Rating: - No high end pc? No problem
This game i great if you find yourself stuck in some place that you don't want to be at and have a laptop that isn't very high end spec to play games. First of all you can have a hero that you play through skirmish battles and campaign that grow with each battle. Next is all the different races there are. Mix with quests and other abilities you can choose a few pretty cool ways to play: make your hero a one man army, a powerful magic user, a charismatic commander, a crafty merchant, etc...
Okay heres the bad part. Graphics aren't very top notch at all. Game play might get a little boring, but of course this game is only for those temporary occasions.
All in all, its a game that will run on a lot of systems, easy on the wallet, and fairly enjoyable.
Rating: - Best Game ever
This game is really cool it has great graphics and oh course theres the variety of the races. With realtime gameplay and the titans playing mode (each race has its own titan that rocks) It has definetly earned its place in the "hall of games" and the sequel is a definet sho-in for "best sequel ever"
Rating: - Gaming bliss
The Warlords Battlecry series is a great batch of RTS games that constantly get overlooked by gamers who take the more commercial successes like Warcraft. Their limited commercial success is unfortunate considering the high quality of the games.
The Warlords biggest success is in its incredible variety of options. There are tons of hero classes and plenty of offerings for your race. These options allow for tons of replayability and all of the various combinations are fun to try.
Another fun aspect of the game is its risk-like campaign. Your hero begins on a province and you slowly build up your lands, gaining bonuses with each territory you take. The campaign is fun but it feels lacking without any sort of story. A story mode would have been nice in addition to the campaign and skirmish modes but I guess it would be hard to make a story mode with so many races at hand.
Skirmishes are fun as you get the chance to use the same hero you built throughout the campaign to play in regular battles. As the hero gets stronger, his options on the battlefield expand. The offerings in spells is amazing as are the various artifacts. The hero can combine certain artifacts to make sets and gain additional bonuses. Spells range all across the spectrum with polymorphing spells and lightning bolts to heal and summonings.
Overall, the game is an outstanding work in the RTS genre. Unfortunately, it grows a bit repetitive after a while and lacks any real story which limits me to only giving it 4 out of 5 stars overall.
Rating: - Accomplished & Polished Game - Enjoy!
The real-time strategy genre is flooded with tons of titles and games isn't it? So what makes this one different? What would possibly convince anyone to try this game over the bazillon other ones? Especially since this one is an older title by today's dating schemes...
I'll try to summarize it here for you. I have several years of real-time and turn-based strategy game playing time (yes, I have no life). If you've played any of the following games more than a couple of times then you can understand many things already about this game (Warlords Battlecry II - WBC2): Age of Empires, Age of Wonders, Age of Mythology, Disciples, Heroes of Might & Magic, Kohan, or Rise of Nations. WBC2 has elements of all of these games - arguably the best elements - and it implements those elements in a very nice package.
All of those other games have a few excellent original ideas in them - but WBC2 has MANY excellent ideas in it. For instance, there are the heroes that you can keep and develop through many playing sessions - solo or multiplayer - and they grow in power, collecting items and new spells as you wade through battles with them; and there are very interesting and unique creatures to do battle with - many of the races available to control in this game have armies that are unique and must be used in a special way - many of the other games mentioned above do not have truly unique units: only units that look a little different, have a different saying when you click on them, etc.... you know what I mean - same thing, different appearance. The units in WBC2 are truly unique - different powers, different strengths and weaknesses, and some very different appearances on-screen.
Some folks have criticized the graphics of WBC2... to that I say "Huh?"... The graphics are excellent! It's a fantasy game and there is a moderate level of cartooniness to them - but that adds to the fantasy flavor! The music is great too - and you can create your own custom sound tracks if you want to - now that's just too darn cool for any game. The interface and gameplay is very simple - MUCH simpler than any RTS game I've played in a long time. For a game with SO much to offer and SO much to do it's amazing the controls aren't mind-boggling. If you enjoyed the simple straight-forward approach of the first Age of Wonders, or the first Heroes of Might & Magic then you'll relish the simplicity and ease of WBC2.
Ahhh, the game itself - what joy! There is a free-form campaign setup much like the recent Rise of Nations (I didn't realize that Rise of Nations borrowed that Risk-like concept) where you select which country to attack and get special bonuses or missions depending on the country - it's quite interesting. There is no specific goal other than to conquer the whole map - this is refreshing if you're sick of following the specific path to finish the story... The skirmish battles (solo games) are great with a built-in random map generator (endless map possibilities) and MANY customizable rules and options that can be toggled on and off. You can make your own maps and scenarios as well - and there are many available for download. In fact, you can customize many things in this game: far too many things to list here. Growing your hero and his personal bodyguards (the retinue) is easy and menu-driven for simplicity. You'll take great pride in seeing your pet hero grow in power and become a one-man army!
Is this game balanced (i.e. are all the sides equally matched one-on-one)? You'll hear arguments back and forth... take a well-balanced game like Rise of Nations - there are armies that can counter other armies and so on to balance everything out. I don't see that in WBC2 - each race has its differences and unique armies and abilities. Depending on how you play them you may find that you can smash apart the Elves whenever you use the Undead - no problems; or you may find that you can't beat a particular race no matter what you do... Because the races are so different and designed with imagination in mind they become very flexible during gameplay... experiment!
There are some dark elements to the game: namely the presence of some mildly grotesque images among the race of daemons and undead - but interacting with these races is optional so that shouldn't be a problem: just thought I'd warn ya in case little ones are going to be playing.
Summary: it's the best fantasy-based strategy / tactical game I've played to date: and arguably one of the top five ever designed. If you like imaginative, interesting, and fun battle games that challenge you to think creatively but yet allow you wondrous flexibility then here ya go - served up REAL cheap at Amazon. Take care!
Rating: - best game
This is the best game ever! It is awesome, and the graphics are great.
- No high end pc? No problem
- Best Game ever
