WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos

The Good
Not to much. The units were well drawn and the animations were excellent. Also the voices were well done and the maps were varied but the good stuff but...

The Bad
The races, though different, all felt the same to me. Every unit felt like it was mirrored from another race with a couple different magic spells that ultimately did the same thing.

On top of that all the units seemed like mobile structures. How can 3 guys with swords take out a heavily fortifed tower when being shot at by 3 other towers at the same time. Base defences are supposed to DEFEND bases. Not act as temporary brakes on an attack.

People tended to do the same thing every game too. It was a sudden rush of a ton of units every game. No matter the map. That's not very much fun because it's just whoever can rush the fastest that wins the game. There are no tactics, just swarming.

What is the point of being able to rotate the camera? You can't do anything with the rotation and it recenters automatically. Plus you are stuck at the same perspective and zoom levels. The game had so much potential but it wastes it at every chance it gets.

The Bottom Line
Meets the quality of the last 3 [Blizzard]Craft games, being a boring and repetitive reincarnation of the same game just this time with fancy looking graphics.

The Good
Warcraft II proved to be the game which really cemented Blizzard’s legend status among RTS fans world-wide. With Warcraft II, Blizzard added features and game-play options which really pushed the boundary of RTS games and paved the way for their next game, Starcraft which would remain the granddaddy of later-day RTS for a long, long while. Thousands still play Starcraft to this day, so it was not with little fanfare that Blizzard announced their return to the Warcraft universe (and RTS), with Warcraft III.

Warcraft III includes all the features that were included in Starcraft, such as unit group and building hot-keying, vertical ranged fighting, strategic team play, and of course battle.net support (out of the box). It adds a whole slew of new features, the most notable of which is the inclusion of two brand new races - The Undead and The Night Elves. The Undead are included as the game’s new resident bad-guys, forcing the Humans and Orcs to ally, in the face of great danger. In fact, this danger will force them to sail from Azeroth to lands across the sea, where the ancient race of The Night Elf is encountered.

Like Starcraft, the single player experience is plot driven, with campaigns book-ended by pre-rendered animated sequences. If you were impressed by Diablo II and Starcraft’s CG sequences, you’ll be blown away by Warcraft III’s – they are cinematic in quality, being not just eye-candy, but also serving to set the scene and drive the plot in a very impressive manner. Within the actual game, the plot is unfolded by way of in game sequences which utilize the existing graphic engine, albeit from different camera angles. These sequences are very good and the voice acting even manages to maintain a pretty high quality (although the script sometimes leaves a little to be desired).

Taken alone, these sequences don’t pack quite the impact of their pre-rendered brothers; however since they work seamlessly during the mission progression, they really keep the game from becoming just a rush to complete the necessary objectives. The story becomes key and keeps the single player campaign as a story based experience and not merely a tutorial for the player before they try the multiplayer game. To enhance this plot driven dynamic further, a role-playing style sub-system has been added whereby “hero” characters have experience points, special skills that can be learned and an inventory. As the player progresses, so do their heroes. This turns the game into a welcome blend of RPG-come-RTS.

In terms of the meat and potatoes RTS game-play, Warcraft III is a very good addition to the genre, with good and varied races and imaginative units and abilities. One of the best new features that has been introduced, are automatic abilities which can be toggled on and off. This is something that was toyed with in Starcraft’s Broodwar Expansion (Terran Medic) and has been extended here. Once clicked on these abilities will automatically kick in (but will use mana in most cases) until clicked off by the player. This reduces the amount of frustrating micro-management that must be used to get the most out of units’ abilities during a heated battle.

The Bad
The progression to Warcraft III has not been all glory and shiny helmets, however. It seems that the introduction of four races has been more troublesome than the three which inhabited Starcraft. Blizzard seems to have spent much more time balancing units and abilities between the races since the game’s release. Even now, balance changes occur on a regular basis. It’s no disrespect to Blizzard, as the challenge in pulling off four distinct races in the one game must be immense, however it can be a bit frustrating for players to be continually beaten (in multiplayer) by people willing to exploit the latest game imbalance. In some ways, the game might have benefited from dropping either the Orc or Human race (which are quite similar) and concentrating on three very different races (ala Starcraft). From a plot/universe perspective this won’t work, however “The Naga” (a planned fifth race) do appear in the expansion pack, but not as a playable race, for these very balance issues. This was a wise decision by Blizzard, as they have their hands quite full enough as it is!

One major gripe that ex-Starcraft aficionados will mention is the new, lower unit limit and the upkeep system. In Starcraft players were imposed the quite generous unit limit of 200 basic units at once. Warcraft III drops this to 90. This change is almost certainly a technology related one, rather than a considered game-play choice. The prospect of rendering 200 units per player on screen (with each unit having in the order of 200 polygons each), would blow the minimum system requirements sky-high and so the limit is a necessary one. A less necessary change is the addition of “upkeep”. This upkeep kicks in when the player hits various population milestones and acts a tax on the income of lumber and gold. By the time the player has maxed out their units they are losing around two thirds of their income to upkeep! The driving force here is to stop players stock-piling large numbers of units, and to force earlier attacks with a more tactical intent. However it does change the game-play dynamic quite a bit, and may not be to the liking of all fans.

The final point is the experience of multi-player and the battle.net service. Long after everyone is sick and tired of the single-player game, it will be the multi-player aspect which ensures long term success. With regards to Warcraft III, the experience is a little inferior to that of its predecessor (Starcraft) for one reason. Players will quickly find that to stand any chance of winning a battle.net game, they have to follow a specific set of steps at the beginning of every game. This essentially involves building a hero and as many units as possible, as quickly as possible and then “creeping” (i.e. running around the map killing NPCs to gain experience on the hero, before launching an attack on an opposing player. Starcraft included enough different low-level units that any number of strategic paths were open to the player from the outset. Warcraft III is not designed in this way however, generally there are only one or two units to build right away and success is reduced to the choice of hero and effectiveness at “creeping” the map. This is quite a big miss, and one that can’t be patched by a balance fix – it’s an inherent part of the game structure.

The Bottom Line
All in all however, single-player or multi-player, Warcraft III is a very engaging RTS, with a good story and high production values. Most of all, it shows that Blizzard have made a successful transition to 3D whilst adding game-play enhancements to their premiere RTS formula.

The Good
First off, it is graphically awsome. If you have the power to run at full details, it's rather stunning. Sadly, you need a beast to be able to run at full details, and not lag in games, especially 4v4.

This is a fast game, and I like fast games. You'll need to make quick decisions to be able to get anywhere levelwise.

This brings up the micromanagement. This game requires a very large amount of micro. If you aren't able to manage every unit in a battle, you're going to lose games. Being able to spot which unit is getting hurt, and moving it away; being able to cast hero spells as soon as they are available; never having a break in production (all at the same time) is crucial to winning. Luckily, the population limit is so low it's a bit easier. The population limit is 90, but it's essentially 70, because once you go over 70 you start paying 7 gold as "upkeep" for every 10 gold you mine. Once over 40, you pay 4 gold for every 10 mined. And, of course, almost nothing takes only one population point. The armies are quite small compared to previous RTS games.

The heroes are a nice RPG twist to the RTS genre. Each race (Night Elves, Undead, Orcs, and Humans) have three heroes from which to choose. Each has strengths and weaknesses. The hero you choose at the start can, and should, greatly effect your tactics in the game. For example, if you are Humans and playing vs an Undead, you would strongly consider the Paladin hero as one of your early choices, as he has a spell that not only heals your units, but harms Undead units. If you, as an Orc, decide to go for the Tauren hero, you will find that a defensive style is probably the way to go. Etc, etc.

The creeps (units controlled by the AI) are another interesting injection into this game. Special places on each map (a health fountain, fr example) are guarded by creeps, ranging in difficulty from terribly easy to terribly hard. Killing these creeps with a hero nearby allows him to gain experience, and therefore, more skills (just like an RPG, as mentioned). They also drop items which can be used by your heroes.

Lastly, if you just want to go online and play a game, it is simple as can be. Just a couple clicks, and Bnet will match you up with another person, within a certain level. Levels are basically a meter of your skill. More wins and you will go up in levels. Lose, and you could drop in levels. Beating high level people will give you bigger boosts then lower people. It is another RPG concept inserted into Warcraft III.

The Bad
The micromanagement can still get incredibly overwhelming, and if you don't keep up, it will quickly destroy you. Trying to process all the information isn't always easy for us people over 20.

The creeps have lead to several, shall we say, cheap tactics. On certain maps, it is quite easy for an orc player to quickly destroy VERY high level creeps, and have the experience go to their hero, without sacrificing more then a peon. This, of course, leads to a huge advantage within five minutes, and theres almost no way to overcome this.

The fact that you get so few units leaves little margin for error. Lose one little unit by mistake, and it could cost you the battle, and if you're not careful, the entire game. Losing a hero is even more catastrophic, as they can take a while to revive, especially at higher levels.

There is little variety. Each race has a pretty specific thing they do to win, and the only difference is who has the better micro. Sometimes you will be surprised by a different strategy, but not too often. It can get rather dull. I know of several high level players who do the same thing every game, no matter what they are facing, and they tend to win because their micro is insanely good. There's just not much you can do against that.

The Bottom Line
A decent, fun game. RPG elements help make it more then a simple RTS, but little room for error can make it a very frustrating experience.