Rating: Summary: Technically THE best Blizzard game yet! Review: I am also a huge Blizzard games fan. I have Warcraft, Warcraft II, Diablo, Starcraft, Diablo II, Warcraft II Battle.net Edition and now Warcraft III. Not to mention ALL the expansion packages that Blizzard has released. That being said, I have to rank Warcraft III right up there to my favorite game of all time, Starcraft. The reason why is purely because of the eye candy features within Warcraft III. The graphics is unbelievable and to be able to say THAT with ANY game today (as good graphics are not uncommon) is extremely impressive to me. The added replay benefit as you go against opponents is a major plus, but obviously they had already added a similiar feature to the Starcraft game. The focus zoom and swivel was done very well. I can zoom in close up and watch the battle in detailed mode, or zoom back up a distance and watch the entire field go at it against each other. The story line is still key to Blizzard's popularity. In Warcraft III, Blizzard once again told their story right. Even well before the end of the game, I knew that an expansion pack was going to have to show up to finish the story. Yet, after I finished the story in the single player mode, I was temporarily satisfied and ready for another set of Warcraft III. I jumped into the multi-player mode on Battle.net and promptly felt humbled as I thought I was an experienced Battle.net user with Diablo, Diablo II, Warcraft II Battle.net Edition and Starcraft (+Brood War), under my belt. The "remodeling" of the interface on Battle.net for Warcraft III is amazing and much more sociable. The buttons are just as easy to click with the overall interface being extremely user-friendly. I have no doubt I will be playing this BEAUTIFUL game for a long time to come, but I will never abandon my all-time favorite strategy game, Starcraft. As long as Battle.net will support Starcraft, I will be there to take advantage of challenging people across the world. For now, I'm just enjoying the awesome features, gameplay, sound quality, story line, and graphics of Warcraft III. The ONLY thing I honestly disliked about Warcraft III is the price, OMG ... with the initial launch/release of Warcraft III, the price for one copy of Warcraft III was enough to feed a family in Africa for one month! If Blizzard has to ban over 1000 people from Battle.net because of hacked software, illegal CD-keys and what other reasons... do they think that raising the price of their game will lessen people to use hacked versions of Warcraft III? Are they TRUELY making more money with higher pricing or are they losing money compared to games sold in the past? As more people are turning towards easily attainable hacked Warcraft III with the legit versions now beyond their wallet's reach. Especially with the economy being so "attractive" these days, ironically raising the cost of a game software that is easily hacked just does not seem like a viable "strategic" step for Blizzard to maximize their revenue income.... They should understand raising the price of their games will only hurt their legitimate customers. Lower the price and have more people jump on the bandwagon to own their OWN copies, instead of RAISING the price to turn people towards hacked version of Warcraft III.
Rating: Summary: The best Warcraft yet Review: The second I heard this game was coming I knew I had to get it. Blizzard has created more than just a game, they've created a living world. There's more to this than just collect resources and crush the enemy. You get to put more focus on your forces. I hope there is a Warcraft 4 in the next few years.
Rating: Summary: Ban2's Review Of War Craft III Review: Dude this game rocks! I find this game to be the best game there ever was. The graphics in this game rule with the game play. Man if you are gonna get a game, I feel you should get this one.
Rating: Summary: Very, Very fun game, but theres just one thing about Review: This game is the best =D. well, next the Frozen Throne of course. THe only part I don't like is that the orcs dont sound as funny and as stupid anymore as in WC2. Oh well, this game still is the best
Rating: Summary: Thought I would be disapointed Review: I admit that when I had first seen the screenshots for Warcraft III, I thought I was going to be dissapointed. I thought that the idea of upkeep and limits on armies was going to make me not want to play. After all, in Warcraft II, you could have armies hitting 200 at once and just destroy everything around you. Well, I was wrong. Warcraft III shows the amount of work the developers put in over 4 years. Never before have I ever played an RTS where the races are completly unique, yet balanced perfectly. You have no advantage over another just because you are playing Night Elf to Orcs. Each of the races uses it's own type of building capabilities - the humans can co-operativly build, speeding up time, the Undead summon buildings, which frees up their Acolytes to build something else, the Orcs are safe inside the building while they build it, and the Night-Elves use expendable Wisps to "summon" living trees that can move around and fight. Supply and demand also play a big role. You can no longer overwhelm a player with a huge army of knights or rifleman. Instead, you need to manage an army comprised of many elements. You'll want you melee fighters and your air fighters, your seige units, and your magic units. For Humans, you might use a legion of Knights and Rifleman with 3 or 4 Priests and Gryphon Riders. And maybe for the Night Elves, you'll use a group of Huntresses with another group of Archers and 3 or 4 Ballistas with maybe a Chimera. You get the ideas... Bottom line: The best game I've ever played. I'm still playing it now, over and over. Talk about replayability...
Rating: Summary: Addictive, gets everything right Review: The Devil is in the details, the saying goes, and so it is with Warcraft III. Clearly the detail and quality of this game is a work of art and a labor of love, one that you'll find difficulty stepping away from. Let me preface the review by saying that I am not a RTS fan. Games like Age of Empires I found tedious. Yet Warcraft III has the right balance of entertainment, resource management, role playing, variety and plot to be truly enjoyable. If you take the strengths of games like Heroes of Might and Magic, Diablo, and Age of Empires, and merge them into a single game, the output would be undoubtedly be Warcraft III. You can play as one of four races: Undead, Human, Orc or Night Elf. Unlike many other RTS games, the races and technology tree have many more differences than merely a special unit or two. Each has different units, abilities, spells, and attacks. In many ways it reminds me of Heroes, with its distinct flavors for races and myriad of strengths and weaknesses. For instance, the Night Elves have Ancients - huge living trees - as bases, which can unearth themselves, walk to new locations, and engage in combat. They have Sentinels, with the ability to launch magical owls to nearby trees to keep watch for approaching units, or Druids who can shapechange into bears. The Undead, on the other hand, have bases which are summoned, freeing up Acolytes to summon other units as they are being built. They have Banshees which can learn Possession, taking over units, and Necromancers which can animate fallen combatants; the strengths and weakness of each race are varied and fun to explore, and you will play a very different game depending on which you choose. Squad based tactics are required to be successful, and the game gives you plenty of control and organization for breaking up your squads. There is an upper food limit of 70 - which means you have a finite size to your army. Unlike some other RTS, you can't simply build up an ungodly hoard, click on the target, and overwhelm it. You have fixed resources, and must use them wisely - separate your magical spell-chuckers into a different squad from your melee brutes, and yet a different one from your air support; position long range heavy artillery at the rear to take out structures. The interface makes this fairly effortless, and fun to manage. The RPG element is introduced with Hero units, which can acquire magical items, levels of experience, and special abilities/spells. In the single/multiplayer mode they are strong units which can turn the tide of a battle. In the campaign mode, they have personalities and plots which you'll follow with interest. The campaign plots, voice acting, and cut scenes are very compelling. You'll find the quality of animation in the cut scenes to be of the caliper of movies like Final Fantasy - a pleasure to watch. I especially looked forward to completing a chunk of the campaign simply to see the next cut scene. Also of interest is the addition of creeps, wandering monsters who often guard treasure and have no qualms about attacking either you or your opponent. Sometimes a dragons lair may provide either an optional quest or a valuable item for your hero. Warcraft III is a 3d universe. With the mouse wheel you can zoom in, pan left and right. The cartoon like appearance of the units and characters works very well, and I'm glad Blizzard kept them (Heroes IV programmers should take note here) and the voice responses of the units is interesting and often very funny (dwarven mortar teams crying out "Mor-taaaaar commmm-bat!"). Graphics and special effects are terrific - from glowing spellcasters energy blasts to pulsing runes of power swirling around heroes, the eye candy is excellent. Technically the game worked great right out of the box. I wasn't eagerly awaiting a patch to fix the sound/video/crash glitches so common in current PC new releases. I have seen reviews of lag/performance issues - but I experienced none with my 1.6 Ghz, TNT2 card machine; it was smooth scrolling and fluid animations all the way. Warcraft III has a little bit of something for just about everyone. The campaigns aren't too difficult, and the graphics and sound are a joy to behold. I heartily recommend it to both RTS and RPG buffs alike.
Rating: Summary: STOP WHINING Review: Dear lord everday that I come and review this game I hear about all these people who say this game is horrible and how they think that starcraft is better. Well I have one thing to say SHUT UP the game is great and just because its not as easy as starcraft yall dont have to cry. I played warcraft II,Warcraft II exp,Warcraft 3, and starcraft and I loved them all but just because yall are hooked on one doesnt mean the others have to .... Everyone in this world judge's some way or another and I dont see why we have to I mean there are some things you should judge but games hahaha if its good then it's good end of discussion. Hope this helped...
Rating: Summary: A disappointing title under a pretty veneer. Review: Having been a long-time fan of Blizzard (from WC 1, to SC, to Diablo, to Diablo II, and so on...) I did not hesitate to buy Warcraft III. And I didn't just buy it - I pre-ordered the special collector's edition. It came in a pretty leather box, with a book of Warcraft artwork, a soundtrack, et al. So what was the problem? The game was horrible. Well, no, horrible would be an exaggeration. The graphics were exquisite, the camera can be rotated to grasp any view of any combat, the sounds were well beyond Blizzard's usual technical marvels; all the ingredients were there to make for an amazing game. And yet, it fell short. I'll start by saying that what some of the reviewers here see as a virtue - the focus on a few units - I saw as a horrible flaw. The game starts with a food cap of 90 (obviously a bit lower than SC's food cap of 200). But more than that, Workers/Peons/Etc. are the only unit in the game that costs 1 food; every other unit costs 2 or more. Anything beyond your beginner footmen costs 3+ food each. Besides that, it's rather impossible to become victorious without utilizing the game's Heros. There are three of these for each race, and they come with powers and stats unavailable to other units. They can rise in level (1-10, like a small RPG amidst the RTS), and collect magical items. They cost 5 food each, and they turn the game into a fight between Heroes. Which is cool, if that's what you want, and it Is what I want - in the SINGLE player game, just like I /tolerated/ the fact that I had to carefully tend to all my heroes in the Single-player starcraft and WCII missions. It wouldn't even be a problem if there were the /option/ of raising the food cap, or playing without heroes, but there is no such thing. You're stuck playing the mass-combat RPG disguised as an RTS game. In the multi-player game, I don't want my entire game revolving around tiny squads and their Hero. I like to play an RTS, not an RTS-RPG. An RTS is what I bought WCIII for, and it failed to deliver. This game has truly shaken my faith in Blizzard, and I don't expect to be making any more purchases from them in the foreseeable future.
Rating: Summary: Good Stuff Review: With a complicated but compelling storyline, good cartoonlike graphics, and good video sequences, this game is definitely an improvement upon the first two games. The addition of NPCs and non-playable races and monsters add to the fun, along with various "sub-quests," and the classic Dungeons and Dragons-type monsters makes this memorable to former RPG dorks like myself! The game is quite challenging with four different groups to use, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and unlike in the original games the characters do not map equivalently onto each other across the groups, i.e. there is no direct strength connection between Ogres and Knights (actually Ogres are only mercenaries in this game and not core forces). There are good video sequences within the game, however the ending is abrupt, and after I beat what was the last level, I was shocked that that was the end of the game, honestly believing that I had more game play ahead of me. There are some amusing bits in the end game credits and they ask you to beat it on a higher level for some unspecified other reward. The ending leaves several storyline details unresolved, perhaps to allow for another sequel, but that leave one feeling a bit cheated. Overall a fun game but the ending disappoints, while (perhaps strategically from a marketing perspective) leaving you wanting more.
Rating: Summary: Online RTS yes --- 1 player RPG no Review: Before I begin, I should note that I am an online gamer. I found the fun of Starcraft addiction on battle.net, and find the same fun on Warcraft III. That said, these seem to be the gameplay-related issues that keep appearing: Graphics The game uses a floating camera similar to that in the Myth games, but you usually do not need to ever rotate it, making it similar to that in Starcraft. This is a camera to be used for GAMEPLAY, not for admring the texturing of units. The units are not amazing, but they are well-textured, and appear at least vaguely realistic. The FMV sequences are impressive, but all-in-all the graphics are only decent. Plot The campaigns themselves are interesting, and moderately difficult (for those who enjoy a challange, the hard setting requires some serious skill). The plot is not all that exciting, but it serves to feed good scenarios for your missions. And really, RTS is about gameplay not plot (it's NOT an RPG). General Gameplay Its about the same as Starcraft, with similar hotkeys, and a few processes streamlined. These include longer unit cues, easier rally point setting, autocast on important spells (finally, the computer's instantanteous use of bloodlust is no longer assymetric!). Heros can be leveld by killing random monsters ("creeps") or enemy units, and learn abilities that can attack or auras a la Diablo 2 that support all your and your allies' nearby units. Game Strategy: Unlike Starcraft, Warcraft III has an increased focus on unit management. In Starcraft, it was about economics: keeping the minerals and churnin gout units to plow blindly into teh enemy base. In Warcraft, the strategy is far more combat-based. While it is still pivotal to maintain a grasp on the mines and to perfect a build order, the management of your 90 food cap is more important thatn ever. Hero's can wreak havoc using their abilities and your own ability to manage them, as well as the small set of units that surround them. They've put the S back in RTS: the strategy within combat has skyrocketed without a major blow to that outside of it. The inclusion 4 races takes Starcraft and more than doubles the possibilities. A simple 1v1 can have 6 differenet race combinations, for 12 different matchups between 2 players. (Think about the number of 3v3s you can have, and all the multiplayer maps as well) Then, when you add in blizzard's knack for giving each race multiple valid strategies, the possilbities for combat really are endless. The addition of creeps for leveling up heros provides an entirely new spin on multiplayer games. Online Gaming What sets warcraft 3 aside is the same thing that made starcraft great: online games. Battle.net is well set up ranked games for you and random partners (or alone), as well as a ranked system for arranged team games with 2-4 people per side. Finally, you and your gaming friend can actually prove that you two are indomitable together - in ranked games. If you are looking for a game to play for a while and put down, warcraft 3 will suffice. If you look for a game that can provide hours of intense gameplay with challenging strategizing against real human opponents, warcraft III is the best I've ever seen. Note: I had no installation or system req. issues. Then again, I have a 128MB graphics card, 512 RAM, and am not on an administrative account.
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