First off I'd like to say I don't agree with the author of this review that this game has "major flaws". It's actually a great game! A RTS Gem from the mid 90's.
The difficulty level is not "way too high", it's just a challenging game. It's true that the AI starts with more units but it's like that in all RTS games. If they had fewer at the start you would just walk right into their base and yay, misson complete! This is not a pitched battle game it's more of guerilla warfare and skirmish game. Also being able to upgrade each and every single unit (with 5 different bionic upgrades for speed, damage, stealth, health and vision) just makes this game more deep and allows you to create your own hero units.
The review also fails to mention a lot of things that make this game really compelling and fun to play.
For instance the flora and fauna of Yavaun. The game maps are riddled with neutral animals and beasts. Some of the beasts are hostile and will attack your units on sight, some won't attack unless attacked (or in some cases if you attack their young) and yet others attack you if and when they feel like it. Some races (The eggra and shama li if I remember correctly) can even tame some of the beasts and use them for war.
You can construct and use vehicles in this game! And no I don't mean you build a tank and it's a unit on it's own, you have to crew them with your units in order for them work and if you leave them your enemy can sneak in and steal them. The game has three vehicles; a boat, a car (of sorts) and a hovercraft!
The review mentions that you can sometimes hire heroes from the inns but does not mention that each and every hero is totally unique and has it's own model and different stats and fuctions. When warcraft 2 came out, the heroes you got there just had the same model as the basic units only with increased damage and health although the two games debuted around the same time. There was really nothing unique about the WC2 heroes except for a different name and statchanges.
The four different race's playstyle is vastly different from each other. In warcraft 2 for example the two different factions had just about the same units, just with different models, spells and upgrades. In War Wind each race has the same basic unit archetype, being; scouts, warriors and spellcasters (along with some mercenaries that you can't train but only hire from the inn) but each unit has their own stats and strengths. Also when you have a certain number of the same unit type you can upgrade one of them to a higher ranked unit with better stats and abilities. For example when you have 3 Oblinox soldiers you can make one of them a Captain Or when you have 5 Eggra squires you can make one of them into a Knight. Each of the races also has one "super-unit" that is unique to each race. The Eggra get the Grenadier, a long range damage dealer, which trains from an artisan worker. The Oblinox get the Colossus, an Oblinox-tank hybrid, which trains from a Captain. The Tha'roon get the Jumptrooper, an armored flying damage dealer, which trains from an their high tier scout. And the Shama li get the Elemental, a huge, fast, tough close combat monster, that trains from the Shama li's high tier spell caster.
But most importantly the storyline of the game is really good. Each of the four races gets their own unique campaign with about 10 missions each if I remember correctly. And it has plenty of CGI cutscenes between mission that looked really crisp back in the 90's.
I could ramble on about many more things because this game is really very deep and entertaining and I played it a lot back when it came out and still do now and then
So if you are reading this instead of the front page review and you like your RTS with a little more micro and simcitying download this game cause it's awesome!
5/5
P.S. If you happen upon the sequel; War Wind 2: The Human Onslaught. Turn around and walk away FAST!
