|
Denn's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (PC)
|
| [February 8, 2008 02:21:31 PM]
|
Gamelog #2
GAMEPLAY
The campaign in general was very smooth. The story was also up to par generally. The major thing that I have against the story was that I couldn’t help but notice the numerous parallels to Starcraft. For example there was that mission in which Arthas had to survive for 30 minutes before help could arrive- extremely similar to the Starcraft mission in which the humans had to survive for 30 minutes before being saved. However Blizzard did add a few twists to the various missions, such as adding in optional quests like having to save Timmy and destroy a grain caravan.
Gameplay wise I would have to say that it was near perfect. Each of the four races has a distinct feel to them, which enables the player to adopt very different strategies. For example the Undead can field massive armies of skeletons which can then be used as shields to take damage from melee units, while the Orcs have to rely on a smaller (but stronger) army. Then there are also different hero units for each race which further impacts the player’s strategy.
DESIGN
The most interesting part of this game is the inclusion of hero units. Since each hero has its own special powers the hero that the player chooses will directly impact the strategy later on. For example if a player knew that his/her opponent would be undead, then the logical choice would be to choose a paladin as the hero. In addition, the hero units also give the game a bit of a feeling like an RPG game instead of a traditional strategy game.
However the greatest weakness of the game was the in-game cutscenes. It’s actually not just the cutscenes, but the entire tone of the game. The art style is obviously cartoonish- units are drawn in cartoon style with bright colors. Although some players might find this funny, I would much rather prefer a more realistic tone to the game. For example I would have preferred something more akin to Starcraft or Command and Conquer. Add in the fact that the cinematic scenes are done in a realistic style, it results in that the player is hungry for the cinematics which they barely pay any attention to the in game cut scenes.
read comments (1)  -
add a comment 
|
| [February 8, 2008 02:38:20 AM]
|
SUMMARY:
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a real time strategy game set in the fantasy world of Azeroth in which the primary goal of the player is to lead his/her units to complete each mission in order to further the storyline.
GAMEPLAY:
Warcraft III for me was a great experience overall despite it’s lack of cutting graphics and cartoon like tone.
First off, the game is narrative intensive- the gameplay/visual/audio are all very good, but in my opinion the main driving factor for this game is the intricate storyline behind it. Blizzard lays out a heavy background for this game (like it does for all of it’s games), which is evident in the manual that comes along with the game. The history of Azeroth is provided in detail and directly relates to the in game story.
Then there’s the campaign layout- the player has to start on the human campaign as the story advances chronologically. Thus the player has to beat the human level, undead, orc, and finally the night elf level in order to finish the entire story. I think that this was a wise decision because it allows the player to become familiar with a particular race which prevents confusion among players. It also forces the player to at least try playing each race a bit.
The one thing that I didn’t like about WC3 was the fact that the mission objectives were presented in in-game cutscenes. Basically Blizzard did away with the “mission briefing” of Starcraft and turned it into in game cutscenes. The major problem that I have with this is the fact that to me the cutscenes look awful, especially when compared to the cinematics. I would much rather have preferred for the “mission briefings” to be presented in cinematic-form despite the fact that it may interrupt gameplay. To me, part of the fun in playing games made by Blizzard is watching the cinematic which are always top-notch.
add a comment
|
|
|
 |
Denn's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (PC)
|
|
Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 8 February, 2008
|
|
