Disciples: Domination

Disciples: Domination does not upend what already works about the series. It moves Empress Avyanna’s narrative in a new direction and adds nuance and depth to all the game’s systems. There are a lot of mechanics at play, from combat to RPG-like elements to diplomacy, and they work together well and add up to a rich experience.

Disciples: Domination offers entertaining and strategic turn-based combat with loads of unit synergy to play and experiment with. Though the plot doesn’t quite deliver on its dark RPG aspirations, it’s still entertaining.

Disciples: Domination offers a massive new campaign that spans anywhere between 30 and 50 hours depending on your level of difficulty and style of play, plenty of major new features with their own spin on systems and combat, baseline enhancements and QoL features that were patched into Liberation over time. But it still sticks too close to Liberation to be called an entirely new game. If you were looking to experience more of Nevendaar from Avyanna’s PoV or want to spend several evenings i...

Even though it began in 1999 with the release of Disciples: The Sacred Lands, I’ve somehow never even heard of the Disciples series, let alone managed to play any of the numerous entries over the many years of the franchise’s existence. So, as my mindfulness teacher likes to tell me, it’s with a beginner’s mind – or in video game lexicon, as a total noob – that I approach Disciples: Domination, the strategy RPG follow-up to 2021’s Disciples: Liberation.

Disciples: Domination is an underwhelming strategy RPG whose turn-based battles show promise early on but lack the depth needed to stay exciting throughout an entire playthrough.