WarCraft 2 Battle.net Edition

by Blizzard Entertainment

Product Features

• Disc contains: Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness Battle.net Edition and
• Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal Battle.net Edition
• Intense Internet competition for up to eight players from around the world - for free!
• Over 100 new and updated multiplayer maps
• Enhanced Combat Controls: Hot-key Unit Grouping, Improved Auto-Commands, Instant Event-Alert Centering, Shared Vision

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001SHNG
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 5.8 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: October 8, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,234 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #37 in Video Games > Mac Games > Strategy
  • #37 in Video Games > Mac Games > Action
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Orcs and humans have waged fierce battles across the scarred earth of Azeroth for many moons, with never an end in sight. In a move sure to make peons whimper and paladins pray, Blizzard is extending the carnage with WarCraft II: Battle.Net Edition.

Given WarCraftII's status and dedicated fan base, it's no surprise that the single-player game is untouched. The excellent Beyond the Dark Portal expansion set is included with the original Tides of Darkness, creating four campaigns and 70 missions that remain fun despite their age. The Orc and Human armies obviously have nearly identical strengths and weaknesses, but as in the past, the art and sound cues make them feel worlds apart.

The real selling point is the vastly improved multiplayer experience. Aligning WarCraft II with Blizzard's other titles, more than one hundred multiplayer maps now let you take the struggle for Azeroth to the free "battle.net" service. Setting up games is simple enough for an Orc to figure out, and you can play against (or with) up to eight human or computer opponents. No AI can match the challenge of a human player's unpredictability, and thanks to the worldwide ladder, you can fight tooth and claw for rank against players spanning the globe. --Jack Gardiner

Product Description

Tides of Darkness includes new Battle.net multiplayer mode and all 28 original single-player scenarios. Beyond the Dark Portal is the expansion set for Warcraft II and is complete with all 26 original scenarios. Also included is a sneak-preview of Warcraft III.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition is GREAT!, November 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: WarCraft 2 Battle.net Edition (CD-ROM)

Gamers, including myself, have marveled at the old game Warcraft II for a long time. When I heard that Blizzard Entertainment was developing a new version for that classic, I was overjoyed. The old Real-Time Strategy (RTS) has left its mark as the best Game of the Year 1995, Best Online Game, and Best Multiplayer Game. Although the gameplay graphics and cutscenes art are somewhat lacking, it has pretty good graphics, funny sounds, and appropriate background music. The game's online gameplay of this game is fantastic since it takes Blizzard's free online gaming server, Battle.net, and uses it in this classic's upgrade. Warcraft II Battle.net Edition's AI is much in need of improvement compared to the other new games, though. But this game was not supposed to be completely new, so Blizzard decided not to improve some of the features, but to fix old bugs, add small improvements, and add a super multiplayer option.

The story of Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition takes place after their first big hit, Warcraft I: Orcs and Humans. After the death of the Orcish Warchief Blackhand, Ogrim Doomhammer quickly took his place as the new Warchief. Meanwhile, the tattered humans from the destroyed land of Azeroth seek refuge in Lordaeron, the other power in the Alliance, a group of humans, elves, and dwarves allying up against the fearsome Orcs. The humans have won the second war against the Orcs and have destroyed their only way into human lands, the Dark Portal. As they find out, though, the rift allowing passage to their lands still exists. They Alliance must travel the rift to Orcish Lands to stop the Orcish threat.

When you first start out on a single-player campaign, if you choose one from the Tides of Darkness, then you'll start with a small amount of units and a basic building to start out on. This just teaches you how to build things and gives you a basic feel for how you play the game. Eventually, you'll move into much harder levels which involve keeping someone alive as you travel enemy territory, building up a strong enough force to overcome a powerful enemy, and developing strategy in order to outsmart your computer enemy.

The multiplayer features in this game are comparable to some of the top games out now. Popular online games, such as Starcraft and Diablo, use Blizzard's personal gaming server, Battle.net (the top online gaming service in the world), to make a very easy and powerful multiplayer option. There are also the basic multiplayer options such as connection over an AppleTalk or IPX networks. There are traditional modem games, which are only two player, and there is direct-connect (null modem). This game's multiplayer is also compatible with the old version of Warcraft II. You can select either the enhanced (which fixes bugs and adds Battle.net option) or you can choose normal (which is the only way you can play against other people with Warcraft II, but without Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition). This enhanced game has new features such as Shared Vision (the ability to see what your ally sees), there is the new food bar (which allows you to see how much food you have without selecting a farm), and there is fixed bugs and smaller new features that would take a while to list.

This game is a pretty basic RTS. Proportionally, the graphics are way off, but otherwise they are pretty good. For example, you walk a unit next to some trees or a building. From the sizes they use, you would only be able to fit about 16 units into the biggest building (the Town/Great Hall). Those must be very big units because the smallest unit is a peon and supposedly it takes up as much space as a catapult. The cutscenes in this game could be better, too. While they are much clearer and sharper then the original Warcraft, they still could be better.

The sound in this game is good, but not as good as I hoped. They have added a few new sounds that they had forgotten in the original, but those sounds go usually go unnoticed. While it's really funny to hear an Two-Headed Ogre burp really loud and then the two heads argue over who did it and to hear a Footman complain about what he's supposed to do, that's basically it in the sound department.

I highly recommend this game if you are/were a frequent Warcraft or Starcraft player.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Same game new arena, December 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: WarCraft 2 Battle.net Edition (CD-ROM)

This is a good game, engaging, nice mix of thinking and moving. There is a shallow learning curve, yet it retains enough variety to make it worth it to strategize, even plan. Two years ago it was a five. It works pretty well over the web too, about as well as it used to on my two year old power pc. We used to be able to play over a network then. A decent game for preteens as far as violence goes. There's some blood, but it's not gratuitous, and adds to the realtime sense of battle.

Graphics are primitive. With all of the digital algorithm stuff out there, like soul caliber etc, you'd think they could risk a bit of processing efficiency to make the game look cleaner. Units aren't proportional, and the movement logic system doesn't take terrain into account.

Sounds entertaining but mostly distracting, same for music.

Player authoring limited. You can change some basic values, but not really customize the games the way wonky gamers do at higher levels.

Overall, a good game for anybody old enough to handle dialup, but I wished they had spent some more time on upgrading instead of just expanding access.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the all time greats!, December 19, 2001

By 

Rolltide (Columbia, Tn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: WarCraft 2 Battle.net Edition (CD-ROM)

Pros-
Priced right at just $15 for jewel case.
Still very popular with hundreds of potential opponents online.
Balanced weaponry, no one unit or structure rules.
Huge variety of maps and missions.
Easy to use map editor.
Additional games online such as capture the flag.
Game rarely lags or runs choppy even with 2v2 and 3v3 games.
Doesn't require much computer or a top video card.
Everything is on just one disc.

Cons-
Cartoonish graphics are a bit dated.
Gameplay, while easy to learn can be tiring and out dated.

Over all warcraft 2 is still a great game and loads of fun. I had known about this game for a long time and finally decided to pick up the $20 version which also provides you with a strategy guide. An exellent value! I heartily recommend this game because you know what you're getting. The concept is ok with the humans v the orcs but almost all my time with this game is one on one multiplayer. You don't have to go to battlenet.com you can also play a buddy modem to modem. How you begin the game depends on the map but usually you start with one peon or builder and a certain amount of resources. You will always need a certain number of farms to feed your people as well as a steady supply of gold and wood. Wood is everywhere but there are a limited number of gold mines and it is around these that you will build your camps. Most of your military will come from a barricks and you make more peons from a town hall. You'll need a blacksmith and lumber mill to upgrade your troops(swordsman,archers,catapults ect.) and from that point you can add specialty forces such as gnomes, mages and flying birds that crap explosive eggs. Note that i'm referring to the human race because i play that all the time. The orcs are very different and frankly quite weird. One of their units for example is a huge beast with two heads that only uses it's fists as a weapon. Both races can make a cool spy plane and a fairly complete navy as well as towers that can be upgraded to shoot cannons or arrows. Oil is another resource that's needed to make some more advanced units. A lot of strategy is required because maps are very crowded with many narrow passage ways. Some maps even start you off completely surrounded by trees so you can't go anywhere untill you cut down a path. I like those maps because it prevents quick attacks.

Game play is fairly easy to learn. You just click on a building and the unit you want to build. It's easy to order your units to fight or where to go but you can only control 15 units at a time. The biggest negative about this game is that you can't queue up your barricks to produce more than one unit at a time. This can make the game a bit too busy and tiring and requires you to have several barricks. For example to maintain a steady source of resources you may need two main camps and one smaller one surrounding gold mines. That means probably at least 5 barricks, three town halls as well as at least one gnomish inventor and aviary and a navy or two. Considering you will have at least a couple dozen peons gathering resources and building farms it becomes a contest of who can point and click the fastest as you constantly move from building to building while trying to control your military units. A lot of work. Too bad blizzard hasn't added the multi queing feature which exists in age of empires gold and just about any newer game. Maybe there is a mod that can be downloaded to ad this feature but it is not available here. For that reason i only give the game 4* but it still makes for plenty of good clean fun for very little money.

.............socks