Taking WarCraft to the next level

By Martin Kingsley

Welcome to Diz-nee Land!

Dukstar IT'Z HEAR, IT…IS…HEAR!!!
OttoTheCrate What the hell has u all excited?
HateMale Yeah, what givez?
Dukstar Exited? Im not exited! Im historical!
OttoTheCrate Historical? ROFL…Hysterical, you mean…
Dukstar FINALE!!! IT IS HEAR!
OttoTheCrate Finale?
OttoTheCrate Oh…"FINALLY"
HateMale ROFL, I luv eat when peeple can't spel! Hehe!
Opman enters room
Opman Dukstar, either tell people what you're talking about or get off the board!
Dukstar WARCRAFT 3 IZ HEAR!!!
OttoTheCrate OMG!
Opman leaves room

This was the conversation that alerted me to the fact that Warcraft 3 (WC3) had finally arrived. In a burst of excitement and adrenaline, I leapt from my position in front of the monitor, grabbed coat, hat and keys, and sped down to my local computer shop, only to find it closed. Looking around, I then realised that it was the middle of the night…

Dejected, I resolved to retreat and return with reinforcements the next day. The denizens, however, had other plans…

I returned in the early morning to find that the store had been swamped by members of the race that we call "The Great Unwashed". It is a strange creature that bears a stunning likeness to the garden-variety geek.

Do not be fooled, however, as The Great Unwashed are far more dangerous, survivors of many a 3am Red Alert 2 skirmishes and 48-hour Counterstrike endurance championships. Hardened troops, they secure their objective with speed and brutality.

However, my reinforcements consisted of my friend Jim and his slightly beat-up Camaro. Quickly formulating a battle plan, we dived into the Camaro and put the pedal to the metal. 10 seconds later, we both came to the conclusion that this wasn't a good idea.

49 seconds after that, we both came to the conclusion that:

1. The Camaro was not built for going through shop front display windows.

2. Jim's Camaro should have had seatbelts.

3. That the human body was not designed to be thrown through the non-existent windscreen of a Camaro.

Hi-ho, merry-o, a-razing we shall go!

Nevertheless, we did manage to gain entry to the shop, not without a little pain - but no pain, no gain, right? And we certainly gained with me nabbing two copies of Warcraft 3 and Jim grabbing the cardboard cutouts that were still in one piece.

We calmly walked out the door, around a corner and then legged it, with Jim running for a phone booth in order to get his car towed. You can see that I go to extraordinarily long (and painful) lengths to review games.

But I digress… Warcraft 3 is one of the most eagerly awaited games ever. And now that it's here, there is one question on everyone's lips: "Was it worth the wait?"

The answer is "Maybe".

Why? It depends on how you like your RTS…

Blizzard is best known for three things: Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft. Using their past successes as a guide, they have taken the best bits from all three, thrown in a truckload of storyline, a dash of tactics, three tons worth of RPG flavoring and an aromatic, yet simple 3D engine, stirred it all up and voila! Warcraft 3.

This cooking analogy just doesn't cut it when it comes to describing W3, so I'll expand.

We come back to the world of Warcraft, some years on from the original Warcraft games, where (to be blunt) there is the kind of peace that you get when both sides are busy reloading. The Orcs and Humans are still warring, but there's trouble in the air and a strange prophet on the loose. Old traditions are revived, blood sacrifices start occuring and dark ceremonies begin wreaking havoc as a dangerous Plague causes the population to drop like flies.

The story, unlike in other RTS games, is a major part of the game and is expertly written. You control various hero characters, who "level up" with experience, allowing them to gain special abilities, like spell and weapon abilities. They are also the only type of character who can pick up and use the various special items that are scattered around the landscape or possessed by higher level creatures like Ogre Warriors and dragons.

The hero characters are tied into the storyline, and appear from time to time in the other race campaigns, of which there are 4:

Orcs: Your basic race, with a leaning towards animal and grunt units. The are slightly slower than their human counterparts, but do more damage and have better armour to compensate.

Everything's so colourful and vibrant

Humans: The counterpart of the orcs. They lean towards mechanical units and magic use, as the Dwarves and Elves are part of the human Alliance.

Night Elves: Magic users, this race has many stealth-based units and is faster than all the other races.

Undead: This race is the weirdest of the lot. They can cannibalize dead bodies to return health and use swarm tactics to destroy their enemies. Sounds a bit like the Borg, doesn't it?

Unlike Command & Conquer or other examples from the RTS genre, Warcraft 3 focuses on small unit tactics. It's very rare that you'll ever be in control of more than 30 units. Because of this, WC3 shares more in common with the Commandos series than with more conventional RTS games.

The graphics engine, which - as I said before - is excellent, while still being simple to use. It takes advantage of a 3D camera, with a limited field of view. While at first the engine may seem simplistic, after a while you come to appreciate the level of detail Blizzard have incorporated into the engine, such as the slowly turning clock built into the Town Hall, or the bellows blowing outside the Blacksmith.

Surprisingly, the game can even run on low-spec PC's without too much trouble. The cutscenes are truly stunning, comparable to Final Fantasy (the movie) in quality. Likewise, the sound is excellent, with great voice acting and an amazing soundtrack.

The multiplayer aspect of WC3 is great, with full AI and LAN/TCP-IP support out of the box, plus over 30 different maps to play on. With many people already online and fighting it out, there is no lack of servers to play on and the number of servers should only keep on growing.

The last thing worthy of note is the world editor that allows you design huge maps, with many tile-sets included and simple controls, so you can be assured that it won't be long before a flood of user-made maps makes its way onto the web.

So, in conclusion: Warcraft 3 is the best thing since sliced bread. End of story. Why are you still here?

Game: Warcraft 3
System: PC
Players: 1-16
Online: Yes
Developer: Blizzard
Distributor: Vivendi Universal

Rating: 90%

(Ratings Key/Explantion)

Warcraft 3 is on the shelves now.