Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (DOS) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 556
21One of the most classic RTS games of all time!
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I'm Gaming Jay: Youtube gamer, let's player, fan of retro games, and determined optimist... Join me in this series while I try out EACH of the video games in the book 1001 VIDEO GAMES YOU MUST PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE, before I die. The game review for each game will focus on the question of whether you MUST play this game before you die. But to be honest, the game review parts are just for fun, and are not meant to be definitive, in depth reviews; this series is more about the YouTube gamer journey itself. From Mario games to the Halo series, from arcade games to Commodore 64, PC games to the NES and Sega Genesis, Playstation to the Xbox, let's play those classic retro games that we grew up with, have fond memories of, or heard of but never got a chance to try! And with that said, the game review for today is...
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_II:_Tides_of_Darkness
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness is a fantasy real-time strategy computer game developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released for DOS in 1995 and Mac OS in 1996 by Blizzard's parent, Davidson & Associates. It's a sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. The game was met with positive reviews and won most of the major PC gaming awards in 1996. In 1996, Blizzard released an expansion pack, Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, for DOS and Mac OS, and a compilation, Warcraft II: The Dark Saga, for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. The Battle.net edition, released in 1999, provided Blizzard's online gaming service, and replaced the MS-DOS version with a Windows one.
In Warcraft II, as in many real-time strategy (RTS) games, players collect resources to produce buildings and units in order to defeat an opponent in combat. Players gain access to more advanced units upon construction of tech buildings and research. The majority of the display screen shows the part of the territory on which the player is currently operating, and, using the small minimap, the player can select another location to view and operate on. The fog of war completely hides all territory which the player has not explored: terrain that has been explored is always visible, but enemy units remain visible only so long as they stay within a friendly unit's visual radius.
Warcraft II was a commercial hit, with global sales above 3 million units by 2001; roughly two-thirds were sold in the United States. The game strongly influenced the company's next successful RTS, the futuristic StarCraft (1998) in gameplay, and in attention to personality and storyline. In 1996, Blizzard announced Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, an adventure game in the Warcraft universe, but canceled the project in 1998. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, released in 2002, used parts of Warcraft Adventures' characters and storyline, but extended the gameplay used in Warcraft II.
After seeing the excellent response of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, released in November 1994, Blizzard Entertainment started working on Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. Development began in February 1995[21] and the game was released in December for MS-DOS and in August 1996 for the Macintosh.[22] Blizzard later explained that the small budgets of the time allowed short development times.[23] The response of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans also allowed Blizzard to recruit additional top-class developers.[24] The company's initial design combined modern and fantasy elements, such as fighter pilots ambushed by a fire-breathing dragon. However, they found that this was unsatisfactory, and that there was plenty of content for a fantasy RTS.[25] The initial release of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness ran over a local area network using IPX but not over the Internet communications protocol TCP/IP. Kali, which used the Internet as if it was a local area network, became very popular and Blizzard quickly provided to players a program that made it easy to set up multiplayer Warcraft II games using Kali.[1]
In 1996 Blizzard published Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, an expansion pack initially contracted out to Cyberlore Studios. This contract was cancelled as Blizzard, unhappy after a milestone check-in, moved development in-house.[26] The expansion introduced new Human and Orc campaigns, featuring new and much more powerful heroes.[16] Later that year the company released Warcraft II: Battle Chest, a compilation of Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal, for DOS and Windows 3.