, environment, and the life of the world flowing in its own turn all create a wonderful atmosphere that one wants to dive into headfirst and sit there like a cat in a shoe box, protected by sturdy cardboard walls in pleasant semi-darkness. Item descriptions, NPC phrases and emotions, printed materials—all this is very good here, soulful, intoxicating in its attraction. It might be problematic to explain; for example... Upon reaching the church, I just walked around for some time reading inscriptions on tombstones, listening to the mesmerizing voice explaining who lies under this cozy layer of earth and why. The only thing I didn't like much were some jokes that, in my opinion, cross a certain line between "game/reality"; I don't like that, even if it is funny. In general, the developers piled on all sorts of little laughs from the heart, for every taste, color, and size.
Regarding the divine pranks practiced by the surrounding world, the developers also did a stellar job. Even in something like Dark Souls, famous for its well-known "You died" inscription, you won't encounter as many mocking moments as they stuffed in here. You can dig up a grave and die from an explosion of explosives planted in it, examine a chest and blow yourself up on a mine, stumble into a trap, or say something that some character doesn't like. But for the most part, of course, you will be dying because of your own mistakes.
It turned out to be an excellent game; it will appeal to lovers of those dear-to-the-heart ancient RPGs that require actions and decisions from the player, rather than a smile on a carefree face content with its walk on a summer day through fantasy fields with unicorns. I'm waiting for the full release of the second part, I'll definitely check out other games in the series, maybe even tackle my long-time failed love Beyond Divinity. But no matter how much I praise this wonderful creation, negative sides still exist; some I described, others I didn't bother to mention. Perhaps someone will find all this not so wonderful, or even overrated, not worth a tenth of my panegyrics. In any case, if you love RPGs, try it yourself; most likely you won't regret it, and maybe you'll be touched just as I was. Just start on Tactician mode, otherwise you won't feel the full multifacetedness of the masterpiece. Well, and if you don't love them... then have you completely lost your mind? We'll catch you behind the garages and force you to cosplay an anime magic fairy until you learn ten Horadric Cube recipes.

In Russia, this series is mainly known for its second part, at least according to my personal observations. It was released with an official license some years ago, in a beautiful two-disc box, and quickly became popular among lovers of turn-based strategy and RPG games. That is, both together, because, again, according to my incredible scientific observations, far from all fans of "Heroes" love Disciples. Not surprising, since the mechanics here are not the strongest aspect – “hit-miss-win”; “hit-miss-lose”; “cast a million spells, kill your opponent without even engaging him in battle.” Perhaps there are also those who appreciate such simplicity, but we know what the real essence is.
So, for me, getting acquainted began with the first part – Disciples: Sacred Lands. One of my friends acquired a disc somewhere fifteen years ago, which was worth its weight in gold back then, because it contained Heroes 3: Armageddon's Blade, but not just any version, but a magical one that worked completely autonomously after installation. I DON’T KNOW HOW IT IS WITH YOU GUYS, THE RICH AND ARROGANT, but for us it was simply a phenomenon, because most of the available copies were discs with the original third installment, equipped with appropriate protection. I looked up the release date of SoD; it seems like it already existed at that time, but for some reason, it was scarce in our village. Yes, there were emulators and various cracks, and even internet access for a couple of godlike guys on dial-up connections, but things turned out exactly this way for us – only discs, only hardcore. So, the second game recorded on it was Caesar 3, which was also very dear to ordinary people. And the third game, as if included as a bonus, because the first two elevated the compilation to the status of a divine gift, was Disciples. I liked it immediately, despite the fact that there was no music or videos, but the other guys didn't think much of it; I think this is because the image of "Heroes of Might and Magic" as an ideal turn-based game was too deeply ingrained in their minds. Much later, while walking through a game store, just looking around without intending to buy anything, I saw the second part on the shelf. Fresh, black, with the subtitle “Dawn of Ragnarok,” and I loved everything related to Norse mythology back then. It was as if God himself created this game specifically so that I would buy and play it sooner. I really enjoyed it, played non-stop, we took turns sitting on one chair (we actually had two chairs), time flew by, and suddenly, it’s 2016.
In the *orrents folder, I removed the letter so that the KGB wouldn't figure it out, I found an image of a collection containing both parts, for some reason I didn't feel like playing the second one, but I did install the first one. It doesn't matter what guided me when making my choice. I vaguely remembered what the graphics were like, especially since I watched a review relatively recently where Sacred Lands was mentioned. First, I enjoyed the familiar music from the menu; it was truly amazing, which, by the way, was the only unedited track in that ancient version. Starting the saga, I chose the Undead Hordes, simply because I felt like it. I picked a lord; their portraits here are very cool and original, unlike the second part, where the units were redrawn.
What can I say about the graphics? It's not great; there aren't many polygons, haha, some details look somewhat absurd (for example: the baroness flies with her arm outstretched forward, it’s quite funny), overall, it’s 2000. But I quickly got used to it, and now a rather amusing situation arises, because after prolonged gameplay, I came to the conclusion that the graphics almost perfectly suit this style. Perhaps this statement will seem a bit wild, but if you suddenly decide to play, and I will encourage you to do so, then you will understand what I am talking about.
Now about the music and sound effects. God-Emperor, I swear, it's like divine ambrosia, something you just want to keep drinking without stopping, getting more and more intoxicated. And how awesome are the heroes' phrases! You could use them for a seasonal event in Heroes of Might and Magic World. Of course, there are few phrases, and only a few musical compositions, but this is enough to create that atmosphere that I personally love Disciples for. So much time has passed since the release of the first part, the second one was released – what about it? There are the same number of phrases, and they seemed even less colorful to me (perhaps except for the Legions). The tracks are still great and fondly remembered, but no incredible progress was made.
In the end:
In the first part, many elements of the mechanics are done well, but some are not fully developed; for example, it makes no sense for a hero to learn artifact skills because banners are ten times better, and the hero only has two slots for various items. In the second part, everything is fine in this regard; you can put up a banner, add a couple of artifacts, wear boots – very thoughtful. It also has its shortcomings, but nevertheless, this is a step forward in the right direction. More creature upgrades, changes in balance for the better, more uniqueness for units, more useful hero skills – excellent overall! Visually… is it better? After playing the first part, I launched the second one and was slightly surprised. The style, and I think this is the most important thing here, appealed to me more precisely in the first one. And some things were changed for the worse, in my subjective opinion, at least.
If you love Disciples 2 but aren't familiar with the first part or are familiar but have forgotten about it. If you want to immerse yourself again in the intricate relationships between the peoples of Nevendar – try the first part; you will discover many new things. By the way, it tells the backstory of Dark Prophecy, including what happened to Uther.
The game may last for a couple of evenings, but it will be remembered for a long time. I didn’t write anything useful, but still play Sacred Lands, play, play.

I haven't played the first part, but I really like the second one, especially for its atmosphere and style. I heard that during the development of the second part, the main artist who created the graphics for the first part was fired, which is why the second one is a bit inferior in that regard. Although, I think it's fine. The Legions are made on a ten-point scale.
And by the way, regarding seasonal events... We're in the middle of persimmon season.

Here, play a game, Kitty, go ahead and play, don't be shy.

I don't have money for persimmons, only for buckwheat.