Warcraft II: Tides Of Darkness

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

Genre: Fantasy, RTS

We all know Blizzard from World of Warcraft, but Blizzard produced more games than WoW, like the classic Diablo and Warcraft series. There is one game in particular from the Warcraft series that I’m going to review, and that’s Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness.

Warcraft II: ToD is released in 1995 on the Pc and Mac. Two years later the game was also released on the Playstation and Sega Saturn under the name Warcraft 2: The Dark Saga. In 1999 the game was released together with the expansion pack, Beyond the dark portal, in Warcraft II: Battle.net edition. This release featured online play on Blizzard’s online gaming service, Battle.net.

In Warcraft II: ToD the story continues where Warcraft: Orcs and Humans ended. 6 years after the Orcish Horde conquered Azeroth, they want to conquer Lordaeron too, so they send a large fleet to Lordaeron. The survivors of Azeroth have fled to Lordaeron and the remaining Human nations band together into the Alliance to withstand the Horde. They are joined by the High Elves of Quel'thalas and the Dwarves of Khaz Modan.

Just like in Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, you can choose whether you play as the Alliance, or the Horde. Both campaigns have 14 levels so you'll play for many hours before completing the game.

There are many buildings you can build in this game, like the Barracks (for training units, duh) Farm (1 farm is good for 4 units) and Blacksmith (meant for upgrading your troops). There are 15 buildings for each faction, which are different in looks but similar in function, except for 1 building which is Altar of Storms/Church.

The graphics of this game are very good, considering that this game is from 1995. They can still compete with today's Nintendo DS games. The audio is great as well, the soundtrack really provides an atmosphere.

And when you have completed the campaign you can also try to beat every custom scenario. And believe me, some of those custom scenarios are damn hard to beat. If you want to make it yourself even more difficult, you could add some more enemies. You cannot add allies, only enemies. It's fun to trying to beat 7 enemies, but you always know you will die when you play fair. You could also cheat in this game, but your rank says you’re a cheater when you do.

Furthermore, you can make your own scenarios with the Map Editor. Here, you can add allies as well. You can use those maps online too, but I don’t think there are many Warcraft II players around any more. I’m still a die-hard fan of this game and I already played it for more than a 1000 hours. The only complaint about the map-editor is that you can't make any teams, because your allies attack each other anyhow.

If you own Warcraft III, you should also try out this game. Personally, I think Warcraft II is better than its sequel. One funny detail is that they still used that goofy voice in Warcraft III for the peasants. I don’t think you can still buy WC 2 in stores, so if you want to try this game out, you have to download it. If you are an oldskool gamer you have to check this game out!