6.1.2003

Warcraft 3 is what a sequel should be; it improves on the previous game in every way and isn’t a trashy recycled game turned out to make the company a bit of money. The first thing you will notice is that Warcraft has now gone 3D and has benefited from it. Not only are the models and the textures easy on the eye, they allow the game to run smoothly by having in game sequences without the need to cut to a film. Also it is possible to zoom in and view the world up close. The sound effects and speech is also top notch and very well done. The voice actors really bring the game to life.There are also two new armies, the Undead Scourge and the Night Elves. This means there are now 4 races to choose from with very different styles of play.The Human and Orc armies have also changed quite a bit since the last game and can be counted as completely new armies only one or two units remain from the previous game. Each race is also different from the units they have; the buildings and how they are built and even the way each race gather resources. Humans have a varied mixed of units most of, which are quite cheap when, compared to the Orcs. But Orcs have some of the strongest melee units in the game. Only one air unit and very basic magic however compensates for these differences. The undead have either very strong units or very weak units. The magic is often limited to raising the dead and cold magic but it is still strong magic. The Undead can only build on blighted ground that is generated by buildings that limits the areas they can build in. The Night elf have very weak units and most of them are long ranged with little melee units but they have some very strong magic spells and more magic units than the other races. Also their buildings can uproot and defend themselves! A different style of play is required to succeed with each race and players will soon find a favourite.New additions to the game are neutral buildings and creeps. Buildings often include Goblins who have everything for sale if the price is right. From items for your heroes to giant robot shredders to help you gather wood. Creeps represent the local creatures that inhabit the land, often found guarding certain buildings or part of a mini-quest. Creeps range from Ogres to Dragons and Trolls to Giant Lizards! Killing them grant’s experience for you hero, gold and often items.The game itself is a mixture of a RTS and an RPG (the game was originally going to be a RPG) . With the addition of Hero units to the game that gain experience with every enemy slain, obtaining items that grant special abilities and gaining abilities themselves with each level of experience gained. Hero’s in multiplayer add a powerful unit to your army and make conflicts with other people more interesting. Heros in single player mode act as the main focal point of the plot and help the game move along. Weak to start off with they soon grow tougher in conjunction with the difficulty of the levels the further you get into the campaign and the last few levels are often very hard and take hours to compete.The tutorial is laid out as part of the plot line and helps you get familiar with the controls as well as get to grips with the story. Once this is done the game is set out as a number of missions for each army, after they are complete you move onto another race. With four races and roughly 10 missions per race it takes a while to complete the game.Warcraft 3 is a well-planned and well-executed game. Improving on every aspect of the previous game, Blizzard never cease to amaze me. Both single player and multiplayer aspects are addictive and will be played over and over again. The only downside is that you will need a pretty decent PC to play the game without any jerkiness in the flow of the game. Also the difficulty Normal is too easy and when the game is purchased it should be played on Hard but apart from that it is Easily THE best RTS I’ve played.

20.11.2002

Before going any further, I should point out that I'm reviewing this from a single player perspective. Never been a fan of online RTS, as I tend to lose very quickly!So what's the deal with Warcraft 3? In many ways it's a very traditional RTS - harking back to the days of Red Alert and Warcraft 2. You have your wood and gold resources, your standard buildings, your simple ranged and hand to hand units. Blizzard have not gone for a total overhaul - unlike many new RTS games they haven't thought about eliminating resource management, and the game generally feels refreshingly 'old-school'.Warcraft 3 is therefore very accessible for new players. And as a single player campaign it has a lot of positives.The plot and cut-scenes are very nicely done, and give you a good storyline for which to base your various missions around - certainly you feel like you know WHY you're supposed to building a base, or eliminating those ghouls, or searching for the demon gate. It's not necessarily a massive influence on the gameplay itself, but it does help with the suspension of disbelief.Gameplay is simple. Going in the opposite direction to many developers nowadays, Blizzard have reduced the unit limit to a handful really. It means no massive epic battles of 100s of units, but does mean that you have to maximise your resources, ensure that your units aren't sacrificed needlessly, and generally allows you quite a lot of control over your forces. Added to this is the role of 'upkeep' - whereby an increasing proportion of your gold is given over to maintenance of your existing units - up to 60% of your gold can be lost this way, and it's a good way to avoid rushing tactics and unit wastage. The missions are relatively varied and well designed - challenging but not overly so. I like to play slow, and build up my forces and infrastructure in a planned way, and the game seems to suit that.The hero aspect doesn't really add a great deal in my opinion. I don't treat my hero differently than any other unit - other than the fact that they have some useful spells. Units themselves are relatively good - strongly varied between the different sides of human, orc, etc. Although pathfinding and other AI issues are nothing special - and mages seem to be close to useless unless you're prepared to micromanage them in battle. One irritation - when selecting saved groups, you can have no more than 12 units in any single group. Also annoyingly, you can't seem to remove units from a saved group - e.g. I have two catapults saved as group number 2. I then decide to change group 2 to be a squad of 6 orc grunts, so I select them and set the group. Unfortunately, the next time I pick group 2, in addition to the grunts it also selects the catapults, even though I removed them.It's a strong game and a highly enjoyable one. It doesn't break any new barriers - the graphics are good-ish, the cut scenes are excellent, and the gameplay is strong but simple. It is quite an immersive story and the voice acting is good. I'd recommend this to those who enjoyed Warcraft 2 or Starcraft, and also to anyone looking for a fun but not overly complex introduction to RTS. Perhaps those who expected something amazingly different and original from Blizzard are disappointed - but this is a development team that takes existing ideas and polishes them - Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo are all simple games, none of them break new ground, and yet all are highly enjoyable. Warcraft 3 keeps up the good work.

10.4.2005

I originally bought this game on the recommendation of a friend of mine, having never played any of the previous games in the Warcraft series or indeed heard of it, but I was pleasantly surprised with the end product.Warcraft 3 is a real-time strategy game set in a universe of both technology and magic, where you order an army in an attempt to eliminate your opponent from the game by destroying all their buildings, or in single-player mode possibly achieve some other goal such as holding a strategical point on the map for half an hour. While many other games of this genre are very shallow and offer a few hours' worth of gameplay, Warcraft 3 has an involving and rich storyline,coupled with both in-game conversations between characters that may tell you what to do and out-of-game movies that further the storyline and look so realistic they may well have just come out of a film.While the single-player campaign may be difficult, you can reduce the difficulty at the end of a mission you have just lost if you are finding it hard.The 3rd edition in the Warcraft series also adds 'heroes', units that are both powerful warriors and can cast varying spells. They can also be levelled up in an RPG-style fashion, adding another strategic element to the game which works very well.In the Warcraft 3 storyline, there are four races, each tailored to suit different styles of gameplay, and everyone can find one race that they enjoy playing as and tend to get the best results out of. The four races are as follows;Humans: A well balanced force, consisting of cheap original ground units and solid air units and spellcasters.Orcs: Especially strong ground units but somewhat lacking when it comes to spellcasting capabilities.Undead: The most numerous army in Warcraft, the undead have the ability to raise the corpses of foes and friends alike into an army of walking dead! (Eek!) Weak ground units at first but once they get into their stride are very powerful.Night-Elves: The last race, the Night-Elves, live in the forests of a distant land and are very reclusive. When it comes to their army, ranged units and spellcasters are their speciality but they lack in melee capabilities.The soundtrack is very good and provides different music for each race, it never seems to get tiring - there is however little music on any options or title screen, apart from a sort of humming in the background which is slightly eerie and could be improved.The real gem in the crown is Warcraft 3's Internet play capacities. While the online community is very unforgiving and requires a certain style of play, you will get used to it with practice and eventually will be using your technical terms like you've owned the game for years! There is also clan support so you can create a group with any friends you may meet, plus a world editor so you can design your own maps and host them online! Broadband is, however, recommended.All-in-all, a wonderful game which should provide you with hours of fun!

29.7.2002

In a world where computer games are judged almost primarily on their looks, it is refreshing that Warcraft 3 is such a gem. Don't get me wrong, the graphics for Warcraft 3 are very nice indeed and the animations are also equally pleasurable; but this is no graphics fest and I am glad.I have a Pentium 3 866 with a Geforce 2mx 32mb graphics card and I am running Windows 2000 and I have no problems jacking the graphics levels up to max.The Gameplay is what makes this game so enjoyable. The 4 races (Humans, Orcs, Night Elves and Undead) are all quite different from each other in quite anumber of aspects, from how they gather resources to combat units and abilities. For instance,

4.7.2002

A masterful game, that is.I have on previous generation graphic cards (Geforce2 GTS), and it plays beautifully on it. Characters are cleverly animated and modelled, so intensive battle scenes never bring your machine to its knees, and the environments are gorgeous. The attention to details in the graphic department is quite remarkable. The short movies, as expected from Blizzard, are unbelievable. I can't even imagine how much time and money they must have spend on making them. Cut-scenes are well scripted too, with good voice acting.The storyline approach, 'a la' Diablo, works really well, and provides lots of variety in the missions. The game is very accessible to the profane or the occasional gamer,

6.7.2003

Id like to just say, theres not much that kept this from a fifth star. This game is fun and genuinly absorbing. But, unfortunatly, it is not of quite the standard youd expect from the company that made Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo.The game is set some time after the second game in the series. In this installment, you get to play the classic orcs and humans, who are well balanced and remain true to their old personas. You also get to play as the undead, who are also well balanced, and the night elves, which is where one of the problems lies. You see, they take advanced player to the extreme, since you have to play the game pretty religeosly to have much of a chance at winning with them.One interesting new feature of this game is the new "legendary hero" character.

25.3.2004

After reading various reviews, positive and negative, I had to give this game a try myself to find out the true perspective and what all the hype was about.The game is based in a fantasy world, where humans and orcs have been fighting for generations. Now, a new threat has emerged in the form of demons, and each race (Humans, Orcs, Undead and Night Elves) must fight for their own survival as they stand up against unlikely foes.Warcraft III boasts compelling graphics that are of extremely high standards. One of the existing reviews states that the characters were blocky - this is untrue. Obviously, you are not using a good enough graphics card. On a decent PC these days, the game looks fabulous,

17.8.2003

This is a review only of the single-player campaign, since I've never played it multiplayer, but I think the single-player campaign is good enough in its own right to buy the game, giving about 40 hours (more if you're very cautious like me) of play. The storyline is interesting enough to keep you going, and the developers have worked hard to make the missions varied. Most have the usual RTS base-building, but there are even a few dungeon crawls.Where the game works best are where it challenges you, such as with limiting the units available, so you have to keep as many alive as possible, or setting a stress-making time-limit. Otherwise, the missions do tend to follow a set pattern: work out where the enemy attacks are going to come from,

25.4.2003

When I bought this game I was profoundly disappointed. As other reviewers have already stated, we have seen it all before. This actually resembles Kingdom Under Fire a lot in my opinion, especially with heroes that gain experience levels.I didn't even finish the single player campaign. Not because I found it too difficult, but because I got bored. (Well, it should be said that I have always been the multiplayer fan, and not too fond of single player.) If I had given my rating at that time, it would have been 2 stars...This easter however, when I was looking to kill some time with Warcraft3 on Battle.Net, i discovered all the MODs (modifications). Well, they are not really MODs, but appear as such.

27.10.2003

Where do i start. This game has an excellent lifespan to it.There are four campaigns-human, undead, orc and night elves that have excellent stories that link together very well.The graphics are not great but good enough and suit the gameplay style very well.The gameplay is very good in that you can train a Hero to get better and better and act as a 1 man army in some cases which is very stylish.The computer AI on the skirmish mode is very difficult if you like a challenge, they build units quick and level up their Hero fast.If i was to pick out the best things in the game it would be the Gameplay and the depth of the story that makes you care about the missions you are attempting.Multiplayer is great fun with all the maps that are available which come with 'Wild Beasts'

21.10.2003

First I want to nick pick command and conquer Generals, I'm a fan of the series, but Generals was alien to the series. One of the biggest changes was the specs required, very few people have those specs (I have AMD Athlon 1.7Ghz, Radeon IGP 320M and 512MB Ram) but it didn't run very fast (probably because I'm using a laptop though). Anyway, Warcraft 3 works with all of the graphics settings set to high on my laptop!Warcraft is not just visually beautiful, anyone who has played warcraft 2 will notice this game follows the same simple user interface. Heros are the new big feature though, they allow endless strategies. One of the other great features is the night/day, meaning you have to plan not only how to attack,

14.2.2003

Warcraft 3 is great.It is a game that I recently bought, and can't stop playing. It has many new developments that are not present in previous games of its type.There are four different races to control and master, 3D environments that are brilliantly created with stunning effects.The storyline, thats right, there is a storyline- is a good one. The way the plot unfolds is similar to StarCraft in the sense that you start as humans, complete their campaign and then the story continues but you must master the undead in their campaign and so on. The story is interesting enough to keep you playing for hours on end... You gain experience and reputation and grow in levels and rank.This game has alot to offer,

2.8.2002

Blown away. This is what i could be saying, however i wasnt. The in game graphics weren't as beautiful as i had expected, although i guess i shouldn't have really expected it. Blizzard are more about gameplay than graphics which suits most people, myself included... mostly.Cut scenes were however, just as i had expected from blizzard, breathtaking.I found the gameplay surprisingly like its previous incarnation mixed with starcraft, even with the new races it just felt a bit samey. What struck me was that there wasn't anything particularly revolutionary, nothing which would turn heads in the gaming industry.I guess the main thing is the gameplay, which although wasn't anything new,

15.7.2002

This game have been highly anticipated by me, and the rest of the world, and I most say, that i'm not disapointed. But the game was not all that I expected. When they first came out with news about warcraft 3, blizzard informed us that it would go away from townmanagement and focus more on the quests and such. But unfortunatly that all got blown away, and the game looks surprisingly much like starcraft and warcraft2, with the one exception of heroes.But then why did I give the game 4 stars?Because once I got rit of the first disappointment, the game, I found out, looks and sounds really great. And with the new species it raises the warcraft universe to a new level.It's just great

9.7.2004

I have played all sorts of games since the early 80's. I have owned almost every decent console that came out since those days. I am not the kind of gamer that gets distracted by things like "cool" graphics or big ad campaigns. I have time only for the good stuff!!!!! I play the "good stuff" to find games like Warcraft 3 that take gaming to the next level. You dont have to love RPG's, you just have to not hate them to enjoy this game. Surely not for everyone but this is the best(all genre) game I have played (incl Expansion Frozen Throne). Give it a go, you might find out that I have a good taste afterall.

Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos (PC/Mac) - Reviews

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