Warcraft: Orcs & Humans

Game: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
Developer: Blizzard
Platform: PC
Release Year: 1995
Stephen's Rating: 4/10

The original Warcraft game was the grandfather of the enormously successful Warcraft and Starcraft universes. Although the original game was only a glimmer of what the sequels would eventually become, it had some merit.

It's worth mentioning that Warcraft is a blatant ripoff of Warhammer. "Apparently" Blizzard were originally contracted to build a real time strategy for the Warhammer universe, but lost the contract. Because they'd already developed most of the game, they changed the name and the theme slightly and Warcraft was born.

Basic Plot

The game involves the battle between the Alliance (humans) and Orcs. The setting is the human world of Azeroth. Orcish warlocks from the world of Draenor have opened a small portal to Azeroth, and the Orcs have embarked on a campaign to conquer Azeroth for themselves.

Gameplay

Although not the first real time strategy, Warcraft introduced some new concepts which have carried over into almost all RTS games that followed.

Beyond the usual harvesting resources, building troops, building structures, and attacking the enemy, Warcraft also introduced different game modes in the campaign such as rescuing allied units who are trapped in enemy territory, or missions where you couldn't re-build your forces (i.e. had to use what you were given at the start efficiently). This concept allowed for a better storytelling experience inside the setting of an RTS game.

Positives

This game paved the way for hundreds to follow. It introduced the world to a new game universe which culminated in the immortalised World of Warcraft and pushed the boundaries of what an RTS game could be.

Negatives

To me, even at the time, it wasn't a fantastically interesting game. I started to really pay attention when I got into Warcraft 2 not much more than a year later. It was too slow paced and not intuitive to play for my liking.

Memorable Moments

As my best friend has pointed out, the archer unit was very overpowered. The secret to winning any game was to build lots of archers. Because units moved so slowly and the range of the archer was so long, it was impossible to lose.