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PC game releases of this magnitude occur
only once in an orc moon. Fans of the mega-selling and critically acclaimed “Warcraft II”
have been waiting since 1995 for the release of Warcarft III. To put this in perspective,
the system requirements for WC II were dos 5.0, a 486/33 processor and a SVGA graphicscard.
Then there were the false starts from the usually reliable Blizzard. Early on, WCIII development
was besieged with setbacks. Mis-information spread like wildfire throughout the gaming community.
A prominent monthly PC game magazine ran 2 cover stories on the WC III release – 3 years ago.
Gamers learned at E3 2001 that the promised 6 races were reduced to 4 races. Blizzard then missed
the important 2001 christmas release by an azeroth mile. Skeptics were becoming |
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vocal. Gamers
watched in horror as the release date slipped yet again from may 2002 to july due to reported
problems in the beta test…
Then, miracles of miracles, the game actually shipped. Short of trumpets blaring at every sale,
Blizzard made it well known that this game was worth the wait. It arrived on my doorstep in
a simple brown cardboard box, looking surprisingly plain and innocuous. But the delays were
finally over. Now the gamers will decide: is WC III a revolutionary combination of RTS & RPG
gameplay, or simply a rehash of WC II with updated graphics? I am ecstatic to report it is the
former
The game continues the story of WC II fifteen years later, when an uneasy peace accord between
orcs and humans has been struck. Of course the duplicitous orcs have been secretly reuniting
their clans under a diabolical new leader. At the same time, a new menace (and playable race)
literally rains out of the sky: the undead horde. The horde are but heralds for the burning
legion, an ancient evil race bent on domination of all lands, who were banished from Azeroth
by the night elves 10,000 years ago. The night elves (playable race) have re-emerged from their
self-imposed exile to once again stop the undead horde / burning legion, with or without the
help of humans and orcs. The single player campaign will lead a gamer through all races, and
unfold the story with amazing cut scenes until the final shocking conclusion.
First and foremost, creating a game that combines the best elements of a RTS and RPG is in
fact groundbreaking. WCIII allows the player to utilize a “hero” for all 4 of the races (orc,
human, night elves, and undead). This WCIII hero, like any good hero from a RPG, can earn
experience by slaying foes, and use that experience to “level up”, thus earning more damaging
attacks. WCIII heroes also have attributes such as intelligence, strength and agility, and can
collect and use powerful artifacts and learn formidable offensive and defensive magic spells.
Examples of heroes for the races include: paladin (human), blademaster (orc), demon hunter
(night elves) and death night (horde). In the single player game, playable heroes are carried
throughout an entire campaign / storyline and may be revived, for a cost, if slain. In
multi-player games, a hero must be created from scratch for every game.
In addition to the strong RPG facet of WCIII, the RTS elements shine through and blend
flawlessly into the game. For those familiar with WCII, the basic requirements remain the
same: wood, gold and food are the available resources, and combinations of all 3 are required
to build all structures and feed armies. As always, the hapless peasant / peon is the lackey
tasked to mine the gold, erect the buildings and grow the food. Tip of the hat to Blizzard
designers who kept the original, now classic, peasant / peon lines from WC II such as “yes,
m’lord”, “okay dokey” and “zug zug”.
In the timeless tradition of RTS games, all structures are upgradeable for an outlay of food,
wood and gold. The more advanced of an upgrade, the more resources are required for the upgrade.
For instance, the lowly human “town hall” can be upgraded to a “keep” and finally to a “stronghold”.
Upgrades to buildings are required for all races to research more powerful troops, better armor and
weapons, improved spells, siege weapons, towers, etc. The key is to balance upgrading structures
while maintaining a decent size army. Obviously, acquiring more than one gold mine also speeds
up troop production and upgrades.
Balance is the name of the game when comparing the fighting capabilities of each of the races.
To be sure, each race has its inherent strengths and weaknesses, but all races have units of equal
stature and ability. To illustrate, the basic foot soldier has 4 different incarnations for each
race (footman, grunt, huntress & acolyte), though they all fill the same role, and inflict
roughly the same damage. As there is a check and balance for each races specific units, the
real difference between races are found in the intrinsic abilities of each tribe. For example,
the humans can improve their lumber gathering ability and call out a peasant militia, the orcs
can research spiked barricades and gain gold by looting buildings, night elves have enhanced
night vision and troops can hide in shadows. The truly macabre undead horde can summon buildings
(!) and harvest corpses to replenish health (!!).
The advantages of each race really shine through in multi-player games. A player chooses their
race based on what style of play preferred: humans are initially weak, but are strong late in the
game, the orcs are a great offensive force, night elves are a good defensive squad, and the undead
horde offer a balanced offensive and defensive attack.
For such an outstanding game, there is one glaring flaw: upkeep. Upkeep is the “tax” imposed on a
players forces (regardless of race) based on the total number of units produced. The three levels
of upkeep are none, low, and high. Low upkeep takes 3 gold for every 10 collected, and high upkeep
takes an appalling 7 gold for every 10 collected. As the population cap is a relatively low 90,
low upkeep sets in fast, and high upkeep can drain two gold mines faster than jack black going
through a buffet table. One not-so-pleasant strategy to avoid the high upkeep is to kill your own
peasants or lowly foot soldiers to reduce total units – surely not what Blizzard had in mind.
Graphics and sound are uniformly outstanding. The game is a complete 3-d environment. Colors are
bright, and no detail is overlooked – the trees shake as a peons axe strikes, water ripples,
movements of troops are realistic, voiceovers are believable, heroes are imposing, and the cut
scenes are near-cinematic quality. One cut scene involves a prince returning from a victorious
battle to a rose petal parade, then confronting his father, the king. This is perhaps the best
video game cut scene I have ever seen on a computer.
Warcarft III: Reign of Chaos is a magnificent PC game. The single player campaign is amazingly
compelling, and with 4 races available for multi-player games, variations are endless, and learning
all the nuances of each race is a lofty goal worth pursuing.
Simply put, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos shatters all expectations and immediately places itself
in the hallowed pantheon of landmark PC games such as Doom, Half-Life, Quake, Baldur’s Gate and Diablo.
It is that good.
Sliceboy's Rating:
4 out of 5 Planets
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