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No high end pc? No problem

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game i great if you find yourself stuck in some place that you don't want to be at and have a laptop that isn't very high end spec to play games. First of all you can have a hero that you play through skirmish battles and campaign that grow with each battle. Next is all the different races there are. Mix with quests and other abilities you can choose a few pretty cool ways to play: make your hero a one man army, a powerful magic user, a charismatic commander, a crafty merchant, etc...

Okay heres the bad part. Graphics aren't very top notch at all. Game play might get a little boring, but of course this game is only for those temporary occasions.

All in all, its a game that will run on a lot of systems, easy on the wallet, and fairly enjoyable.

Best Game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is really cool it has great graphics and oh course theres the variety of the races. With realtime gameplay and the titans playing mode (each race has its own titan that rocks) It has definetly earned its place in the "hall of games" and the sequel is a definet sho-in for "best sequel ever"

Gaming bliss

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

Accomplished & Polished Game - Enjoy!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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!

best game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is the best game ever! It is awesome, and the graphics are great.

Wonderful.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Warlods Battlecry II (Ubisoft, 2002?)

Warlords Battelcry II was recently damned with faint praise in the pages of Computer Gaming World as "the best realtime strategy game completely ignored by the public." Having now been caught in its grip for weeks, barely coming up for food and sleep, I'd have to agree.

Much of the problem, I think, lies with the game's demo, which gives prospective players no idea how the game actually works (the demo contains the tutorial encompassed within the purchased product to teach you how to do such things as move and build, but doesn't get into the game's strategy aspect-- which is what makes it so engrossing), and to top it off must be run with the game's most annoying character, the barbarian hero. After finding myself totally hooked on Warlords Battlecry for a few weeks after getting it free(!) from Computer Gaming World last year, I downloaded the WBC2 demo. About three minutes into it, I remember having downloaded it just after its release and finding it eminently forgettable; the strength of the first game caused me to pick up a cheap copy of this one when I found it at Half Price Books. It's the best videogame investment I've made since getting my hands on a copy of Lords of Magic back in 1997.

Twelve different races with a bunch more class/specialty combinations, loads of hero customizing, the occasional random map, and your ability (within limits) to define the strengths and weaknesses of your whole army as you go along make the game almost endlessly replayable You're liable to lose your first few heroes fast and furious when you start out, but once you get the hang of playing any given side (and the strategies for best using each are radically different from side to side, for various reasons), you can stop concentrating on just keeping your skull in one piece and start working on the more subtle aspects of offing the other guy before he overruns you.

Wonderful, and highly recommended. ****

The Best Games You've Never Played

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

No storyline

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: November 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

very well developed

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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.

Not as Great as I Thought.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: March 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When I first played the game, I thought it was great fun; I was utterly amazed at the AI because the computer could beat me so badly every single time!! The game's a fast paced, real-time strategy game (For those who don't know: real-time strategy games are like: Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, War Craft, Civilization, Pharaoh...I hop I don't have to go on.) Anyway, the game is extremely original with it's use of heroes and guys. So that each unit has it's own identify and name! And not only can you train your hero and use him in battles to come; but you can train up even the units you produce and use them in other battles. Really cool. Besides that the resources here work quite differently; and I thought it was great; so even though I kept fighting until I won. After that I decided I would switch civilizations with the computer. I had been the Barbarians; but I decided to be the Deamons. Then I realized why the computer was beating me so badly. The Deamons are so, so much more powerful. Often one blow from a Deamon will kill a Barbarian where about twenty blow from a Barbarian would only wound a Deamon. The Barbarians have no counters for the Deamons; and most of their units are just plain in capable of even fighting back. (The Deamons are air born and throwing fireballs while the Barbarian knights just stand there and get killed without being able to reach the Deamon.) Even the ones that can counter attack are much weaker. That said: the game is unbalanced; but it is still fun. You can make the decision on buying.

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