Overview
If you have installed Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, download and apply the Expansion patch (Windows Mac Mac Editor).; If you have not installed the Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, download and apply the Original patch (Windows Mac).; If you have installed the Warcraft II Battle.net Edition, download and apply the Battle.net Edition patch (Windows Mac). WarCraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal PC. The official expansion to Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the extremely popular RTS developed by the Blizzard Entertainment studios. The storyline of Beyond the Dark Portal is focused on the further development of the conflict between humans and orcs. This is Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness expansion pack.
Can you say deja vu? If you've played Warcraft 2 (which is mandatory for you to load this expansion pack), then you'll be right at home playing this add-on. That could be good news or bad, depending on your point of view. On one hand, this expansion provides, well, an expansion of the fun experience of playing Warcraft 2. On the other hand, though, you'll have to decide if there's enough originality here to warrant the $34.95 investment.
Driving the Orcish hordes from your beloved land of Azeroth was not enough, apparently. As the human forces in Beyond the Dark Portal, you must travel through the portal itself and teach those pesky orcs a lesson on their own home world of Draenor. From the orcish perspective, naturally, you must reestablish your presence in the human world of Azeroth, from whence they kicked your collective butt in Tides of Darkness.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
Exactly like Warcraft 2, with the additions of several new Legendary heroes and new orc tribes. The heroes, though, beyond giving you something to protect during a mission, are no great addition to the gameplay. I was hoping to see some new structures, spells or weapons, but alas no! That was, undoubtedly, my biggest disappointment with the expansion pack.
Graphics
The graphic world of this expansion is exactly modeled after Warcraft 2 itself, but there are some nice additions; most noteworthy is the addition of the orcs' world of Draenor. Draenor is different in some not-so-subtle ways from Azeroth. Trees are replaced with mushrooms (but you harvest them as lumber); waters are green instead of blue (but act no different); and the rocks and terrain look a little different than before. Overall, the color palette of Draenor uses more of the orcish hues of red and green, rather than the human-like blues and earthtones. Together, these factors do give one a slight sense of being in a strange land, but also come across as mere cosmetic changes to the old familiar landscape.
Audio
No great differences from Warcraft 2, with the exception of the added voices of the new Legends—like Alleria, the female ranger, whose gruff commands kind of excited me :-)
System Requirements
No problems if you successfully played Warcraft 2 on your system.
Documentation & Setup
This expansion pack is really a glorified patch for Warcraft 2. Upon installation, it overwrites some of the Warcraft 2 files to allow you access to the new levels, etc. The documentaion is scant, consisting of a short description of each new Legendary hero, and a run-down of the various orc nations you will encounter on Draenor.
Bottom Line
The new features of Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal, unfortunately, are little more than window dressing. They do not change any fundamental facet of the gaming experience, only the appearance of some of the characters and landscapes. This is not to say, however, that I did not enjoy playing through the new levels. I just want to caution those who are considering plopping down money that what they will get is more of the same experience they got with Warcraft 2. That may well be reason enough for many gamers to buy the expansion, however, so you must decide what is important to you ... As a product in its own right, I will give Beyond the Dark Portal a score of 74 for leaning a little too heavily on its popular predecessor.
| Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Blizzard Entertainment Cyberlore Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Designer(s) | Jim DuBois Jesse King Joseph Minton Rob Caswell |
| Programmer(s) | Ken Grey |
| Artist(s) | Peter Lawson Seth Spaulding |
| Series | Warcraft |
| Platform(s) | Macintosh, MS-DOS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Windows |
| Release | Windows, Mac OSPlayStation, Saturn
|
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal is an expansion pack for the for the real-time strategy video game Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh. It was developed by Blizzard Entertainment and Cyberlore Studios,[2] and published by Blizzard in North America and Europe in 1996. It requires the full version of the original game to run and adds new story campaigns and multiplayer maps. The expansion was later released alongside Tides of Darkness for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1997 as Warcraft II: The Dark Saga, and was included in the Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition for Windows PC and Macintosh in 1999.
Story[edit]
The plot of Beyond the Dark Portal takes place after the events of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. The Orcs, now under the leadership of Ner'zhul, staged a new invasion of Azeroth and overwhelmed the citadel of Nethergarde, which guarded the remnants of the portal. The Alliance itself had been splintered after the Second War and Gilneas and Stromgarde had withdrawn their support. The arch-mage Khadgar summoned heroes of Azeroth, Alleria Windrunner, Danath Trollbane, Turalyon and Kurdran Wildhammer to rally the forces of the Alliance. The Horde was beaten back and Khadgar decided to take the initiative to push through the Portal into the Orcs' homeland. Before being pushed back, Ner'zhul managed to steal the spellbook of Medivh which was needed to create new Portals.
The Alliance gained a foothold and made preparations to seal the rift forever while the Orcs reorganized. Khadgar needed the spellbook of Medivh and the Skull of Gul'dan to accomplish it. They razed the Shadowmoon Citadel, seat of Ner'zhul's Shadow Council. While the Alliance army and navy only barely held out, Khadgar managed to acquire the items with help from the Laughing Skull Clan. Ner'zhul managed to open portals to the Twisting Nether and escaped through one of the new Portals. The violent energies began to destroy Draenor and also threatened Azeroth. Khadgar destroyed the Portal on the side of Draenor to prevent harm to Azeroth, trapping the remaining Alliance forces beyond the Dark Portal in the dying land of Draenor. Khadgar and the warriors of Azeroth then entered one of the portals not knowing where it would lead to avoid being killed by the violent rifts tearing the planet apart.
New features[edit]
The expansion adds two new campaigns and several multiplayer maps. The expansion also adds a new swamp tileset for the world of Draenor.
The new campaigns feature ten new heroes for Warcraft, five for the Alliance and five for the Horde. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness had a few hero units, but these units were only marginally stronger than their basic unit and they had their own unique sayings different from their non-hero counterparts. The new heroes have increased unit statistics, making them more powerful than regular units, have their own unit portraits, and their own speech. The Alliance heroes are Alleria (Ranger), Danath (Footman), Turalyon (Paladin), Khadgar (Mage) and Kurdran (Gryphon Rider on his mount Sky'ree). The Horde heroes are Grom Hellscream (Grunt), Kargath Bladefist (Grunt), Dentarg (Ogre-Mage), Teron Gorefiend (Death Knight) and Deathwing (Dragon). While regular units of the two armies are balanced (only the spells wielded by spellcasters differ), the heroes have greater distinctions.[citation needed] The Orcish heroes are more powerful than their human counterparts. The heroes are important to the story and may not be killed without resulting in the player's defeat during missions with exception of the final missions in both campaigns, and with the exception of Khadgar in the Human campaign and Teron in Orcish campaign (in 11th mission).
The CD-ROM itself, when put into a CD player, will play the many different musical tracks from the game itself. In addition, there is a special track at the end of the disc that incorporates unit voices as well as lyrics to create a comical song entitled 'I'm A Medieval Man'. The song is a medieval parody or tribute song of the Command & Conquer song 'Mechanical Man', which features voices as well[3] alluding to the fact that Warcraft served as a primary competitor in real-time strategy games, the expansion being released only a year after Command and Conquer.
Development[edit]
Following the successful release of the base game, Blizzard planned to focus development resources on StarCraft, their next real-time strategy game. As a result, they contracted the development of an expansion for Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness out to Cyberlore Studios.[2] Following a milestone check-in, Blizzard deemed the project's execution subpar and cancelled their contract with Cyberlore, finishing the expansion pack themselves and releasing it in 1996. This experience led the company to prefer in-house development for future expansion packs.
Beyond the Dark Portal was included alongside the base game in the console release Warcraft II: The Dark Saga, published by Electronic Arts for the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1997.[4]
Blizzard's future titles all featured their online service Battle.net, used for multiplayer game hosting and matchmaking, which quickly became a large part of their success as their games grew online communities. As a result, they re-released Warcraft II in 1999, in a package that included the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion called Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition.[5]
Reception[edit]
| Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal (1996) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal released to positive reviews from critics. Awarding the expansion a 9.2 out of 10, GameSpot's Ron Dulin summarized 'Fans of Warcraft II are split along two fronts: there are the single-players and then there are the multi-players. But whichever side of the fence you lean toward, this is a must-have.'[9]
In its 146th issue, Computer Gaming World called the game 'a must-buy for any Warcraft II fan.'[7] While pointing out the amount of content as not enough to satisfy, citing the lack of new units in particular, GameRevolution concluded that 'On the whole, this is a good expansion set.' [8]All Game Guide awarded it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it 'a worthwhile expansion to an incredible game.'[10]
Paul Pettengale reviewed Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal for Arcane magazine, rating it an 8 out of 10 overall.[11] Pettengale comments that 'this is a bargain which all Warcraft ll owners should snap up.'[11]
Sequel[edit]
In Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos it is learned that Ner'zhul was intercepted by agents of the Burning Legion and transformed into the Lich King. In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne it is learned that parts of Draenor survived and are now called Outland. Remnants of the Alliance expedition appear in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.[12]
The dragon Deathwing who first appeared in Beyond the Dark Portal expansion pack later was revealed as the Worldbreaker in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.[13]
References[edit]
- ^'Blizzard Entertainment Releases Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal' (Press release). Irvine, California: Blizzard Entertainment. May 16, 1996. Archived from the original on October 30, 1996.
- ^ ab'How a Diablo expansion led to behind the scenes trouble'. 2018-06-29.
- ^Statements needing citations. 'List of pop culture references in Warcraft/W123 - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft'. WoWWiki. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
- ^Fielder, Joe (September 30, 1997). 'Warcraft II: The Dark Saga Review for PlayStation – GameSpot'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive Inc. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
- ^'Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition'. IGN. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
- ^https://www.gamerankings.com/pc/199256-warcraft-ii-beyond-the-dark-portal/index.html
- ^ ab'Review • Warcraft II Expansion Set: Dark Portal'. Computer Gaming World. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
- ^ ab''Why do you keep touching me?' Review'.
- ^ abDulin, Ron (May 2, 2000). 'Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal Review'. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
- ^ abhttps://www.mobygames.com/game/warcraft-ii-beyond-the-dark-portal/mobyrank
- ^ abcPettengale, Paul (July 1996). 'Games Reviews'. Arcane. Future Publishing (8): 69.
- ^WarCry's Exclusive Preview of The Burning Crusade (2007-01-15). 'WarCry's Exclusive Preview of The Burning Crusade | Previews'. WarCry. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
- ^John Funk. 'WoW: Cataclysm Part 1: Old Villains, New Races | The Escapist'. Escapistmagazine.com. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
External links[edit]
Beyond The Dark Portal Download
- Official site (archived)
- Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal on Wowpedia, a Warcraftwiki