Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness is a real time strategy game (RTS) where two sides fight each other across the lands of Azeroth: the Humans and the Orcs. Each must try to destroy the other by collecting resources, creating an army and crushing the enemy forces. In addition, there's a neutral faction featuring wild monsters which can be very dangerous or sometimes friendly. The game takes place in a medieval landscape with strong fantasy elements.
Game Modes
Warcraft II allows gamers to play against AI opponents in separate Human and Orc campaigns, and in stand-alone scenarios. Most of the campaign missions follow the classic pattern: "collect resources, build buildings and units, destroy enemies". However, some have various objectives, such as rescuing troops or forts, or escorting important characters through enemy territory.
The game features a new map editor which allows players to develop custom maps for use in multiplayer matches or against computer opponents.
The scenarios can be played against the AI or in multiplayer games with up to eight participant players.
Economy and Power
Warcraft II requires players to collect resources, build structures, train units and defeat the opponent in combat. The non-combat builders carry minerals from mines to the Town Hall for humans and Great Hall for orcs: gold from dugs and wood from forests. Both the Town Hall and the Great Hall can be upgraded twice to allow more usable resources per load from the workers. As both are limited resources and become exhausted using the game, players must carefully manage their economy and zones to secure future income.
Players can build Shipyards to produce battleships and Oil Tankers (used for oil gathering).
Workers can also construct Farms, each of which provides food for up to four units. To train more units than 4 times the number of available farms, the player must build additional farms. These buildings are also great for creating baricades and defenses.
User interface
The interface is similar to the one in Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.
Each faction is represented by a color: Orcs are red and Humans are blue.
If a faction produces a great amount of damage on one of its enemy buildings, it will start burning. A building burned to the ground leaves a pile of remains.
The numbers across the top of the screen represent player's reserves of gold, lumber, oil and food. The buttons represent the menu used to perform several actions in-game.
The upper left panel is the mini-map which shows the a summary of the territory fought over, mostly not discovered in the early-game by the player. Blue dots represent the player structures and the red ones represent the enemy's. The player can click the minimap to quickly navigate across the battlefield.
