Warcraft II: The Dark Saga

"Mediocre at best..."

I don’t feel this deserves an opening statement so,
Overall Gameplay 5/10
Sure, all real time strategy games seem similar to the inexperienced eye. However, at times there are those that stand out and shine. War Craft 2 for PlayStation is not one of them, lets take a closer look…
Challenge 5/10
Once you learn a trick or two about balancing certain aspects of the game the challenge is almost nonexistent. True, you might have a problem getting lost, that is if every map of the same size were not exactly alike.
Fun 6/10
I admit, the first time I played a random map game I really enjoyed my self. However in the scenario you are basically doing the same thing over and over. Some people may say, “But Macanfly, is that not the case for all real time strategy games?” To which I would respond, “For a real time strategy game to be “good” it must have other factors as well. (More on that later…)
Story 3/10
There is very little story involved, and the existing story is dull, and uninteresting. This is one of the factors I spoke of, it must keep you hooked and motivated. This story really struck out on this part.
Graphics 8/10
I have to say, I loved the graphics in this game. Even if they were large monsters fighting humans, with both sides using magic and such, the sprites seemed very realistic. Standing, walking, fighting, and dying all fluid, and indeed very cool.
Audio 9/10
Every unit had a corresponding “realistic” sound. Being created, standing, walking fighting, and dying (a lot like the sprites eh?) all have sounds, this as well is incredibly cool. The voices of the characters really seem to portray the type of person the face sprites make the character out to be. I have to say, the audio voices and character sprites were a great redeeming quality for the game. In fact, that is the reason this game got a six instead of a four.
Replay value 3/10
First, every map of the same size is the same, even with tree and gold placement. Sure, you change the “landscape”, but the most that does is change the color of the ground and trees. Both Races (human and ogre) have units that are intensely similar. The lack of story really discourages replay, and the fact you have to use passwords to save, and some of these passwords do not work doesn’t invite replay either.
Appraised Value $10 or less
If you buy this game for more than ten dollars you are basically getting ripped off. If you really want to spend that money, look at some other Blizzard games, like StarCraft.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/24/01, Updated 10/24/01