"Its the same as Warcraft II, only a little better."

After the release of Warcraft II, a pretty successful Real Time Strategy game, Blizzard set their sights on giving fans more than what they previously bought: Free Internet play. Everything in the game is the same as before, except with this version of Warcraft II, you get to play online. The story, gameplay, graphics, and sound, are all exactly the same.

After reeling from the losses of their first war, the Orcs have vowed revenge on the humans. Unfortunately for the humans, the Orcs have found a new way to connect between the Orc and Human Worlds: a magical gate known as The Dark Portal. This time, the Orcs are much more prepared for an assault on mankind, being stronger in number and new armies to rain terror upon the humans.

The Humans, meanwhile, have noticed a large Orc Horde massing from the Sea, and have begun preparations for an all out assault by the Orcs on their homeland. Realizing that the Orc's connection to the Human world is through the Dark Portal, the Humans have vowed to destroy the gate that connects the two and end the War between Human and Orc.

The gameplay is done pretty well. The game is founded upon the Command and Conquer aspect, where you start out from scratch, build up your civilization, and mass armies against your enemies with the attempt to completely destroy them. You can control different units, both civilian and military (9 can be selected and controlled at a time) in the quest to eliminate your enemies. The best part about the gameplay is that there are many different buildings and units you can create and command, as well as many upgrades and spells to supply them with. These features combined with a user friendly resource system (based on gold mines and lumber) help to make the game easy to pick up on.

The worst part about the gameplay is that both races- the orcs and the humans-are exactly the same, differing only in look and name. For each unit has, the Orc has an exact equivalent, in status, job, and ability. For instance, the base unit of the Humans, the Peasent, can build, repair, and gather resources. The Orc base unit, the Peon, can do EXACTLY the same thing. Not only this, but they have the exact same attack power, repair speed, movement speed, and so forth. For every unit, except for just one (the Mage for the Humans, and the Death Knight for the Orcs), there is an equivalent unit with the exact same statistics on the other side. This keeps the game rather boring and balanced directly, instead of indirectly.

The graphics for the game are excellent: particularly since it was made in 1995. The Cinematics look on par with Final Fantasy VII, which was released two years later. Humans and Orcs alike look very realistic and pass off without looking fake or cheesy, and the action scenes are choreographed brilliantly. Equally as important is the fact that each scene progresses the small storyline that the game has.

The character designs are really good, too. A step up from the original Warcraft, the units are all designed uniquely, down to the way they move and attack. Each unit also has a portrait that can be seen when you select them, with its statistics shown just below. These portraits are drawn well, and keep a sense of realism on a rather cartoony looking top-down style game.

All in all, the graphics in the game are amazing for the time period in which the game was made. Blizzard did a wonderful job.

The sound in Warcraft II is great. Each race has their own theme song that plays in-game, though it can get old once in a while, seeing as their is only one per race. The Humans sport a very patriotic, uplifting theme song, which brings a sense of dignity and royalty in a medievel castle setting. The Orcs, in contrast, have a dark, horrific theme song that keeps to the demonic sense that they bring with them through the portal.

Each unit in the game speaks, and has their own voiceover. This is my favorite part of the sound category; that each character have their own individual voices and personalities. The best part about this is that the voiceovers don't come off as cheesy or overacted, and you actually believe the character is talking to you.

In terms of replayability, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness doesn't really include much. There are two campaigns, one with 10 levels, the other with 14, to play through, and that gets old after a few times through. This version of the game has no online capabilities, and the only option for multiplayer is to connect through a network or modem to play with your friends. Even with this small value, there isn't really much to see here.

Final Comments: The game looks and sounds great, and is very easy to catch on to and play, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it gets old, boring, and monotonous: and it does it quickly. The addition of Battle.net play does add some extra replay time into it, but even so, the game still includes the same old boring and monotonous gameplay.

If you haven't played the first edition of Warcraft II, and are interested, go straight ahead and buy this game. It is a much better deal, as it comes with Free Internet play at the same price as the previous game. In buying this, you'll not only save your money, but you'll get the same story, gameplay, graphics, and everything else the old version had: all except for more play time.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/15/04