Warcraft II

Blizzard's 1995 real-time strategy sequel pushed Warcraft's human-vs-orc war into SVGA color, gave it ships and zeppelins, and introduced the fog of war that became an RTS staple. Two factions, fourteen missions per side, eight-player Battle.net-style multiplayer over IPX or modem — and a soundtrack by Glenn Stafford that fans still hum thirty years later.

Setting and story

Set during the Second War on the world of Azeroth, the campaign casts the player as either an Alliance or Horde commander after the orcs' first invasion through the Dark Portal. The Alliance side rallies humans, dwarves, elves, and gnomes under King Terenas of Lordaeron; the Horde side commands the Blackrock, Bleeding Hollow, and Twilight's Hammer clans, with troll axethrowers, ogre-magi, and goblin sappers. The conflict ends with the destruction of the Dark Portal and sets up Beyond the Dark Portal.

Gameplay

Players harvest gold, lumber, and oil to build bases on land and sea, train infantry, cavalry, casters, and air units (gryphon riders for the Alliance, dragons for the Horde), and command up to nine units per group. Naval combat — destroyers, transports, juggernauts, oil tankers — is genuinely tactical, and the new fog of war re-darkens explored terrain you no longer have line of sight on. The shipped map editor produced thousands of community scenarios.

Engine and technical changes

The renderer jumped to 640x480 SVGA in 256 colors, a major step up from Warcraft's 320x200 VGA, with hand-painted tilesets for forest, winter, wasteland, and swamp. Multiplayer ran over IPX LAN, serial cable, modem, or null-modem at up to eight players. The Mac OS port arrived August 1996, eight months after the December 5, 1995 DOS release; the 1999 Battle.net Edition bundled the expansion and added Blizzard's online matchmaking service.

Development and release

Lead designers Ron Millar and Chris Metzen worked alongside producers Samwise Didier, Michael Morhaime, and Patrick Wyatt; Bill Roper directed the live-action mission cinematics filmed in Blizzard's offices. Glenn Stafford composed the score. The 1996 expansion Beyond the Dark Portal added 24 missions and new heroes, and the 1999 Battle.net Edition bundled both with online play. A 2024 re-release modernized the original installers.

Reception and legacy

Worldwide sales passed three million units by 2001, with roughly two-thirds in the United States. Computer Gaming World named it Game of the Year for 1995, and it shared the genre crown with Command & Conquer, released the same season. The engine and assets were reused for StarCraft's prototype work, and its world-building seeded the lore that Warcraft III and World of Warcraft would later expand.