"Has a few minor problems but still a solid game"

Intro
Wow! At first when I bought this game for $10 at K-mart and read that this CD would contain two games for the price of one(the original and the expansion).And you can also go online and compete with players around the world. Little did I know that this was too good to be true.

Gameplay 6/10
One word describes the gameplay: Lacking. There are two races that you can choose to play with. It may seem cool at first but as you progress into the game you will find out that the units for both race are the same. Orc=footman, ax thrower=elf archer, and so on and so on and so on. The only thing different for both races are the upgrades for units and spells. Even the buildings are similar. In the expansion everything stays the same except for different missions and maps. I expected some new units but I knew better that to keep my hopes up. As playing online it was fun. For about 5 games. As I started to play more games online I saw that the most frequently used tactics were using orcs and building towers to destroy the opponents economy or going dragons/gyphons. The most I stayed online was about 15-20 minutes. Some of the UMS games where good but not really interesting to keep you from coming back to play it again. The AI is also really incompetent. For example if you tried to move a unit to point a to point b and there is something blocking the path the unit will not try to go around it or anything. It would just stay there.

Story 9/10
The story is pretty good. I’ll try to explain it without spoiling anything.. Well here goes: Its been six years since warcraft 1 . The humans have fled over sea to Lordearon so that they can ask for assistance to regain the kingdom of Azeroth that they had lost to the Orcs. The orcs however have different plans. They also sail over to Lordearon to try to kill all humans. The rest you can find o9ut for yourself if you plan to buy the game.

Control 8/10
The controls are very responsive. You can use hotkeys to command your army faster. There’s also assigning groups or units to various hotkeys(0-9). To hotkey a unit you click on the screen and drag it around a number of units and then let go and hold Control and press a number. If this sounds confusing the game comes with a manual that you open and read on your computer.

Graphics 7/10
Pure 2D graphics except for the FMVs which are very good. Not much to say except that the graphic is decent. Sometimes the FMVs can be a little glittchy though.

Sound 8/10
The voice acting is great. Every voice fits in with its character. You can also hear weapons clashing against metal, wood, and anything you can attack sound like it’s suppose to.

Replay 6/10
You can go online and play. That adds a lot of replay value to the game. The campaigns are also very long and you will definitely want to play it to see how the story progresses, but sometimes it takes forever to beat a mission because the comuter is impossible to beat. I have to say that its will take about 2-3 months to get bored of this game and by the time you’re done with this game other good games would’ve came out.

Overall 7/10
This is a very solid game. It has a few problems though. A good bargain if you can buy it for a low price.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/02, Updated 08/06/02