Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994)

Preliminary: At first glance, another rudimentary RTS game that I will 2 star because it's not my favorite genre. After watching clips though, and letting theconnections be made in my head, I realized this has direct lineage to the RTS game I decidedly played the most: Starcraft. Seems very similar, albeit with certain QoL features missing. I love the way the darkness surrounds you as you discover. And I also like that there are different scenarios for the 2 races. There's no way I'm 100%ing this, and I am not noticing any music so we will see if it even goes about 2 star, but if I do play through a few scenarios, this at least deserves an honorary 3 star for being roots to my preferred RTS franchise.

I think Imma play as Orc instead of Human :-p I just hope it doesn't get too convoluted as many strategy games do (which I respect, but never have the energy to fully sift through) and that RNG doesn't play too big a role (strategy games especially empire-focused ones love the randomized events of weather or riots etc.) Oh and I'm playing the original version, not the re-release.

Day 1

Such a cheesy beginning but an era of graphics I adore so much.

I like how simple this is compared to most of its contemporary strategy games, not too many different currencies/resources to keep track of. I like that it is very RPG-esque, well Runescape-esque, in how you get resources. However, I could only do the first scenario and already burned out. It needs some QoL things that I know come with Starcraft, and as it stands it just feels tedious. Hypothetically it should only get a 2 star, but I am giving recognition for the straightforward, simpler RTS gameplay and ability to do multiplayer.

Look: 7.5/10 Great intro, but the actual game isn't anything special.

Sound: 7/10 Fine enough. Voices are pretty good.

Play: 7/10 One of the better early RTS

Feel: 7.5/10 Great concept and ideas, even if execution was a bit flat/tedious in the end. Plus, the start to Starcraft.

Attachment: 7/10 I am excited to see how the later installments of the series play out.

Overall: 7.2/10

An updated version of Warcraft wasn’t exactly on my 2024 bingo card, but here we are—and what a nostalgia trip it is.

The remaster brings a number of quality-of-life improvements, borrowing some modern control schemes from Warcraft 2. You can right-click to issue commands, double-click to select all units of the same type, and control up to 12 units at once—an upgrade from the original’s limit of 4 or even Warcraft 2's 9. Switching seamlessly between original and updated sprites is a charming touch that caters to both nostalgia and modern aesthetics. However, some classic limitations remain: there’s no waypoint system or unit queueing. While it’s an improved experience, it doesn’t completely smooth out the edges of its old-school design.

The game remains as punishing as ever. A single misplaced maneuver—like failing to intercept a catapult—can decimate half your army before you realize it. Counterintuitively, placing catapults at the front of your formation works surprisingly well; their sturdiness and extended range make them unexpectedly effective in taking out threats early.

Interestingly, I found the penultimate level harder than the final one. Defending Blackrock Spire feels almost easier with its defensible base layout. By the final missions, survival boils down to spamming Water Elementals (for humans) or summoning demons (for orcs) to overwhelm the enemy forces.

Playing as humans is arguably smoother, thanks to the early availability of healing spells, which helps preserve your units. Orcs, on the other hand, rely on summoning skeletons—far less practical for long-term survival. The campaigns showcase some humorous and memorable moments, like the orc mission to assassinate a chieftain’s daughter who ran off with an ogre.

Spider units, which I underestimated as a kid, now stand out for their ability to counter catapults and inflict significant damage if they infiltrate enemy cities. And while rescuing Garona is a thrilling mission, it’s a brutal challenge without healing abilities—losing most of your units is practically unavoidable.

The AI pulls some clever moves, such as using Invisibility on a knight to sneak into your base and target peons. These moments showcase a level of strategy that keeps you on your toes and highlights how much there is to learn (or re-learn) about the game.

Warcraft Remastered balances nostalgic charm with thoughtful updates, though it stops short of fully modernizing the experience. The challenge is steep, the gameplay is addictive, and the campaign is filled with memorable moments. If you’re ready to relive (or discover) this RTS classic with a touch of polish, it’s well worth revisiting.

Which is a bit of a weird design in this game as it is constantly asking you to bring in lines of enemies to succesfully beat a stage, stuff like, spears in the back, grunts in the front, that is all very hard to manage on a speed that wouldn't be the slowest ever. NOt only that but all the stakes are REALLY hard, like this is an RTS game with the design mentality of "we gotta make it harder so that people who buy our game get stuck on it so that it has more longevity", every stage has a lot of trial and error, more than usual in RTS games. There's a lot of times in which you'll finnally find your mine and the enemies are already attacking.

Some RTS games have aged better than this one, perhaps if Warcraft was more open with it's unlockables and you could do a lot right from the start, but no, this is not only an aged RTS, but an AGED RTS with bad design, Starcraft had those campaign missions where you only get a selection of units to go through a map but at least those allowed you to have more than 4 units so it balanced itself out, this one is a pain to do that. You gotta calculate ages in advance, the pacing is not in it's favor.

Many people might wanna be curious as to where Warcraft as a series started, but I would honestly just recommend starting with 2, especially considering the first Warcraft is more of a proof of concept nowadays, and it is just a small story of like 10 stages at best of the humans trying to conquer azeroth and the orcs trying to do that, it's not the most complex story you'll be missing.