War Wind

"Addictive, fun, and HARD"

Released in 1996 by SSI, War Wind is a fun strategy game similar to War or Star Craft, yet its not a clone of the series. With tons of modes including online play War Wind is chock full of replay too.

Story: You play one of the four races, each with their own personal agenda. The Tha'Roon simply want to stay in charge of the planet Yavaun (where the game takes place) and will destroy anyone in their way to achieve that goal. The Obblinox are the loyal soldiers for the Tha'Roon, but they dream of being free and independent. The Eaggra are the slaves to the Tha'Roon, and they will do whatever it takes to to be free also. The last race, the Shama'Li, want to unite all the races together and restore peace. Each story is very unique and various plot twists are shown using cut scenes between each mission.
Score-9

Game Play: This game is like your standard strategy game. You try to build an empire by doing things like mining for resources, researching, building, upgrading and fighting your opponent. Each mission has an objective to do ranging from destroying your enemy to capturing a wild animal. Also you can make your own custom missions. Play is fast paced and you have to be quick if you want to survive in the harder missions. Another interesting feature is that at times wildlife may attack you and try to slow you down, adding another interesting side to the game.
There are 4 modes of play. Campaign, or Story Mode, where you play through the game with specific missions trying to beat the game, Scenario Mode where you play a randomly picked scenario, Custom Scenario mode, where you create a scenario and play it or Online Mode where you play other players online.
Overall all the various modes, and 4 races to each will keep you coming back time after time, giving this game a very high replay value. My only real complaint is at times this game is just too hard. You may find yourself having too cheat in some Shama'Li and Eaggra missions because they're just nearly impossible, even if you set enemy difficulty all the way down.
Score-9

Controls: The controls to this game are not customizable however you don't really need them when most work will be done with either the mouse or with hot keys. I personally never used until a few days ago. The hot keys are it is tedious to memorize them, however if you do take the time to do so you will find the game to be even easier. For the most part you'll just click X unit to select it or right click the unit to assign it a job. Or you can select multiple units for movement or attack. Overall if you've played a strategy game like StarCraft before the controls will be very easy and if not, you won't have much trouble. This was my first strategy game and I had the controls down after an hour or two of play.
Score-9

Graphics: The graphics are done quite well. Not likely to make you jump out of your chair or anything, but then again this game was made 5 years ago. The cut scenes are animated really well and the transformation from your 2-D characters to 3-D animation is done surprisingly well. When in the game all the characters are distinguishable from each other and all the backgrounds are done quite well. The animations for the various magic spells are amazing, especially the falling rocks in the Meteor Shower spell. Also the portraits that appear when you click on each character are very detailed and give you an idea of what the character is like, whether it's a vicious fighter or a skilled architect.
Score-8

Music: There is a great war hymn with accent on the drums playing the whole time that really sets the mood for this type of game. Also there is a great them that plays at the options menu. All the music in the game is meant to set the tone and it does a great job of doing. It's just sad that SSI skimped on the music so much, which took from the game. Luckily you'll be so busy most of the time you may not even notice the music at all, so the lack of music isn't that big a deal.
Score-7

Sound Effects: The sound effects are done quite well. Each race's various soldiers all make odd, yet fascinating sounds. There is a shocking chainsaw like sound to let you know whenever one of your units is fighting, and each bullet sounds crisp and realistic. Also the various sounds you hear when you cast a magic spell are really good. Another great sound effect is the sound your trucks and cruisers make. The trucks sound just like a truck in real life and the cruisers have a great hovering sound. Overall the graphics are done quite well. The only real downside is the buzzing sound during battle can get a little annoying at times but you'll eventually get used to it.
Score-9

Overall I highly recommend this whether or not you're a fan of strategy games. Hell, this game made me a fan of this type of game. And chances are you can pick it up for around $5. I've even heard rumors of sites distributing it for free if you pay S&H.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/16/01, Updated 08/16/01