Is Warcraft 2 still fun to play in 2022?

For a game that came out in late 1995, that makes it 27 years old now - let’s just take a pause to contemplate the ease in which the years can melt away for a moment…

For my 2022 summer holiday I dusted off and charged up my beloved Libretto 100CT for another retro gaming road trip. However until most other outings, this time I brought along a comfortable desktop mouse too.

This opened up the possibility of playing the many great strategy based PC games that need a decent mouse to enjoy comfortably.

I decided to jump into a game that I remember being impressed by in my younger years. I could recall a high resolution gameplay interface (especially compared to Warcraft 1), impressive sound and music along with addictive gameplay.

I found myself leaning towards the human campaign and spent a good few hours working my way through a number of the campaign scenarios.

I was struck how small the actual gameplay area was, with much of the screen taken up by other interface elements.

However it didn’t take me long to get into the usual routines of gathering resources to invest into my own buildings and units.

Something that did bother me throughout my playtime was the amount of micromanagement required, which newer RTS titles has largely done away with.

For example not having build queues was a constant bother. If I wanted to build up an army it was a slow, tedious and repetitive process.

I did enjoy how new unit types would be made available in later scenarios, which kept the game feeling fresh and more varied. However the negative aspects of the experience drained my enthusiasm to keep playing faster than I would have liked.

Overall I enjoyed my time with Warcraft 2 and can see how it was such a landmark title. However viewed through a modern lens it’s easy to fit areas that a modern remaster could resolve (as happened with C&C).

Certainly a game still worth spending time with.