Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

• OS: DOS 4.0
• CPU: 486
• RAM: 8 MB
• 2 X CD -ROM drive,

Mac:

• OS 7 to max. 9/Classic
• PowerPC (G1 to G5)
• 16 MB RAM phys
• 640x480 px with 256 colors
• 2 X CD -ROM drive,

Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness is released in 1995 for DOS and Windows continuation of the real-time strategy game Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. Like its predecessor, it was developed by the U.S. development studio Blizzard Entertainment, and was among others in competition with Westwood Studios title Command & Conquer: Tiberium the conflict. This was followed by porting to Mac OS, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. In 2002, the successor to Warcraft 3 was released.

Action

Warcraft 2 follows on from the events of the Orc Kamp Agen of its predecessor. The Kingdom of Stormwind has fallen by the destruction of capital and people flee across the sea in the Kingdom of Lordaeron. But the orcs also put on and try Lordaeron to bring under their control. Depending on the choice of the Game Group, it is the goal of the campaign to fight back to crush the forces of Lordaeron ( orcs ), or the invader and the Dark Portal, which connects to the orc homeworld of Draenor destroying ( people ). The result of the campaign is given to people in other series history as canonical.

Gameplay

The game features two campaigns in single player mode (humans and orcs ), each with 14 missions. The core principle of the game remained the same. Divided into several missions it is important to collect resources and thus build up a base and combat units. Compared to its predecessor, however, Tides of Darkness offers a higher graphics resolution ( SVGA) and increased the maximum group size that the player could be selected at once, from four to nine units ( PlayStation-/Saturn-Fassung: 16). As a major innovation in shipbuilding and for third important resource oil were introduced. Far more important for the entire real-time strategy genre, however, was the introduction of the " fog of war", the veiled already enlightened areas again when positioned no units or buildings there. Otherwise, you saw there only the landscape, but no enemy units.

Publication

Warcraft 2 was first used in 1995 for DOS and Mac OS on the market. In 1997 the game under the subtitle The Dark Saga was ported to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn game consoles, with the add -on Beyond the Dark Portal was included in addition to the basic game. Not least with the release of " Battle.net Edition " of the game in 1999, with which one could compete against other players on Battle.net easy way in Blizzard's online gaming platform, Warcraft 2 was a great commercial success. This newer Battle.net Edition also supports Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT while the older version works only on MS -DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 support.

Beyond the Dark Portal ( Add-on)

Published in 1996, Blizzard developed by Cyberlore Studios Expansion Beyond the Dark Portal, each comprising a new, twelve missions comprehensive campaign for the people and the orcs and 50 multiplayer maps. Other enhancements include a new type of landscape ( wetland ), and more elaborate hero units. This feature, in contrast to the more irrelevant heroes in Tides of Darkness, have their own portraits and speech and play a fundamental role in the campaigns; this idea was taken up again in the sequel Warcraft 3 and significantly expanded.

Thematically linked the extension set to the end of the human campaign of Warcraft 2. The Dark Portal is destroyed, but there is still a crack between the worlds, which enables the transition. Under the leadership of the Necromancer Ner'zhul the orcs try again to establish a permanent portal connection between the worlds. On the side of the people, a group heroes therefore leads an expedition to Draenor to close the gap for getting what you finally succeed.

The CD of the expansion also includes 16 audio tracks, wherein the last audio track, I'm a Medieval Man to be a Easter egg: The title parodies the song I'm a Mechanical Man from Command & Conquer: Tiberium the conflict. The complete soundtrack was composed by Glenn Stafford.