Warcraft III: Gameplay and Graphics Galore
Written: Apr 04 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The graphics of the characters and gameplay are stunning.
Cons: The game may lag in some places.
The Bottom Line: It’s a mixture of Starcraft and Diablo in gameplay, with improved graphics, powerful races of sentinents (especially Orcs), but slightly slowed gameplay.
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| quipowerty's Full Review: WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos |
The main story of Blizzard Entertainment's most graphically advanced RPG game goes like this: Thrall, the leader of the Orcs, escapes from Lordaeron, freeing many of his fellow Orcs and leaving by ship to the distant lands of Kalimdor (the playable story is also the tutorial). At the same time, the Undead Scourge and their allies in the Burning Legion are planning an invasion of the world. The battle between the three races attracts the attention and anger of the Night Elf Sentinels, who live in the forests of Kalimdor.
Warcraft has relatively good graphics for an RPG game, although they are a little cartoonish. The movements go something like 50 frames per second if the RAM and Intel processor can allow it. The attacks of the characters, however, are rather slow-looking, and usually it takes something like 10 hits for a typical unit to fall. It seems almost impossible to kill any unit with one shot, never mind three or four shots, and this slows down the game play considerably. The way the characters swing their swords, axes, or bows & arrows, is a little slow and unconvincing.
Among the other features are Heroes that go up levels and get increased health, mana (magic power), and new skill points with each upgrade. They can be moved around, and their skills can be activated by clicking on their command card when they or their group are selected. One problem; most of the skills have a cool down time, depending on its potency and effectiveness. For example, the Paladin’s Healing Light cannot be activated until the cooldown lasts, let’s say 10 seconds.
Personally I prefer upgrades on the ordinary units rather than on the ‘heroes’. I’ve always liked to play with large armies on RPG’s, for even a powerful hero can die if he’s overwhelmed by sheer numbers of conventional enemies. There are several upgrades available for buildings and fighting units alike. Generally there are separate upgrades for attacking units and more advanced units, especially those with mana.
The Human Alliance is the Ryu and Ken of the four races. Their main hero, the Paladin, can heal a unit in his group with holy light, and make himself invisible. Among their ranks are Dwarves armed with muskets (now that’s advanced technology) and the Footmen with the ability to walk slowly behind their shields. Also prominent are Knights on Horseback who possess great speed as well as strength. Their main story revolves around Prince Arthas, a Paladin, struggling to defend his kingdom of Lordaeron against the Undead invasion.
Led by the Burning legion, the Undead Scourge is a motley crew of Skeletons, zombies, dark mages, gargoyles, and Frankenstein monsters called Abominations. Their mission in the storyline is to conquer all the living lands, starting with Lordaeron; their allies are the Burning Legion. Their food producing buildings, called Ziggurats, can also be upgraded into guard towers that shoot bolts of dark energy. One of my basic strategies when playing this race is to build ziggurats in a circle around the Town Hall to protect it, then upgrade them into bolt-shooting Spirit Towers, with the other buildings in the outer ring.
The Night Elf Sentinels, who draw on the forest and all its denizens for energy, are rather weak in melee attacks (their basic unit is the Archer), and they rely on special fountains called Moon Wells to heal themselves and recharge their mana. Among their best units are Dryads, centaur-like fawns with the power to dispel both positive and negative spells, as well as throw spears. They have no problem gathering lumber, for their Wisps magically harvest lumber without actually cutting down the trees.
By far my favorite race is the Horde of the Orcs, led by Thrall. Their storyline, of escaping the Human kingdoms and landing on a large island called Kalimdor and working to establish themselves with the help of Taurens, is by far the best. Their use of brute strength against enemies, especially with Grunts and Taurens, and the spear-throwing Headhunters, and simple method of play makes them the best race to play, plus the easy upgrades also allow the buildings to develop spikes that do damage to melee units attacking it also help. Their Warlocks and Shamans have the power to both enhance and heal the fighting units they accompany.
Generally this cross between the bases and battalions of Starcraft and the leveling up heroes of Diablo does its work in giving the player a good RPG experience, if only for its subtle similarities to Lord of the Rings. With all the above plus one of the best graphics for any strategy game, Warcraft gives the player an excellent experience in RPG gaming.
The Frozen Throne and all its expansion features will come later.
Recommended:
Yes
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quipowerty
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