"The best game of all time?"

Introduction

This is the best game I ever played in my entire life. The reason why I am not totally sure that it is the best game of all time is because there are many, many games I never played, so there might be a game better than Warcraft II: battle.net Edition.

History

This is a real-time strategy game. The genre was first popularized by the game Dune 2, made by Westwood. Dune 2 was a futuristic war game, based on the series of novels ''Dune'' created by Frank Herbert. Then later, Blizzard released Warcraft, which was a huge hit. The context of Warcraft was a medieval war between the Orcs and the Humans.

There was some improvements in Warcraft over Dune 2. For example, it was now possible to command 4 units at once, instead of only one at a time like in Dune 2.

A few years later, Blizzard released the sequel, which was an even bigger hit than the first, Warcraft 2 : Tides of Darkness. The new graphics impressed thousands and thousands of players. A lot of new units were added. There was now air and sea units, which was absent from the first Warcraft.

The gameplay in Warcraft 2 : Tides of Darkness was much more balanced. Archers were toned down considerably. Also there was no longer powerhouse units like Elementals, which could destroy an entire base way too easily. Each unit in Warcraft 2 has its weakness. Some units can attack in the air, some can't, and the ships are also thrown in the picture. Surprisingly, all these units make a perfectly balanced gameplay.

There is no cheap way to easily win, as it is often see in these types of games. I must say that the creator of the game mechanics is a genius. There is not a single flaw in the game mechanics that could hamper the gameplay. All units have their uses in certain situations. Only some of the spells are not needed.

Later, they released an expansion called Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal. It was pretty much the exact same thing, only with a few minor changes. Some bugs were fixed, a new type of landscape was added, and new missions were introduced. The Orc Wasteland landscape was added in the expansion with his critter inhabitant, the boar. Several new heroes were added too. Except that, this is pretty much the exact same game, as there is no new unit that you can produce. Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal contains new solo missions, which are extremely hard compared to the missions on Tides of Darkness.

A few years later, they released the version which this review is all about : Warcraft II: battle.net Edition. This version has all the things that could be found in the preceding versions, and some small bugs were fixed. The main change is the ability to play online on Battlenet, the Blizzard server.

Not only Battlenet is a free service, but people from all over the world can connect on it and play Warcraft II: battle.net Edition online. Even today, in September 2003, several years after its release, there are still many people hanging on the Warcraft 2 Battlenet server. Sure, there are not as much people as there once was, but still enough to have a lot of fun!

Type of game

Warcraft II: battle.net Edition is a war game. You make units and buildings, and the objective is to destroy your opponent. At the beginning, you must build a town hall. This building allows you to make peasants. Peasants are used to harvest resources and build buildings. Once you have enough resources and the required buildings, you can make different offensive units like Knights, Ogres, Mages, and so on.

The 3 different resources are gold, lumber, and oil. Gold is found in the gold mines scattered across the map. Lumber can be found in forest, where you send peasants chop trees. Finally, oil is found on oil patches in the water, and you need a special boat to harvest it.

Graphics and sounds

The graphics are quite good. There is a nice set of different colors. Actually, when this game came out, the graphics were revolutionary.

The sounds are excellent. I don't really like the translated voices of my French version, but they are okay. The sound of dying units never gets old. The music is quite good, but I always turn it off because I think it creates unnecessary lag in online games.

Online gaming

Even if the game is already great, the truly shining aspect of the game is the online play. When you play with real people instead of dumb computers, its a lot more fun! Also, on Battlenet you can play 8 players on the same map. Quite often in these games, there is so much action going and so much people dying at the same time that you will literally burst out laughing. After a while, you get used to the carnage, but it is pretty funny the first time you see it.

Playing this game online is extremely addicting. I play some games almost every day. New situations happen every day. For example, some players allied with you will try to backstab you. Some players will do very dumb actions that make no sense while writing some inept things. You can make friends, and enemies.

For an online game, there is very little apparent hacking going on. The few people who openly hack are rare and don't get accepted in games once people know they hack. If there is hacking and cheating going on, then I don't see it because everything looks fair most of the time.

When you will start, you will probably (like everyone else) think that certain persons who beat you are cheaters. After a while, you will get better and start to believe that in fact they don't cheat. Its simply because some players on Battlenet are extremely talented and have a lot of experience.

I played 1250 games so far, but I often see people with a record of over 2000-3000 games played. These people are usually very strong. I even saw a person with over 6000 games played once. Too bad this guy was against me... I think you can guess that I lost this game.

One thing that might turn off new players of this game from playing it is the high level of skill shown by a lot of the Battlenet players. I think that the reason is that the game is starting to get old, so most casual players move to more recent and popular games like Warcraft 3, while most of the hardcore pros continue to play War 2.

It can be very frustrating of being constantly called a ''newb'', even when you think you are doing good. Also it is annoying when your partner is better than you and is blaming you for the loss. Personally, I am not that good, but I can beat newbs very easily. I am kinda between the pros and the newbs.

Maps

Included with the game is a map editor who allows you to make custom maps. It can be very interesting, as you can have real people play your map on Battlenet after its done. Some people create really imaginative maps that become very popular.

A popular thing observed on a lot custom maps are mines with almost infinite amounts of money. This always end up in a huge Gryphons/Dragons war (because these units are very costly).

Bottom Line

Buy this game! You won't regret it. As long as there is people on Bnet, it is worth it. It is one of the best and more addictive games ever made. When you have a game like this, you don't need any other game. Playing online never gets old, even after hundred of games.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/24/03