Review Jevnation 3/5 · Nov 15, 2021
The black sheep has been snuck out, but is it worth poking?!
If you were born around the beginning of 90's or probably earlier, you were most likely exposed to early Blizzard games when the company was renowned to produce nothing but classics back then. The CDs featured extra materials and goodies, including trailers of upcoming games that stoked the gamer's anticipation. One game stuck out to me in particular with its …
If you were born around the beginning of 90's or probably earlier, you were most likely exposed to early Blizzard games when the company was renowned to produce nothing but classics back then. The CDs featured extra materials and goodies, including trailers of upcoming games that stoked the gamer's anticipation. One game stuck out to me in particular with its cartoon design and plot-centric narrative but as time went by, I only learned that this outlier would never be released...
... until it leaked online in 2016.
Having... made "acquisition" of the game files, it runs surprisingly well on my Win 10 PC, thanks to the fans responsible for optimizing it, and I could get started from the get-go. For the educated Warcraft fans, Warcraft Adventures tells the familiar origin story of the orc hero Thrall, during the post-Warcraft II era. Being brought up as an orphan, in the human stronghold hosted by lieutenant Blackmoore, he learns about the existence of other orcs he was cruelly taught to fight in favor of the Alliance. Following his rebellious tenure, he single-handedly sets out on a journey to find out about his true origin and to shape the hero we would know him for.
Being aware of the cancelling of Warcraft Adventures, I started the game with no particular expectations whatsoever. Besides the contrived hero/villain roles between Thrall and respectively Blackmoore among others, it was clear that the storytelling was rough and below the standards of the actual Blizzard games, shelving this to a niche of adventure games on the campy side.
If you approach it the same way, though, there's still some entertainment strewn throughout the game. You'll see more than a few familiar Warcraft characters, the insides of some WC2 buildings and see the Azeroth continent in its own rendering. The animations are plain cartoon, which are decently giving life to the places and characters through and through. Some characters can be considered colorful writing-wise, like Zul'jin being a fashionable shopkeeper or a waterpipe-smoking Deathwing (pfft)! Then there are strange direction in character writing that can be considered silly, which I'm okay with taking it for what it is.
Take heed that the leaked version is rough around the edges, some videos are out-of-sync and are missing a few voicelines (which are hilariously enough replaced by computer-generated substitutes) but I'll give kudos to the fans responsible for bringing out the most out of this unreleased product. For the curious fans of the franchise, approach this game with some trepidation. The Blizzard-grade standards that you've seen set with the officially released Warcraft games are not to be expected as much in here, but it's an entertaining treat in most cases.