Lord of the Clan's Review
I have to say, I have played the multiple versions of this campaign from over the years. But honestly, the newest version is way better than its older counterparts. Also, SPOILERS!!! You have been warned.
Story: 4.5/5
We all know the story about Thrall's upbringing, most of the details are taken straight out of the Lord of the Clans book. Despite this, the campaign is far from being a carbon copy of the book. The campaign does a great job providing immersion through engaging cutscenes, interesting puzzles, and missions. I only have two problem's with the campaign's story, one is Blackmoore. In the book he was very much was a mad drunk who abused his power and authority, while in the campaign he does come off as a James Bond villain, taunting Thrall there and there, and having a fortress full of elaborate traps. This detail is more of a knit pick but I wish the campaign would show more of Blackmoore's character so the player can get a better idea of how abusive he was to Thrall. The other knitpick is the lost opportunity of including a mission of Thrall's gladiator days before his escape, it would be a great way to demonstrate how Thrall was abused by his master, and include some cool gladiator battles and maybe a boss fight. Other than those knitpicks, the campaign does capture the spirit of the book extremely well.
Models and Terrain: 4.5/5
For the most part, the game has some really good models that help bring the characters to live. The new Orgrim model especially. The terrain is also very well done and helps the player get immersed in the several environments, the Alterac mountains and Durnholde outpost are the highlights of the campaign. No every custom model is appropriate though, the biggest one being the mounted Thrall models where he wields his hammer, even though he is not suppose to have a hammer until the last mission of the game. And a little more detail in the environments couldn't hurt. Overall, great job but could use a little fine tuning.
Dialog and Quests: 4/5
Most of the dialog is taken or inspired by the book. However there are numerous typos in many of the cinematics. Despite this, many of the quests are very straight forward, to the point where you could just skip the cutscenes and know what to do. The biggest upside is that there are little to no filler quests. Most of the main quests help move the story forward or add immersion to the game, and every side quest completed does give the player a suitable reward. Some of the characters you encounter can also be pretty humorous. My favorite would be the kamikaze goblins. By the way, like this message if you saw the Space Orc cameo.
Difficulty: 5/5
After playing Day of the Dragon I did form a bias against Outsider's campaigns because of their hard difficulties. However this campaign is a huge step forward, I would only die or fail a side quest if I was rushing the game or if I made a stupid mistake. Overall the game is only hard if you make it hard on yourself. Some say this campaign was too easy, but for me it was about the experience and the story progression and not having to strain my brain over puzzles. Even Durnholde outpost has significantly improved compared to its older version. Same with the Elements quest. I still had nightmares when I played the Spirit of Air quest and beating Durnhole in the older version but thankfully those nightmares didn't come back to haunt me in this new version. Hopefully he will revise the difficulty in Day of the Dragon in the same way he did with this campaign. I give this two Orc thumbs up
Triggers: 4.5/5
I am sure there are players who will nitpick about the puzzles some of the game's mechanics, but I think the campaign's triggers are mostly solid which shows when you see the cutscenes and the puzzles. Of course the campaign can be glitchy at times but honestly I can overlook it. The enemy A.I used for the Durnholde armies is also very well done, starting in small waves but growing bigger over the course of time. The puzzles also start out easier but get more complex until you reach the final mission where your skills are put to the test. Still the puzzles are straight forward most of the time, even during the last mission. Of course there will always be glitches but during my play through, I encountered little to no glitches.
Final Verdict: 22.5/25
This is great campaign that does help capture the spirit of the original Lord of the Clans story. You see Thrall's origins and how he became the bad ass Warchief we all know and love, so when you start the Reign of Chaos tutorial missions, you will know who and what these characters are. Despite how well made this campaign is, there is always room for improvement, some more models, add a few triggers, maybe a few more missions to help develop Blackmoore and Thrall's relationship further. And you have the perfect campaign. Without these things, its still a masterpiece regardless. Again, I hope the creator does revise his other campaigns the same way he did with this.
Outsider, I hope you know that even though I critique your campaigns, that I still love each one of them, I played through The Last Guardian campaign from beginning to end, (which was not easy), as well as Day of the Dragon. You bring some more detail and love to those stories and help translate those tales into the gaming medium, not even restricting yourself to the confines of the RTS genre. I hope this review will help cheer you on to updating your old campaigns or maybe even creating new ones. There's always new ground to uncover. And as always, I will be eager to review them.
Share what you love, and the world smiles with you.
As always,
LOK'TAR OGAR!
Approved
After 2,5 years log and hard work I've finally managed to let a dream come true. Starting and finishing a project and giving people the chance to play it. Naturally, I didn't spend the whole time on this project, the truth is, I was leader of a clan, had to manage our Homepage and took a lot of time-outs to play other games. But all this I can do now without having to think that I still have work to do. I hope that you have at least as much fun playing this as I had creating it.
