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WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos for Windows, Mac Videos >>
WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos for Windows, Mac
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WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos for Windows, Mac
268 reviews   3.73 of 5

Product Description

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Sound

Sound is good too. EAX is well mangaged , when you off the main action set , you still hear the battles or the construction ambients at distance.
The music is also very good, not repetitive, discreet and well rythmed at the same time.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very good. Everything is smooth, units and buildings management well thought and easy to use. The shortcuts really helps and are very useful during rushing battle time. The game is VERY stable , it looks like the beta testing period really helped things to make things work perfect. I run on winxp and I did not have any problems in 15 hours of play.
What's so great with the single player mode is that there is no more a " orc campaign " nor a " humain campaign" separated . It is now mixed into 1 full campaign , evolving through a very interresting scenario and animation periods.
The missions have objectives and sub ones, what makes the game even more exciting and complex ( even if it's not a rpg ).
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Summary

Reviewers Note: I know that this game wasn't supposed to be sold until the 3rd of July, but the store, which shall remain nameless, was selling it early, and I had to get it. That being said, it's a joy to finally have WarCraft III on my PC! This third and final RTS incarnation of WarCraft tells the tale of the fall of Man, the ascent of the Orc and the terrible threat that brings them together with the enigmatic Dark Elves, who's name suggests a connection with evil, but really only describes their partiality towards the night and their ability to use it to their advantage. Each race has their own strengths and weaknesses and the game itself has enough polish that you can almost see your reflection in this game. The storyline in WarCraft III is present in each mission you play. This isn’t like earlier Blizzard games where the missions are loosely tied together with the cinematic cut-scenes. The game IS the story. And the story is epic in scale and will keep you up to the wee-hours of the morning, continuing to play just to find out what happens next. I’m not telling. Go buy the game for yourself and you won’t be disappointed. =) Throughout this review I will be vague concerning the Night Elves and the Undead. These are things that you must see for yourself.

Sound

The sound is what really and truly defines the WarCraft games. When you click on a unit, it replies to you to let you know that you’ve gotten its attention. If you continue to click on it, it will get aggravated and shower you with incredibly hilarious one-liners! Half the fun of WarCraft III is sitting there with your characters and clicking on them until they talk back to you. My all time favorite is when you click on the Dryad, a half night elf and half deer, says, “I’ll distract them with my Human call: ‘I am so wasted! I am sooo wasted!’” I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I heard that.

Of course, the rest of the sound effects aren’t lacking either. You will hear swords’ clanging on armor, Dwarven rifles being fired, screams of agony and death…okay, that last one isn’t so nice, but this is WAR after all, right?

And of course, no game would be complete without a score worthy of a summer blockbuster movie, and WarCraft III delivers in spades! Each piece of music is specifically matched to the race that it is immediately identifiable. The music was so beautiful at times that I was literally moved to tears. That’s good music.

Gameplay

If you’ve ever played any kind of Real-Time Strategy game before in your life, you know the drill. Collect resources, build army, defeat foe (or friend) and humiliate him. WarCraft III doesn’t deviate very far from that formula. You will have peasants & peons to boss around, common foot-soldiers and elite fighting forces. You can command flying terrors and hire money-hungry mercenaries. You will fight foe and friend alike.

An addition to WarCraft III this time is the use of Heroes. Three special units per race that you can level up by killing critters sprinkled about the maps, use items and buy supplies and mercenary units with. While this concept has been done before, the difference this time is just how important to the story these Heroes are. Each one has a purpose and a reason for existing, not just as icons representing whatever race you are playing at the time. Each hero has special abilities to heal, hurt, gather information, summon help, etc. It’s tricky to keep each one of these special abilities in line when you’re using them, and the action gets hairy when you have spellcasters raining fire and ice over their enemies and lightning flashing all around. I can tell you though it’s a great light show!

One of the ways that WarCraft III does deviate from the norm is the use of the small unit levels. These are levels where you do not harvest resources and create armies. You must go through the level all by yourself, finding you allies along the way. Heaven help you if you mismanage these units because you will take a beating!

Another way that WarCraft III differentiates itself from other games is by the use of Upkeep. If you create too many buildings, a portion of the gold and lumber you bring in will be used to maintain your town. Go beyond that, and you’re paying so much it’s almost not worth gathering supplies. Now I know that you’re thinking that this is silly! Why bother to punish a player for being successful? The reason behind this is to give your opponent (or you, depending on what side of the fence you’re on) and opportunity to rebuild relatively quickly if you’ve taken that aforementioned beating. Keeps the game in play and makes for more intense stratagems.
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Summary

My first and only problem with user reviews is people for some reason have a loyolty and want so badly for the game to be good that they hype the game with good reviews. That being said, I sought out to write a review upon playing the game with a recently recieved review copy. With out a doubt this is on my list of top 5 games. But let me give you my other top games so you can see where you stand on my previous games, and see if I have any clout with you. 1. Master of Orion 2, 2. Civilization II, 3. Star Craft, 4. Homeworld, and 5. Deus Ex

With that, I have no allegiance to Blizzard, though they have an impeccable track record and thus I always play/purchase Blizzard games. I truly enjoyed this game and If you share taste in games with the above, go for it you will not be dissapointed. If you do not like my above games don't know what to say. Keep in mind those are my top 5, I still enjoy many other games, Diablo II and Half life, as well as the Quake series, but the above those are the best in my opinion.

Sound

MORTAR COMBAT!!! I have to say that the sound is hilarious, the voice acting in the single player is very high quality, if only Final Fantasy X could have hired the same voice actors. The music builds up and the voice acting formost is funny. As you build a mortar crew they Yell MORTAR Combat, I still laugh when I here this. The voice acting is great and very fun.

5, The comedy put it over the top

Gameplay

The single player game is very much like all previous Blizzard RTS's great voice acting and a wonderfully fun story followed by good concepts. Normal difficulty is way to easy and hard is just that hard. As of now I have finished the first 2 stories, Humans and Undead. Multiplayer is fantastic. Tons of fun I have played over a LAN with 4 people, as of now the computer is still very tough, but fun. The Upkeep is annoying but not a problem, Upkeep basically charges you money the larger your army is. I see this more as a strategy aspect not a downfall.
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Summary

I Must say, after playing the beta I wasnt sure I was gonna buy it, but I pre-ordered anyway, knowing it was only a beta so it must get better. I downloaded the fullversion because I couldn't wait to play it and wow, Blizzard really cleaned it up. Although the game isn't revolutionary like previously stated, it does introduce interesting elements that do raise the game beyond other rts games. It may not be the "Be-All End-All" Rts but it'll give other rts publishers a run for their money. On july 3rd (this morning) I went down to eb boutique and purchased the 120$(tx inc) collector's edition which is also stuff. The dvd WITH audio commentary will hopefully be as good as the diablo 2 one if not better, and all the other things like soundtrack, art of warcraft, etc,etc make the collector's edition the version to buy.

Sound

Sound is where the game shines brighter than all other categories. Sure Blizzard is known for great voice acting and musical score, but everything about the sound in this game is perfect. Another review I read said most people play with sound off, that ignorant fool should not be allowed to play videogames, especially this one. Another reviewer mentioned the unit voices such as "MORTAR COMBAT", and I concur with that reviewer completelyin that Blizzard's attention to the little details in sound,graphics and gameplay make this game (the collector's edition preferably) a must own.

Gameplay

First off, the cinematics are, undescribably beautiful, they not only progress the story line to make the game more interesting, but they completely immerse you in the world of warcraft. In game, the biggest problem I found is switching between spellcasters. Although the tab button works well, it isn't always the most efficient, but that does not hinder the gaming experience to any extent.
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Summary

A tad over 2 years after the release of their last full release game (Diablo 2), Blizzard graces us with another of their masterpiece games. This time it's Warcraft 3, the follow-up in their very popular series of real time strategy (RTS) series. This one's been highly anticipated for a couple of years now, and this is the first title from Blizzard that moves into true 3D. Diablo 2 supported 3D cards, but all the base artwork was done in 2D and the game processed it mostly in 2D as well. This time, just about everything's polygonal, and it looks excellent.

Warcraft 3 is no exception when it comes to Blizzard games oozing quality and style - this one just does it all in 3D and with a more complicated style than any previous RTS they've done. While the overall style of the game is fairly different between the in-game graphics and the cutscenes, it's no reason not to enjoy the qualities of both.
So, is Warcraft 3 really much different than previous Blizzard RTS games? Yes and no. They've expanded on their tested formula, and have made sure to one-up themselves on most aspects of gameplay. There are more races than Starcraft (each completely unique, of course), more units, bigger maps, more locales to fight in, and more powerups to get.

The biggest thing added to Warcraft 3 is their hero system. It's an oversimplified RPG-type way of doing things - heroes are now integrated into the game on a pretty fundamental level, and they have levels, base stats, skills, and even a simplistic inventory where they can hold potions, scrolls, and permanent items which make them more powerful. They're fully controllable just like any other units, but each hero is unique and has specific abilities.

The heroes are an essential part of the single-player game's story, and really help you identify with the characters since they take a big part in pretty much every level. They're powerful, but not invincible; sometimes you have to keep them alive for the whole mission, while other times you can resurrect them back at your base if they die. It adds up to the biggest gameplay change made in Warcraft 3, and while it's definitely good, the micromanagement required for using some of the heroes' special abilities and spells is annoying.





This shimmering bridge allows
passage in one of the "dungeon"
missions.
There are four playable races in the game: Humans, Orcs, Undead, and Night Elves. During the single-player game, you'll go through a campaign for each one. This allows you to play all sides of the battle, another aspect of Blizzard's RTS games that is becoming a staple. One thing I didn't particularly care for was the game's incessant need to introduce one unit at a time during the campaigns. Generally, it's not until the last mission or two in each campaign that you can use all the units at your disposal. It'd have been nice if they'd steepened the learning curve at least a bit to where you can use all the units, say, halfway through each campaign.

Blizzard has introduced an Upkeep system into Warcraft 3, where having a large army induces a penalty on any gold you mine as it comes in. "Low" upkeep takes 30% off of your mined gold, while "High" upkeep takes that much again on top of that. Instead of 10 gold, you will be mining only 4 at "High". This discourages players from having a large standing army, and encourages you to go out and attack with what you have before you build more units. I personally don't really like this kind of gameplay, but the best Battle.net players of Blizzard's previous games play this way. It's just a different way to play.





The Night Elf buildings look
very cool.
The actual storyline is pretty good, as the cutscenes and movies have plenty of action and show off the game's best characters nicely. All of the 4 races receive equal treatment throughout most of Warcraft 3, so that you're not totally sick of one race or another by the end. The plot is pretty standard fare, but it's done well enough that it's exciting to see what comes next.

Mixed in with your normal "build a base, kill enemy here" missions are optional quests you can do on maps to get extra items or units to help out with. On top of that, Blizzard also included their usual missions where you have no base, and control usually 12 units or less in more of a "dungeon"- type scenario. These are sometimes tough to get through, especially if you lose too many units early and simply can't win at the end. That's when it's time to restart the level. Not a big deal, but most of the time in these missions, I was itching to get through these levels and get back to base building and making an army.

One major gripe I have with the single-player campaign is with its difficulty. Somewhere a little bit into the Orc campaign (the third campaign out of four), the game suddenly gets much harder - I went from hardly having to retry a mission to having to retry four or five times every time. Being able to save mid-mission helps this immensely, though, since many of these missions can take 45 minutes or longer each.





1600x1200 looks awesome.
Warcraft 3 includes many in-game cutscenes - since it's now in 3D, they can do much more with the in-game camera than they could before. Now, instead of being briefed outside of the mission (like Starcraft), it'll be in the game engine. It works well overall, although it's a far cry from the game's stunning movies.

Overall, the Warcraft 3 single player game is pretty long, fun, and if you don't mind the sudden leap in difficulty, engaging through to the end. And the cinematics make the whole thing worth it. There isn't that much new to the Blizzard formula we've seen before, but it's enough to make it worth it. Is it enough to make the multiplayer game worthwhile? We'll see.

The biggest complaint I have with Warcraft 3's multiplayer component is just how similar it is to Blizzard's previous RTS games. They've upped the ante a bit in most of the areas that you'd expect, but haven't done anything really unique or new. Heroes in the multiplayer game aren't so important as they seem to be in the single-player game, and are sometimes a hassle to use to their fullest extent. Other units (specifically, some of the spellcasters) are much the same, requiring too much micromanagement to use efficiently.

The whole Battle.net system has been put together with the competitive player in mind, what with the Upkeep system mentioned before, the continued use of non-randomized maps, and what looks to be a good focus on trying to balance the four races (what with all the work they spent on it in the game's beta test).

Sound

Warcraft 3's sound effects are great, from the explosions to the slashes of swords. Everything sounds unique, and each unit has its own voice acting for all kinds of situations. The hilarious things they say when you repeatedly click on them (yet another staple of Blizzard RTS games) is as funny as ever, and the voice acting for the story is pretty well done. Some of the characters don't sound all that great, but most of them are above average for what we expect in a computer game.

The game's music wasn't much to write home about - Blizzard seems to have put less of a focus on it this time compared to previous games, with it being more low-key and quieter than it was in Starcraft or even Diablo II. The movie clips by far have the best music, of course, while most of the in-game stuff was sometimes hard to even notice.

Gameplay

Just about all of the original controls and hotkeys from Starcraft are back in Warcraft 3, with some extra keys for management of heroes and other aspects of the game. While the game has moved into 3D, the interface and camera is pretty much like all of Blizzard's previous RTS games. This is definitely a good thing - the interface feels just right, allowing easy controls of multiple-hotkeyed sets of units.

All the usual extra Blizzard features you expect are here as well - you can save any game (including multiplayer ones), play via LAN or Battle.net, and go through the single-player campaign. There are multiple profiles that can be saved so that different people going through the single-player game on one computer don't get mixed up. And the Battle.net interface is slicker than ever, with a great look and just about all the features you're used to.
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Summary

The game Warcraft 3 is the latest masterpiece to hit the software market. I haven't played a game this entertaining/refined/suspenseful/etcetera in a very long time. I played through the entire game (I have never played through an entire RTS game in my life, although I am a huge fan of the genre), which says a lot. I think Blizzard deserves kuddos for putting out another top notch RTS into the market.

I played through this game before applying the patch, and there were no problems (bugs etc) with it at all, I believe that insulting the programmers and calling this a "work in progress" is a very ignorant thing to do, they spent a long time refining the game and trying to make it as perfect as they could, and if you play through it, you will find that they succeded.

***I am kind of annoyed at the people who post bad reviews because of their own ignorance. Perhaps if they had looked into the matter on their own, they would have discovered that the error was due in part to their own laziness, in not updating their computer, it has nothing to do with the game.