WarCraft Adventures (1997) - ?!?

[Dako-ta]

Greetings,

I was tidying my apartment a bit (well, actually, a lot since I don't do that very often :D ) because of an upcoming visit from relatives, and I found a glossy brochure which turned out to be a catalog of Blizzard Software. I think this came in the original WarCraft II box, because all that Blizz had was WC, WCII (+ expansion), D1, SC... and something called Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans ("coming Winter '97").

This was supposed to be "An adventure game in the world of WarCraft."

-- "Raised by humans and forced into a life of brutish slavery, one Orc stands as the last symbol of honor for the Horde. As Thrall, you must unite the clans and lead your people onto the field of battle. In this pivotal next chapter of the epic struggle between the Orcs and Humans, an all new dimension of the world of WarCraft is revealed."

-- "Immersive Gameplay. Dark intrigue and biting humor intertwine as you come face-to-face with over 70 WarCraft characters."

-- "Rich Fantasy Artwork. 60 detailed locations set within the Kingdom of Azeroth."

-- "Powerhouse Voices. An all-star cast featuring the classic voices of Clancy Brown, Peter Cullen, and Tony Jay."

-- "Intricate, Hand-Crafted Animation. Over 40,000 frames of feature-film animation from over 100 master animators."


So, what happened? I don't recall hearing about this; I'm fairly sure it wasn't released. Did Blizzard just kill it? It sounds like a fair amount of work might have gone into it at the time the above was written, so what went wrong? Does anyone remember this?

Inquiring minds want to know... :P

Regards,

Dako-ta


"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves."

-- Anna Quindlen

[hmmm, well, as part of the general cleaning and straightening, I've donated about a hundred books to the local library in the past month... and can't really tell that there's any books gone at all... do you think I have a problem? :blink:]

[[wcip]Angel]

When WarCraft 3 was still a roleplaying game, I remember hearing the same about this Thrall-character. I suppose they abandonded the idea and made WC3 into a traditional RTS.

[NiteFox]

The answer I've always drawn from various sources is this:

1) They started work on WCA
2) They realised it was gonna both suck and blow
3) They #$%&canned the project
4) They recycled certain parts of the plot into WC3
5) They hired a team of crack money-counting monkeys to count all the money they made
6) They then didn't pay the monkeys

Any more questions?

Anyway, by the estimated end of the project cycle it seemed that 2D adventure games were going the way of the dinosaur. When Grim Fandango arrived in all it's 3D gloriousness, it certainly killed off a couple of 2D adventure titles that I can't remember the name of at this time.

[[wcip]Angel]

If you're thinking about the sequels to Full Throttle and Sam 'n Max hit the road, I do believe their cancellation came much later.

[Kevin]

As others have said, Blizzard dropped the game. Having followed Blizzard developments since the release of WarCraft, I followed this game a fair bit. If I dig around in my old archive data CD and Zip disks I might still be able to find some of the videos they had released of the game play. It was pretty much an interactive comic. The graphics had a comic book feel to it. There were some delays on it, then Blizzard announced a release date (I believe the last one they ever announced) and then about 2 weeks later and only two or three weeks before it was supposed to go gold, they canned it.

The game was playable as I understand it, and War3 and WoW do incorporate a lot of the story from it. But it never saw the light of day because Blizzard said that it just didn't live up to their expectations as a game.

[Zarathustra]

Yeah, there was actually a trailer for the Full Throttle sequel about a year ago. I think I still have it somewhere on my HD.

[NiteFox]

If you're thinking about the sequels to Full Throttle and Sam 'n Max hit the road, I do believe their cancellation came much later.
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Noooo... I wasn't thinking of the S&M and FT sequels (Which were full-3D), I seem to recall that at around the time there were a few classic-style 2D adventures in production that gracelessly slipped off the release radar as soon as the first review for Grim Fandango was printed.

S&M2 and FT2 were cancelled because they weren't Star Wars games.

[Dako-ta]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies; it's about as I surmised.

Gnollguy:
"It was pretty much an interactive comic. The graphics had a comic book feel to it. ... because Blizzard said that it just didn't live up to their expectations as a game."

Now, those tidbits ring a bell. I think I do vaguely recall the cancellation announcement now. The catalog description didn't really sound familiar.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Dako-ta

"As the area of light increases, so does the circumference of darkness." - Alfred Einstein