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Jan 29th, 2008 at 10:03:09 - Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (PC) |
Game Log #2
I have progressed through the Undead campaign and have just started the Orcish campaign. Arthas is now a Death Knight with a more offensive array of special abilities, including a high damage Death Coil and the ability to raise fallen units to fight for him. Throughout the Undead campaign, the gameplay, fun factor, and plot have not faltered in the least. In most games, as the game progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult, requiring more effort from the player to stay alive. This statement is just as true when it comes to Warcraft 3. It's not that the computer becomes more skillful, but rather they are given the advantage in terrain, resources, and unit production. The player really has to be on his toes at all times, expecting to defend against massive attacks from all sides of the base while setting up an offensive against the enemy himself.
Plot:
In the beginning of the Undead campaign, Arthas is confronted by the demon Dreadlord Tichondrius and is surprised when he is tasked with retrieving the skeletal remains of Kel'Thuzad, a necromancer he killed previously. After retrieving the remains, he must lead cultists to a moonwell (fountain of enchanted water) in the Night Elves' capital of Silvermoon to revive Kel'Thuzad. But first, he must take an urn from the Paladins of Uther, including Uther himself. Before killing Uther, Arthas finds that the urn contains the ashes of his father, but this knowledge has no effect on his motivation to perform his duties as the Death Knight. Arthas and Kel'Thuzad travel together to the Archmages' city of Dalaran to open a dimensional portal and allow the coming of Archimonde and his demon army, the Burning Legion.
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Jan 28th, 2008 at 16:28:30 - Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (PC) |
Bryce Magee
Game:
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Blizzard Entertainment
Description:
WC3 falls neatly into the category of a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game, and is the third installment in the Warcraft series, a series that has come to define the RTS genre. Warcraft is set in a semi-medieval world Because of the success of its predecessors, WC3 has large shoes to fill, so to speak. Every aspect of the game is top-notch, much like every game released from Blizzard. Players familiar with the Warcraft series will find that the resources (gold and lumber) and methods of gathering them have not changed. While the setting is the same, WC3 is significantly different from the previous installments of the Warcraft series. WC3 introduces a "hero" unit to each scenario. Consider him the leader of a race/army with special abilities and the ability to equip powerups and items left behind after creatures have been vanquished. Most of these items come from "creeps", another unit new to Warcraft. These units are randomly scattered across the map, protecting extra gold mines and stores where you can buy other items.
Game Log #1
Orc Prologue Plot:
The Warcraft 3 campaign opens with a Prologue that tells the story of a prophet warning Thrall, Warchief of the Horde, through a nightmare, of the imminent coming of his peoples' doom. He tells Thrall that the survival of the Horde depends on moving west to the continent of Kalimdor. In order to learn more from the prophet, you must follow him to a safer area to talk. A tutorial begins that teaches the player the basic of unit selection, movement, and combat. The tutorial continues with the player directing Thrall and a small army to rescue his friend Grom Hellscream. Afterwards, Thrall leads his people across the Great Sea to their new home of Kalimdor, ending the tutorial.
Human Campaign Plot:
The story picks up with the prophet travelling to warn King Terenes Menethil of the end, in the same manner that he warned Thrall. Terenes did not believe the prophet and refused to move his people to Kalimdor. The prophet also attempts to convince the Archmage Antonidas and Prince Arthas, son of Terenes, to lead their people to Kalimdor, and is unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the Paladin Prince Arthas and Uther Lightbringer, Arthas's Paladin superior, are battling orcs that appear to be performing rituals to worship and summon demons. A strange plague is discovered among the people of Lordaeron that transforms them into the Undead. Arthas and the Archmage Jaina Proudmore move to further investigate this plague and find that its originator is the leader of the Cult of the Damned, Kel'Thuzad. Arthas kills Kel'Thuzad and discovers that he was working for the demon dreadlord Mal'Ganis. Fueled by revenge, he seeks to kill Mal'Ganis and save his people, no matter the cost. His corruption begins by slaughtering people of Lordaeron that have been infected by the plague, before they have turned undead. He follows Mal'Ganis to Northrend and learns of the existence of a sword, Frostmourne, that can help him defeat Mal'Ganis and his undead army. Upon finding Frostmourne, he learns that the blade is cursed and he must sacrifice his soul in order to wield it. Blinded by revenge, he accepts this fate for his peoples' "salvation" and strikes down Mal'Ganis. Arthas travels back to Lordaeron and murders his father.
Elements of Gameplay:
I. User Interface
1. Battle Screen
A. Zoom
The Battle Screen allows the player to easily zoom in and out with the mouse scroll wheel to change how much of the map is viewed and how close the player is to the action.
B. Fog of War
This is the concept that a unit or building can only "see" within a certain radius around them. Some units can peer farther into the distance than others. Fog of War allows the enemy to launch surprise attacks on the player because he cannot see the enemy's position.
2. Map
The Map is essentially an extremely zoomed out version of the Battle Screen. It shows terrain, unit locations (player and enemy), building locations, and resource locations with an intuitive color scheme.
3. Unit Selection
Two types of unit selection exist: Single and Group. Single unit selections are performed simply by left clicking on a unit. Group selections are performed by holding down the left mouse button and dragging a box over the units you want to select, creating a group. Players can be added or subtracted from a group by holding the control button and clicking on the unit to add/select.
4. Movement
Once a unit or group of units is selected, they can be ordered to move to a certain point in two ways. The easiest way is to right click on a destination point, but there is also the option of selecting the move button and then clicking on the map.
5. Building
Buildings are created by the same units that gather resources. To build a structure, the player clicks the Built button, and selects the structure to build from the list that opens. Some buildings cannot be constructed until certain buildings or upgrades to buildings exist.
6. Combat
Combat is performed by selecting the unit/units and assigning them to attack an enemy either by right clicking on the enemy, or selecting "Attack" from the menu and clicking on the unit to attack. Siege units such as catapults or mortar teams can be directed to attack a specific area in order to knock down trees and access hidden areas of the map.
II. Units
1. Melee
These units must be at close range in order to attack and typically have thicker armor and more health points than other units. They are mainly used to deal and take damage while keeping the enemy away from the weakly armored ranged attackers that deal the most damage. Melee units cannot attack air units unless they have been netted to the ground.
2. Ranged
Ranged units can attack land and air units and deal a considerable amount of damage, but they also have less armor and health points than melee units. Siege units, while considered ranged, can only attack ground units and buildings, but are most effective at destroying buildings.
3. Aerial
A. Combat
Some air units can only attack other air units, while most of them can also attack ground units. The more powerful air units deal an extreme amount of damage and have copious amounts of health points. These are some of the most deadly units in the game.
B. Transport
Air units that are capable of carrying other units across otherwise impassable areas such as deep water or over trees. They're also helpful in getting an army to a spot in a short amount of time to launch a surprise attack.
4. Resource Gatherers
Units can be trained from the player's main building whose job is to gather gold from a mine, lumber from trees, construct buildings, and repair buildings/mechanical units.
5. Heroes
These are special units, leaders of a race, present to instill power to armies. Different heroes have different special abilities, ranging from healing other units to damaging them with special attacks. The use of heroes and their abilities can determine whether an attack is successful or not.
Thoughts on Gameplay/Plot:
The components of the user interface and the interaction between the player and the army are extremely intuitive and the controls/hotkeys really improve reaction times to attacks. The use of the main three types of units (melee, ranged, air) together can be quite a formidable force, especially when they're well managed with healing units thrown into the mix.
The scenarios tend to drag on from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on how thorough you want to be with the map, gathering hero items, and completely obliterating every enemy unit/building on the map before you reach the main objective. There are a number of scenarios that don't require destroying enemy bases at all, but I find incredible amounts of enjoyment from doing it. The scenarios where the player is given a hero, a handful of units, and a hefty objective with tons of enemies tend to be the most fun, but also take the longest as you have to rest after each battle to regain health points and the mana to perform special abilities.
The voice acting and character development is excellent, but I'd expect nothing less from Blizzard. They could've done a better job of syncing the movement of the mouth to the voice, but that's a relatively simple gripe, since the emotion put into each character really gives the player the feeling that doom is coming. The fall of a Paladin, or any good-natured character for that matter, to the darkness is always an interesting story for me. It has that Anakin Skywalker feel to it.
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