A brand new developer Infinite Interactive and an up and coming publisher, Enlight Interactive, have released Warlords Battlecry III. With it, they have brought in new hope of an even better RTS game, a genre currently ruled by the graphic hog Warcraft III. Yet, Warlords Battlecry 2 was a bold attempt of breaking the barrier between RTS and RPG, but it was bugs and lack of support that flogged it down. However, Warlords Battlecry III is now the glimmering light shinning through all the crap that this genre has gotten stuck in, and now its time to spread the word!

Warlords Battlecry III looks a lot like its predecessor, but once you play it, you realize it is a completely new game. First of all, the game introduces 5 more races to your hard-drive, bringing the total races mark up to 16, the most in any RTS. Then, heroes can be 7 more specialties than the previous one, bringing that total up to 28. The sheer number amount of this game is overwhelming, and after playing it, you can see that no race or specialty was left in the dust, only there for a number. Every race, unit, and hero has its own personality, as well as its own use.

When I kicked Warlords Battlecry III into my computer, I was very pleased with what I saw. The new terrain of the game is very pretty, and much better than the older set. Yet, one must remember that the game is STILL 2-D, something that many of the fan have complained about being out of date. Even though I agree, I am not sure if it is something that I want to give up. Remember the crossovers with other games, from 2-d to 3-d? They killed the game, making them no fun at all. Still, the game’s graphic engine is out of date, and should be updated next time around (if there is one) but I still hold to the fact that I’m not 100% sure if all 16 races could make it into a 3-D version of the game. But back to the graphics, each unit has a sprite of animation for movement, attacking, and dying. Some of them look really good, such as the Undead Lich, or even the Dwarven Lord. However, some units look terrible, such as the Ssrathi T-Rex and the Swarm’s Titan Melkor. The better animated units are greater than the terrible looking ones, but you always seem to remember the bad ones don’t you? The terrain set comes with 10 complete tile sets, including caves, snow, desert, and lavaland. These can be very pretty, although repetitive, but not bad enough to be annoying to the eye.

The gameplay of the game is simply tremendous. You start with a hero at level 1 (duh) and he gains XP from many different things in the game. Such things include kills by side, buildings raised, quests complete, titans built, keep level reached, as well as many other things. Each hero normally gets 10 skills to upgrade from for special abilities, as well as 4 primary stats that are much more general attributes. One of the more interesting aspects of this game is the fact that there is no longer a hero max level. In Warlords Battlecry 2, the max level to be achieved was 50. I have already built a level 100 hero, and I have seen heroes in the 900’s. This puts an interesting twist on the game, as it really brings it into different genres. Levels 1-30 is more of a RTS. Levels 31-60 is more of a good RTS/RPG hybrid. 61-infinite is a hack and slash RPG type game that reminds me of something like Diablo. This means that if you are more into playing a RTS game online, bring your 1-30 into the lobby and play. If you want a good hybrid game, bring the 31-60 level hero to the lobby. If you want a hack and slash RPG, bring your higher-level heroes to the lobby. This shows that this game can be played as 3 entirely different games, all of which are fun and interesting. Now for an actual game: You have a hero, and have 4 resources that you must acquire in order to build/produce units and buildings. There are mines throughout the map that your hero must go to and convert into producing resources for your side. This is as easy as the push of a button while you are near them, and is very fun when you and your opponent are fighting for mines. There are builders in the game, and your hero can build as well, which build your races buildings. Every race has a Keep, the primary building that levels up to level 5, which then gives you all available tier units. However, your base is not a Keep only type of thing. Instead, you first build a Keep, and then build the barracks and the stables and the Eerie, or the equivalent building for other races. These other buildings make new units be available to be produced, which will be used to fight in your glorious army. The process of which this takes can take about 10 minutes before you get a sizeable enough army to attack and make a dent. However, most games online last about 1 hour due to the fact that you must get to your higher tier units (dragons, generals, titans) in order to be able to get through your opponent’s defenses and win the game.

While the game is not perfectly balanced, it is on the road to getting there. Some heroes can supply their army with insanely high Hit Point units. Other heroes can make every produced unit have so much starting XP that it isn’t even funny. Yet, the community has pinched together to try to solve these issues and the developer Infinite Interactive is open armed to the suggestions. Damage spells are going to be dropped statistically so they do not take out everything in sight so easily. Racial match-up’s without heroes, however, are very balanced for the most part. There are about 5 races that have a little bit of an edge, and there are about 5 races with an immediate disadvantage. However, this does not mean that the game is determined before you even play, but it does mean that sometimes someone is going to have to work a little bit harder than normal to get his victory at the end.

Overall, I believe this game to be one of the ones to be in my computer until another Steve Fawkner (Infinite Interactive) game hits the shelves. It simply has so much content in the game to keep one busy for the next couple years. Gotten good with one race? Then I guess there’s always something you can improve on with the other 15 races. Online is heating up as well. The community has found its way around the fact that Enlight doesn’t have a ladder and created its own, and they also host tourneys monthly. While it isn’t a huge memorial like the Blizzard tournaments, you will find more skill in the Warlords Battlecry III tournaments that you will ever see. If you played Warlords Battlecry 2, you will love this game. If you like a good RTS that has a lot of strategy, then you will love this game. If you are bored at night, dreaming about that perfect game that hasn’t come along yet, then you need to hurry on down to the store, as it has been there waiting for you!

http://www.infinite-interactive.com/wbc3
http://www.warlordsbattlecry3.com

Recommended: Yes