i'm casually into WoW and strategy games, and i play a lot of hearthstone. Are warcraft 1 2 and 3 worth going back to check out?

I would imagine WC1 and WC2 would be pretty rough to play now ... but WC3 + the Addon probably are still awesome games. If you can get your hands on those I would give them a try.

I'll second this. War I & II are so old, but WC3 is still has one of the best single-player RTS experiences out there over a decade later. I'd definitely recommend picking that up and Frozen Throne as well.

If you like RTS games they're some of the best of the genre. WC3 was the one that really defined the style that WoW is known for today, however.

Warcraft 1 and 2 are very rough and probably hard to get a hold off and get working, but it does introduce some of the well-known heroes of Warcraft today, so if you want to complete picture, you can power through them in an afternoon or something.

Warcraft 3 is amazing, it sets up just about everything that is in the Warcraft universe today, and the ending leads directly into the beginning of WOW. Definetly get 3 if you can.

As others have said, Warcraft 1 and 2 are pretty rough. Warcraft 3 and the expansion are amazing games, and in my top games of all time.

I'd say even 2 holds up but that could just be nostalgia and I never played 1. They're obviously very different from WOW though, might not be what you're looking for...

I loved 2. Played it to death. This was many years ago.

Warcraft 3 has the single, best RTS single-player campaign ever made. This is still true to this day. It's an incredible experience, and I'd really recommend you check it out. The story is genuinely great, the campaigns are cohesive and varied, the individual missions fun as hell. Frozen Throne, it's expansion, maintains the same level of quality and is essential for completing the story-arch.

Warcraft 2, you just might end up having fun with. If you're forgiving about the fact that you're playing an older game, there is still quite a bit of depth there and a pretty good story.

Warcraft 1 does not hold up, period. It's not even charming to look at, it looks so dated, and the gameplay is very simplistic. Loved it back in the day, though, but even nostalgia don't save that game at this point.

warcraft 1 and 2 are pretty darn old, you might still like them, but go in knowing they'll be pretty dated. Warcraft 3's campaign was alot of fun.

Warcraft 3 is probably the safest bet. Give that one a shot and if it feels a little too archaic or something then I wouldn't bother with the other two.

I have recently tried to replay Warcraft 2 - it holds up super well graphically, coming in hot when 2d art was peaking, it still looks baller.

That said from the gameplay perspective it has not aged well at all, a lot of convenience we have come to expect in an RTS simply wasn't there before, it's a downright pita to play.

I'll echo with the rest and give Warcraft 3 a shout-out. Incredibly enjoyable story and great gameplay even today still. I really hope they'll manage to reach that high with Warcraft 4 again if that ever happens. Starcraft 2 and HoTS had fun enough campaigns, but nothing as memorable as each WC3 campaign had to offer.

Huh, I strongly disagree with most here. WarCraft 1 and 2 are still great games, particularly WarCraft 2: Battle.net Edition. I absolutely despise WarCraft III though. Shifting to an art style which never looked particularly good, with polygonal graphics back in 2003 when polygonal graphics didn't look particularly good in themselves. And also having an absolutely terrible camera where much of the time your units get hidden behind stuff. The reason DOTA became the thing people play in WC3 is most likely due one unit being pretty much the limit of what you can keep track of in that engine.

Like all Blizzard's RTS games, they (including WarCraft III) suffer from supply limits and an arbitrary limit to how many units you can select, but as far as Blizzard games go, WarCraft II is my absolute favorite along with the original Diablo. WarCraft III still suffers from the same issues that the first two games had gameplay wise, with the only addition of also suffering from a bad camera.

Don't even bother with 1. The unit management is really really labor intensive.

2 is simple and fun. 3 and the expansion have an epic storyline and are a good time, too.

Still can't beat Starcraft + Brood War for the best combination of gameplay and story, though.

Warcraft 2 still holds up, i still like the campaigns in that game moreso than the ones in Warcraft 3.

WarCraft 2 is the beginning and end of the franchise, as far as I'm concerned. (mind you, I hate MMOs, and 3's art style. Also I couldn't care less about the story in 3, so the focus on it did nothing for me. I just want to build a base and kill orcs in generic skirmishes)

I never played much of W1, but I remember watching my dad play the hell out of it back in the days. My brother, dad and I sometimes still quote from that game. I loved playing W2 and W3.

I tried to play W1 on my laptop some time ago, and it was unfortunately unplayable for me. If I remember correctly, it was extremely slow. W2 I played for a fair bit one or two years ago, it still works pretty well, although I believe scrolling through a level went much faster than it should. I would recommend to at least check it out to get an idea of the origins of Warcraft, and if you get used to it, to even finish it. And although I haven't played W3 for years, I believe everybody else here when they say it holds up well.

So yeah, go for W2 and W3.

I like Warcraft 2 a lot. I have a lot of nostalgia towards that game, which is probably why I dislike the look and feel of modern WoW, which seems pretty silly to me.

If you like strategy games, I'd say that at least 2 and 3 are worth going back to.

It's already been said, but Warcraft III and The Frozen Throne are still fantastic RTS games and well worth playing now. Warcraft 2 is also still OK.

I still think Warcraft 3 and it's expansion are pretty fun.

I'll reiterate what others have said.

1 only has value if you nostalgia for it when you played it. It's slow , the AI is super dumb and it's cumbersome to control. At the time though it was super rad.

2 is a 50/50 shot, it's got some good part but it's definitely a little rough.

3 is still a good game. In some ways despite obvious graphics issues the gameplay holds up frighteningly well since the RTS genre hasn't done a whole lot since it came out.

I'd say only 3. 1 and 2 are pretty rough at this point; if you're interested in the story you could just read about it on one of the many extensive Warcraft wikis.

WCIII is a great game, well worth playing. And some of the custom multiplayer games/maps are pretty fun too. I've probably played more multiplayer tower defens in that game then actual warcraft. There's some real good ones in there. ( Green TD was so much fun! ) But the base game itself is easily worth playing aswel in my opinion.

And if you are into the lore for WoW then WCIII is practically a must play, so much of it is directly based on events from WCIII.

And as everyone else said, 1 and 2 or harder to go back to. But maybe check out the cg cutscenes on youtube if youre into the lore.

I just finished a dive back through the classic Blizzard games this summer.

Warcraft 1 - it doesn't hold up - controls are rough, slow unit control/movement, and the road building mechanic for base building drove me crazy.

Warcraft 2 + Beyond the Dark Portal - Looks good, but the additional oil resource, and excessively aggressive fog of war made it rough.

Warcraft 3 + The Frozen Throne - Great 'recent' patch for widescreen, etc keep it current. The only frustrating part of the game for me is the formation idea - units group up into arrangements and can move pretty slow, but you can disable that from the HUD and speed gameplay up significantly.

So I play Wow for about a month every 2 years to catch up on where the sprawling story is, because Warcraft is a franchise I grew up with and I love the plot/story that it grew from. You can get most of the impact from these games from their manuals - Blizzard was a company that always made amazing manuals for their games: Warcraft 1 (Start at page 16), Warcraft 2 (Start at page 59), Warcraft 3 (Start at page 2) and a youtube search for cinematics.

I'd say buy Warcraft 3 + The Frozen Throne and skim the content that's available online for the rest. If my obvious Warcraft fandom is more than you want, and some classic RTS gameplay is what you crave, I have to say the C&C ultimate collection is what you should jump on - every Command and Conquer (17 of them) for 20 USD.

Warcraft 2 is still a lot of fun, I replayed it a few years ago and all these dismissive comments surprised me. One of the best OSTs of its era. You're gonna have to put up with some clunkiness though, like the 9 units selection limit, some pathfinding issues in narrow areas, manually casting each spell, stuff like that.

Warcraft 3 feels pretty modern, with several quality of life improvements, frequent scripted events and cutscenes during the campaign, and the RPG elements might make it more accessible for you. I personally prefer the 2D engine (it's easy to tell how big everything is and what will pass through what as well as get a clear overview of what's happening at any point) and speed of Warcraft 2 though.

Warcraft 1 though is very rough, you might wanna just check out the cutscenes or a retrospective video for that one.