It is ultimately easier to sit down and start playing a game of "Warcraft: Orcs and Humans" than it is to stop and walk away! In one word, this game is great!
At first, I told myself that I would not play for very long because my schedule for the day did not include the testing of "Warcraft". Alas, I finally stopped after many hours in a lively match against the dreadful Orcs and other monsters. I had to cancel my schedule for the day, and immediately start writing this article which you are now reading.
Warcraft proposes two different races to you. You will have a choice between the nobles humans and the hideous Orcs. This will be the conditioning factor for the architectural design of the buldings and for the armies that are set up with different elements, each having characteristics more or less avantageous.
When the game starts, you will discover a simple user interface to the well produced graphics controled by the mouse. The first mission will be to establish a village with at least six farms and to protect it against the eventual raids of your enemies. In order to bring to term the construction of your farm, will you require lumber and gold as well as peasants. At the time of construction for any type of building, the quantity of lumber and gold required is shown on the screen and if you do not possess enough resources, a message to that effect will be indicated. Before long, you will not have enough lumber available and you will have to find more. A peasant can be sent out as a scout in search for a forest to find lumber. All things considered, the risk of being attacked by one of your enemies is great, so it is preferable to send a soldier to be the scout. Once you have a forest landmark, send your peasant in order to restore your lumber stock.
Soon gold supplies will be lacking and you will have to search for a gold mine. As a general rule, one is situated in proximity to your village providing the recovery of gold. However, this one will be quickly exhausted by your needs for gold and you will have to go out again in search for another even more abundant mine. As in the beginning, you only have one peasant, and it is advantageous to have many. It's in the Town Hall that you will be able to train new peasants for your village and this will cost you 400 gold pieces per man. As the number of peasants increases, you will have to establish new farms to ensure that there is enough food.
As for the soldiers, they are trained in barracks. The simplest soldier is the footman, but if you have constructed a lumber mill, archers will also be available. As you advance in the game and the scenarios, other units will be put to your disposition like knights, catapults, cleric and conjurers.
Between themselves, clerics can: heal the wounded, throw holy lances, render themselves invisible, and even have a complete view of the region (during a limited time). Even more powerful, the conjurers have powers to: strike an enemy from a great distance with the elemental blast, summon scorpions, summon elemental of water or of fire, and cast rain of fire, a very devastating spell.
Your armies will benefit from material upgrades with the lumber mills to reinforce the strength of arrows, and with the blacksmiths to increase the grade and quality of the steel used in the weapons and armours. Each upgrade will cost you large quantities of gold.
During battles, you will encounter many types of monsters like the ogres, scorpions, spiders, brigands, slime, skeleton, demons, and even elementals (that might escape your control).
Over two dozen campaign scenarios within two separate stories are included in the game which promises, I assure you, many hours of play.
If you have a network or a serial link, Warcraft allows two players to confront each other, each one assigned the role of the humans or orcs.
The CD-ROM version offers many more bonuses compared to the floppy version. First of all, there is digital speech throughout the game (which is considered normal these days for CD-ROM versions), but there are also cinematic scenes for the introduction, during victories and defeats, and during the briefing of each scenario.
To sum up, "Warcraft: Orcs and Humans" is the game that no one will forgive you for not buying this year!
Blizzard Entertainment
GRAPHICS 90% P.O. Box 18077,
SOUND 85% Irvine, CA 92713
MUSIC 85% Tel: 714-556-5571
GAMEPLAY 95% 800-953-SNOW
INTEREST 95% BBS: 714-556-4602
OVERALL 91%
