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Witchcraft: the reign of chaos
AFTER a long period of waiting, game changes, and hype, Warcraft III is available in its final form.
The game features four distinct playable races: “The Human Alliance”, “The Orcish Horde”, “The Undead Scourge”, and “The Night Elf Sentinels”. In the single player there are also units belonging to a race called the Burning Legion. It also features multiplayer games. Warcraft III has been one of the most awaited games of the year and it does not dissappoint.
Its gameplay is incredibly important in an RTS game. If it doesn’t play right, it isn’t worth playing. Gamers will be stultified with the classic RTS setup returning in Warcraft III. Blizzard is using the standard RTS control setup using the left mouse button to select units and abilities and using the right mouse button to move.
Along with these basic controls are hotkeys for every ability in the game. Mastering these hotkeys will increase efficiency and give an advantage to those who learn them. The developer has always been keen on balancing their games and they have done so in Warcraft 3. It should also be noted that each unit, like Starcraft, is unique and has its own distinctive abilities.
There are no mirror units like in Warcraft II or Age of Empires. An interesting new development is the hero system. Each race can create three unique heroes that have enhanced abilities and can learn spells as they gain in levels. Levels are earned by killing creeps and your enemy units. Creeps are neutral units that attack when you come into their line of sight. After creeps are defeated, they give you gold and sometimes items that give players an edge in battle.
This hero system is quite refreshing because it adds value to your army. Protecting your hero is as important as protecting your base. The spells each hero learns is unique to that hero and strategies can be formed from them. Also, each particular race has its own playing style. The Humans have a little bit of everything, the Orcs have strength, the Undead have speed and numbers, and the Night Elves have ranged and magic specialties.
As always upgrades are available to units and can be the deciding factor in battles. The new version has also incorporated an upkeep system where you resources will be taxed depending on the size of your army. At 40-plus units you are taxed 30 per cent and at 70-plus units you are taxed 60 per cent.
It should also be noted that the unit food maximum is 90. This is done to reduce the number of troops and increase micromanagement. Micromanagement is simply controlling your troops in the middle of battle, one by one, rather than sending 30 units in the base and watching the battle. One problem in the game is the computer.
The computer is difficult and rather efficient in custom games, also they can see everything you are doing. Also the number of units available isn’t too impressive. It is still similar to the number of units seen in Starcraft. This version is missing water units. Water units were available in Warcraft II and it would add more variety to the game play
Witchcraft III’s 3D graphics looks wonderful. The units are well-detailed for an RTS game and the levels are beautiful. Shadows and lighting are rendered in real time along with other effects. The 90-unit food max should also help prevent the game from slowing down. The camera can rotate temporarily and it can be titled. In single player both real time and pre rendered cut scenes are used to portray the story behind Warcraft. The game can run on most 3D graphics cards but tends to have problems with any Voodoo card. Blizzard has also included to the ability to control the amount of detail in the game. Players can choose any resolution supported by their graphics card and monitor. There is also control for model detail, lighting, shadows, etc. The Warcraft III 3D engine is a first for Blizzard and it has turned out great.
To start of, sound is important in the game as it tends to tell if enemy units are nearby or spells are being activated. The game itself sounds good and the music in the cut scene will keep you in your chair. The in-game cut scenes dialogues tend to get boring once in a while, otherwise the voice acting is great. Warcraft also has EAX Enhanced Audio capabilities. While the sound is good, it isn’t the best, but this has little impact on the greatness of the game.
The following are system requirements:
CPU: AMD Athlon 1.3Ghz or Pentium III 1Ghz or up.
RAM: 256 PC2100 DDR SDRAM
Video: GeForce 3 — CompuNut
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