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GAME REVIEWED: Warcraft
RELEASED BY: Sold-Out
PRICE: £4.99
REVIEWED BY: G-String
REVIEW: -
Real Time Strategy games (RTG) have been around for a long time. The most famous of these being the Command & Conquer series, which brought the games into the best-sellers list. Since then we have seen a lot more of these games on the market. Warcraft, Tribal Rage, Western Front and M.A.X. 2 are examples of RTG games. Many people think that these games are Command & Conquer (C&C) copies. The truth is that some can be better, and of course some can be worse. Today, C&C and C&C: Red Alert are the average game, well to me anyway, and all reviews on RTG games are usually compared to them.
WarCraft is a fairly old game developed by Blizzard with Interplay and has now been re-released as part of the budget titles publisher, Sold-Out. Priced at £4.99, the packaging doesn't say how old the game is, but the requirements do. A 386, Dos 5.0+, 4MB Ram, a Hard Disk, Mouse, General Midi etc etc. A Hard Disk?? Most games now take about 400MB of Hard Disk Space. But this games requires that you at least have one?? Strange, but that's how old the game is. However, this is in it's favour. The game is still fun to play after all these years. But first I'll set the scene for you.
WarCraft is a hugely successful fantasy strategy game where you can construct and rule your own medieval stronghold. You can either be the noble humans or the evil orcs. You control one of these races through 24 campaign scenarios, all of which comes across two separate story-lines. In the game the controls are nearly the same as C&C, only you have to press 'M' for move and not just point and click. This can waste a bit of time, especially if enemies are attacking you. There are a variety of 'unique' creatures for you to control. Demons, Elementals, necromancers, archers and spearmen. The game was a huge success and now it is being released for a good purpose.
Games like Quake II can be played over the Internet or network. But, your processor/RAM/modem has to be top-notch to really play it to its potential. Sold-Out have made WarCraft able to be played via a network or the Internet. This is great for low-spec PC owners, as they can now try and play a game over the net. Something which many have been heard to complain about. The gameplay of WarCraft is surprisingly very good. The missions are ok, maybe a bit more could be put into them, the graphics are very good considering how old the game and the sound effects are good. But, the sound effects do get on your nerves, and after making one character move around for ages, he will suddenly shout, "WHAT???!!!" which can raise the blood pressure of make your heart-skip, especially when it's a blood-curdling shout from an orc. hmmm. . . . .
It takes a while to get to grips with all the buildings you can build and so on, because you have to build up to them which can take a while, unlike C&C where they can be brought to your attention very quickly. One bad thing about WarCraft is that you have to so the missions, there is no custom gameplay where you can choose a mission, you have to follow the storyline. Which is a shame because the missions are not that great. I haven't managed to play it over the Internet yet because I can't find out where to play it and we don't have enough money at the moment to pay for Wireplay or some exclusive shit. So I am basically basing all my comments and thoughts on the game itself, exempt from the network game.
The mission briefing sequences are lame for the graphics and okayish for the sound. The digitised speech is not that great, but it does the trick and serves it's purpose.
All I can really say is that this game will appeal to strategy fans and probably not to anyone else. I found it quite a task to get absorbed into it, but maybe that's because I like shoot-'em-ups better. Nevermind. "Rally your troops and victory will be yours. The spoils of the war are yours to claim!"
SCORE:
66%
MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIRED:
CPU: 386
RAM: 4MB
A hard disk!
DOS 5.0 +
Mouse General Midi
LINKS: www.sold-out.co.uk www.interplay.com