Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

"Warcraft invented the RTS genre, but Warcraft 2 perfected it!"

The game: The sequel to the first RTS game ever, Warcraft, brought to you by Blizzard entertainment. This is race against race combat, on an overhead map, and try to destroy your opponents base.

Graphics: 9: Graphics are way better than the original. All the character's got new makeovers, and are detailed nicely, and look marvelous. It's easy to tell which unit is which. Plus, the FMV's look great too.

Sound: 10: Great background music, that fits the wartime battle frenzy just right. What's even cooler is that you can play these background tunes on any audio CD player. Just like the original Warcraft, if you click on a single unit multiple times in a row, he'll give you some mean remarks like, ''Why do you keep touching me!'' These remarks will give you a laugh, and will make you go nuts over the sound.

Gameplay: 9: Improved much over the original. Gameplay is revamped, with a new, more easy to use gameplay engine. Play as either human or orcs, each has different units. New to this game are air and sea units. There are 3 different warships for each race plus a transport ship and oil tanker to haul oil(also new to this edition), for air units there's Dragon's for orcs, and Gryphon Riders for humans, plus Flying machines for both races that don't attack, only scout area, but move pretty fast. Campaign mode is much harder, with loads of new objectives, this game is really challenging. There are lots of new magic attacks, and you gotta be careful on how to use them, so you make sure you don't hurt some of your own units. I wish they could've hade cave levels like in the first Warcraft, but no such like here. If you don't feel like going through campaign mode, you can just pick to play a custom map from 2 to 8 players and make your own settings like high amount of resources, and what area of land you want to be play in.

Replay Value: 9: Multiplayer action is even better that before with now 8 players being able to play through an IPX network(such as Kali or Kahn, the most popular 2). Also this version also includes a campaign editor where you can make your own maps, set how much gold is in each gold mine, determine alliances, and winning conditions. Only slight disappointment about the replay value is that it's still hard to connect in modem games by going through the complicated process of setting your IRQ, and all that.

Overall: 9: The game is way better over the original. If you loved the first Warcraft, pick up this title. Or pick up the Warcraft Battle Chest Set which inlcudes Warcraft 1, 2, and WC 2: Expansion Set. All I got left to say is that Warcraft invented the RTS genre, but Warcraft 2 perfected it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/14/00, Updated 02/14/00