Having not played the previous Disciples, or at least not remembering having play them, I feel I am behind the curve on this, but as I managed to get my hands on the code thanks to Boris over at Akella I thought I would press ahead with this preview anyway. Disciples III: Renaissance is labeled as a Heroic Fantasy Strategy/Role Playing game which might take a little work to digest.

It is indeed heroic in that you have a band of characters that must battle against the odds to survive. It certainly is fantasy as there are all manner of fantastical creatures, magic and warring gods. Strategy is indeed an element in the game as both the combat and the standard map interface rely on a turn-based system where you are allotted an amount of action points that can be sunk into movement, combat and more.

It certainly has elements of role-playing in that you gain experience as you go and use it to learn new skills or power up your main character as you progress. You also take on the role of that character in certain interaction with other NPCs. So it is indeed all of these things. But do these things stand up together or are they fighting for control?

Well the RPG element is well implemented for the main character, but there seems little you can do with the other characters in your party at present. They do level up but I could not find a way to control their progress. Nor could I find a way to give them some new gear. However you could buy new gear for classes such as Archmage, thief and ranger so I imagine this will be implemented in the final product.