Warcraft: Orcs & Humans

"Started the real time strategy genre, an early but fun game"

WarCraft started a trend second only to that of first person shooting games. It made real time strategy games popular, because it was the first one. For those who don't know, a real time strategy game is one that's usually played on some kind of map, with you controlling some kind of army with limited resources scattered on the playing field. You have a variety of units with different abilities and attributes, and everything moves in real time, that is, just because you can't see your opponent doesn't mean he's not doing something constructive. In WarCraft, you choose between two races of creatures, Humans or Orcs. Humans are just what you'd expect them to be: peasants to collect the resources, gold and lumber, footmen, knights, and a variety of other fighters and magicians. Orcs are monster-like creatures, and for every human unit there is an orc counterpart. Each race also has a variety of structures, such as farms to supply food, a barracks to train soldiers and a Town Hall to train peasants and store things. The object of the game is usually to destroy your opponent, but the specific objectives vary with each level. You have a choice to play a Human or Orc campaign.

Graphics: 6/10

Older PC graphics. Not a lot of color, or very bright either, but decent.

Sound: 6/10

Not very good. The sound effects are OK, but the music is lacking.

Gameplay: 10/10

A 10 for being the first real time strategy game, despite some flaws. You control units by clicking on them. A list of commands, such as attack, move and stop, comes up, and you click one and then a location to carry out this action. For instance, you would click a footman, then attack, then a Grunt to make your Footman attack the Grunt. Each unit has different commands; peasants can't attack but can gather resources and Footmen are the opposite. The variety of characters could have been greater, as could the buildings, but very good for the first game of this type. A few negatives: the most units that can be selected at once is four, making it hard to stage a massive attack at once. Also, units in the game move much too slow, even those ones supposed to be fast. The game gets pretty difficult, but it stays fresh. The gathering of resources adds a new level of strategy and forces you to build what you need and not to get greedy, as well as protect your peasants.

Replay: 9/10

Very fun to play again, despite the flaws. You can play a friend via modem, and this is very fun. The ability to play as either the Humans or Orcs adds longevity.

Overall: 7/10

A good game overall, though Warcraft 2 is much better. Still, this game can be found cheap, and you can get this, Warcraft 2 and the Warcraft 2 Expansion Set in the Warcraft Battlechest, so that would probably be a better buy than this game alone. Still, I recommend playing this game in some form.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99