Customer Reviews

Warlords Battlecry II

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm going to put this simply -- because I want to get back to playing Warlords Battlecry 2: THIS GAME ROCKS.

If you like real time strategy games, this one is virtually flawless. It has better-than-average pathfinding, SIMPLIFIED resource gathering (yet still with some tactical gamesmanship involved), extremely varied and challenging races, outstanding pre-scripted AI choices you can assign to each unit (e.g. guardian, aggressive, stand ground, fallback after losing down to 25% of hit points, and scout to name merely a FEW) and adds a role-playing element by having your armies led by a hero who has special abilities, unique skills/classes, and who gains levels and abilities as the game goes on. You can even choose different "modes" for your hero, like Ironman (2x experience, but if he dies, your game is over!), Bronzeman, Tinman and regular. Want to know what those are about? Buy the game and find out. If you like RTS, you won't be disappointed, especially at this new lower price.

Highs: better-than-average pathfinding, streamlined resource-gathering, genuinely varied races (and the chance to eventually lead each race regardless of what race you choose initially), RPG-like heroes, ability to carry high-level units (that you can name yourself) from one battle to the next, many different objectives as you play through a campaign (not just always "kill everybody"), catchy -- but not intrusive -- music, good voice acting in the "audio responses" of your units (barbarians are hilarious), difficulty level adjustable at any time, many "modes" of play to choose from such as Ironman, etc.

Lows: No backstory (doesn't really need one), "just another" RTS -- though one that refines all the aspects of that genre to perfection (still if you don't like RTS, you won't like this one either).

This game is much better than Warcraft 3. While Warcraft 3 uses a 3d graphical system and looks decent (but sometimes terrible), Battlecry 2 uses 2d graphics that look great and never cause slowdown. Units even create footprints while walking across sand. The hero-building options are really nice. You don't have to choose everything about your hero at first, he or she just develops as you play, and you choose a class, specialization, and abilities/spells. There are a lot of different fantasy races to play, such as humans, undead, two kinds of dwarves, three kinds of elves, daemons, fey, minotaurs, and orcs. The gameplay is smooth and easy to control, and the building interface never gets in the way. It even tells you what you can build or research, and how to make those options available. The resource gathering is very simple as well, with more customization than games like Total Annihilation Kingdoms but less micromanagement than Starcraft or Warcraft 3. All in all, this is a great game that is lots of fun to play, that has a lot of options (and a lot of replay value).

266 Mhz CPU
64 MB RAM
300 MB Disk Space
DirectX 8.1
No 3D accelerator
Win 95/88/ME/2000/XP

Warlords Battlecry was a critical success as a deep game, but not to many gamers warmed to its weak graphics. The sequel largely leaves gameplay untouched and updates to a nicer graphics production. It's not cutting edge stuff by any means as you can tell by the very mild system requirements. Game appears very stable.

The game does boast a lot of depth, and if it's your cup of tea you're going to have a lot of fun for a long time. It has 12 playable races, 20 different hero types, a huge non-linear campaign, 140 different units, 100 spells and a ton of quests. It comes with 50 different skirmish maps, a map editor, fog of war toggles, revealed map toggles, 6 different AI strengths to play against and multiplayer support.

Resource production is a large part of game play. Players need to mine four different kinds of resources; gold, metal, stone and crystal. The map usually clusters one of each kind near the start positions, and sprinkles the rest across the map. The player's hero can covert mines and buildings to player control, and once under player control mining is automatic. Up to eight peon type units can be mass-produced to work in each of the mines to increase production. You will need to build at two central forts to build peons fast enough to staff your mines. Once production of resources is fast enough you'll need 3-4 military buildings pumping out troops to take advantage of the rate of incoming resources. At the same time you'll need to run your hero all over the map converting and reconverting all the essentially indefensible extra mines across the map.

If this all sounds like it should be named Fantasy Resource Production Manager 2 you're correct. Most hardcore players will be ultra familiar with this sort of game opening and if you're sick of it then avoid this game. The good news is that once established buildings can be set to continuously produce units so at least after running your opening book for resource production you can start thinking about having a battle. However after all that hard work the actual battles are rather uninspired affairs. Too quick, devoid of tactics and dull to watch.

The depth angle largely comes from having a hero that increases experience over many games and slowly develops into an awesomely strong unit. Kind of an RPG addition to a RTS game.

There's basically nothing actively wrong with the game. For all intents and purposes it does what it sets out to do, and is executed competently. I think it's only going to appeal to people who played and enjoyed the original Warlords Battlecry though. I really want to give 3.5 stars, but there's no option for that.

Personally I'd suggest you take a look at Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns before you spend money on this. Kohan has a similar theme, but largely removes micromanagement, has better tactical considerations and epic thundering battles. Other options to consider would be Heroes of Might and Magic 4, or even wait a couple of months for Warcraft 3. (Also Warlords Battlecry is out in a Jewelcase version as well, so maybe give that a spin)

Warlords Battlecry 2 is one of the best RTS (real time strategy) games I have played. It takes the simple, yet inventive building system from Starcraft, but adds more to it. You also do not have a constant peasant train. All you do is convert the buildings to your side and viola...you get resources by the second automatically. It also allows you to control a hero...who levels up in an RPG style. This game is definitely worth the buy if you like RTS games.

Red Orb has really done it this time. They took a classic rpg/strategy game and made it 100 times better. Here is the breakdown: 1. There are so many facets to this game... the way they combine RTS/RPG/STRATEGY.... it truly is revolutional. Choose a territory by viewing the bonuses for successfully capturing it... then do the resource gathering thing, which is the best I've ever seen... you're not wasting time with "drones" or "gatherers"... just put peasants to work in a mine and they increase its production... no worries! If the mine is attacked, they die, yes... but just buy more peasants! They don't count as part of your army, so they don't take up space! I love that part!
2. SPELLS!!! There are TONS of them and the Lightning shooting from wizards hands was very well done...
3. Your hero can fight and die! And convert buildings and mines! And increse the morale of surrounding troops (within his or her (or it's) radius.
4. The GUI!!! (Graphical User Interface for you Noobs) OUTSTANDING! SO EASY!
5. The graphics. Eye - Popping? Is that good enough? No. Immaculate. Yes that describes it better. A lot of work must've been done in the detail of the graphics for this game...
There it is in a nutshell.
6. The combat. VERY well done. Use of tactical formations, placing your archers in just the right spot... or in a tower... bum rushing your opponent with knights, or REALLY sticking it to them by sending a red dragon (or two.... OR TEN) or REALLY REALLY sticking it to them by sending your DESTROYER (ie. Syrian Titan) by the time your opponent kills this thing... you've destroyed tons of his buildings/troops or both... (it's usually game over at this point)

I could go on more, but this game is better when being played and not talked about SO GO BUY IT. YOU NEED IT.

This is a very well developed real time strategy game, and I have yet to see the flashier games produce such a well rounded product.

With each side having various advantages & abilities that make them different, the strategies you could try out shift with each race. Among the most interesting are undead with their ability to upgrade into more powerful forms, which heals them of damage. This allows you to upgrade a group of undead from skeletons to wights in the middle of a battle, making them more powerful and fully healed.

Each unit can also be assigned a behavior, such as running around the map looking for a fight, guarding another unit, or using magical attacks. The units use their spells and weapons with a decent amount of intelligence, so you rarely find yourself annoyed at your army for making dumb mistakes.

In addition to this, each side also gains a hero, a character who picks a class and levels up in it. The classes start with Warrior, Rogue, Wizard, Priest, but then branch off into interesting subclasses that range from the common illusionist and demon summoner to the merchant, who gets upgrades for cheap. There are a ton of spells to try out as well.

Every race also gets a titan, a super unit that is either the ultimate warrior or defender. This creature, if allowed onto the field, can usually finish up a drawn out battle in minutes.

Also, the overall AI is really well done. For example, as the human side I summoned my titan (a giant with a flaming sword) to defend my base, but decided I could use the giant knight to kill off some pesky dwarves nearby. Once I was far enough away that my return would be too late, the daemon Titan flew in with her army to savage my base. By the time I returned, death was inevitable. I had to bow out to a smarter computer opponent, and so I'd say this is the best AI I've seen in an RTS.

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!

This game is simply the pinnacle of RTS development. I, for one, am glad that the campaign mode dispensed with the usual contrived "plot" and stuck to good old manifest destiny-style ruthless expansion on a Risk-like board. 12 unique races to play, and each one offers months of enjoyment, each a different strategy, units, and tech tree. Its not really about graphics, its about GAMEplay. Isn't that what GAMES should be about? Forget 3D, this game has it all: strategy, action, a hyper-nerdy D and D style world to lose yourself in, etc.

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.

WBC2 is one of the best games to be ignored by the game-buying public. As such, it's also become one of the best values for your RTS dollar. The graphics and sound are decent, and will hold up for another few years, at least.

Game highlights:

* 12 distinctly different playable factions. If you have a particular style of play, there's probably a perfect faction for you. If you like to switch play styles, this provides more variation than any other RTS (except perhaps Seven Kingdoms 2).

* A randomly generated campaign. No, there's no story. And if you absolutely require one to get into a game, give WBC2 a miss. The random campaign generator (also reminiscient of 7K2) gives a much greater replayability than a fixed linear story-based campaign. And you can make your next move based on the bonuses you'll receive from victory in a particular scenario, which is very cool.

* RPG-esque elements as you build your hero up from a level 1 weakling to a level 50 one-man-army. This is fun. It's can be imbalancing, too, as, toward the end, a well-designed hero can literally wipe out an entire faction on his own.

Game lowlights:

* It's probably not very well-balanced. This isn't Starcraft. Certain factions are going to get their butts kicked by certain other factions, depending on how they're played. This isn't as bad as it may sound, though, because the truth is it's hard to know whether the factions are balanced or not. There are too many possible combos and techniques and much rests on the player.

* It's not as stable as it should be. It's reportedly quite stable, but in my experience (on multiple machines) crashes to the desktop are pretty standard fare. Some scenarios seem to generate conditions that cause frequent crashes--and a crash counts as a loss for your hero.

* The problems with instability compound the fact that you can have only one save game for your hero. The one save game makes sense from a technical standpoint: If your hero levels up, he can't go back and replay an old saved game where he was a lower level. But it combines with the instability to make a particularly annoying low point.

In fact, really, the only thing that keeps this from being a five-starrer in my book is the stability issues. If you keep coming across a crash-point in a scenario, and this counts against you, it can take the fun out of what otherwise is a wildly imaginative and truly different entry in the glutted RTS genre.