[5] Jim Preston of NextGen said of the game, "Players who look underneath the ordinary surface will find a highly entertaining mix of strategy and role-playing.

"[16] The game was commercially unsuccessful in the U.S.,[18][19] and journalists Mark Asher and Tom Chick noted that it "didn't even hit PC Data's charts".

[18] Writing for CNET Gamecenter, Asher reported in September 2000 that the game's sales in the U.S. had reached 8,608 units, which drew revenues of $332,662.

The games feature a hero building system which preceded Warcraft III's own one and combine real time strategy elements with roleplaying elements (hero development, stats and skills), thus making its creator labelling the series as "roleplaying strategy" games.

Although the games share the same basic gameplay and graphics engine, and the series is generally well received among Warlords fans and hunters, the community around them has always been small (but loyal), and no serious modding efforts have been done until the third installment was released, although all three installments ended up supported by community (Fan patches[23]) rather than developer patches and mods.