Retro Review: Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition

©Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Platforms: MS-DOS, Mac OS, Windows, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation
Players: 1-8

Blizzard took everything that was flawed in Orcs & Humans, threw it away and put together this game that is so much better.

To begin with, the game looks great. Though there are a handful of environments they all look quite unique. The animations are fairly fluid and each unit looks fantastic. Watching two armies clash in this game was absolute bliss in its prime. The cut scenes also look fantastic for its time, but are slightly flawed with awkward models and content that generally has absolutely nothing to do with the current story.

©Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

The sound, on the other hand, is flawless. The music is very appropriate and sounds fantastic (you will not forget these tunes). What impressed me the most is how the music actually adds character to each of the two factions. The sound effects of each unit are amusing, well-acted and generally appropriate. As far as the sound goes, I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

Now the controls are a major improvement over its predecessor. You can now click and drag to select multiple units! The maximum units for a group is now 9. To make it even better, you can program a group to a number on the keyboard (0-9) to make a maximum of 10 groups of 9. That means you can effectively control 90 units at a time. Also, right-click is now used for movement/attacking and left clicking is used for selecting. This is all very familiar to us in modern gaming, but was relatively new back then. The controls are much more optimized and the only complaint I have is that using spells can be a little difficult in the heat of battle since you have to individually select your unit to use the spell. Still, this is a major improvement over the original and the game is actually playable this time around.

©Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

There are two factions: the Orcs and the Humans. Each factions tells the story through its own unique perspective, and the story starts to get quite a bit deeper in comparison to the original. Each factions is nearly identical though when it comes to gameplay, with minor differences in some spells only. This means that you are choosing to play as whichever faction you like better through aesthetics mostly. Still, since the game is balanced, you will find every match to be a match of fast-paced and violent chess. The best thing I like is that roads have now been removed, giving you much more freedom in building. Most interestingly though, is the new naval aspect that makes things a bit more dynamic.

The campaign for each faction is easy and gentle for the first 7 missions. Then the last 7 missions put you into absolutely difficult situations that require you use of all the tactics you have learned. Sometimes it can be brutally difficult. Through some creative thinking, everything is still manageable. I was a little disappointed that the cave missions were removed in this game (where you are given a certain number of units and you must get through an enemy-filled dungeon and survive), but I suppose Blizzard used that opportunity to make a whole game based around that concept: Diablo. There are a total of 28 missions, 14 being extremely difficult and 14 being fairly easy. The sudden change in difficulty can be a little jarring and frustrating at first but a little practice will ease that frustration reasonably quickly.

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One of the best things about this game is the multiplayer. You will find that you will be playing this game long after you have completed the content if not for the multiplayer, then at least for the skirmishes and the unique scenarios that the game includes.

That’s not all though! This collection also includes the expansion as well. The expansion adds a couple new environs that look really cool to help keep things a little fresh. Some of the new heroes also looks pretty neat.

©Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

In the single player campaign, there is a lot added compared to the bae game, as far as story goes. The story is a direct continuation and actually adds quite a bit of interesting information into the lore (very important information that is important to the series as a whole). The campaign has its own varied missions, which are appropriately challenging. To top it off, there are a ton of cool new maps for multiplayer. Unfortunately though, since the game doesn't add any new units or any interesting upgrades to the mix, the same strategies still hold true. This means there are no new dynamics and so the gameplay in multiplayer essentially remains the same. There’s even a level editor, to help create a longer lasting experience. Despite some of its flaws, it is an overall solid expansion that helps to round out the package quite nicely.

Warcraft II is a classic game that defines a lot of what we see in real-time strategy games now. This is a good package that puts together everything from Warcraft II and its expansion along with the later added Battle.net functionality into one nice package (read: online play).

©Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

This is one of the best RTS games even to this day. Granted, so many newer games offer so much better content and optimization, but for its time and what this offers, you can't find much better in the genre.
 
- Teepu

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Graphics: GREAT
Sound: GREAT
Gameplay: AMAZING
Value: PERFECT
 
OVERALL: AMAZING

NOTE: Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation versions do not include online functionality.