Blizzard blow up a storm - The Name? Hurricane Warcraft. (Warcraft 3 - Frozen Throne Add-On (PC))

Member Name: helpa4eva

Product:	Warcraft 3 - Frozen Throne Add-On (PC)
Date:	03/07/05 (2053 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great game, replayability, content would allow it to be a game on its own

Disadvantages: A new race could have been included

Warcraft 3: The Frozen throne is the next in the long series of Warcrafts (Warcraft 1, Warcraft 2: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos) So of course this serves as an add on to Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, but does it measure up? is the developer blizzards new child a genius or an abortion? lets wait and see...

Well, first we must look at what is actually in the add-on. When i first got the game (unfortunatley i was not in the beta, but as i pre-ordered it from a website that does very cheap games, i got it quite early) i already had great expectations, as i had been reading up on its contents, and was delighted to discover that the previews were true; this isnt just another lame sequel to get coins like certain games COUGH*the sims*COUGH. This is almost like a new game, with 5, yes 5 new campaigns, each with around 20 levels to feast your strategy-hungry eyes on. But is your machine a vicious enough beast to carry this new game? The specs are as follows:

1.SPECIFICATIONS

MINIMUM SPECS:
400 Mhz Pentium II (or equivalant)
128 MB of RAM
8 MB 3D video card (TNT, i810, Voodoo 3, Rage 128 equivalant or better) with Direct X 8.1 Support
550 MB HD space (in addition to the warcraft reign of chaos installation)
4x CD-ROM drive

With these primitive enough specs you will be able to play this beauty well enough, but if you really want to have a good gaming experience then i recommend this:

RECOMMENDED SPECS
600Mhz processor
256 MB of RAM
32 MB 3D video card
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card (for the beautiful background music ;-))

2. JUDGING A GAME BY ITS COVER

When i slid my new baby out of its brown paper packaging, i was pleasently surprised to see a very evil face of a human with white hair and armour on, depicted in the same style as the Orc on the Warcraft 3 : Reign of Chaos (ROC from now on) case (only half his head is on the case)
the game is a 12 + and is identified to be multiplayer. I turn the case over too see some delightful screenshots and information detailing what is new, and in BIG letters EXPANSION SET TO THE GAME OF THE YEAR (if youve got it, flaunt it!) so i was very satisfied with the outside, but lets see whats inside...

3. THE MANUAL

The manual has the same picture as on the front case (exactly the same style as the warcraft: ROC manual) which i was pleased with. Looking at the lower left corner i noticed the immortal bane of unorganised gamers existence: a cd-key. This security measure is good in 3 ways:
1. it stops blizzard being conned by people copying cd's
2. it means more profit for blizzard
3. it means sometimes messy people such as myself are motivated to keep organised so we do not lose such valuable pieces of information!

The manual is an average-sized 24 pages, which is understandable as the warcraft 3: ROC manual is 68 pages long, and that contains most of the information. The manual for The Frozen Throne (TFT) informs you of all the new stuff, and wait for it; pointless but has to be done: credits. NOW, ONTO THE GAME!!!!!

2.a) INSTALLATION

I didnt want to class this as a whole section because it start to waffle on, so im just going to keep this short and to the point. The installation was easy to navigate through, and showed some screenshots of the game that i will be playing after the process has finished. It was a quick installation and i was very satisfied with it.

3. THE GAME! THE GAME!

There isnt just a few new things on this add on, there are in total over 20 new units, 30 new maps, and many more other features. I was ultimatley delighted to find that the game comes with a map maker/editor that sadly takes a bit of time getting used to. The gameplay was the same as before, smooth, basic menus that no-one could get confused on even if they had a paper bag over their head, and of course the graphics. But the graphics had improved since then, making it a realy beauty. So i could witness all 4 playable races in graphical beauty:

Orcs
Night Elves
Undead
Humans

After completing the first campaign i tired of whooping computer butt so i took to the skies......

4. BATTLE.NET

Battle.net is blizzards piece of software that hosts all their games, but particularly the warcraft series. After creating an account which was reasonably quick and easy (once i found a username that wasnt taken) i started to investigate. i found out that you can play 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4, you can play arranged teams with friends, you can even play custom maps, created in the afformentioned map editor found in the warcraft directory. NOTE: BE CAREFUL GOING INTO THIS SECTION AS IT IS VERY ADDICTIVE AND I HAVE FALLEN INTO THE WORLD OF COMPULSIVE GAMING AND HIBERNATING IN MASS PURCHASED HAMSTER BEDDING WITH MY PET CORDLESS KEYBOARD JIM.

5. CONCLUSION

I thank you for reading this review, and i hope you found it useful. TFT is on sale on most online stores for as cheap as £15-£20, so it wont set you back that much. I was really proud of Blizzards new creation, and it has made my faith in the developers even stronger (almost as strong as i recommend this game to you)

Summary: My favourite genre of game, its great value for money.