After playing Warcraft, you would already know that Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness is one of the coolest games out. Read on, eager reader!
Story
Once again, Blizzard has created a nice story to go with the second story. After the first war, the humans fled from the ruined homeland of Azeroth to the ade of Lorderon. They constructed ships to take them across the Great Sea. But the Orcs also built ships. Ships of War. They too sailed across the great sea...ready for new blood to spill. The humans have to now ally with the Elves and Dwarves to survive. The Orcs also ally with Trolls and Goblins. The story is more complex than that, but the story is very interesting, and you would enjoy it more by reading it yourself.
Gameplay
As in the first game, you control you army with an overhead veiw. When you click on a unit, you can tell him /her /it to do certain things. You have to crush you r opponent in most levels, or more complex levels have to guide characters through somewhat of a crash course, or you can even rescue characters. If you have a friend with a modem and a copy of Warcraft 2 too, you can play each other a round of Warcraft 2! Or if you have more than one friend, up to 7 friends can play...an you can ally with some, or just plain battle your friends and the computer can play too! (It has feelings too!) Here are the units for each race-you'll notice they do a lot more than the units in Warcraft:
Human Units
- Peasant-These idiots chop wood, mine gold, build and repair buildings, and can fight....but....they....how should I put this? Even if they attack....they don't stand a chance against anything higher than slugs and spiders. (Not that there are any in the game)
- Footman-the ol' Footman just as you remember him.....sort of. Now he can patrol or stand ground (stand ground is staying in one place and attack anything that comes close to it)
- Elven Archers-My personal favorite units shoot arrows and, like footmen, can patrol and stand ground.
- Elven Rangers-just like archers, just stronger and can be upgraded higher than archers.
- Ballista-This nasty machine shoots huge arrows and pack quite a punch, but is slow and has no armor, and can't shoot at close range.
- Knight-these guys do everything a footman does, but better. Plus they get to ride horseys!
- Paladin-these holy Knights can heal the wounded, which really comes in handy.
- Mages-these conjuer wannabees have some nifty spells, like polymorph, which can change the enemy into a critter*.
- Dwarven Demo Squad-the dwarves can...well..blow up! They can brake through rock or wood, but they only work once!
- Griphon Rider-these overgrown eagles fly above everyone, and attack with the Stormhamer, which throws blue lightning!
- Flying Machine-these planes are great for scouting enemies.
- Now I will talk about the ships...remember, they have to be in "water" Tanker-these ships build oil platforms and drill oil.
- Elven Destroyer-these qiuck ships fire cannonballs onto the enemy
- Transport-these wonderful ships can transport up to six units across water.
- Battleship-these ships are slow, but are very powerful.
- Last but not least, Submarine-these babies can move in the water undetected. (unless the enemy has: a. other submarine-like unit, b. a tower nearby, or c. a flying unit nearby)
Orc Units
- Peon-just like a peasant.
All regular troops, like Grunts, Trolls, Orge, Catapults, etc. can patrol and stand ground.
- Grunt-The Grunt is the normal, everyday, bloodthirsty, evil, live-to-die orcish troop.
- Troll Axethrower-these guys throw...you guessed it, axes!!
- Troll Berserker-these axe-throwing machines are out for bloooooodddddd!!!!! Just like an axethrower but stronger and can be upgraded higher
- Catapult-this thing is mean, spleen splitting, fighting machine. Just like a balista exept...well you know what a catapult is!
- Ogre-these twoheaded fat freaks are the brutes of the horde. Just like a grunt, but bigger, badder, and madder!
- Ogre Mage-whats funkier than a twoheaded fat freak? A magic one! The Orge-Mage can cast bloodlust, which makes orcs even more bloodthirsty!
- Death Knight-these spooky knights have some gru spells, like raise dead (YYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!)
- Goblin Sappers-these mischeivous little scamps can blow up stuff just like Dwarves.
- Dragon-master of sky, breather of fire, cause of the opposing army's death. Nuff said?
- Zepplin-these blimps are ideal for scouting. They can't attack, though.
- Now, for the ships. Tanker-just like the human one.
- Troll Destroyer-quick and pretty powerful....these ships are good to have.
- Transport-just like the human one.
- Ogre Juggernaut-following in the foot steps of the ogres, these ships are big and powerful. Slow though, Moe.
- Giant Turtle-well, its just a big turtle, right? Wrong! These aren't your normal, wussy turtles, these are huge turtles with rocket launchers on their backs, and can't be detected by :(see requirments at submarine)
Sound
Sound is pretty good, when you click on a character, he responds with roughly seven responses, and you can listen to a alter the voice with the sound editor.
Graphics
Graphics in the game a very good, but what takes the cake are the movies that are shown about every 4-5 levels. Those are totally amazing.
Overall
Overall this so far is my favorite game on the computer, and highly recommend it. There is also a custom map builder in which I spend most of my time playing with, (cause I have beaten it already) oh, and the
*There are critters in this game, like in the forest levels there are sheep, winter levels you got seals (cute ones too) and in wasteland levels ya got yer warthog.
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness: 9/10
Warcraft 2 Links
First, you should go to the
Blizzard website. Web Rating 5/5
Or you could try:
Andrews's Warcraft 2 Page Web Rating: 4/5
TrOLL'z Warcraft page Web rating:4/5
Anthoneys Warcraft 2 Page Web Rating: 4/5
Or since there are so many Warcraft 2 pages, just go to the Yahoo Warcraft 2 links
