WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans – Green and Mean [Review]

After many years of indecision, it was finally time to try the unreleased version of WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. It’s one of the games that made my Top 10 Saddest Game Cancellations, but it’s part of a rarity of cancelled games that’s actually playable with a complete story—thanks to having its beta leaked. The ever great modders and tinkerers of the PC gaming scene have restored it to a playable version, which is how I now got to ultimately play it. So, is it a long-lost tragedy that should have been released, or was it the right decision by Blizzard to drop it? Read and find out!

Thrall’s destiny
In WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, we get to follow Thrall’s journey to become the Warchief of the Horde. The last war against the humans ended in total defeat for the Horde (Warcraft II), which broke their spirit fundamentally—essentially becoming slaves to the humans, confined to internment camps with no future. Thrall, learning this after fleeing capture from a human lord since just a babe, decides that something must be done, feeling the call of destiny. The path is set, unite the proud Horde or die trying!

For those of you that have played the legendary RTS Warcraft III, might recognize that this plotline got repurposed for that game. However, condensed, with a few differences, as there is no mysterious prophet whispering to Thrall through his nightmares, and tonally, WarCraft Adventures is more of a roller-coaster.

Comedy, or not?
Overall, I enjoyed the story, and its characters, many of which I recognized from the Warcraft RTS series and the World of Warcraft MMO. The tonal whiplash in certain segments wreck the atmosphere, though, as I genuinely thought it was going to be a serious tale before I installed the game. A joke here and there is fine, but it goes full LucasArts adventure mode from time to time, which means complete goofiness in an attempt to be humorous. This, while maintaining a severe tone elsewhere, caused a severe disconnect in the narration for me: is the tale of Thrall’s rise to power just a joke, or something more serious?

Now, I might come off as a miser, but I’m pretty sensitive to “forced” humor in my media consumption, especially when the tone swings between serious and silly at a moment’s notice. In the case of WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, we have a lot of cool moments of this legendary (by now) mythological story of Thrall. Yet, often out of the blue, it turns into a farce. It’s just disappointing when you sense the inner focus of an intriguing scene, only to be destroyed by a flying pig. And the theme of the game is tragic in itself—watching a whole people reduced to nothing. From a proud race of warriors, now to die in some moldy corner with a bottle of booze cradled between his arms, forgotten by history. 

I probably see too much in this, considering it’s an old, cancelled game that has no influence on the canon of the franchise. I just feel that WarCraft Adventures, even now, when playing a bygone beta of a game that was not meant to be—it just would have been so much better if it was more in-line tonally with Warcraft III. Yet, in the end, it does not matter much. What is there is entertaining enough to warrant a playthrough, if you enjoy the lore and want to experience something you shouldn’t have.

The clicking
The gameplay department is very similar in the style of classic point and click mechanics. Surprisingly, it’s on the easy side for being a game created in the ’90s. Very little moon-logic and no forced death-scenes, in other words. The only real challenge is memorizing out-of-place things that might come in use later, like remembering a puddle of oil that spilled because you did something dumb, but needed.

Speaking of which, these moments create a divide between gameplay and story. You see, to travel you go by Zeppelin, which indicates a fairly long passage of time for the journeys between areas. But seemingly every new area has a conundrum that needs to be solved by going back to an earlier location, to talk or mix something you couldn’t before, since you found a new item. It’s a tad bothersome, because as soon as you make progress in the narration, the game forces your green behind to take a (imagined) long trip back. To be fair, some places change with the passage of time, so you get something new to gawk at. That’s classic adventure gaming for you!

The Lordaeron look
Visually and in terms of audio, WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans is quality, especially since Thrall is voiced by Clancy Brown, and he does a good job of it. I got Highlander vibes when Thrall turned to anger in the game. Sadly, being an unfinished beta, certain spoken dialogues have been replaced by a synthesized voice of old tech, which sounds horrible. But I only heard it once or twice. The game is also missing a few sound effects, and some animations occasionally look funky.

All in all, given what it is, the game comes off as pretty much intact, feeling like a full release for the majority of the time. I’m not sure how much of this was done by the PC “tinkerers”, but I assume it was a lot of work—so good job on them, you know who you are. The only one I know about is The Warcraft Adventures – Cutscenes Remaster Project, which has dedicated a lot of time over the years to fix the cutscenes. Major cred to the guy behind the project!

Conclusion
While I was disappointed with the tone of the story’s presentation, I still enjoyed my time with WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. And playing a game you were never meant to play holds an undeniable novelty in itself, which almost feels like experiencing history through an alternative time-line. Other than that, it’s a fairly by-the-books adventure game, if you are starving for that—it’s a clear recommendation. However, it was not some kind of mind-bending experience, so to answer the question in the intro: it’s a loss, but not overwhelmingly so. Yet, I have to wonder if its release would have taken Blizzard or the Warcraft franchise in a different direction.

Thanks for reading.

– Thomas