by Jody - January 30, 2004

After waiting for so many years, the studio that brought us the best games in the industry (Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft) finally gave us the human vs. orcs game, the third installment in the series. Better still, the current real-time rpg-strategy game has four playable races, each with different abilities and also enhanced the hero character, which brings a whole new ballgame to the already fantastic game. After fifteen years of bloodspot between humans and orcs, the undead rises and the night elves come into play. Merging RPG elements into strategy tactics really enhances gameplay and succeeds where others have failed to do so.

WarCraft 3 is one of many few RTS I have played with an enjoyable storyline.

The campaign mode takes you through the story and enables you to play all 4 races throughout the game as it takes you. From the prelude of Orcs and then beginning of the humans campaign through to the main character transforming to the undead. The story then brings you to the Orcs and finally ending with the elves. Apart from the units from the 4 races, certain missions have merchant buildings where you can buy units from Goblins to join your forces. You can also hire trolls to aid you from different merchant buildings. Hero�s to replenish life and mana during battle from these huts can also buy items. These unique units play a different role and are sometimes required to complete a mission. Blizzard has retained many traditional missions like time-based rescue and time based hold out. Missions where you cannot build but have to follow through with only a few characters are also kept intact with strong storyline. Unit AI is also stronger and formations can be toggled to more strategic plans. The hero�s part of the game has been improved and they now hold a more significant position in the game. Heroes can also be upgraded with items to be found throughout the map and plays an important role. Certain missions require the hero to perform some action before victory is given. All in all, its the same theory where you have to build, upgrade and harvest to maintain a stronghold and attack to attain victory.

A World Editor has also been included to enable players to build their own maps and customize their own missions with many other options.

The Four Unique RacesWith Humans and Orcs comes the Undead and Night Elves. All races have been upgraded and new units added to battle each other. Each race now has a dragon, which is lovely. Undead has Frost Wyrm while the Night Elves has Chimeras. Not to loose out, the humans have Gryphons, the big eagles with mounted humans and the orcs have a Wyvern with also a mounted orc. These are not all; many new units have also been added.

Humans & Orcs The humans and orcs are considered old units but Blizzard has given them a facelift and changed some of the units' abilities to allow varied strategies. The human race is more of a "heal / attack / heal" as they are still paladins by nature. The orcs have some new eye-candy features. Buildings can be upgraded to have thorns, which is a really cool sight and inflicts damage to enemies attacking it, although not by much.

UndeadJoining the ranks of the humans and orcs are the Undead and Night Elves. The two new races adds replayablity to the game and also introduce a whole new way of playing warcraft. The undead is very much alike Starcraft's Zergs. Buildings can only be built on space that is created by a friendly building. The terrian changes to spreading death and more buildings can be built on them. The worker and harvester are unlike the previous two default races. Acolytes build buildings like Starcraft�s Protoss while Ghouls harvest trees for lumber. Ghouls can double up as fighting unit and come in handy as they can feed on corpse to regain health. Skeleton Warriors can be resurrected by Necromancers to fight as well, creating an on-going army that continues fighting and fighting.

Night Elves Rangers and Archers gather here with Mother Nature to form one of the more interesting races. Buildings are actually trees that can be uprooted to fight as well. All buildings are built by Wisps instead of conventional physical units. Archers can now mount Hippogryph to take on enemies from the air, having a double attack. The elves Druids can also transform into a bear or raven depending on which unit you train. The Night Elves are simply magical with Wisps as little lights harvesting gold and lumber altogether.

Multiplayer There is whole range of options for multiplay. Players can trade (buy/sell) resources between players. Players can also enter into observation mode and watch the game or even ally with computer controlled players. Fancy having a clan and going on to Battle.Net? Blizzard has specially created and customized B.net to accommodate new settings. Ladders have been formed for 1 VS 1 or 2 VS 2 and even Clan ladders. AI of B.net has also been enhanced in their matchmaking games. Players who have more wins than loss cannot play with players who have more loss than wins. This gives every player an equal fight and of course fair play throughout.

My first 3-D RTS.... wow, AMAZING!

The story is narrated to the player through in-game (what some people call cartoonish) graphics that are somewhat new. Not too rich but not so simple at the same time. Cut-scenes are state of the art. Like Diablo II, CG(Computer Generated) animations are almost lifelike and detailed to the very hair and all. At first look, it's always the jaw dropping and eye popping. In fact, in the second time around, it's still just as amazing and leaves you in awe. The CG staff has really put in effort. Gameplay graphics have been improved with new and detailed terrains and objects. Movements of characters have been improved and they now move with fluid motions. Spells are in play and each spell comes with different effects of graphics. Certain spells are area-effect, which will cause a colorful spray of light to the area being cast. Sometimes, its really hard to play the game as the graphics are so good that you just want to continue casting just to watch it sparkle. Thankfully, Blizzard has put a mana maximum and time to recover to cast the same spell again.

Blizzard music is good music.

The whole in game music is like a journey to accompany you through your missions. Certain missions have music that really enhances game play, making you feel more excited and draws you closer into the game. Again, Blizzard has kept their unit sounds, which is really amusing. Clicking on a unit too many times will irritate your unit and Blizzard has added more insults and jokes into it. Try clicking on different units for different effects and have a good laugh but of course beware if the enemy is attacking.

RTS player or not, WarCraft 3 is a must have.

Blizzard has brought about another successful game that is bound to please many in the real-time strategy genre. By combining RPG elements into the game, the player is kept busy throughout with the new addition of the hero and after each campaign of each race, the player is treated to a beautiful CG animation that puts others to shame. Especially the CG after the orcs campaign, which can easily be turned into a movie and no one, would complain. Blizzard has really outdone themselves again and while waiting eagerly for their next online-based project: World of Warcraft, we shall all do some Warcrafting.