If I got to name one game which receives a lot of hate yet is one of my favorites, Disciples III: Reincarnation would be my answer without the slightest hesitation. I'm gonna go through what most people complained about then throw my 2 cents on each criticism.

"Game is too hard." While in English version the 3 difficulties are Easy/Normal/Hard, there are Normal/Hard/Hardcore in Russian's respectively. To put it another way, there is no such thing as Easy mode in this game. For the love of Bethrezen, just lower the difficulty if you can't handle the harder one. Also keep in mind that even though the game eventually gets away from world map strategy, exploring the map and choosing the right mobs to fight for XP are vital to strengthen your armies. If you're wandering to a place where most neutral armies are currently out-leveled you, just head to other directions then come back another time. I've watched a streamer got frustrated after keeping on running into a Troll with a level-3-party (Tier 1) for like 20 times then screamed this game sucked really bad. Obviously, he was playing Disciples III: Suicide Squad Limited Edition and indeed that game sucks. While this is the case, sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where it looks like there are no neutral mobs you're able to farm for XP and the rest of the map is just too powerful. Don't worry, you can just grind the ruins, dungeons,... which are gonna be inactive for a few turns after being looted. Alternately, you can visit a training camp to level up any unit with a direct conversion of 1 gold = 1 experience point.

"This game is based on luck and not actual skills, my attacks always miss and the enemies inflict critical hits all the time." Seriously, RNG always plays an important role in this series. That is to say, your unit's stats really matter. For instance, Accuracy of the attacker and Evasion of the defender are the elements which decide if the attacks are gonna hit, crit, or miss. With a low-level party, your unit's stats are really poor, especially the Leader. For this reason, the game may seem hard and oddly unfair in early game, but after leveling up a couple of times, as stats increase, you will notice that your units do critical hits most of the time, while the enemies tend to miss more often. All in all, I would say this game is skill/stat point based instead of luck-based.

"Units need to level up 3 times before transformations." Although it seems that the developers had overdone a little bit, I kinda like the idea of this new leveling system. As a matter of fact, this is a good move for Multiplayer mode. People used to run around and slaughter any lower tier parties from others who are just a few XP points away from upgrading their units. In Reincarnation, they will have to reconsider their plans. Since every time a unit gains a "sub-level", its stats increase corresponding to the skill tree, thus making it less vulnerable despite one tier difference. By the same token, the huge XP requirements for upgrading remain a real pain in the a$$, which leads to an extremely slow-paced game. On the other hand, you can speed up the XP earning progressions in Hotseat mode settings, so this problem only seems to affect Campaign playthroughs.

"Hex grid battle maps." Whether you like it or not, it's just a matter of taste. In many ways, I find it ironic that so many wanted Disciples to be another HoMM, but then the more it became like HoMM, the less people appreciated it. There is no doubt that the old battle mechanic was what made the series unique yet I felt that it was less tactical as well as engaging in general. And so I like the new hex-based combat. Coupled with the fact that ranged units are now actually ranged, a smaller battlefield really adds up to a very tense exciting game that has a lot to do with skillful tactical decisions. Some whining about having their archers and mages self-slaughtered due to the changes in battlefield's size, they seemed to forget the Interception mechanic in this game. It's all about placing your tanks blocking the way to your fragile units, and only spending Interceptions when necessary. In short, that is how combat system works in Reincarnation, if you refuse to get used to it then this game is definitely not for you. Just don't waste your time.

"The game is so unbalanced." A perfectly balanced TBS is non-existent. With this in mind, I do agree that the game is still nowhere near decent, balance-wise. As a traditional thing in this series, Undead Hordes are still overpowered in the extreme. While The Empire is strengthened a little bit, Legions of the Damned have drawn the short straw. Elven Alliance, who depends heavily upon extraordinary high Initiative, seems nerfed compared to how powerful they were in the previous Disciples games. Nevertheless, your playstyles and character progression paths do matter a lot. With a focused and appropriate style of playing, any party can become extremely imba to the rest of the world regardless of the original faction. That's why Reincarnation introduced a new feature called "Reserve". Apart from the normal squad, leaders can bring with them up to 4 units in "Reserve". Those reserved slots, however, are locked until the leaders get the "Reserve" abilities in their skill trees. You are able to take other types of creatures with you and can put them in your main squad anytime except in an on-going battle, hence a wider diversity of playstyles. Still, it is advisable to form a steady team with a certain strategy right from the start as your reserved units don't get much experience after each fight. Having said that, there is a fan-made mod: Balance Rework, which rebalances the game for Hotseat maps, you may give it a try if you ever want to play Hotseat. Because the provided Hotseat maps were all badly designed in one way or another. It is worth noting that Balance Rework Mod was made with the mindset of Hotseat plays, don't try it in Campaigns unless you want to deal with some ridiculous difficult fights.

I, myself, have some complaints about Reincarnation as well. Despite the fact that I really like the new combat mechanic, the randomness of special hex spawning is so freaking annoying. Frankly speaking, I feel it is more of a luck-based thing than tactical advantages. Besides, although Reincarnation is still one of the best-looking games in its genre as well as in art direction until now, some laughable unit designs do exist. To give an illustration, the Legion's main character in Campaign and their Devils look like an actual joke to me. And Holy Avengers (hell no, my favorite unit...) now look like they're from Elven Alliance instead of The Empire. What's more, Multiplayer mode is awfully unstable, here are what I've experienced: crash upon loading a saved game, freezing when activating a certain ability in combat, connection to other players lost while fighting neutral mobs, resource glitches...

Being flooded with so many negative reviews by fans of the series who had yet to play the game for at least 5 hours, Reincarnation is still a great game as far as it goes. However, I don't recommend it to the general public, or even to the so-called die-hard fans. This game has got Mixed reviews for a reason, either positive or negative ones, they all seem reasonable. Put it this way, Disciples series is like a famous Alternative Rock band, whose newest album has some Punk elements involved and it's not easy for long-time fans to get into their new style. If you can't bring yourself to enjoy new sequels to your all time favorites, picking up Reincarnation will most likely end up with a big red thumbs-down on this Steam page. In case you relish changes and appreciate improvements, Disciples III: Reincarnation may not be a bad choice for you.