Video Game / Warcraft II

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Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness is the second game in the Warcraft Fantasy Real-Time Strategy trilogy, released on December 5, 1995 by Blizzard Entertainment for PC and Mac. The game would be the first in the series to have its own Expansion Pack, Beyond the Dark Portal, which would be released on May 16, 1996. The two would be ported together as Warcraft II: The Dark Saga for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1997, before the Windows/Mac version would be rereleased in 1999 as Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition. The game would get a remaster with HD assets for 30th anniversary of the franchise as Warcraft II: Remastered.

The game starts off after the end of the Orc campaign in WarCraft: Orcs & Humans, and made several introductions in terms of both gameplay and lore; the Humans are now in the Alliance alongside Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes as they fight off against the Orcish Horde that now enlist Trolls, Ogres and Goblins in their ranks. It also introduced air and naval units, which utilize the new resource in the form of Oil. It is also the first game to have its own map editor, which would pave the way for a more comprehensive editor for its successor.

Join the army they said, see the world they said, I'd rather be troping:

• Advice Recollection Snark: One of the Footman's Stop Poking Me! quote, which is a Shout-Out to Asterix.
  "Join the army," they said.
  "See the world," they said.
  I'd rather be sailing.
• Anti-Frustration Features: In the campaigns, "kill everything" objectives doesn't require the player to kill the non-combat units, such as Zeppelins/Flying Machines, Oil Tankers and Transports.
• Ascended Extra: Ogres in WarCraft: Orcs & Humans are just random dungeon monsters, but they take on a more prominent role in Warcraft II.
• Ascended Glitch: By taking the right steps at the beginning of a custom map, it was possible to get some extra lumber for free, which was highly valuable in games that chose to have everyone start with only a single peasant. When Blizzard fixed the glitch, they also increased the starting lumber amount to make up for it.
• Beware the Skull Base: In Warcraft II, some of the advanced Orc buildings use this aesthetic:
  • A fully-upgraded fortress looks like a massive obsidian skull surrounded by black spires, complete with a volcanic glow from the eye sockets.
  • The Temple of the Damned is a colossal jeweled skull and partial ribcage where Death Knights are animated.
• Bittersweet Ending: The conclusion of the human campaign in Beyond the Dark Portal, appropriately titled "The Bitter Taste of Victory". Despite having reclaimed the Book of Medivh from the Horde, the Alliance discovers that Ner'zhul has unlocked enough of its secrets to cast his Spell of Conjuration. As the rifts are opening across Draenor, the world begins to fall apart, and the Alliance has to close the Dark Portal to save Azeroth from suffering from the enormous backlash of energy that Draenor's destruction would inflict upon it, which leaves them stranded on the doomed world. With the Dark Portal closed, Khadgar leads the Alliance into one of the many other rifts that Ner'zhul opened to fates unknown, though knowing that their beloved Azeroth is safe from harm.
• Characterization Marches On: In Beyond the Dark Portal, Grom Hellscream has a very high-pitched and grating voice. Warcraft III onwards give Grom Hellscream a deep voice befitting a warrior.
• Cutscene Power to the Max:
  • One cutscene shows a human using a stolen Catapult to destroy a Goblin Zeppelin, despite the fact that catapults cannot attack flying units in actual gameplay.
  • The cutscene at the end of the Alliance campaign shows a human mage casting a spell (which does not exist in game) that summons a great pillar of light that destroys the Dark Portal (the tankiest building in the game) in one shot. Beyond the Dark Portal reveals that this Mage is Khadgar and he makes guest appearances in later missions, yet he also uses ordinary Mage spells in game.
  • The Horde ending cutscene has an Orc Grunt taking down a Human Knight. In game the Knight is superior to the Grunt in a one on one fight.
• Defenseless Transports: Both sides have unarmed transport ships.
• Demoted to Extra: Compared to the Water Elemental not returning, the orc counterpart, the Daemon, still exists but in name only, as it is vastly different: an unbuildable, unsummonable weak neutral flying unit with a short-ranged attack.
• Dirty Coward: In sharp contrast to how he would later be depicted, Orgrim Doomhammer is depicted by Gul'dan as "The Backstabber" who's quick to believe that other clan leaders are plotting to overthrow him. This is most prominent in the scene depicting Lothar's death, which features the old knight being ambushed by Ogres under the false pretense of a parlay with Doomhammer. Doomhammer is nowhere to be seen in the attack, suggesting that he didn't want to face Lothar in a fair fight.
• Dread Zeppelin: Used by the Orcs in Warcraft II as the equivalent to the Gnomish Flying Machine.
• Early Fireball Spell: From the moment mages become available as a unit for the human side, Fireball is one of two spells they have right from the beginning while all other spells need to be researched first.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Predating StarCraft I and Warcraft III, this game has some quirks:
  • II has very a rudimentary array of aerial units and they can NOT stack up on each other, making managing an air force clunky. There is also only one buildable attack flier for each faction, the Alliance Gryphon and the Horde Dragon, and they both have the same stats and only require a hefty 2500 gold per unit for resources and only take up one food/supply unit. StarCraft I would introduce stackable fliers, multiple types of air units besides basic attackers and the concept of offensive air units requiring secondary resources to build; Warcraft III inherited these improvements and even added air units who can land and/or take off in some fashion.
  • II largely discontinued summonable units, leaving only the weak skeleton summons for Death Knights, and Eye of Kilrog air scouts for Ogre Magi. Warcraft III would reinstate major summons, but restricted them to chiefly hero abilities and better balanced their attack power and unlock requirements (for ultimate summons especially).
  • II is unique in Blizzard's RTS line in that there is a mechanic where you can harvest bonus resources with the appropriate refinery structure. (Castle/Fortress, Lumber Mill, and Oil Refinery for instance) However, later games dropped this idea in favor of mostly fixed map resources ^note With the exception of special abilities that extend your bank such as the Orcish Horde's Pillage bonus The Undeads' ability to unsummon structures, the Night Elf Sentinels' technically infinite lumber economy, and the Goblin Alchemist hero's ability to Transmute enemy units into gold and lumber., and the oil resource was also discontinued in III.
  • Before Warcraft III, unit weapon and armor upgrades had only two tiers instead of the now-standard three tiers introduced in StarCraft I, and didn't require a Keep/Stronghold and Castle/Fortress structure to research the next levels beyond level 1; the air units are also unaffected by any armor or weapon upgrades, unlike the later RTS games. Unit weapon and armor upgrades are also not centralized in your Blacksmith structure, with your ranged troops having their upgrades in the Lumber Mill. Warcraft III merged the Lumber Mill and Blacksmith into a single structure for the Horde, Night Elves^note This mainly applies if you're using a Goblin Shredder, Wisps don't need to return lumber. and Undead. The Humans still have a traditional separate Lumber Mill that's relatively inexpensive for an advantage in building lumber expansions and has upgrades for your Peasants' lumber carrying capacity as a faction bonus.
  • The unit selection limit is 9 instead of Starcraft's standard 12. Warcraft II: Remastered would correct this however, bringing the limit up to 12, a change that was also back ported to Warcraft [Orcs and Humans] Remastered.
  • This game is an anomaly in that it lacks map doodads (decorations, including prefab bridges) like its predecessor and its successor StarCraft I. The maps themselves are solely composed of natural terrain and thus look comparatively bare, especially compared with future games like Starcraft and Warcraft III
  • When Quel'thalas is introduced here, it was depicted as a snowy place, probably due the fact that it was in the northernmost part of the continent. However, when it appeared again in III, it was instead depicted as green and sunny, which had been its standard look ever since. Supplemental material stated that originally Quel'thalas had a much colder climate befitting its latitude, but elven mages enchanted the land into a state of perpetual springtime.
• Enemy Civil War: The power struggle between Doomhammer and Gul'dan which is never mentioned in the Human campaign.
• Enemy Exchange Program: While it's possible to do this according to technical mechanics, but it's not a situation that ever occurs during the campaign mode. In custom scenarios, it's possible to confuse the game's soundbytes by abusing the mechanics, resulting in the Command & Conquer situation where human footman would start grunting like orcs. Beyond the Dark Portal, however, has such scenarios in each campaign (Alliance and Horde).
• Forced Tutorial: The 10th orc mission, "The Destruction of Stratholme," starts off with a Goblin Sapper tutorial where the player needs to use a few of them to blow up two rock walls before being able to establish a base.
• The Ghost: Many leaders of the Alliance and Horde are only mentioned in a passing of a mission description or in the instruction manual. Rarely do you get to see those characters in either the gameplay or cutscenes. The most notable character is Orgrim Doomhammer whom, despite being the Warchief of the Horde and an accomplished warrior, never appears in the game at all. Even Lothar's death scene is depicted as his cavalry being ambushed by a troop of Ogres rather than Doomhammer leading the charge himself as later Warcraft installments depicted.
• Government in Exile: Azeroth has lost both its homeland and its king, but it remains one of the most powerful human nations and is leader of The Alliance.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Ogre-Magi and Paladins. They are the fastest land units, hit hard, and have three spells to boot.
• Mid-Season Twist:
  • Tides of Darkness:
    • Orc campaign ("The Runestone at Caer Darrow"): Gul'Dan pillages the runestone.
    • Human campaign ("The Battle at Darrowmere"): The runestone's theft leads to the discovery that the kingdom of Alterac had been collaborating with the Horde.
  • Beyond the Dark Portal:
    • Orc campaign ("New Stormwind"): The book of Medivh is stolen by agents from Alterac.
    • Human campaign ("The Fall of Auchindoun"): Khadgar discovers the Dark Portal's weaknesses which are Medivh's book and Gul'Dan's skull.
• Plot-Triggering Death: The deaths of Medivh from the previous game and Gul'dan in Tides of Darkness has repercussions for the rest of the World of Warcraft. Medivh's book and Gul'dan's skull become important macguffins.
• Put on a Bus: Many WarCraft: Orcs & Humans units amongst the Horde and Alliance don't return in Warcraft II. Usually because they're replaced by units from other races that make up these factions.
  • The basic ranged units, Human Archers and Orc Spearmen, don't return in favor of the Elven Archer and Troll Axe Thrower respectively.
  • The cavalry unit for the Horde, Orc Raiders, get replaced by Ogres as their powerful next tier melee unit.
  • The Alliance used to have Catapults like the Horde, but get replaced by Ballista.
  • The first tier Alliance and Horde spellcasters, Clerics and Necrolytes, are gone in favor of Paladins being the Alliance's new healer, and Death Knights being the new Horde necromancer/spellcaster.
  • Warlocks for the Horde are also gone since the Death Knights fill their role as well.
  • After serving as powerful endgame summons for the Humans in Warcraft I, Water Elementals are nowhere to be seen throughout Warcraft II.
• Secret Character: The Attack Peasant and Attack Peon units in Warcraft II. They can only be placed on custom maps by using third-party editors^note You can see them in the official map editor's stat editing screen, but they remain otherwise inaccessible. and are completely indistinguishable from normal Peasants/Peons in-game, apart from having a different command interface (they cannot build, repair, or gather resources, and lack even an Attack command, though they can be still ordered to attack by right-clicking). Attack Peasants appear in two missions of the Tides of Darkness human campaign, first as peasant rebels you must kill, and then as Alterac prisoners you must escort to your base. Attack Peons do not appear in any official campaign at all.
• Selective Obliviousness: Level 8: There's been a peasant revolt by guys wearing Alterac colors — how strange. Level 9: Uther Lightbringer was almost killed by Alliance ships sailing with Alterac colors — how strange. Level 10: Let's interrogate these traitors who were wearing Alterac colors when they were caught. Level 11: Alterac has betrayed us! So that's why their national banner has a Horde emblem on it.
• Song Parody: "I'm a medieval man", a bonus track from OST, makes fun of the "Mechanical Man" tune from Command & Conquer, a friendly rival.
• Tornado Move: In Warcraft II, the Whirlwind spell moves slowly and randomly within a certain range of its target, damaging everything it touches.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable:
  • In Beyond the Dark Portal, it's very easy to soft-lock at the end of Orc Level 9 due to it being a micro mission with a flying Daemon at the end. The player is given just 1 Death Knight and 8 Axethrowers to work with throughout the level that can hit air, which if you lose too many of them, or they end up too injured, there won't be enough to kill the Daemon. Even worse is that the Daemon in this level specifically has buffed up stats compared to the Daemons seen in other levels. The late part of the map is also full of Paladins that can oneshot your Death Knight with Exorcism.
  • Some levels in Beyond the Dark Portal, such as Orc Level 6, and Orc Level 8, place enemy buildings entirely behind rock walls that can only be reached by tunneling through the rock using Dwarven Demolition Squads and Goblin Sappers. Players who run out of resources, but managed to clear the map, could realize too late that they can't reach the final enemy structures behind the rock walls anymore, because they can't purchase any Demolition Squads or Sappers to break through the rocks, or purchase Gryphon Riders or Dragons to fly over the rocks, in order to destroy the unreachable structures.
• Unwinnable Joke Game: Warcraft II includes a joke custom map in which the player only controls a single peasant surrounded by dozens of AI enemy controlled units. Predictedly, it ends with a defeat after a couple of seconds. The unwinnable status of the mission is even lampshaded in its file name ("Suicide") and ingame description ("If you win, you are a Warcraft god" or something like that). It is possible to win it if you enter the invincibility code quickly enough.
• Vocal Dissonance: In Warcraft II, every human ground unit has the same death cry. This include Alleria, who'll let out a masculine scream if she dies.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In Warcraft II, Ogres vomit when they die.
• You Require More Vespene Gas: Not only is there Gold and Lumber as in the rest of the series, there is also Oil that naval units require significant amounts of. The Blacksmith and your Keep/Castle or Stronghold/Fortress also require some oil, which can mean being unable to rebuild them if you lose them to enemy attacks too much, especially in "low starting resource" games on pure land maps. The Blacksmith is particularly crucial as it's one of the requirements for your Knights/Ogres and their magical counterparts.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Beyond the Dark Portal is mostly about both of the races searching for the Book of Medivh.