WarCraft II: Battle.net Edition (PC)

Developer:

Blizzard Entertainment

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Release Date:

Battle.net Edition 1999 Original 1995

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Systems:

Win, MS-DOS, Mac OS, Saturn, PSX

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm having a go of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness, originally released in late 1995. In fact, if I'd used my head I could've had this written up for its 30th anniversary a couple of months ago. Though I'm specifically playing the Battle.net Edition from 1999, which includes the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion pack from 1996, so really I'm both years early and right on time.

There was also Warcraft II: Remastered, released in late 2024, which has updated graphics and UI improvements... but I don't own that one. I almost didn't own this version either as Blizzard delisted it from GOG when Remastered released. Fortunately I bought it in the nick of time.

The Battle.net update added a few upgrades of its own, as it runs on Windows instead of DOS and has a whole list of tweaks to improve gameplay. Then GOG stuck a DirectDraw wrapper on it to make it play nice on modern systems, which I appreciate. Though I'm also interested in the older systems it was released on, as I had no idea until now that it got a PlayStation and a Saturn port.

I should've guessed though, as its arch-rival Command & Conquer got console ports as well, and the two games came out just months apart. Though there was no polygon-based N64 port for this one so people had to wait until WarCraft III in 2002 to see their little orcs chopping down trees in 3D.

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Here's what the title screen originally looked like back in 1995 if you're curious. They redrew the logo for the Battle.net Edition and made it much brighter. And somehow made the dithering on the characters even nastier.

Another difference is that the game was originally released for MS-DOS, so before you even get this far you have to first set up your sound card settings.

Good news, the voice is telling me that my sound card works perfectly! And if you've ever played this before, the voice is now in your head too.

If you click test a few times the sound card knight says "Enjoying yourself?" and if you keep going he eventually loses his patience, yelling "It doesn't get any better than this!" Just a nice little surprise for players who like clicking the test button over and over for some reason. Can Command & Conquer claim to have anything as iconic as this in its installer?

Hang on, I just need to find the GIF...

Command & Conquer (MS-DOS)

Unfortunately Command & Conquer has perhaps the most iconic install sequence in video game history, so WarCraft II loses this round.

Fortunately for WarCraft II, literally no one cares.

I love the art on the menu screen, it's almost as good as the music. Right away it's clear that the game is going for a very traditional fantasy feel, except a bit more comic book.

They still sell this Battle.net Edition on Battle.net and I expect the multiplayer probably still works... but I'm only interested in the single player. Like the original WarCraft (and Command & Conquer), the game features two single player campaigns, one for each side. Actually it features four of them, as it includes the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion for veteran players looking for more of a challenge.

The game also features another CGI intro sequence.

Six years have passed since the First War between man and orc. Though in reality it had actually only been a year since the first game.

Also the intro doesn't actually mention this, but man lost. It was the evil orcs that won their WarCraft 1 campaign and drove the humans away to Lordaeron. You might think that the orcs would be satisfied with that, but nope, they built ships to give chase!

For some reason I assumed that the second game would present the orcs a bit more three-dimensionally, maybe even sympathetically, but nope! They're just monsters looking for blood to spill.

Saturn

I was wondering if the Saturn and PlayStation versions had better video quality than PC and the answer is no. If anything, they look even rougher.

Though Blizzard had gotten a bit more ambitious with their CGI, as there are actual people in the intro now! It's not just a picture of a fortress, though also we get plenty of that as the humans prepare to defend it against an orc invasion fleet.

Fortunately the humans made alliances, and we get to see them loading dwarven cannons, and arming themselves with elven mail. Now united in arms with new allies against a common foe, mankind stands at the shores of destiny and awaits the coming of the Tides of Darkness.

PlayStation

That's all we get in the intro cutscene, but the console versions have this extra video at the start. It shows shiny letters reflecting a blacksmith who's doing some crafting, while the background features others getting on with the war.

And then it turns out the letters spell out WARCRAFT!

You don't actually have to play the campaigns though if you don't want all that story, as the game features a level editor and there are custom scenarios included. There are no difficulty options here or in the main campaigns, though you can lower the amount of resources or increase the number of AI human and orc players competing on the map.

The console versions also have the expansion and custom campaigns, though you probably won't find a level editor on the discs.

Anyway, I want to play as the heroic and generic humans, but I'm going to try the orcs for a bit first.

ORCS - ACT 1: SEAS OF BLOOD

The orcs start off the island of Zul'Dare, and we're either in the Seas of Blood or we're about to fill the seas with blood.

I love seeing maps in fantasy stories, but this one's kind of barren. Barely an improvement over the scruffy 3D map of the first game. Blizzard must have realised it was a bit crap as it's one of the few things to get a makeover in the console ports. 

I'll show a picture of the PlayStation map later, but right now I want to get started building my six farms, or whatever I need to do.

Oh, I only need four Farms. I can do that.

WarCraft 1 showed 2D characters sitting around a 3D rendered table giving you your orders, while this is a bit more basic with its briefings. I think the first game wins this round.

Neither game gives your characters a name and I don't know anything about WarCraft lore anyway. But I do know that the Orcish War Chief giving me orders, Orgrim Doomhammer, is actually who you play as in Warcraft 1 (on the orc side, obviously).

WarCraft II's higher resolution SVGA graphics make a big difference, but the biggest upgrade is being able to give units context-sensitive instructions with a single click of the right mouse button. Ordering troops around in original WarCraft is a pain in the ass because you to have select what you want them to do each time.

Also now when you click units they've got different voices and if you click them enough times they each have a different way to tell you to knock it off ("Are you still touching me?")

The actual interface seems very similar though. It's still got the resources on the top and the minimap on the left, and it still puts the game world inside a frame so it's like I'm looking at it through a window. Orcs get a brown border, humans get grey stone.

Here's the base they've given me: a town hall that looks like a delicious iced doughnut, and one pig farm. No roads though, they've been dropped for this game. I like how the town hall has the washing hanging up outside, that's something you don't get in Command & Conquer. Plus I've got a severed orc hand as a cursor, that's pretty unusual as well. It's like I'm playing a '90s Mega Drive emulator.

I have four units to command, three of them are dudes with axes and one of them is a peon... who also has an axe now that I think about it. Peons gather resources and construct buildings, so I'm going to order him to start making trips to the nearby gold mine and get him accumulating wealth while I decide what to do next.

My farm can feed five people and I've got four units, so I'll spend some gold to start training a second peon at the town hall. (Don't ask why he only needs food after being trained.) I need wood to make new buildings, so Peon #2 can start chopping down forests. And we're evil, so I'll not plant anything to replace them.

Another big improvement for the Battle.net Edition that I can double-click to select up to nine of the same type of units on screen, and I can group units to a hotkey like in Command & Conquer. This means I can just press a key and have a squad of grunts selected, ready to scout the inky black unknown.

WarCraft II has added an (optional) grey fog of war that obscure enemies standing out of sight, but I can at least reveal the terrain. If these guys have a base, I want to know where it is and how to get there.

My two peons are still busy digging and chopping so no one's free to build a farm, but I've got a plan for that. One of these grunts has low health and the next enemy I meet is going to finish them off. Then I'll have 1 food spare to train up a third peon!

My troops survived their expedition around the map, so that didn't work, but I'll cope. It's just a shame that I can't heal my wounded grunts or leave them to recover over time.

Now that I know it's safe and there's no human base here I can crank the game speed up to full and get my peon building farms. I click the peon, click the button on the sidebar, then click where I want the construction site to go. Peons aren't used up, they're not needed to run the building, so I can just send them on to the next construction project. Until all the farms and barracks are built.

My rank is Slave? Even after that victory? I got a better rank than that in the first game after I lost level 1! 

Well screw Team Blackrock, I'm going to go work for the Nation of Azeroth instead. They clearly need my help by the look of those stats.

HUMAN LEVEL 1

PlayStation

There's the PlayStation version of the map screen, as promised.

It's nearly impossible to read those names, but Zul'Dare island is under the word 'Shores' and the humans start off on the other side of the water in Hillsbrad. They've heard rumours of orcish raids in the area and want me to build an outpost. So, four farms and a barracks then.

I love the human narrator's voice by the way. He sounds like an American who came into the recording booth dressed in huge shiny plate armour and is trying to manifest a British accent by sheer force of will.

PlayStation

Oh of course, the PlayStation version goes back to WarCraft 1's screen resolution! Everything's all tiny and cute.

There's another visual difference: the sidebar is missing. I can make an overlay appear with the resource counts and minimap, but if I want to see a unit's health I have to look down under their sprite. Wait, that's actually way more convenient! I do have to select them for the health bars to appear, but that's as simple as dragging a box around them, just like in the PC game.

Saturn

To build things or issue commands in the console games I bring up this unnecessarily tiny window with a button press, then select the icon. Weirdly the town hall gives me the option to 'auto build', so that's different.

Overall though, the console versions appear to just be WarCraft II, except more awkward. The PC version doesn't let you lower the resolution, hide the sidebar, or switch to gamepad controls, but if it did this is basically what you'd get.

In any version of the game playing as humans is basically the same as playing as orcs, with both factions having their own variants of the same units and buildings. They're not absolutely identical, human mages have different spells to orc death knights for example, but the two campaigns have basically the same gameplay.

HUMAN LEVEL 2

New level, new base. This one comes with a big red circle!

They've given me archers for this mission, as we're teaming up with the elves to save some of their scouts in the hope that this will lead to a true alliance. Though hang on, it says I have food 12/9 - whoever made this base didn't make enough farms to feed the elves! This shouldn't be a problem for them, but it is a problem for me as without spare food I can't make a peasant and without a peasant I can't make more farms. Maybe I'm supposed to wait for some of my troops to get killed...

Oh no, wait, false alarm, there's a peasant hiding just off-screen. I've also found some Elven Destroyers parked in the water! WarCraft 1 never gave me any ships.

Oh damn, I've wandered right into the enemy base! 

This is really bad, as I haven't got the gold to train soldiers. I haven't even got a barracks built! If I've accidentally kicked the hornet's nest here then the rest of the orcs are going to swarm my defenceless base and kill my only peasant. I am really really screwed.

Wait, is this all that's up here? Some walls and a guard tower? Oh, okay then, I'll tell the troops to open a gap with their swords and go hack the tower down. Then I'll tell my peasant to give the deforestation a break and start mining some gold, because I need 400 in the bank to train another one. 

I assumed that the enemy base would be on the coast and I'd be able to find it with my fleet, but there's nothing up here but the occasional Troll Destroyer. I may as well blow them up while I'm here.

Ship combat is a lot like land combat, with one major difference: they can't go on land. That's pretty much it, my boats are just the archers of the sea, with cannon balls instead of arrows and sails instead of capes.

Alright, I lost a few men exploring the left side of the map and the survivors are wounded, so before I go any further into the scary black zone of mystery I'm going to make use of all the new stuff I've been given for this level.

I've gathered enough resources to send a peasant to construct a lumber mill, which lets me upgrade my arrows for more damage. Even better, it means that my barracks can produce elven archers. I suppose there must be a bunch of untrained Elves hanging around, waiting for someone to manufacture a bow for them.

Oh, plus having a lumber mill also means that peasants carry 125 logs home instead of 100, and they can carry them straight to the mill instead of navigating the mess of farms and barracks to get to the town hall each time. Both ways.

Alright, time to press + four times to go to maximum speed, quickly produce a squad of troops, and then press - four times to go back to normal speed so I can finally rescue those poor elves.

Oh, there weren't any other enemies left on the map, I'd basically won ages ago. Well, uh, okay then! Better to be safe than sorry.

Moving my units in range of the White Team elves brought them under my control, so I sent them down to the Circle of Power so they could be officially counted as 'rescued'. Mission complete! And not a single seal got accidentally clubbed. Or nuked.

HUMAN LEVEL 3

Okay, I know the drill. I got my peasant building a farm so I have the food to make new units. I'm training a second peasant so I can gather both gold and wood. And I'm scouting the local area so I don't have enemies emerging out of the unknown.

These guys headed directly left and found a dead end with a second gold mine, which is great. I means I've got another source of money and there's no chance of enemies attacking from the west. I only have to guard the south of the base.

Turns out that there isn't anything south of the base either, I'm on an island!

I can see an enemy farm on another island, but I'll leave it alone for now. I really don't want to encourage enemy ships to come over while I'm still building my forces.

Speaking of that, I need to make a shipyard to start building ships. I'll also need to build a rig to drill for the game's new resource: oil.

I can't think of many medieval fantasy games with oil refineries, so that's different. How do they even know where to build the oil rig? Oh, it's probably because of all the oil leaking out and forming a patch. Either that or a wizard did it.

I've got an oil tanker (the peasant of the sea) carrying oil over from my oil mine, while my fleet of destroyers destroys some orc farms. Eventually. It takes a while. One of the worst parts of the game is the waiting. as you slowly chop through buildings.

The best part of the game might be the soundtrack, because this has some of the most memorable and dramatic music of the '90s. It's right up there with Donkey Kong Country 2, Turrican II, Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasy VII... and Command & Conquer.

Oh damn, the enemy crept over with a fleet I didn't know they had and blew up my newly built destroyer while my attention was elsewhere! 

It's not a game about reflexes, but it doesn't autopause during an enemy attack, so if you have the speed on full you're going to suffer damage before you can react. At least on the Battle.net Edition you can press 'space' to jump to the last message. Last 8 messages in fact.

It's okay, I have four ships left, so their attack on my shipyard won't be a concern for much longer. Then I'll build another oil platform and get the level finished.

HUMAN LEVEL 4

Level 4 started me off on another isolated island. Well, I thought it was isolated.

I've learned to keep my troops away from the coast in case a boat comes over and starts taking shots, but I didn't expect enemy troops to show up. They must have been dropped off by a transport ship. I need to get a foundry and an oil refinery built so I can make my own transport. Then I'll send some guys over and see how they like it when it's their farms are on fire.

Oh crap, I didn't realise they had so many troops hiding in the blackness! They've come out as a swarm to murder my whole landing party. Uh... retreat! Get back to the boat!

Though actually, this could work out for me. My ships have limited range, but if I drop troops on the beach, then the enemies will come out to kill them. Once they take the bait I'll have my units run away, luring the orcs into a deadly bombardment. Repeat until all orcs are properly toasted.

The naval assault worked great. Unfortunately every time my troops blow up their great hall another peon pops out to start building a new one! It's great that the game lets you make a comeback even after the utter obliteration of your base. But this is actually getting boring now and I wish they'd stop. 

HUMAN - ACT II: KHAZ MODAN (LEVEL 5)

Hey, that's not an actual WarCraft II tip!

StarCraft came out three years after WarCraft II, so this must have been added for the Battle.net Edition. A bit of in-game advertising for you.

Anyway, I've reached Act Two! I didn't even know that the game had acts. I've been given orders to claim a base and use it against the enemy, and I think this is the last thing I'm going to do before I turn the game off and call it a night. This shall be my final battle.

They've given me two peasants and some stacks of resources, but where's the trees and the gold mine?

Fine, I get the hint, I need to load up my troops onto those two transport ships and then use them to reclaim Tol Barad. Then I'll have the base I'll need to create a force to destroy Dun Modr. (That's just what names are like here in Khaz Modan it seems).

Alright lads, into the boats, we set sail for that place with the red squares on the minimap. Incidentally, I really like the design of our transport ships. The artists even gave them a little life boat.

Oh cool, I've got a Gnomish Flying Machine! That must be why the red town was already visible on the minimap.

The first sustained flight by a heavier-than-air powered aircraft was in 1903, so the gnomes are a bit more advanced than the rest of this setting, but there's always someone in a fantasy story who's building anachronistic gadgets. I remember in Dungeon Siege the gnomes had robots and miniguns... oh hang on, those were goblins. Still, my point stands.

Right, I need to land troops on this island, kill the Black Team orcs and then claim the Red Team buildings for the glorious Blue Team by just walking up to them. I wonder if these buildings are going to produce red units or blue units. I think it'd be nice if they actually did make red troops, not that it matters, as they're all under my command.

It's a bit awkward that the red dots on the minimap are allies for this level, but it's even more awkward trying to spot the black dots at all. These guys are like stealth orcs.

I've been scouting with my flying machine and now I have to decide if I want to expand my operation onto some of these empty islands. 

The resources on the Red Team Island are getting kind of depleted, but it's a very defensible position. If I go after the other two gold mines and the forest island, then the enemy will have so many other places to attack. Also every island will need peasants and a town hall or lumber mill to take their stuff, and I'll need farms to increase the population cap...

Oh screw it, I'm constructing bases everywhere. Because I can. The first WarCraft makes you build everything next to your own roads to keep your base from spreading out too much, but here I can claim the whole world! 

I'm also debating whether I should upgrade my red town hall into a keep. It apparently lets me build a stables, and gnomish inventors, and it has more HP, and peasants will bring in more gold... but it'll cost money and I'm stingy. 

Crap, they keep dropping troops at Red Team Island to attack me while my attention is elsewhere. I know that I just have to press 'space' to jump to where my dude yelled 'we're under attack!' but when I've got my speed on full they can do a lot of damage before I can react. And half the troops I put there are just ignoring them!

Okay, new plan, it's time to use an icon I've never used before. I'm going to press the 'patrol' button! That means that my selected troops will walk back and forth from where they were standing to where I click the mouse, and they'll jump into the fight when it happens instead of standing there like idiots.

Speaking of idiots, why haven't I built a guard tower here? That seems like a pretty obvious move to make if the orcs are going to keep parking their transport ship in the same place. The only downside of a guard tower is that it can't move, otherwise they're an effective way of dealing with invaders. Especially when they're upgraded to cannons.

You can't tell, because the enemy buildings on the minimap are all black, but I've brought my fleet right next to the enemy base and I'm currently taking out their ability to harvest oil. Though that's actually a secondary goal, as my true plan is to lure over enemy boats and destroy them with superior numbers. (Note: make sure you have superior numbers before you try this).

Oh crap, the enemy has a ship I didn't account for: that transport vessel that keeps dumping troops on my main island. It's back and this time it just dumped troops on my incredibly undefended top island! That's what I didn't want it to do!

Okay, I've got a new plan. 

The enemy transport ship has been successfully sneaking right up to my islands because it's hidden by the fog of war. Anything that appears on screen in the hazy era is a memory of what used to be there last time I looked, so enemies can sail around in secret.

My plan is to put a line of ships between the islands, spaced far enough apart that I can see anyone trying to sneak up and drop troops on my islands. The downside is that it will leave half my fleet sitting there doing nothing. Also the enemy could just sail around the left side of the map instead, though I doubt the pathfinding is that good.

Aha! I've found that bloody transport. Now my vengeance sails forth! Though I'll probably have to rush off if they send an enemy ballista over, as getting shot by a siege weapon is no fun.

Anyway, now that I control the seas this is pretty much over. I'm back to wrecking enemy structures and luring out their troops so I can fight them on my terms. It's a bit boring, but it's nice to feel like a tactical genius for a little while, before the next level reminds me that I'm an idiot.


CONCLUSION

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When I wrote about WarCraft: Orcs & Humans I said it was a bit like an unfinished beta version of the genre. The Wolfenstein 3D of RTS games. So it makes sense that WarCraft II is the Doom of RTS games.

It's basically WarCraft again, except with new units, different buildings, a better interface, higher resolution graphics, and lots and lots of water. They kept what worked, fixed what they could, and rushed it out a year after its predecessor, just in time for it to define its genre.

WarCraft 1's biggest flaw was its controls, as ordering units around was a pain in the ass. That's not a problem any more, as WarCraft II makes it far quicker to select troops and issue orders. You don't need the speed, unless you're playing multiplayer, as you can slow the game down if necessary, but it's much less frustrating. It's missing some common RTS features even in its upgraded Battle.net form, like production queues and rally points for new units, but I suppose they had to leave something for its successors to introduce.

The console versions work pretty well too, considering they have no mouse support, though they're not the ideal way to play. You miss out on the level editor for one thing, which cuts down on the custom content considerably. You also lose the SVGA graphics, which is a shame as the artwork here is a real selling point. The pixels are clearer, the cartoony units more colourful, and it held up pretty well even before the remaster.

Though I really do think that the soundtrack is actually the highlight, because it sounds correct. If there are infinite parallel universes where all possible choices happen simultaneously, then we live in the universe where all the right choices were made while composing WarCraft's II's music... and Command & Conquer's music too. Somehow the two rivals both have all-time great soundtracks.

I'm really not an expert when it comes to the RTS genre, I couldn't come up with an argument for why this is a better or worse game than Command & Conquer or StarCraft. But it brought a lot more joy into my life than playing brutal and cryptic War of the Lance last time, so I'm going to shower it with awards.

Anyway, if I've learned anything from playing WarCraft II it's that you can use the Right Mouse Button to issue Auto-Commands, you should buy Starcraft and the Starcraft Expansion Set Brood War, and you must never pet a burning dog.

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Thanks for reading!

If you want to comment with your own thoughts about WarCraft II, that's awesome. If you'd rather make a guess at what the next game is, that's good too.