Warcraft 3 has changed a lot from the past RTS games that made all of today’s enhancements possible. Unlike most of today’s hardcore RTS games, Warcraft 3 has managed to integrate a type of Role playing game system into the single player, While still holding on to the most valuable traits of a strategy game.
The first thing that caught my attention in the single player mode of the game was how the Heroes (as they are called), had experience points. This leads me back to the RPG-ish style that was added into the game. Not only does each mission move the story along at a rapid rate but it also makes the single player game much more interesting. The missions are not the usual find the enemy and destroy the base. They are usually more complex, not to mention Blizzard threw in a lot of “optional quests” to help you increase your hero’s levels. Even though Warcraft 3 has shed many of its RPG characteristics that it was supposed to have when it was announced to be an RPG/RTS hybrid, WC 3 still manages to combine the two very well!
System Requirements:
Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP: - 400 MHz Pentium II or equivalent
- 128 MB of RAM
- 8 MB 3D video card (TNT, i810, Voodoo 3, Rage 128 equivalent or better) with DirectX® 8.1 support
- 700 MB HD space
- 4X CD-ROM drive
Recommended: - 600 MHz processor
- 256 MB of RAM
- 32 MB 3D video card
- DirectX® 8.1 compatible sound card
Multiplayer: - Low-latency, active Internet connection rated at 28.8 Kbps or faster. LAN play requires TCP/IP connection.
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Gameplay: The game starts with the introductory Orc campaign consisting out of two tutorial missions in which you assume the role of Thrall, son of Durotan, War chief of the New Horde. In these missions you will get to know and love the mysterious Prophet after he appeared in your dream. These missions have more then one purpose they also serve as a built in game tutorial. If you have played Starcraft getting the hang of this game won’t be a problem. Anyways you follow the prophet’s advice, gather your people and head westward. All but the human campaign has eight missions. The humans have nine and if you want to devote your time to it the night elves have a secret mission that has to be unlocked like Zertual’s discovery in Broodwar. In each campaign you will find intertwines itself with one another, this leaves you with one saga to be told.
The game has four races each of which have a lot of the basic things in common. However they will require very unique strategies due to the way they gather their recourses and the overall limitations that each race might have. It is amazing how each race is so different but evenly matched. This is due to Blizzard's extreme time and effort in beta testing their games thoroughly. Take the undead for example, they are like the zerg of Starcraft only able to build on certain infected patches. The undead also have one great advantage with the help of the unit called a necromancer they can raise the dead. So if a battle starts to go a rye, just summon the dead bodies and there you have it. One of the night elves most useful advantages (due to the new day and night reality part added to the game) when not moving at night the units become completely invisible “great for ambushes.” The elves also have long ranged weapons with the archer as there primary melee unit. The humans seem to be the most balanced of the four powerful races, having strong solders and at the same time having powerful arcane spell casters. Humans also have the ability to let two works construct a building so it can be finished faster. The orcs seem to be the most combat efficient race. They can level a building in less then a minute. It is clear that blizzard made sure that one race couldn’t just simply walk over another one. In my opinion they have done a great job at this covering some of the things that needed to be covered in past blizzard games such as Starcraft and even Warcraft 2.
Graphics: It is hard to believe that this is blizzards first 3d game. In past games like Diablo 2 they used pre-rendered 3d characters with 2d images to serve as the background. The first thing that many of you will notice when you first install this game, is how beautiful it looks, and it does! This game surprisingly isn’t all that demanding system wise. It will run with minimal choppiness on my dads old p3 450 with a voodoo 2. Warcraft 3 Is compatible with most graphics cards and if you have any questions about this, visit blizzards website. And if you have an ATI Radeon or nVidia based card, FSAA (Full Screen Anti-Aliasing) looks simply incredible. Each of the units in the game are amazingly detailed with 3d imagery and not to forget the nice portrait that comes with each. Every unit in the game has about 6 different voiceovers they will speak when given a command. The landscaping is just wonderful leaving little work left over for the imagination
Blizzard has lowered the overall number of units allowed on the field form 200 to 90. This makes taking out mass units and just overwhelming the enemy almost impossible. Now in doing this they have left us with the pros and the cons, the pros are that the game will require tighter strategy. It accomplishes this through the reduced number of units making you care about each individual unit rather then the whole group. This isn’t so bad because blizzard made up for this with the heroes, I can’t be more serious about how important it is to get out and get your heroes levels up. There are plenty of little battles on the map even in multiplayer because the designer put different creatures on the map to fight with. The down side to the reduced amount of men is that for those of us star-craft fans who used to bombard our foes with mass numbers of carriers, scouts, wraiths or whatever, are going to have to reacquaint ourselves with the concept of strategy. I personally enjoyed making the mass units and watching as the enemy tried as hard as they could to fight off what they knew was going to be their demise. But none the less it will be interesting to see what new tactics come up over the months and even years that this game remains in all of our hearts.
Multiplayer: Blizzard games have always been a lot of fun to play on battle net and almost as importantly, easy. Warcraft 3 is no exception. But if you feel that you are not ready for online play, then you can always play the computer in custom games. The AI is very effective, some might even say that it is to effective. But it will certainly sharpen your skills! When you decide or feel that you are ready to jump into the world of battle-net. You will find that when you search for a Game battle net will put you against people with similar options that you want for a game and people with a similar record as you. This allows you to face people at your own level. You can however search for games yourself if you wish to. It is all up to you what you get out of your online experience. Now let’s face it you are going to come across some people that will ruin your fun by cheating. That is why I mainly stick to LAN play but that is a whole different story.
Conclusion: Blizzard has come up with a great game that will remain with us for some time to come. You will find yourself picking it up time and time again just to hear that wonderful story line or maybe just to wallop your friends at a LAN party. You might find yourself sitting in a room playing the game in the dark so that you can see the true beauty of the graphics. Who knows maybe the games popularity will last as long as the soon to be classic Starcraft. So in closing, if you are looking for someone to tell you weather or not to buy the game I'm telling you buy it. If you need a killer RTS Fix buy it. If your looking for simple and enjoyable Multiplayer buy it. And if you played the beta version, please give the game another chance because the beta version didn’t even begin to do the game justice. I hope that this review has answered all of your questions. Lets break it down by the numbers.
Graphics - 98%
Sound - 86%
Gameplay - 95%
Realplay Value - 88%
Innovation - 90%
Storyline - 99.0%
Final Score - 93%
Looking to pickup this game for a great pice? Click below for a listing.
We'd like to thank Blizzard Entertainment for taking the extra time needed and make this game a benchmark by which all forthcoming RTS games should adhere. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the review. Feel free to head into the forums to lay a few words of praise or flame upon us, or to the Front Page and check out the other GooSH!™ OCA has to offer..| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
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