The Sixteenth and Final Chapter of Our Epic RTS Journey
Here we are. The sixteenth and very last episode of our grand time-traveling journey. To beautifully close our cult feature on RTS games from 1995 to 2000, we needed a masterpiece that summarizes all the ambition and madness of that decade. Released in the year 2000 under the banner of the studio Strategic Studies Group (SSG) and published by Mattel Interactive, Warlords Battlecry landed on our CRT monitors like a total UFO. Spinning off from the famous turn-based strategy franchise Warlords, this title took a wildly risky bet by fusing the frenzy of real-time combat with incredibly deep role-playing game mechanics.
College CD Swaps and Refusing the Easy Way Out
Another game that ended up on my hard drive thanks to a loan! This time, I was a college student, and a buddy brought the massive cardboard box to his place to show me the beast. Yes guys, back in the 80s, 90s, 2000s and even 2010s, we bought our games physically on discs, and we could freely lend them to each other. From the very first minutes, the atmosphere completely hooked me.
Warlords Battlecry is one of those brave titles that tried to invent new styles, to pioneer uncharted territories by refusing to blindly copy the neighbors' recipe and risking a massive fail (hello Stormgate). The developers wanted to offer something fresh, and the originality jumped right out at you from the selection menu.
💾 The big cardboard box of Warlords Battlecry had that specific weight of ambitious games from that era. The kind of thing you would respectfully place on the desk before sliding the CD into the drive, hoping your rig could handle it...
Nine Playable Races : Perfectly Embraced Chaos
The game featured an absolutely insane cast with no less than nine available races. You could find the civilized factions with the Humans, the Dwarves and the Undead. Primitive tribes joined the dance with the Barbarians, the Orcs and the Minotaurs. Finally, the magical side was handled by the High Elves, the Wood Elves and the Dark Elves. Just that!
Think for two seconds about Blizzard sweating bullets to balance four factions in Warcraft III, and imagine the joyful mess in Warlords Battlecry. You chose your side because you loved the design or the lore of your troops, driven by pure passion to lead your favorite creatures into battle, leaving behind the modern obsession with perfectly profitable stats.
Persistent Heroes and a Dungeons and Dragons Style Bestiary
The true power of Warlords Battlecry lied in its hero system. The player controlled an avatar that gained experience, leveled up and could be entirely customized. You evolved him into a warrior, a mage or a necromancer, with dozens of spells to unlock throughout your progression.
Another brilliant idea borrowed from titles like War Wind : the ability to keep some of your best units from one map to another. The bestiary went in every imaginable direction and recalled the glory days of Dungeons and Dragons or Heroes of Might and Magic. You recruited an unlikely arsenal ranging from skeletons to trolls, kobolds to barbarians, without forgetting druids, archers and massive treants.
Total Battles and a Double-Edged Storyline
The clashes took on a formidable scale by going far beyond solid ground. Much like a Warcraft II, the title handled naval and aerial battles. We hurled dragons into the clouds while our warships and transport boats desperately tried to secure the high seas.
On the single-player campaign side, the writing made a notable effort by offering a branching narrative system. After a while, the storyline asked you to make decisive choices to steer the conclusion of the tale toward the light or the dark side.
Overflowing Ambition Facing the Titans of the Genre
Warlords Battlecry was a true melting pot of everything that was best at the time, wrapped in a sincere desire to carve its own path. Although sometimes clumsy and slightly rough around the edges, it overflowed with ideas. It was probably too many elements thrown together at once for the mainstream audience.
The franchise faded away in 2004 after the release of the third installment, while the second episode from 2002 arguably remains the most balanced and memorable of the trilogy. Facing monsters of precision and targeting like StarCraft, Age of Empires or Homeworld, the series eventually and logically bowed out. It still managed to offer an entire generation a rich universe, filled with everything we love about fantasy, and largely helped shape our expectations in the grand world of PC strategy games.
Too many ideas, too ambitious, a bit too unpolished : the classic destiny of games that dared to go where no one had set foot before. And that is exactly why we still remember them today.
And you, did you experience Warlords Battlecry back in the day, or are you just discovering the series today? Tell us everything in the comments right below!
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