Warcraft Battle Chest: Orcs & Humans / Tides of Darkness / Beyond the Dark Portal

by Blizzard Entertainment

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002SUHI
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: July 1, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,723 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignore The Punk Kid, December 17, 2007

By 

Videogamer1416 "storynathan" (Williamston, MI United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Warcraft Battle Chest: Orcs & Humans / Tides of Darkness / Beyond the Dark Portal (CD-ROM)

Ignore the punk kid who said that this game is not good. He probably was expecting HALO 3 and then his parents bought this because it was cheaper. However, the lack of HD graphics doesn't make it a bad game, in fact, I quite like the 2D style, it looks neat, clean, and beautiful. The old school Warcraft games included in this battle chest focused on a war between Orcs and Humans. The first game solely involves those two main races while in the second one the humans are aided by the dwarves, elves, and gnomes while the orcs are aided by the ogres, trolls, and goblins. The first game is simplistic but fun and has interesting strategies too it, plus it has walls and roads which were taken out in the second game. However, if you're expecting a modern style Blizzard interface, you'll be expecting incorrectly. Both games suffer from a lack of control groups and only being able to que up one unit as a time. The unit selection is also pretty bad in the first one since you have to hold shift and click on them all individually, plus you can only get four and right click does nothing. The second one is greatly improved with the drag to select and the right mouse button with a number of functions although it suffers from some of the problems of the first one. The pacing is also fairly slow although you can speed both games up. However, once you get beyond those two disadvantages both games are great. The storyline and graphics won't WoW you but they are pretty good for the time when it came out and I found it enjoyable to see how things developed and look at the nice little animations. The gameplay is really the strong point though. The factions are pretty well balanced and while their regular units are the same except for minor differences (the spearman doesn't have the range of an archer, I guess the spear is too heavy for him), their magic is diverse and awesome. There's also of great conventional land units in the second game as well as naval and airpower. The maps are well done and varied, with both the typical RTS battles on the ground and naval warfare and ampibious assaults on island maps. The strategy has a fair amount of depth to it and there's lots of neat things you can do, like using farms as walls in the second game, surprising some units with no air attack with dragons, and in the first blocking passageways with foot soldiers while archers attack from behind, limiting the enemies mobility. The first one's music and intro are only so-so, but the second one is very well done in both areas. Both have engrossing campaigns and fun multiplayer matches. Plus you could probably find some world editiing tools out there to create your own maps if you look a little bit. The first game is pretty good if your into old school RTS while the second one is a blast if you don't mind some minor details being a bit less refined than current games. Plus, these are the games that started Warcraft and to a lesser extent Starcraft as well. Give 'em a try if you like fantasy or RTS games. You won't regret it, especially since it's fairly cheap.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WoW Starts Here!!, April 12, 2010

By 

Tiger (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Warcraft Battle Chest: Orcs & Humans / Tides of Darkness / Beyond the Dark Portal (CD-ROM)

It's true, this "Battle Chest" holds the original "WarCraft: Orcs and Humans", "WarCraft II: The Tides of Darkness", and the WC2 Expansion "WarCraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal". Don't come expecting the greatest of graphics, this game was made what feels like forever ago. (I played this in High School back in 1997 - Sophmore Year.) Come for the story, the characters, and the games that brought WarCraft to the world and paved the way for World of WarCraft. Medivh, Gul'dan, Ner'Zhul, Garona, Alleria, Khadgar, Turalyon, and so many more are featured in this game and will give WoW fans a better understanding of WoW Lore.

I also recommend the novels that also tell the story of these games. You will better appreciate the time and years of work that went into making WarCraft the wonder that it is today.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blast From My Past, July 8, 2011

By 

Greg (SEATTLE, WA, US) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Warcraft Battle Chest: Orcs & Humans / Tides of Darkness / Beyond the Dark Portal (CD-ROM)

Well, here we are, about a decade after it's original release (more mabye?), knee deep in the World of Warcraft phase and trudging through the Starcraft sequel. Surely, this underpowered pile should be obsolete by now, right? There's a Warcraft III, for crying out loud, what do we need this antiquated garbage for?

Because these are games, and playability trumps all. And these two old-timey, passed their prime games are still more fun and more playable than anything else I've mentioned.

The first Warcraft (one of the grand-daddie of modern Real Time Strategy and where it all began for Blizzard) is an entirely different journey than its children. Sure, the basics are all the same: gather resources, build buildings, build fighters, but this is a slow moving battle of wills and an exercise in patience. The level design is fun and engaging and the strategies, though simplistic, still hold up. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure your average house-hold computer is TOO advanced to play it at this point so... you're probably just buying it for the nostalgia and collector's appeal. Something to look into further.

And here we've come to Warcraft II. I've put more time into this game than I have into learning useful skills and bettering myself... and I'm pretty sure I'd do it all again, given the opportunity. It's easy enough to pick up and put down and yet engaging enough to hold my interest when I want it to. And while it may be outmached by StarCraft (which took what worked and expanded on it in logical and effective ways) I've always returned to Warcraft II for it's simplicity, it's clever level design, it's fun and clean animation, it's humor (STOP POKING ME!!), and it's surprising depth of character. Not to mention it being my first introduction to the concept of a map editor! What, you mean I get to reimagine the game how I want to play it? Anytime I want and however i want? And, yes, later games have much more sophisticated and variable map editors as well as much more sophisticated and variable game play, but I've always, always, ALWAYS returend to Warcraft II and it's always, always, ALWAYS been fun.

But, you know what? While we're here, I'm gonna come right out with it-- didn't care for The Dark Portal expansion. The levels were well-nigh impossible, and it marks Blizzard's first steps into abondoning interesting and well-drawn out characters in favor of lots and lots of different characters with sillier and sillier names. It's something they've continued to do to this day and it continually dissapoints me.

That aside, I've got this item in my wishlist and I'm saving up just... just to HAVE it, you know? I may not have a computer capable of playing it... but you know what? I may just want it as my first, true "collector's" item.

So there.