Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition

DEVELOPER : Blizzard
PUBLISHER : Blizzard

 

System Requirements Pentium, 32MB RAM

Recommended Pentium 166MHz, 32+ MB RAM

Ratings
Code Issues Graphics: 6 – 2d sprites, good amount of detail Audio: 7 – rich repertoire, good midi soundtrack Interface: 5 – Warcraft II interface with Starcraft elements	Play Issues Gameplay: 7 – fairly entertaining, even after 4 years Replayability 6 - Worthwhile playing over Battle.net, but its showing its age Multiplay: 8 – good support over Battle.net Learning Curve: could not be rated – does not apply
Other/Notes Documentation 9.0 – excellent Pros: improved interface, integrated Internet support. Cons: it doesn’t bring anything new and worth mentioning, multiplayer was available on kali long ago. Overall: 7.0

With Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition, Blizzard attempted the reproduction of a real-time strategy classic, providing Warcraft II fans with easy multiplayer access over their free service, Battle.net. Finding online opponents is obviously much easier now. Blizzard also borrowed a few Starcraft features to enhance the multiplayer experience - specifically; they added the ability to share vision with your allies, to assign numbers to groups or to select all units of a type by double clicking. Production queues and waypoints were not implemented for gameplay balancing reasons.

The game looks and sounds exactly like it did before. It might look dated but the cartoonish graphics still provide its characteristic fantasy feel.  The sound effects and musical score contribute to that sort of atmosphere as well.  

Unfortunately, the game still retains its basic flaws. The pathfinding is terrible. Just try to send a couple of units thru heavily forested areas and they will get stuck very quickly. Another flaw is the balance issue. Playing as Orcs gives you a huge advantage against humans. Bloodlusted Ogre-Magi will overrun EVERYTHING. It's ashamed that Blizzard couldn't lower the bloodlust spell to a lesser effect and actually give the humans a slight hope of winning.

The game includes the original Warcraft II campaigns as well as the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion, totaling over 50 single-player missions. At some point during its development, Blizzard scrapped the additional Platinum campaign and changed the game's name from Warcraft II Platinum Edition to Warcraft II Battle.net Edition.

It's difficult to rate a game that's around four years old by today's standards. Warcraft II Battle.net Edition is basically Warcraft with Battle.net support and enhanced interface, but nonetheless a worthy add-on for the surviving crowd of Warcraft II veterans. Warcraft II Battle.net Edition's strength also lies in its simplicity. This is perhaps the best real time strategy to start playing with. Newbies will love Warcraft II's comical and engaging gameplay.

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Reviewed by Gabe Andreescu