Dueling Games: Averted. Warcraft Adventure original release date would have put it in direct competition to the technically superior The Curse of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. This was one of the many factors that led to the game's cancellation.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: A playable, nearly finished build of the game was leaked online in 2017, although it's still missing a number of cutscenes and background music.
Playing Against Type: Had it been released, it would have featured Clancy Brown, Tony Jay and Sherman Howard in heroic roles. Anti-heroic specifically, but heroic nonetheless.
Troubled Production: Blizzard Entertainment, known for their RTS games, had little experience when it came to developing point-and-click adventure games. The end result was an incredibly linear experience that was outdated in terms of gameplay and graphics. Blizzard then brought in Steve Meretzky, an expert in the adventure genre, to oversee production and increase the game's quality. Meretzky has explained in interviews that to bring the game up to Blizzard's standards would have required starting its development over and that production was already under heavy time and budget constraints. The final nails in the coffin for Warcraft Adventures was when LucasArts showed off previews for its new, technically superior adventure games at E3 1998, as well as rumblings that point-and-click adventure games were starting to fade in popularity, leading Blizzard to cut their losses and cancel the release outright.
What Could Have Been: This story was originally going to be told in Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, an adventure game in the same vein as Monkey Island. Blizzard put an end to the game because they felt that the gameplay was mediocre. However, the story was far too important to disregard as it was the major set up for the then upcoming Warcraft III so they released a novel based on the scripts and outlines of the game. As time went on, story details and gameplay footage became available, revealing that the game would have been much different, with Thrall going on various adventures and meeting different characters.
Blackmoore was going to have Thrall executed for refusing kill one of his own kind (and also strangling him in retaliation), and Thrall escapes Durnholde by tricking the guard into slipping on a puddle, wearing a human disguise to sneak out in the courtyard, and then launching himself from a catapult on his own. He had no help from anyone and the guards were dumb enough for Thrall to move undetected without any need for a fire.
Taretha was Christie Golden's original creation for the novel adaptation. As such, Thrall has a very different personality here, absolutely despising humans thanks to his treatment as a slave and the lack of any sympathetic human characters for him to interact with. For example, when examining human skulls in Hellscream's lair, Thrall will noticeably mutter "Damn humans" and do a Spiteful Spit on them. Grom's pet dragon Singe notes that's what Grom would usually do as well.
There is no mention of demons or the orcs' blood curse. The lethargy the orcs suffered was instead caused by alcohol supplied by Rend and Maim Blackhand.
There were going to be sidequests involving Thrall helping Gazlowe the goblin repair his zeppelin, sneaking into a Gnome laboratory to steal blueprints, and transforming into a Feral dwarf (later identified as a Wildhammer Dwarf) and infiltrating one of their Gryphon aviaries ( a fortress).
Zul'jin, instead of being captured by High Elves at the end of the Second War, would have been the owner of a trading post at an orc reservation. He also would have had a nasally voice with a cuban accent, the accent fitting in with how Warcraft 2 Trolls, later identified as Forest Trolls, talked.
Kilrogg Deadeye would have still been alive and Kargath Bladefist would have supported Thrall becoming Warchief. This was implied in the manual for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and fit in with the lore of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, however it was Retconned with The Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft.
Alexstrasza would have been portrayed as sadistic and manipulative, a far cry from her canonical character. She would have been angry and vengeful towards orcs due to her enslavement in the Second War but would have agreed to help Thrall attack Durnholde in exchange for him killing Deathwing. Additionally, Deathwing would have been one of Alexstrasza's many sons instead of her brother.
Overall, the orcs, while still portrayed more sympathetically compared to previous games, are not the shamanistic and noble people that the novel ultimately present. Thrall uses dark magic and spells from Drek'thar scrolls instead of training himself to be a shaman devoid of the old Horde's influence, and the orcs fall to lethargy not due to demonic magic withdrawal but through the black ale from the Alliance that they have become so addicted to.
Early promotional materials advertise the game as Warcraft 3 before it was changed into a spinoff leading into the third entry.
According to producer Bill Roper, had Warcraft Adventures not been cancelled then its story and gameplay would have been overhauled into something completely different from the build that leaked in 2016.
for the novel adaptation. As such, Thrall has a very different personality here, absolutely despising humans thanks to his treatment as a slave and the lack of any sympathetic human characters for him to interact with. For example, when examining human skulls in Hellscream's lair, Thrall will noticeably mutter "Damn humans" and do a Spiteful Spit on them. Grom's pet dragon Singe notes that's what Grom would usually do as well.