Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

"Take command and conquer the world of Azeroth"

Back in the good old days of dos and windows 3.1 (or not....), computer gamers have often played strategy games. One of the oldest genres out there, strategy games often required you to use your brains and figure out how to conquer your opponent. Most games, however, were turn based, meaning that they played like chess: each player takes a turn deciding what to do. Quite obviously, such a scenario is unrealistic when you compare them to real life combat. Thus, game companies started creating what is later know as the ''real time strategy'' games, games that require ''real time'' thinking, meaning you have got to make decisions quickly and on the spot. The opponent does not wait for you to finish thinking, like in ''turn based games''. And Blizzard entertainment, which was a small company back then know only for a little real time strategy game, ''Warcraft'', created a sequel to that game (which was fairly popular), after listening to player's comments and suggestions. It turned out to be one of the best games that was ever created.

Yes, my lord?

Warcraft 2 is, as mentioned, a ''real time strategy game''. The term should not be taken literally, since it's impossible to play a game in real time, anyway. It means that the game pace is fast, and requires you to have pretty quick reflexes while having to make strategic maneuvers, plan your battles and fight your battles: all at the same time. To put it simply, you have to think like you are playing a game of chess, but without the convenience of having all day to think about it while your opponent waits for you.

The actual game play is rather straightforward and simple. You can choose either to play the campaign mode, which is basically a ''story mode'' of sorts, or a stand alone scenario, where you basically start out alone on the map and fight any computer or human player available. 2 races are available, one being the humans, the other, orcs. Both races have a worker class creature, peasants for the humans, peons for the orcs. Structures are created using these creatures, who labor tirelessly to create them. Since both these creatures are pathetically weak in combat, you won't want to use them to fight a battle (unless you are one of those who enjoy watching little kids fight). So there are other troops, which are ''trained'' in different buildings, such as a barracks which ''produces'' footmen, elven archers and knights (I wonder why it takes only a few seconds to train a footman......). These troops will form the backbone of your army, and aid you in your conquest.

Ok. So with that, you'll think you're all send and ready to kick some orc (or human) butt? Well...not quite yet. You can upgrade several things. This is one thing that made the game quite enjoyable. You can upgrade your troop's weapons and armor. A unit with stronger armor or a stronger attack will defeat another with less armor, or lower attack. As such, you will have to balance between creating more troops, or upgrading their armor (which costs money and time). Plus, there are ranged units, sea units, air units and spell casters, all which have different abilities and can turn the tide of battle. The wide array of units that can be used and selected, plus each having it's own advantages and disadvantages, AND having to make these decisions ''real time'', makes the game quite hectic, yet, it remains fun as the tension mounts. What if the opponent has built, a large army while you have spent it all on upgrades? What if you have gather a large army of melee attackers to assault, your enemy, only to find that he has wizards standing behind walls, raining death on your troops while you can only stare as your troops are helplessly slaughtered? These little battles and scenarios created by your own decisions can be fun (and frustrating, if you are the one who's losing) as you must device counter tactics while having to decide when next to strike.

We're ready master.
I'm not ready!

To add to all that, you have to manage your resources. peasants/peons can mine gold and harvest lumber. If you want a naval fleet, you'll need oil too. You'll need to plan how many peons need to be assigned mining jobs, to build structures or to chop wood (note that these forests also provide a barrier to enemy forces, so chopping down too many trees isn't always a good idea). In addition to that, you'll have to build farms to feed your units, and you'll have to manage the amount of farms to build, and decide whether to spend the food on a peon or another troop. Managing your resources while having to take command of a battle occurring somewhere else can make the game a little too fast paced. Yet the game manages to make this all enjoyable. Part of the reason is due to the controls: a simple right click will command your troops to do the most ''logical'' action. Right clicking on an empty spot makes the unit move there. Right clicking on an enemy unit makes it attack it. Hotkeys can be set so that you can instantly go back to your town and view your peon's work progress, and the helpful minimap will enable you to get back to battle quickly.

The other reason is that gameplay does not become too hectic due to the way resource management is handled. Peons will automatically go to the nearest batch of trees and carry on chopping after the current batch is cleared. So will oil tankers and gold miners. The only problem is that after building a structure, they will just stand there and not move, until a command is given. fortunately, after a building has been created (or a unit has been produced), a voice will inform you that the work/training is complete, so you can assign the peon new jobs.

Say hello to my little friend.

Another thing that makes the game so enjoyable are the units themselves. For example, click on a footman and he'll respond clearly (my lord?). Clicking on him many times will result in various funny comments (and insults) that'll entertain you while you are waiting for the peons to finish construction, or the training of a new unit such as: ''will you stop touching me!?'' or another :''I'm flying!!''. By the way, the orcs have the most amusing comments (Burrppppp! 'xuse me). The comments make the units seem more alive, giving them character, instead of just being a bunch of lifeless statues to be used in combat.

The addition of naval battles and air units have also added greater depth to the game. Previous games of the same genre have either ignored naval (and air) combat, or have poorly implemented them. Naval units can be used to strike coastal settlements, and air units can travel anywhere. Zeppelins can be used to spy on enemies (to reveal the map or uncover the ''fog of war'', discussed later), while ships can act as transports to move units to another landmass. The units themselves are well balanced, so you do not have to worry that air units will dominate the game.

The ''fog of war'' is a new feature that Blizzard has implemented to warcraft 2. Basically, it means that if your troops are not stationed in a particular area that you have uncovered (the initial map starts out with only a small patch that is viewable, while the rest of the land is shrouded in black), it will fade and look as though a fog has covered it. This is done to stimulate a real battle, where you can only gain information from what you troops can see, and thus enemies can move undetected in the ''fog'', and it will not be shown on the minimap as well. The option, fortunately, can be turned on or off, so if you want a tougher challenge, you can turn it on.

Zug Zug!

As mentioned before, Blizzard created a campaign mode. The mode revolves around the war between humans and orcs. The army of Azeroth was defeated by the orcs, and now they sail to Lordaeron hoping to seek an alliance with the other human nations so that the orcish horde will be driven back. Despite being a strategy game, and despite having a rather typical storyline, Blizzard manages to spin a wondrous tale, filled with deeds of valor and tales of treachery. Moreover, Blizzard manages to tie the story with the campaigns, adding cinematics between several campaigns to give players a visual image of what is happening. Mission briefings are done well, with great voice overs for both races, both managing to convey the sense of urgency and the importance of the missions you are about to undertake. The campaign also serves to teach new players unfamiliar to the genre how to play, as several of the first few missions are in effect, tutorials.

Despite it's age, Warcraft 2 still looks as good as it did when I first played it in 1994. True, those expecting gorgeous 3D graphics and stunning 3D animation will be disappointed. But wait: observe. Warcraft 2 still looks colorful and vibrant despite it's age, while the top down view presents a clear view of the entire battlefield, so you won't have to rotate like crazy, as in some 3D strategy games. Buildings burn as you destroy them, while the cartoonish look the units have does give them a certain charm. Overall, I won't say the graphics are the best in the world, but note that it was pretty good back then, and it still looks good.

As for the music, it is excellent. The orchestral scores in the game are excellent, and manages to convey the feeling that you are in a ragging battle. The sounds are pretty good, as in they sound like they should (explosions go boom instead of bing....yeah, you get the idea), while unit comments, as mentioned, are entertaining to listen to. And they sound good too.

And if you were wondering what you'll do after finishing the campaign, you can always play with your friends online over battle.net, or over TCP/IP (or modem). The new versions of Warcraft 2 are battle.net editions, meaning you can connect to Blizzard's online service to play with players online. And there's the flexible map editor, which allows you to create custom maps to play with, or download maps created by other people.

It is a good day to die.

Warcraft 2, despite being such an excellent game, is not without it's flaws. In particular, I absolutely hate the 9 unit limit. That means you can only select a maximum of 9 troops at once. This doesn't sound very serious, until you have a lot of troops. Commanding them is a pain (fortunately, they have hotkeys for groups of units, which helps, but isn't always enough). And the transport can only hold up to 6 units. Sure, this is supposed to prevent a well know tactic called ''rushing'' (creating hordes of units and simply charging all of them at your enemy), but I feel the limit should have been increased. Oh, and the AI pathfinding (i.e., the way units walk from one point to another) is pretty bad sometimes. They seem to enjoy taking the long way round......

Lastly, there are only a few differences between the humans and orcs. They have slightly different upgrades for the archer units (most are similar), and different spells and looks (and voices, of course). Well this helps play balance, it does give little variety and it can be slightly boring to play the campaign mode after finishing one due to the fact that both races are almost exactly the same.

When my work is finished, I'm coming back for you....

In short, warcraft 2 is an excellent game, well balanced and filled with those little touches that make the game so unique. The replay value is high, and although the graphics may be somewhat old and cartoonish, it's excellent gameplay makes up for that, and its minor flaws.

Gameplay: 9.2
Graphics: 6.9
Sound: 8.8
Music: 9.1
Control: 9.9
Replay: 9.4
Story : 9.0
Originality: 7.0 (it was a fairly new concept back then, and only a few games before it were real time strategy games)

Final Score: 9.2

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/08/02, Updated 01/08/02