Warcraft 2: The Dark Saga

A smash hit on the PC, the console version of this outstanding realtime strategy game is almost ready for its PlayStation debut. Combining scenarios from the PC version of Warcraft II and the Dark Portal expansion pack, Warcraft II: The Dark Saga features over 90 customizable maps, new rendered cinematic clips, and auto build/fast action modes. The excitement centers around a medieval world where human and ore forces try to vanquish each other through land, air, and sea battles. You can try your hand as either race, and you get your choice of different character classes (fighters, mages, etc.). Warcraft II will present a real challenge for strategy gamers this summer, and should enliven the PlayStation's weak strategy lineup.

The real-time strategy craze is establishing a foothold on the PlayStation with Warcraft II. As with its Saturn counterpart, the game's addictive gameplay manages to shine through the major shortcomings.

Playing as either humans or ores in this epic battle, you maneuver troops into position while maintaining resources (food, gold, and so on) and building key structures like lumber mills. The point-n-dick controls become surviv-able with practice, but the lack of mouse support for this style of game is incredibly lame. Still, the gripping strategy action that drove the PC series to stardom somehow keeps you playing, even though the decent graphics and sounds could've been much better.

If a thinking-man's battle packed with strategy sounds exciting, Warcraft II is a flawed but fun buy. Action gamers, though, should be very, very afraid.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a computer gamer who has not heard of Warcraft II. This critically acclaimed real-time strategy game has won countless awards from PC magazines, and now it's coming to the PlayStation and Saturn.

The premise is so simple that it will entice the most novice of players. The depth of the game is so involved that strategy game fans will be playing It for to come.

(Warcraft for the PC is still one of the most played online games, 11/2 years after its initial release.) The game has you starting out playing as either the humans (the "good" guys) or the ores (the "not-eo-good" guys). You can play any one of 96 individual scenarios, or you can play one of the vast and challenging campaigns. These campaigns weave an epic adventure worthy of a full feature film and were taken directly from the original PC Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness CD and the expansion set: Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal (whose story line continues after Tides finishes). Bottom line: The console version of Warcraft II has more levels, more maps and more campaigns packed in them than any other game of its kind.

If you play as the humans, you will have to defend your world from the otherworldly ores, who are invading your lands via a mystical portal. At first you'll build up basic towns and outposts to defend strategic locations about the countryside. In the end, you'll find yourself having to destroy the portal itself, forever sealing off the tunnel between the ores' and your worlds. The second human campaign (from Beyond the Dark Portal) takes you into the ore homeworld to bring the war to their front yard. You can also choose to play the ores. Their path is as plain as daylight Conquer the humans.

Each mission in the campaigns will very. Most of them involve establishing a home base, building military units and killing all of the competition on that map. Other missions may be completed by establishing a certain number of key structures, or rescuing important prisoners of war. Eventually, you may find traitorous clans from the other side joining you to serve their selfish needs. Some of those missions will have ores and humans fighting side by side.

All of your success in Warcraft II will depend on your ability to manage your limited resources and your ability to command your forces. The basic resources are gold, lumber and oil. Your first unit, a peasant (human) or a peon (ore), is also your foundation. These little guys build all of your structures. From there, these buildings can produce your military units and upgrade them as well.

You will have to direct your forces well. Every unit behaves differently. Some can fly, some only do kamikaze runs, some attack from a distance, some are better up close. And for every character on the human side, an equal, but slightly different character exists for the ores. For example, a human Paladin is about equal in power and defense to an orcish Ogre-Mage. But they cast very different spells-Healing and Exorcism for the Paladin, Bloodiust and Runes for the Ogre-Mage. New to the home versions are two features: auto-upgrade and auto-buiid. As imply, managing their towns.

For example, you can have your barracks automatically pumping out soldiers, according to your orders (you can select how many of each type you want, and as long as you can afford them, and as long you have enough to feed them, they'll be created). You can also set certain buildings to automatically do the upgrades and learn the spells. Warcraft II purists may frown upon this hands-off approach, but it certainly makes things easier on the player.

Unfortunately, Electronic Arts, as of this writing, is planning on taking out the Two-player Link Option (which was working on the early beta we were sent). Don't ask us why, but we do hope they'll change their minds-it is there, after all.

Regardless, Warcraft II will supply individual player’s countless hours of entertainment Those of you who have beaten Command & Conquer and are looking for more challenges should look no further. Warcraft II is among the best the PC has to offer, and will hit the home systems soon.

The Warcraft series rocked on the PC, and now EA's giving 32-bit gamers a crack at some of gaming's hottest real-time strategy action. Combining the 52 missions of Warcraft II and the Dark Portal add-on, Warcraft II: The Dark Saga drops you straight into battles between ores and humans using an overhead click-and-drag interface. Fighting as either side, you play general and command units to attack foes, mine gold, construct barracks, and more. The best news, though, is that Warcraft II supports the mouse, which responds much better than the normal PlayStation controller.'

Even in the unfinished preview version, it's clear that this Warcraft won't live up to the high standards of its PC predecessors because of grainy graphics and clunky controls. On the plus side, however, it still contains the same riveting gameplay. If all goes well with the final version, 32-bit gamers who've never played the PC version should find a rough but very enjoyable game.