Reviews - Lazybuttons

A lot of the glowing 10/10 reviews here are shallow, at best, so I'll try to be as constructive and in-depth as I can. Giving this game an 8/10 may seem like I'm deliberately trying to lower its score, but no, I'm actually genuinely trying to be honest and unbiased.

Summary:
The Protectors fixes so many of the really, really bad issues the vanilla game had; it may as well be called Warlords Battlecry 3.5, or Definitive Edition, or something along the same lines. However, it is not without small flaws and minor setbacks.

Foreword:
I've always been a big fan of the Warlords Battlecry series, but I've always enjoyed it from a distance. It was great fun as a concept, and almost nobody has done this RPG/RTS hybrid game since then, making WBC stand out. WBC2, and WBC3 were my favorite games, but they have aged poorly, and the balance in them was... questionable, at best. WBC3, in particular, gave players a ridiculous quantity of options to pick from, but did it at the cost of quality and unique-ness. Every faction, every race had shared units, to the point where they blended together. Many of the classes had completely useless or incredibly situational skills, while others had ridiculously overpowered skills. (Dragonslayer vs. Assassin for example). There were many redundant skills as well - like four different skills for hero's armor, or skills that were only useful against a specific faction (Elf-slayer. It created a game with a narrow, limited 'optimal' range of race/class combos, and almost no room for experimentation. Picking classes other than Assassin/Warrior was often a huge waste of time, and self-handicapping at best. Assassination skill in particular was an absolute disaster from a game design perspective.

The Changes:
The Protectors breathes new life into the dated engine of the game. WBC3's design choices and interface were dated even when the game first came out, and TPC really makes the best out of what it has to work with. It features an improved, extended control panel below: my favorite is the new 8-slot quickbar below. The game runs a lot more smoothly than the original too, especially in huge battles with 200+ units at max settings, I've never seen it drop frames or stutter.

Character Creation:
The Protectors adds a whole new layer of customization to your hero and faction choices by allowing you to pick a sub-faction for every available race. Every sub-faction comes with a special perk for the hero, and a different playstyle (except for the Fey, who seem to have an unfinished sub-faction). These choices can be fairly minor, or they can alter gameplay on a massive scale: for example, the Undead can trade melee power for stronger ranged/caster units and spell options by selecting Licheguards of Zhur as their faction, or trade off immunity to psych affliction for the ability to function normally in daylight(!), which can be a great boon for some players. And every hero gets a special faction-based level 15-perk depending on what faction they start out with: like raising all units who die in their command radius as zombies, or leeching health and mana from enemy units. There are so many awesome new combos to discover, that building new characters and exploring the interactions between different mechanics becomes a valid pastime.

Army Building:
The Protectors does away with many of the faction-specific 'best' class/unit combos. Every unit now costs two different resources, which makes it harder to focus your army around a single resource and single unit production (imp spam, fae spam, etc). The costs themselves have been standardized across every faction, so now all units of roughly the same power/tier cost about the same amount. Two of the most affected ones, at a glance, are Minotaurs and Fey. Minotaurs are even slower to build and develop now, and more expensive but their basic infantry is now comparable to advanced infantry of other factions. Fey have been nerfed massively. Overall, it's a more balanced experience across all factions, and much more fun, as the 'underdog' factions have been improved to work so much better with the new mechanics.

The AI:
The AI in TPC is great. The game features an all new Demigod AI setting you can try out in skirmish battles if you are looking for a challenge, and it will probably kick your ***. It sure kicked mine! I don't know if it's possible to beat even a single Demigod AI opponent, and what kind of tactics it would require, so this option alone is worth noting. Lower tiers of AI strength have been improved and empowered as well, improving the AI's economy and micro and making it make more full use of artifact items, spells and character abilities.

Unfortunately, I am reaching the character limit on this review. The Protectors is an amazing mod, and I've been playing it for days. However, it is held back a bit by the game's outdated interface and engine, still has some minor, but very annoying bugs, and the curse system is very frustrating.