This is the oldest game I've seen officially available and was quite curious to try a game that's two decades older than me. At first it was pretty rough - the food mechanic (i.e. actions available, which includes every single step) and it was easy to get lost, since the whole place is just white lines that form corridors and there's no map, so you have to remember your pathing. The combat was actually fair. The early monsters were easy to tackle and there was a normal difficulty curve. However, I didn't go through the whole "normal" journey, because after getting lost a few dozen times I decided to research how the game works and discovered that there's a pretty easy way to become overpowered as a wizard, which resulted in beating the game without further assistance afterward. It was a unique experience to play something as old and see where some games have evolved from, but it should still be approached with the understanding that it's a game older than half the current human population.
Game is an old gem but could really use a remake. The storytelling is incredible for an RTS from early 2000 and appreciate all the cinematics they've done in a way to make it come to life, instead of just reading all the info (this also includes how every campaign has an accent fitting voice acting as well). I feel the gameplay itself could be separated into two subgames: that'd be ancient times vs modern times. Reason for that is because tactics in both and the way they played felt fundamentally different. My personal preference, the ancient times, it very much like other RTS with melee units, archers, siege and all the basics. On the other side modern times felt a lot more volatile because of there being cannons that can absolutely decimate infantry in the matter of seconds, and on the hand atomic blasts! It made the gameplay on one hand a lot more cautious to avoid being annihilated in no time, and on the other hand added in a lot of precise exploration and revealing so YOU can be the one that blasts the enemy to nothing. The reasons why the game would benefit from a remake is because there are some things that are in need of refinement. One of them is the formations, which I take it it's for realistic accuracy and the variety is pretty cool, but the way units are so spread out makes them very useless for large groups (and they can't be turned off or tell units to stick tightly together). The second thing is the way ships (and spaceships) behave. Their hitboxes are pretty huge compared to their size and if you tell them to go in groups, they do get stuck in each other and take a long time to form because of that too. On another note, something that I really liked, was that throughout the campaign you earn points, which you can then spend on upgrades that last for the rest of the campaign! Really loved that, because it makes all the levels feels connected and it's not something I expected from the game's age. The expansion had some great things but lows too.
Adds a bunch of quality of life upgrades compared to Warcraft 1 like being able to select 3 extra units and keybinds (so useful). Story is pretty good too, it's pretty cool to see some characters like Turalyon and Alleria and Khadgar. Music is epic! Had noticeably less dungeon crawler levels tho, not a bad thing per se but they're fun and a nice way to wind down. Overall it was like a more polished version of Warcraft 1. One thing, though, is that gryphons/dragons' reactions are SLOW, they can literally take 6 to move at times and in large groups they tend to set each other on fire, so be advised when trying to use them. Also, can't remember if this was a thing in 1 but if you get the chance spam click a critter :D
Didn't have very high expectations for a game older than me but it was definitely surprised me in a good way. It is primitive in some ways which makes it harder than modern RTS but it's still very much playable, and the port is very good too since I never had a single crash or issue in my 18ish hours of playtime. When I was playing Warcraft 3 the dungeon crawler missions were always fun and it was a nice surprise to see them in Warcraft 1 as well. Tbh they should've started remaking the Warcraft series with this one instead of 3 first and maybe things would've gone much better, while this one isn't as complex and is pretty much kill everyone with the occasional save some people, if it got a good remake with quality of life updates (like selecting more than 4 units at a time and being able to move with RMB), it would definitely be worth playing just like the current old version is as well. Also, after playing wow for years it was pretty cool to see some familiar faces and see how these characters started out more than 20 years ago. Also, if you think you'll have a hard time I suggest playing the human campaign first, as I found it much easier mainly because they can heal their own units, as the two campaigns basically play out simultaneously story-wise and are independent from each other.
I had previously played Diablo 3 a while back and had some expectations of what's to come but the games are hardly comparable. Entering the dungeon and attacking the first mob was the pan that hit my face and proved me wrong. I found out that I can miss and the mobs hit rather hard. But I quickly got the hang of it and started making progress. The quest system wasn't the best but the game is older than me so I can't really blame it. Exploring down the levels of the dungeons was fun and felt rewarding and many times it was lethal. The cinematics, although only three, were pretty good and gave you that feeling. The Hellfire dungeons looked awesome but the ending was quite anticlimactic because after killing the last boss there was no cinematic, no fancy reward or event, it was just over and you were left to keep descending the normal dungeon to kill Diablo and it left me quite puzzled so that I had to google to see whether I was missing or did something wrong.
