My name is cazm17 and I am a Warcraft 3 Addict... (Warcraft III - Reign of Chaos (PS))

Member Name: cazm17

Product:	Warcraft III - Reign of Chaos (PS)
Date:	08/10/02 (326 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to install, Easy gameplay, Quick to pick up

Disadvantages: Some technical problems with multiplayer over local LAN, Can be difficult to control a large number of units, Not the best video cut scenes I've seen

It's been a while since my opinions graced the green fields of Dooyoo Land. I'd like to say I've been working hard, but in truth I've also been playing hard. These past months I've been introduced to games and genres I never knew existed outside the happy world of Microsoft Freecell and Pinball.

Warcraft 3 is just one of the games that has been occupying my hours, lots of them, often in the middle of the night. Yes, I'm an Addict. But to make it clear: I am no expert; I haven't played all its' previous incarnations to death; I'm not particularly bothered by the quality of sound that emits from my £14.99 Maplin speakers; but I just enjoy a good relax with a good game every now and then. And in my opinion, this is a good game.

To start with, the game was easy to install, and you just had to install the latest patch from Blizzard to correct all those niggling errors they didn't have time to fix before shipping. Plus, once it's loaded the initial startup screen it will let you remove the CD. This is handy if, like me, you have a system that insists on spinning the CD up on occasion for no apparent reason, which grinds games to a halt and you end up losing units in a battle. We also used it to test the multiplayer function, as you can use the same CD for two systems.

~What's It All About Then?~

The game is very similar in style to the Red Alert, C&C type game where you create buildings, units etc, and go on the rampage killing bad things, collecting items and gold etc. It has a number of campaigns you work through. Many people refer to it as 2D, as you are looking down across your base rather than taking part in a first-person perspective.

The learning campaign is centred on the Orcs, who in this game aren't necessarily the bad guys portrayed in other games. Sure they're not going to win any modelling contests, but it's what is in the heart that counts, right? Anyway,


I won't spoil the plot, but you control our young Hero, a Farseer, and several other Orc units, finding out along the way all their skills and attributes, and how to play the game through its' very simple tutorial. It also sets the scene for the rest of the game?

~Is It All About Orcs Then?~

No, you have a different campaign for the four races. The learning campaign is quite short, and you get to play the Orcs again later on. Once you have the learning campaign under your belt, you set off with the Humans, the Undead, the Orcs and the Night Elves, every campaign kind of running on from the previous one, leading to a thrilling conclusion (possibly, I've not quite reached there yet?). Each campaign has several missions, some involving a few units and some involving you building a full base and eradicating others on the way.

~What's So Special About Hero Units?~

The Hero unit can level up as they gain experience from killing things, and with every level comes a new ability that can for example heal other units, hurt other units, and can be passive ie is in force all the time. There are 10 levels, and there is one ability you can't access until level 6, which is sometimes mindblowing, and sometimes a bit dull depending on which Hero character you have.

The campaigns will centre around one Hero, but when you play a skirmish or freeform game, each race has three Heroes, and you can have them all at once. They all have different strengths and weaknesses, such as fighting hand-to-hand or at a distance with spells and bows, and each will have a different number of hit or life points and mana points also, which Heroes use to cast their special abilities.

The beauty of Heroes is that in the standard campaigns they don't really die. You can build an Altar, and if you've got enough gold you can resurrect them. There's also an item you find occasionally called an Ankh of Reincarnation
, whi
ch do
es exactly what it says on the box. The problem with those is that if you die in the middle of a fight, the Ankh will bring you back to the same place you just died. Not always good!

~Is That All There Is To It?~

No, not by any stretch of the imagination. There is a scenario editor included with the game, that you can use to make your own maps and adventures. Many people have done this already and their maps and scenarios are available for download on the Internet. Many of these are based solely around taking the Hero units around and fighting enemies, often in a multi-player situation. Some are very good, some are very lame, and some are just very funny, it's up to you to find the good scenarios for you.

We have had some technical problems with some of these scenarios, though, in that they have a habit of dropping players from multiplayer games, which you can imagine is a bit of a nuisance.

There are a number of other pleasant surprises you will find as you progress through the game. Find a Goblin Laboratory, for example, and see how the Neutral Goblins can help you?

~Online Gaming~

Like all modern games, you can play this on battle.net (Blizzard's own online gaming experience) which is free to join. I'm not that brave yet, I have struggled to finish some of the campaigns!

~Any Other Downsides?~

Although I'm not a perfectionist, I wasn't entirely impressed with the cut scenes. I often forgot to turn my subtitles ON, which meant I didn't hear the audio in them. That's not to say that I would be able to do a better job, but purely that I would have expected a little more from the creators of Diablo.

Some of the units and campaigns do take a little getting used to, do don't expect to do them first time. My boyfriend is an experienced gamer and the final episode of the Undead campaign had him climbing up the walls in frustration.
r>The mult
iplayers c
an also be VERY tough. With 3 of us one afternoon playing against one computer opponent, it took a few hours to eradicate it, and not without our own fair number of casualties! We did learn that this game requires teams to work very closely together and combining attributes to be successful.

One thing we did like was that when we did play that game, anyone destroyed early could be given control of an existing players' units, so it stays interesting even when your base has bitten the dust.

Controlling units can be a little tricky too, especially if you're used to Red Alert. You can't assign numbers to units (not that I could find anyway), and you can only control 12 units in any one batch. Not much of an Orcish Horde, is it, 12 units? It means that you have to be very careful in battle. I did try playing this at one point on a top of the range Sony Vaio. Beautiful pictures and smooth gameplay, but definitely needed a mouse to control it.

~OVERALL IMPRESSION~

I liked this game, you can probably tell. I probably wouldn't have bought it off my own back, as I had no idea what it was until our friend brought it over to play one weekend. Unfortunately his PC can't play it so he's had to leave it with us for a few months, what a pity!

But having played it, I will inevitably go and buy my own copy when he takes it back. It could take me that long to finish the game. I would strongly suggest you hijack a copy from a friend or try and get hold of a demo download to try it out.

Now where's that Hero gone again, I haven't got enough gold to resurrect him just yet?

~The Technical Stuff~

(Courtesy of the Blizzard website for your convenience):
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, 400 MHz Pentium II or equivalent, 128MB of RAM, 8 MB 3D video card (TNT, i810, Voodoo 3, Rage 128 equivalent or better) with DirectX® 8.1 support, 700 MB HD space, 4X CD-ROM drive. <
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~For Mo
re Information~

Visit? <http://www.blizzard.co.uk/war3/>
For all the information, patches, screenshots, trailers etc etc etc