Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

"Classics will last forever!"

Blizzard have done it again. Warcraft - the battle between Orcs and Humans continues.

Graphics:
8/10 -What can I say, the people look like little cartoons. It sort of fits the game though. But the cartoony blood makes the game a bit babyish. The movie scenes are pretty detailed though (for their time), a nice mix of light and textures, so no complaining there.

Story line
10/10- It's a blizzard game, how could it ever be a blizzard gam without an excellent story line? It basically goes like this: The Orcs have come from an unknown land, through the ''Dark Portal'' to try to take over the land of Azeroth (Where the humans live) The humans fight back....and depending on which race you are playing as, the story will differ, I won't spoil anything for you though.

Gameplay
10/10- What more could you possibly want in gameplay? You move around the entire map with the mouse, you click on buildings, if they can do anything, then an icon will appear and you can research new skills or train new recruits. You can select up to nine units at a time and assign them to hotkeys, so you can send an entire army in one attack.

Characters-There's not a whole lot of choice in this section. You can be either the orcs or Humans, they are both almost exactly the same except different characters, and a few different researches and stats. Every unit of the Humans has a replica in the Orc catagory

Human-Humans can be considered the ''Good guys''of the game, they are composed of a combination of actual humnas, elfs, dwarfs, etc. Brave knights and palatines along with foot infantry are basically the only attackers the Huamns have. They DO have gripphon riders though, elfs riding giant birds doesn't seem like a great attack, but they are one of the best, except for the fact that they cost ALOT and can almost never hit there target exactly.

Orcs-Instead of knights and palatines, the orcs have Ogres and mages, and instead of griphons, dragons. The Orcs are basically a race of trolls, bent on doing evil.

Rent/Buy-BUY unless you totally dispise Real Time Strategy games, the this is a must buy. Even if you don't like the genre, then at least give it a rent, you owe it at least that.

Last Word-This game is great and should not be underestimated in any way, shape or form. It has a option to play your friends over modems, so you can test your skills against your friends. I give this game a 9/10!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/01/03, Updated 07/01/03