"Good, not Great, but still a worthy buy"

Warcraft II Battle.net edition is a good addition to any real-time strategy players’ game library. Even if you have the original Warcraft II, you still may want to look into it.

Gameplay

In Warcraft II, the main objective is to destroy all of your enemies. This is accomplished by destroying all of their buildings. To do this, you must build your own buildings, produce units, and send them through the enemy’s defenses.

There are two races in Warcraft II, orcs and humans. Orcs have units like Grunts, Trolls, and Ogres. Humans have units like Footmen, Archers, and Knights. Each unit has different capabilities, and a diverse force is necessary for success. Warcraft II wages war over land, air, and sea. This forces more diversity, as only certain units can attack air and only boats can go into water.

All these units are not free, though. While waging war, you must also manage your resources so that you’ll be able to build your buildings and units that you want. There are three types of resources in Warcraft II, gold, lumber, and oil. Gold is the most commonly used resources; it’s acquired by mining it from gold mines. Lumber must be gotten by chopping down trees. Oil is necessary for sea based things, and hence, it is only available from the sea. You must build an oil platform and oil tankers to harvest from them. You also have to have enough food to feed these units.

This leaves the player with many questions. How big of a sea force do I need? How much defense should I build? Which units should I use to attack? Should I build air units? Do I have enough food? These many questions are what allow Warcraft II to get all of its strategy. It all comes together to be a very good experience.

The Online play works out well. You can compete against hundreds of players from all over the world (though only 8 at a time). Playing ladder games allows you to test your mettle against other players and have something to show for it (only a ranking, but still something). Even if you’ve mastered the campaign, Battle.net competition will test your skills like nothing else.

Of course, nothing’s perfect. Warcraft II also has its share of flaws. For one thing, units can only built one at a time from any given facility, with no queue. This forces players to waste resources by building multiple facilities, or else focus their attention on just that building. The second flaw is much more glaring, lack of diversity. While there are two races, they are identical except in looks and three specific, and minor, instances. Each unit has a corresponding unit on the other race, Footman=Grunt, Archer=Troll, Knight=Ogre. These units are identical in everyway imaginable. I did say that there were three differences, and here they are. 1) Rangers and Berserkers have different upgrades. These upgrades are minor and make very little difference in comparison. 2) Paladins and Ogre-Magi have different spells. While this is very minor, since the spells are completely different, this may be the biggest difference 3) Wizards and Knights have some different spells. While all of the spells have different names, most have the same effect i.e. A Wizard’s polymorph changes an enemy unit into an animal, making it worthless, The Knight’s Coil kills a unit, eliminating it. The same effect is achieved, one less unit. I was extremely disappointed in this fact, as it makes your choice between Orcs or Humans almost pointless. It also makes the extent of strategy needed very minor.

Story

Warcraft’s story picks up five years after the end of the first war. The fleeing humans have settled in the land of Lordaeron and are being pursued by the Orcs who still seek to destroy them.

The Orcs are under the new leadership of Doomhammer, who doesn’t care about Guldan’s search for the Sargeas’ tomb, only for the destruction of the humans.

The refugees from Azeroth, aware of the impending threat, plea to the king of Lordaeron to form an alliance with the neiboring countries in order to respond to the Orc threat. The Lordaeron King agrees and an allegiance is formed. With the help of the Elves and the Dwarves, the Humans prepare for the oncoming invasion by the Orcish Horde...

Graphics

The graphics of Warcraft II resemble that of a cartoon. They are certainly nothing to gawk at and they are not cutting edge. However, they are pleasant enough and are by no means bad graphics. This is not its strong suit though.

Sound

Again, not Warcraft II’s strong point. The music fits the theme and gets the point across, but it’s not a score that you will rush to hear. The music, however fitting, is awfully repetitive. In the end, you’ll probably end up turning the music down and listening to your own CDs or MP3s.

Replay

The online play is awfully addictive, albeit not quite as much as other games by Blizzard. It’s still a solid replay if you enjoy a simpler type of game, and it is fun for a while regardless.

Summary

If you enjoy Real Time Strategy and already own Starcraft, this game is a good buy, especially now that it’s a mere $20. If you found games such as Starcraft too complicated, then you may want to try this game, as it is a simpler type. This may help you all that found online Starcraft too overwhelming or competitive (myself included). All in all, Warcraft II is a good game, but it falls short of being a great one.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/16/02, Updated 08/16/02