Warcraft II : Tides of Darkness Warcraft II : Tides of Darkness ( usually simply called Warcraft II ; sometimes abbreviated to WCII , WC2 , or War2 ) is the second , highly popular real time strategy game from Blizzard Entertainment set in the " Warcraft " universe . The novel " Tides of Darkness " , by Aaron Rosenberg , focuses on the events in this game . " Warcraft II : Tides of Darkness " is a sequel to the real - time strategy game " " and published by Blizzard in December 09 , 1995 . Users play either orc s or human s in a fantasy medieval world full of magic and swords . It was originally written for the DOS operating system , though it had a MS Windows launch screen and played well under Windows 95 . In addition , there was a Macintosh version of the game . Blizzard also released an expansion pack known as " " and later a sequel to this game , " " . The game has a linear single - player campaign for each side , and a multiplayer option via a LAN or the Internet , using existing or user - created maps . According to the README . TXT file included alongside the Warcraft II demo version , the graphics are pre - rendered 3D models . Both " Tides of Darkness " and " Beyond the Dark Portal " were later compiled and ported to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn as " Warcraft II : The Dark Saga " . Story . From the Blizzard ' s official site : Units . Like Warcraft : Orcs & Humans , most of the game ' s units on the two sides are immediate counterparts to each other . The armies are balanced by their similarity ; the only real differences can be found in the spells used by some higher - level units . The number of units has been increased , and the units themselves have more elaborate abilities . Naval combat was first introduced into the Warcraft series , there are transports , oil tankers and attacking ships . As an aesthetic change , both sides are allied with three minor races . Humans allied with Elves , Dwarves and Gnomes while Orcs allied with Ogres , Trolls and Goblins . Some campaign missions feature hero units . Hero units have heightened statistics compared to their normal counterparts , cause mission failure when killed , and each have a unique picture and name . Quotations . One of the features of " Warcraft II " are the unit quotes . If a single unit was clicked several times in a row , the unit ' s voice samples would change . The unit would start getting angry at the player , or start saying silly things in reference to movies , games , or other things . For example , a footman might say , " Don ' t you have a kingdom to run ? " . Footmen and Grunt s said different things in the game ' s demo , from some of those they did in the retail version , most of them exhortations to buy the game later . Utilities , modifications and conversions . " Warcraft II " was an unusual game for the time because a large number of third - party utilities were written for it . Among the first things , Daniel Lemberg reverse - engineered the " Warcraft II " map file ( * . pud ) format and created the first third - party map editor , War2xEd , which could do numerous things the bundled map editor could not do , such as editing unit attributes . Although Daniel Lemberg did not make the source code for War2xEd public , he did publish the complete " Warcraft II " map file format , which led to a wealth of new tools . More importantly , Blizzard began to use War2xEd internally , and it influenced them to bundle a feature - rich editor with their immensely popular game " StarCraft " . The next important breakthrough came when Alexander Cech and Daniel Lemberg broke the encryption used in the base game data files . Alexander Cech went on to create a program called Wardraft , which allowed users to browse and modify the contents of the game data files , allowing comprehensive modifications . The spawn of extensive alterations became known as " Total Conversions " , and a great many projects were in motion for a good long while . Some of the more prominent were " DeathCraft : Twilight of Demons " by Dirk " The Guardian " Richartz , " War of the Ring " by Gurthaur , " Editor ' s Total Conversion " by Fronzel Neekburn and the whole of the Warclan , and the noteworthy " Rituals of Rebirth " spearheaded by Kalindor , Kosmous , and Commoner . There was also a free software game inspired by " Warcraft II " called " Freecraft " , which , while allowing users to import actual game data from " Warcraft II " , also contained their own artwork and scenarios . Although it used no art or code from " Warcraft II " , the project received a threatening cease - and - desist letter from Blizzard , apparently due to similarity to the " Warcraft " trademarks . Not willing to fight Blizzard , the maintainers canceled the whole project . The project was later rekindled under name " Stratagus " . Many of the utilities and conversions have faded into the depths of obscurity , but the appeal of feature - rich editors and total conversions has lived on .