The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos Keith Nallawalla |
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WarCraft by Blizzard Entertainment is one of my favourite Real Time Strategy (RTS) games. In Version III of this game you follow a pretty good storyline set 15 years after WarCraft that leads through the campaigns of all four races - the Humans and the Orcs as in the previous WarCraft games and the two new races: the Undead and the Night Elves.
Each race is very different and yet they are all very well matched. The single-player mode is very good as it has great "cut scenes" and excellent cinematics. The optional side quests are recommended if you want to get extra experience for your "Hero unit" or extra items for your hero and "replay value".
Better Graphics
The graphics are richer than those in WarCraft II. In WarCraft III, the units are all 3D polygonal models and the backgrounds are also more realistic. Another noticeable difference is that there are now Hero units that can gain experience and can pick up items from other heroes or creeps that have been killed, found on the ground or just bought from a neutral goblin merchant. The Heroes gain experience and can hold up to six items in their inventory.
Other Improvements
I thought it unusual at the start of the game that there didn't seem to be a dock, ships or oil to collect and yet there was water. This is because now you hire Goblin Zeppelins (which used to belong to the Orcs in WarCraft II) to take troops across water or to cut across the map.
There are several types of neutral buildings, which can be used by anyone's hero such as the Mercenary Camp (where you can hire special units that vary from each tile set), the Dragon Roost (where you can hire different dragons to help you) and the Fountain of Health.
The Creeps are another innovation. Several types of these are found in different time periods of the game. They usually make life difficult for you by protecting gold mines, neutral buildings or good items, but are useful for giving experience to your hero and gold when you kill them.
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The different races you can play can be difficult to use if you haven't finished that race in the
single-player game, as that is where you learn everything. The two new races - the Undead and the Night
Elves are a bit like the Zerg in some ways (from StarCraft also by Blizzard) but the Night Elves also
share qualities of the Protoss and Terran (also from
StarCraft).
A new concept called "upkeep" means that the more units you have, the less each resource-gathering unit
collects. This makes you use units instead of hoarding them. There are night and day periods in the game,
which the Night Elves take advantage of quite well.
The multi-player mode is really good but a lot of my old strategies from other RTS games didn't work as
well as I expected. Well, that's what makes this game more interesting and different. At first the computer
players are pretty difficult to overcome but after a while you learn to stop them. It can be a bit
annoying at first because they like to invade you straight away before you've done much. You can have up
to 12 players, human or computer.
The voice-overs and music are fantastic but the lip sync is a bit off, but that might have something to
do with my under-powered 750 MHz computer.
World Editor
The World Editor is very easy to use and you can make your own levels or campaigns. You can create
contoured 3D maps and add props such as heads on spears, graves, armour racks and even circling birds
to give more character to your level. You can make little bases for Creeps, for yourself and for other
players.
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Conclusion
WarCraft III is a great single and multiplayer game with lots to do, mixing Role Playing Game (RPG) and
RTS and will keep you playing for hours. This is one of Blizzard's best games yet - a mix of Diablo,
StarCraft and previous WarCraft games in one. There are many other surprises that you will encounter in
this game but you'll have to get this game to find out the rest. You can buy it wherever computer games
are sold for $89.95 or better.
Reprinted from the December 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
