Windows

War Wind

With the phenomenal success encountered by the Warcraft series, it was only a question of time before the competition brought a similar product to the market. Developed by Dreamforge Intertainment, War Wind is the first title that is in many ways comparable to Warcraft II, but considering this game just as a simple clone would be a great mistake!

Death, doom, and destruction - presented to you in real time. Another typical night of CNN? Think again. The culprit responsible for bringing this entertainment experience to your PC is War Wind. SSI has released a real-time, multiplayer strategy game in the style of Warcraft II and Command & Conquer. War Wind adopts the best elements of these, and adds some fascinating new features of its own. It's magic, it's mayhem, and it's murder - even against your friends, if you like. Who could ask for more?

Ik ben vrij enthousiast over dit spel. Het kiezen van het beste real-time wargame is er met het verschijnen van War Wind niet simpeler op geworden!

Et kritikpunkt er de få missioner - 7 pr. race - og det lidt sløve tempo, der præger War Wind. Det er derfor ikke megen nytænkning, men derimod en masse velkendt, blandet sammen til en ny og god gang realtime-militærstrategi.

Als ich vor Monaten die ersten Versionen von War Wind sah, erinnerten sie mich frappierend an Warcraft 2. Doch die Testversion beweist, daß sie mehr als nur ein müder Abklatsch anderer Programme ist. Mir gefällt vor allem die Betonung einzelner Figuren. Statt anonyme Armeen in den Tod zu schicken, leidet man mit seinen Helden, Architekten, Assassinen und Psyonikern.

Was haben Nutella, Calvin Klein-T-Shirts und WarCraft 2 gemeinsam? Sie verkaufen sich überdurchschnittlich gut und werden daher von findigen Konkurrenten dreist kopiert. Und Warwind von SSI ist das beste Warcraft 2-Plagiat, das Sie momentan bekommen können - täuschend echt nachgeahmt, von der Grafik bis hin zur Anzahl der Missionen. Dennoch hat sich das Fantasy-Strategiespiel eine gewisse Eigenständigkeit bewahrt.

Copying is ordinarily the simplest task in the world. I did most of my copying at school, where the lack of fire in my belly for the joys of homework often left me relying on the honest labours of others to bail me out come the day of reckoning. In my history class I formed, with a few trusted associates, a homework syndicate. This operated on a rotor basis whereby each week one member of the syndicate would actually do the homework before passing it on for duplication and minor customisation by the rest of us. Everyone was happy, nobody got hurt and it was easy. Jazz up somebody else’s work with a couple of your own ideas, change the emphasis a bit to cover the scent of rip-off and you were almost guaranteed better marks than the poor sap who'd actually put all the effort in. How could it go wrong? Unfortunately, SSI have got their answer to C&C and Warcraft 2 terribly wrong.

War Wind är absolut inget dåligt spel, men det saknar den där omedelbara fascinationen som Warcraft 2 skapade.

In short, War Wind is a game that tries to do too much. It has added levels of complexity that haven't been seen before in a real time strategy game. But SSI sacrificed playability as a consequence. The creative storyline showed a lot of thought, the heroes were well done, and the native wildlife added spice (and just a bit of chaos) to the game. However when it came to gameplay, War Wind got confusing and even boring at times.