Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
released on Nov 23, 1994
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is the first game in the Warcraft series developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The Orcish hordes are summoned through the dark portal to the peaceful human Kingdom of Azeroth. When the two races meet each other, a terrible war ensues. Only one race can dominate the land. Players can choose to play as either the Humans or the Orcs. There are 12 scenarios for each race with mostly a single objective: destroy the enemy. As with most RTS games of the same era, a lot of time is spent collecting resources and building structures to make/upgrade different types of units.
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I played the War1gus mod of it and not the vanilla version.
An important game that has been improved on in basically every conceivable way. It has charm to some of the briefings and the barks, but that wears thin quickly 30 years later.
Good beginning of a franchise.
Enjoyable, with an interesting story.
Enjoyable, with an interesting story.
You could see the start of something special here. The game definitely hasn't aged well, with how fast-paced the RTS genre has become since, but it established Blizzard as an exciting newcomer to the mainstream. This began one of the great, lasting fantasy universes in media, and the legacy really speaks for itself these days.
WELL I decided on a whim today to do the Orc campaign of the OG. I've been on this PC Games Of My Youth kick the last several days, more or less just trawling abandonware sites and grabbing stuff I loved back in the day.
Since I've been playing other RTS of the era this week as well, it's pretty wild to see what Warcraft did and didn't take from Dune 2, and then to see what the original Command and Conquer did and didn't take from Warcraft.
It's hard to impress to folks who weren't alive and playing PC games back then, but the RTS genre was enormous, I mean like, it was The Big Genre, and it evolved quickly. The quality of life things not present here that show up in C&C a year later and then are just fully baked in by Warcraft 2? Incredible to see happen being able to play them back-to-back-to-back
Wish y'all could've been there alongside us to absolutely flip out about being able to select as many units as you want later on
Since I've been playing other RTS of the era this week as well, it's pretty wild to see what Warcraft did and didn't take from Dune 2, and then to see what the original Command and Conquer did and didn't take from Warcraft.
It's hard to impress to folks who weren't alive and playing PC games back then, but the RTS genre was enormous, I mean like, it was The Big Genre, and it evolved quickly. The quality of life things not present here that show up in C&C a year later and then are just fully baked in by Warcraft 2? Incredible to see happen being able to play them back-to-back-to-back
Wish y'all could've been there alongside us to absolutely flip out about being able to select as many units as you want later on
If you insist on playing Warcraft 1, please do it with this:
https://www.gog.com/forum/warcraft_orcs_and_humans/warcraft_mouse_helper_utility_for_improved_mouse_control/page1
Truthfully, Warcraft 1 holds up better than I would have thought. As characteristic of Blizzard, it is a large jump forward in an infant genre, and it's a well-polished experience. The only real issue is that small, basic changes that in a few years would go on to be entirely standardized across the genre, are not present yet. Some other ones actually are, but that doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of modern players will struggle terribly just to perform basic actions.
You'd be surprised though, how much of Warcraft 3 is already present in Warcraft 1... and man, I think that's actually pretty impressive.
https://www.gog.com/forum/warcraft_orcs_and_humans/warcraft_mouse_helper_utility_for_improved_mouse_control/page1
Truthfully, Warcraft 1 holds up better than I would have thought. As characteristic of Blizzard, it is a large jump forward in an infant genre, and it's a well-polished experience. The only real issue is that small, basic changes that in a few years would go on to be entirely standardized across the genre, are not present yet. Some other ones actually are, but that doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of modern players will struggle terribly just to perform basic actions.
You'd be surprised though, how much of Warcraft 3 is already present in Warcraft 1... and man, I think that's actually pretty impressive.