Warlords Battlecry II

"The expansion we never got? Nope, more."

Well, when I played the WBC2 demo months ago I thought long and hard, and looked at a preview online. This was looking like an expansion set. All I saw were a new race, a new specialization (death knight) a new terrain and a face lift. Now, two months later I buy the game and take it home. Sure I thought it was the expansion WBC1 never got, but looking at the reviews it was getting something must have been different....
I was right. What I didn't see was the fact that every race got at least one new unit and new buildings galore! No longer does three races share the same keep, or four races share the dungeon! Also, three other specializations, a great campaign (Warcraft meets risk with bloody results) . Also, to go with the three new races, four heroes. The extra one is for barbarians, no more confusion. Also there are temples and titans.
Two additions I find nice. The temples can be converted and then you can produce units from them. They are also self explanatory. Dragon, elemental, demon (which can produce daemon units if your leading that race) and celestial (produces archons). The titans are monster units that cost over 1k of each resource and take 15 minutes to build, but can only be stomped by a lot of units, or a hero high enough to beat the snot out of the titan and run from the ''explosion'' (which is just ring of fire and ice).
Also added are new spell spheres. Ice and chaos. Ice is....umm....ice spells. Like pyromancy theres ice ring, frost armor and the likes. And chaos...chaos is one that needs luck. Most the the low level chaos spells change certain attributes on units like speed, combat and health that stays with the unit if it's in your retinue. So if your feeling lucky you can try to make that 16 speed Minotaur king into a 20 speed, but it can backfire and lower his speed. The mastery and grandmastery in chaos will only broaden the range of change. So instead of +2/-2 max for change, it can grow to +4/-4.....
WBC1 fans might dislike the lack of story, but the increased replayability (the only thing that is never different is the battles, played pretty much the same although all races have different styles) they will love. The campaign is very nicely done, although nearing the end, I found myself anxious to get it over with and get my prize, the Orb of Etheria which is an item that super boosts your character. You can get it by conquering the 66 provinces (there is 67, but one starts off as yours) of Etheria. Once around 47 provinces have fallen to your sword, the remaining rulers will start to break down and beg giving offerings as crowns (yawn) strong units (hmm) items (ppphhhhtttt) marriages (no gameplay effect) and nearing the end, a REAL temptation.
There is soooo much more I want to talk about and tell people about this game but if your a fan of WBC1 and found the demo of WBC2 to be too much of the same like I did, your wrong. I am skeptic no more.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/02, Updated 08/15/02