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Warlords Battlecry 2

Warlords Battlecry 2

List Price: $19.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good for low end computers
Review: 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)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Warlords Battlecry owns everybodies mom
Review: all i have to say is, oh my god. this game is probably the best game i've EVER played. you start out choosing a race for your little hero dude and after earning experience through battles your hero gains levels and can change class. but its also a strategy war game, an awsome combonation. and thats not the best part. unlike warcraft or any other game of this type, there are 12 races to choose from. 8 of which i havent even taken the time to take a look at. i'm going to put your cat in my chili if you dont buy this game.

0.0

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: best 2-d RTS
Review: An absolutely perfect two-dimensional real-time strategy game in the fantasy genre, but for one little thing: it crashes to the desktop about every five minutes, regardless of your system. And they can't seem to find a patch for it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply the best RTS ever
Review: Forget about the reviews you see here for this game. A couple of them are spot on, but some are just lame jokes. I bought this game based on strong reviews in CGW, PC Gamer, and Computer Games. I wasn't dissapointed. The mix of RTS & RPG is slickly pulled off, adding incredible depth to a genre (RTS) that needs it badly. The level of customization and gameplay variants is stunning. The campaign game is a touch of brilliance. If you enjoy a deep game with many strategic options, played out in good old 2d, this is your game.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a very good game
Review: i have never played this game before sorry.....

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: No storyline
Review: I just picked up this game, got it with Warlords 4 for free. After installing it, I realized why it came free - the game sucks! It seems to be an improved version of WBC1, but they left one thing out - a story. In WBC2, The goal of the game is to take over the world. That's it. You're shown a map, and asked which territory you want to take over. No real purpose to it, except mindless slaughter. I'm sure glad I didn't waste 40 bucks on money on this game. If you live for multiplayer, this might be a good choice, but for those of us that would rather play a single player game, don't waste your money.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great way to kill some time...
Review: I picked this up over the weekend because I had some extra cash burning a hole in my pocket, and I admit I was surprised by the quality of this game. The game is a breeze to learn, but there are some nice complexities that will challenge most gamers. I like the combination of RPG and RTS that this game employs, and I can imagine (although I have yet to experience it for myself) that this game would be pretty fun to play in a multiplayer environment, which is offered. If nothing else, it's a great way to pass the time until the next 5 Star game comes out. Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best game!
Review: I think this is the best game ever. As soon as you start you feel as if your in it. Much better than warcraft 3.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The end-all, be-all of RTS (with a dash of RPG)
Review: 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).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE BEST RTS/RPG EVER
Review: 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.


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