Author: scharfschutze
Type: PC Game
Released: 1994
Designer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Genre: Real-time strategy
There are a few games in every genre that are considered the stones on which the genre is built. In first-person shooters, Wolfenstein and Doom are two such games; in role-playing games, Final Fantasy instantly comes to mind. In the real-time strategy world, many games are disputably held as the fathers of the genre, but two are real contenders for the title: 1995's Command & Conquer and the earlier WarCraft. Designed by Blizzard Entertainment (previously designers of a line of GameBoy games), this game isn't quite as well known as its fantastically successful sequel WarCraft II, but is still a true father of the genre.
The world of WarCraft is an original world of fantasy. We are introduced to the nation of Azeroth, a prosperous and happy kingdom of humans in a mythical world. Their peaceful existence is shattered with the unexpected arrival of the Orcish Horde, a massive army of bloodthirsty creatures from another world. Somehow, the Orcs have found their way to Azeroth, and now their sights are set on obliterating every human that dwells there and making the land their own. At this point, the player takes over.
In the game you can take command of two sides: the brutish Orcish Horde or the Human defenders of Azeroth. As in most real-time strategy games, the sides are fairly balanced. The Human basic unit, the Footman, is slightly tougher than the Orc Grunt, but slower and with a slightly less effective attack. The Orcish ranged unit, the Spearman, has less range but more damage then the Human Archer. Both sides have access to the Catapult for siege warfare. The two side's mounted units, the Orcish Raider and the Human Knight, are fairly equal, with the Raider having a more powerful attack and the Knight possessing more armour.
The real differentiation in race, though, is their spell-casters. Each side has two. The Humans have the Cleric and the Conjuror. The Cleric is a priest and mostly concerned with healing injured units, but he also has a spell to reveal parts of the map, and he can cast Invisibility on your units. Given enough Clerics, you can cast Invisibility on a large enough force to decimate the enemy's base and sneak right in. The Conjuror is an offensive spell-caster, and can shoot the primary fireball spell farther than the cleric. When dealing with bases, he can summon the deadly Rain of Fire. He can also summon either Scorpions or the powerful Water Elemental to aid your cause. Be warned: all summoned units last only a limited amount of time before they disappear. The Orc spell-casters, by comparison, are the Necrolyte and the Warlock. The Necrolyte is the opposite of the Cleric. His spells include the self-explanatory Raise Dead (through which you can acquire a large army of fairly effective units for free), a spell to reveal part of the map, and Unholy Armour, which basically increases the target unit's resistance to damage for a good duration. The Warlock is a truly nasty spell-caster. Against bases, he can call swirling Poison Clouds, which slowly drift across your base damaging all in their path. He also can summon Spiders, which are faster but have slightly less health than Scorpions, and the all-powerful Daemon. These things can literally level armies by themselves.
WarCraft pioneered one of two common systems for building structures: the basic civilian unit that gathers resources and builds buildings. For the Humans, this is the Peasant; the Orcs have the Peon. Both have no weapons whatsoever, but are instrumental because they both construct the buildings of your base and gather the resources (Gold and Lumber) required to build both buildings and units. Both sides have four basic structures and four advanced structures; the basic structures are the same for both sides, while the advanced structures are where the two races differ. One fact that they did away with in all subsequent WarCraft games (and StarCraft) is that both races must build cobbled Roads to place buildings along, and buildings must be placed within a certain distance of each other.
The maps for the game are quite advanced for the early date in RTS history; they include paths, bridges, road signs, rivers and forests. The forests, of course, get hacked down for lumber, while the paths and road signs are just there for show. The bridges, however, are as crucial in WarCraft as they are in any other RTS game: they represent vital chokepoints that allow movement across bodies of water. Controlling them may often be the difference between victory and defeat.
Given the early date, WarCraft's graphics are quite good, and they seem (to me at least) a good deal better than the later Command & Conquer. The entire game is from a very birds-eye view, unlike later RTS games that have a stranger (but nicer-looking) oblique approach. As such, unit animations are limited to heads and shoulders, and are fairly well done. The units move reasonably accurately, and the fighting animations are quite effective. The spells also have their own, unique graphics, which work quite well.
Effects: 5/10Both sides have very limited unit speech, and the human speech possesses a great deal more personality. The combat sounds and spell sounds, as opposed to the animations, are all fairly limited and don't offer much immersion into the game environment. As well, videos in this game bear little resemblance to the eye-popping cinematics that Blizzard has since become famous for; they're very, very grainy and not very detailed.
Gameplay: 7/10Compared to slightly later RTS games like Command & Conquer, WarCraft's gameplay is limited by the fact that you can only select four units at a time, and the interface options are quite limited. However, it does present an engaging mix of units that kept me up late at night.
Replayability: 4/10Like most early RTS games, multiplayer is limited to death match games between two players. With only two campaigns (one for each race) and limited user-designed map potential, WarCraft is on the failing end of this category.
Overall: 7.5/10Despite its faults, WarCraft was a good game. You have to remember that it's more of a prototype for all the RTS games that were to follow, and it inspired the designers enough to create their far more legendary sequel, WarCraft II.