Back in 1994, Blizzard Entertainment wasn’t exactly a well-known gaming developer. Granted they released Rock n' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings prior under the name of Silicon & Synapse and granted, both games are decent in their own right. However their big breakthrough was a concept of playing a game in RTS format as there weren’t many games who used that formula back then. Inspired by, and what is now known as arguably the grandfather of the modern RTS, Dune II, copied the idea of resource gathering / base building, developed Warcraft: Orcs and Human – and the net result was a definitive smash hit as the game ran smoothly, satisfactorily balanced troops, colourful graphics with an intense soundtrack to boot.
The plot can be told with two different viewpoints - the Orcs and the Humans. The Orc’s version was written down by a scribe describing the events in what’s now called Draenor. The Orcs, because of the lack of conquests, fought each other and the warlocks, concerned that if this continues, will wipes out the entire race, genocide if you wish to call it. Upon researching they discovered a small rift and over time grew to a reasonable size, an Orc army can enter. Of course they returned with the spoils of war as the ‘pinks’ were easy prey (as they attacked the local farmlands). So because of this, the Orcs now have a common goal of conquering that land that happens to be called Azeroth.
The Human’s history was told in a viewpoint in years. Their storyline is your typical everything is peaceful and then suddenly arrived these beasts that called themselves Orcs. However there’s a lot more to this therefore it’s worth the read seeing both point of view and of course, sets the scene for future World of Warcraft games. As a matter of interest, to those WoW fans, it also explains the history of Medivh, Clerics of Northshire Abbey, Blackrock Spire, Stormwind Keep and so forth which was collectively known as the First War, and, as according to the lore, the Orcs won the first round sacking Stormkeep. However, you also get the opportunity to destroy Blackrock Spire if you are playing the humans however it’s not cannon according to the current lore.
The game plays in the form of a RTS (real time strategy). That is explore, build then conquer. Only one other game has done this and that was Dune two years back (1992). So the user interface has the main combat screen that dominates the vast majority on the right side of the screen then on the left, the mini-map that also serves your current statistics / objectives (by pressing F8) and the bottom left your commands. The mini-map by default is all blacked out and only displays what your troops have discovered – so basically it acts as a fog-of-wall however later on, your mages can reveal sections of the map by casting a certain spell at a cost of some mana.
The missions themselves are quite varied thus doesn’t feel monotonous however because there are two major campaigns (orcs / humans), unfortunately both almost have the same type of missions. That said, there will be some that requires base building / destroying, rescuing besieged towns / villagers, limited forces and conquering rebels from the same race. This adds a decent array of game play styles that forces the player to be equip at any given scenario instead of just ‘churn and burn’. However the only downside to this is every mission, you are not exactly sure if you have gained a new building / spell as the tech tree seems to be ‘hidden’ away. And the only way to know if you have new toys is simply build everything and then see if something new arises.
Yet the ‘build and destroy’ missions tend to have a similar pattern of you having limited resources to begin with whilst the enemy starts off with a significant amount of everything. So starting off is basically a race against time as taking too long will end the mission in a failure as the enemy will eventually rick roll you. Yet fear not as there are some usual tactics to overcome this. I won’t go into too much details as otherwise it’s a major spoiler however I will say just one thing…bottlenecking is the key to success. That is, explore the lands very quickly and use the terrain to your advantage, especially the tree lines so think before sending out a woodchopper as it could be your worst decision. There are others however I won’t say any more. Yet the human campaign tends to be easier in the early goings however near the end, advantage the orcs as they have access to very powerful spells, if done correctly of course.
Visually it’s a nice game to look at. All viewed in top down, it’s filled with colourful graphics with very noticeable icons. Runs very smoothly even for an average computer so it’s not a system hog at all. A special mention to the sounds as they are nothing short of fantastic. Decent voice acting and some actually quite humorous (try clicking on the same troop icon about five times and you’ll see) and the ambience sounds like wood chopping and casting spells are acceptable. However, and just like Blizzard’s previous games, the musical scores are simply divine. Playing the human campaign has that heroic tones whilst the orcs have those sinister themes.
As briefly mentioned before, there are twelve missions for each race bringing in the grand total of twenty four missions. Because the missions are varied, some are a breeze to complete yet some requires planning. Sadly though, both races do feel the same with regards to the missions and their characteristics – that is both will have a mage equivalent, knight, soldier and so forth. However there are some slight differences with both races (i.e. the orc’s spear throwers have a shorter throwing distance comparing to the human’s archers however can take more damage) therefore adds variance to the game. A terrific RTS game from Blizzard’s first attempt that sets the standards for any future RTS games.
8.5 / 10