Press Coverage
Period coverage from PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, and GameFan — plus retrospective critical assessment.
Dune II • 1992
93%
"A genuine landmark. Nothing in the strategy genre feels like this — commanding units in real time against an enemy doing the same. Dune II makes every other war game feel static."
Computer Gaming World, January 1993
The Legend of Kyrandia • 1992
89%
"Hand-painted backgrounds of genuine beauty. A darker tone than the Sierra and LucasArts fare. Westwood have produced an adventure that earns its own identity rather than imitating its betters."
Amiga Format, November 1992
Command & Conquer • 1995
95%
"Dune II was the proof of concept. Command & Conquer is the realisation. The music, the FMV, the faction design — this is strategy gaming fully formed. A masterpiece."
PC Gamer UK, October 1995
Command & Conquer • 1995
98%
"The most addictive PC game we have played in years. The balance between the two campaigns, the soundtrack, the sheer pace of it — there is nothing else like Command & Conquer."
GameFan, November 1995
Red Alert • 1996
94%
"Red Alert improves on C&C in almost every dimension. The faction asymmetry is better. The campaign is better written. The FMV cast is remarkably good. This is the Westwood peak."
PC Gamer US, January 1997
Blade Runner • 1997
91%
"The voxel engine is a technical marvel. The rain, the neon, the oppressive atmosphere of Scott's Los Angeles — Westwood have captured it. A game that only just works, but never stops surprising."
Computer Gaming World, December 1997
Red Alert 2 • 2000
92%
"The EA era has produced something worthy of the Westwood name. Red Alert 2 is funny, balanced, and enormously playable. If this is the end of the line, it is a fine way to go out."
PC Gamer UK, November 2000
Nox • 2000
87%
"Nox is the best action-RPG since Diablo. Three distinct class experiences, excellent multiplayer, and a sense of humour that earns it. Westwood's most underrated game."
Computer Gaming World, February 2000
The historical consensus on Westwood is remarkably consistent. Critics who dismissed Tiberian Sun's performance issues at launch have since reassessed its technical ambition; Blade Runner, long inaccessible, gained stature as its restoration made it playable again. Red Alert 2 is now routinely cited as the finest C&C game. Nox — commercially underwhelming in 2000 — has acquired a devoted following.
What the retrospective lens clarifies is that Westwood was never merely a strategy game studio. Eye of the Beholder, Kyrandia, Blade Runner: the breadth of their work across genres sets them apart from contemporaries who found a profitable formula and exploited it. The studio took creative risks at scale — and was, repeatedly, right.