Description of Disciples of Steel
Although definitely one of the worst RPGs ever made, Disciples of Steel nevertheless deserves recognition for its designers' efforts to combine traditional RPG elements with tactical options commonly associated with strategy and wargames. Unfortunately, confusing interface and repetitive dungeon-crawl gameplay make for an unmemorable experience.
Disciples of Steel is, in most respects, a "classical" RPG. You create a party of six characters from the usual D&D classes, and you lead the party on their quest for adventure. The initial character development is fairly comprehensive, but the user interface for the game itself is a 2D top-down perspective, with symbolic representations of everything. The game map is a simple grid with icons in various squares to denote the location of your characters, monsters, trees, etc. Combat takes place on a "zoomed-in" map of the same variety, and is turn-based.
Despite an excellent character creation system and the novel combat module that strategy fans will find interesting, the game simply promises a lot more than it delivers. The user interface, filled with rows of icons that are hard to recognize, is so confusing (with quirky mouse support) that it's almost unplayable. Even if you can tolerate the interface, you don't have much to look forward to except the typical "kill the monster and take the treasure" scenario, over and over and over again. Banal plot and mundane monsters add insult to the injury.
Disciples of Steel will appeal only to those with infinite patience—and that’s very few of us. Stay away if you can.
Review By HOTUD
External links
Comments and reviews
bladesyz 2024-11-29 1 point DOS version
I remember playing this game as a kid. This review certainly does not do it justice!
While the game has a rough start, once you get the hang of it, it really starts to shine. This isn't a game of endless dungeon crawls. You can take over kingdoms, either by force or by completing quests.
Taking over a town by force isn't easy: the lord and the guards are some of the tougher enemies in the game. However, once you succeed, you can now build your own army, design your own military units, and go conquer the world.
The greatest feature of the game lies in its end game. A great army of monsters will come sweeping across the realm. If you have built an empire, you must now use your army to fight against this new threat. The various kingdoms of the realm, if you haven't conquered them all, will either join you or join your enemy depending on your actions in the game. If you never managed to build any army, then you will have to face down endless waves of monsters with your party in an epic last stand.
NEO007 2023-05-05 1 point
That last walkthrough doesn't seem available anymore though it can probably be found on some internet archive site, here is a walkthrough that is still available: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/lets-play-disciples-of-steel.66921/#post-1877348
Neo007 2022-01-06 1 point
here is the walkthrough for anyone interested: https://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/disciples-of-steel/hints/hintId,17370/picture,1012/
zz9zzA 2021-12-24 5 points
"definitely one of the worst RPGs ever made"
Definitely one of the worst reviews ever made.
the3ajm 2021-07-09 -1 point DOS version
The file dropped on my archive program immediately you see multiple numbered files, the archaic installation process with floppy disks left me wondering if people really do like this game would they learn how to install it?
After trying to figure out the install menu, extracting couple of files, looked at some help, I think it's better to leave this into some other people's memories.
Glorfindel 2021-03-17 3 points
Never trust a review that gets the party size wrong: it tends to indicate that either the reviewer is an innumerate moron or just never bothered playing the game. While the game is flawed (why oh why is there not an editor) in many ways, it is also brilliant in others, e.g. character progression. Excellent tactical combat and addictive character progression overcome many of the flaws (e.g. so many far too weak enemies far too far into the game, so so many). But at least it allows cheap XP for the weaker characters to progress. In few other games is progress so measurable and obvious. Enemies who just rip your group apart with ease early eventually become fair fights then chaff for your group to harvest. Great fun if hard to get all the way to the end.
Zoot 2020-06-30 0 point DOS version
I remember playing this game all the way through several times. It was fun, then.
Zedrick 2013-08-31 -1 point DOS version
Jancsi: Just upload it to your website? In case you don't have one, get one. If you for some reason can't do that, sent it to me and I'll publish it:
Jancsi_dos at kommande.com
TheDude 2013-07-24 1 point DOS version
That was an awesome game, would love to see your walkthrough.
Jancsi 2013-02-02 0 point DOS version
I have a walk-through for this game in world format. So far I could not upload to anywhere on the internet because nobody accepts world document as a game walk-through. I do have pictures in the game solution and pictures of excel tables, therefore I am not able to convert this document to text file. I enjoyed very much this game, I originally bought for the Atari 520, and I bought this game for the PC. (DOS).
If anybody can tell me where to upload the world file walk-through I can published on the NET how to play this great game.
Jancsi 2013-01-28 0 point DOS version
Anybody care for the Disciples of Steel walk-through? I spent a lot's of time to create this walkthrough, and I do not know how to upload...
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DOS Version
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Atari ST ROM
- Year: 1991
- Publisher: MegaSoft Entertainment, Inc.
- Developer: MegaSoft Entertainment, Inc.
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