Disciples II returns to the world of the original Disciples game, several years after the first great war. Those familiar with the original will need no introduction to get started with this title. For those that aren’t familiar with the original, you must choose to play the leader of one of the four great kingdoms: The Empire, The Mountain Clans, The Undead Hordes and The Legions of the Damned. Each comes with its own particular perks; for instance, only The Empire’s hero can learn a healing spell. Also, you can choose your leader’s special talent from mage lord, battle lord or guild master. Each of these skills will make certain elements of the game easier for your armies.

The first thing you notice when you start this game is that it’s gorgeous. The first game looked pretty good, but the scenery is absolutely fantastic in this latest rendition. The world that unfolds around you is rich in color, detail, and animation. If you’re playing The Empire, the land expands into verdant forests as your territory increases, complete with waterfalls, rolling meadows and flocks of birds flying overhead. If you’re dim and grim, or prefer the whole retro-hell look, play The Legions. Your empire expands as scorched earth, jagged rock outcroppings and boiling cesspools. Either way it looks fantastic.

This installment brings all the elements from the original and adds a few nice changes. Disciples II combines the role-playing aspects of character/level progress and a turn-based conquest campaign. You still have to hire champion leaders to lead small expeditionary forces in conquest of the known world. There are advantages and disadvantages to each leader, though I prefer the crossbow-wielding leader for any side. (He is stronger than the mage, you can place him in the back out of harm’s way while still allowing an attack, and you can put three strong warriors in front of him to lead the way.)

The main change is that there are a ton of new artifacts that your hero can equip himself with and new places to put them. In the past an artifact was placed in either hand; now the hero can use helms, boots, armor, rings and still equip other artifacts.

Granted, some of the drawbacks from the first game have followed into this sequel. First, you can only send one hero forward from quest to quest. Because of this I almost always only use one hero to do all the work — why waste valuable experience on others you can’t take with you? It takes a lot more time, but helps in later quests.

Second, you have to start from scratch on spell research on each quest. I would rather have seen spell research become more costly, but allow you to carry those valuable spells forward. Your enemies will always be armed to the teeth with spells of ultimate death and mana to burn.

Last, as you progress in quests they suddenly take a quantum leap forward in difficulty. One minute you’re trashing zombies, the next you step into a new quest and are faced with a black dragon. Yikes! (Which, by the way, even with tons of preparation, potions and spells I have yet to beat.) You’re sitting with your higher-level champion, and his new recruits and you come upon a 900-hit-point black dragon … I think you know how this ends. My advice: Argue not with dragons, for though art crunchy and go well with brie.

With its few faults, which are more like hindrances that most games impose, Disciples II is still a good bit of fun. If for nothing else the graphics were worth the price of admission. The game provides a nice diversion from the hectic real-time strategy games that constantly flood the market, while providing a sense of role-playing level progression through your champion and the level of spells you can access.