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Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.1.2Reviewed By: Erica Marceau Review Computer: 400MHz G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) with 768MB RAM, ATI Rage Pro 128 (16MB), Mac OS X v10.2.6 Review Date: August 21, 2003
The Frozen Throne (TFT) takes place shortly after the events in WarCraft III, and the Humans, Elves, and Night Elves are still trying to recover and provide some stability for their people when a new crises appears. Illidan seems to be trying to destroy the world in some mad pursuit of power, and Maiev, the Night Elf who kept him locked up for 10,000 years, is determined to recapture him no matter what the cost. Meanwhile, the Human Alliance is struggling to stay together, and the Elves have gone off the deep end and are calling themselves Blood Elves. The Undead still want to destroy everything...which is comforting in an odd sense. The Orcs managed to luck out by building a nation in an area not even the Undead seem to be interested in conquering (at least right away), so their story is told in a bonus campaign...which is not your usual WarCraft. In this world of constant danger, you're going to need all the firepower you can get. The Frozen Throne delivers it in spades.
In addition to new heroes, there are plenty of new units to help each race with its weaknesses while not turning it into clones of each other (as is easy to do). For example, the Mountain Giant is a new unit for the Night Elves that fills a previously vacant role of a damage absorber (a.k.a. tank). Not only does it have 1600 hit points, but it can be upgraded to reduce all attacks by 12 damage, have increased resistance to spells, and cause all nearby enemy units to attack it instead of your frail Archers. Add in the Rejuvenation spell cast by a Druid of the Claw and the Mountain Giant can take a lot of damage before dying. Another new unit is the Spell Breaker which fills a weakness to magic that the Humans used to have. While the Priests did and do have Dispel which cancels all magical effects, the Spell Breaker has many more tricks up his sleeve. His Spell Steal ability not only takes a negative effect (such as curse) from your units and puts it on your enemy instead, but can take a positive effect the enemy puts on its units (such as Bloodlust) and puts it on your units. Since it's auto-cast, you don't even have to do this manually. The other great ability is Control Magic which lets it take control of enemy-summoned units such as Water Elementals or Healing Wards or Skeleton Mages. There are many more new units, and these are just a sample of what you can expect.
The single-player campaign is even better than the original WarCraft with a wider variety of missions and more challenges that will test your ability to be in two places at once. Some maps combine having to defend a base while leading another group to a location. Other maps are dungeon crawls where you have a limited number of troops and have to work your way through a dungeon. Others require you to protect a caravan or manage two bases simultaneously while fighting off wave after wave of enemies. If you want a change of pace you can play the bonus Orc campaign which is less of a real-time strategy game and more of a role-playing game that has you helping Thrall build up his new Orc nation. The variety of missions means that the campaigns are always challenging and fun.
Since my computer just meets the minimum system requirements, I had to set all of the video options to low to get a good frame rate. Even then, the graphics were acceptable and the performance was very good. In fact, the performance was a lot better than WarCraft III, so I think some tweaking was done behind the scenes. However, for optimal gameplay, I wouldn't recommend playing with a slower computer than what I have. If you enjoyed WarCraft III, you'll really enjoy The Frozen Throne. It's worth every penny Blizzard is charging.  [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne is an expansion to the original WarCraft III and adds new heroes, new units, new skills, new maps, and four new campaigns to keep you entertained for hours. For those who are regular players of WarCraft III, you probably did when you pre-ordered The Frozen Throne shortly after it was announced. For the rest of you, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. "What's so great about an expansion pack?" "Is it worth $35?" "Does it make WarCraft III more fun to play?" For the answer to all of these questions, read on.
One of the biggest changes in TFT are the new heroes for each of the three races and the neutral heroes you can hire if there's a Tavern available. The Humans get the Blood Mage whose Flamestrike leaves the enemy toasted while his Siphon Mana leaves them unable to use any of their powers. The Night Elves get the Warden who attacks close-up with her curved weapon and from far away with her Fan of Knives. The Undead get the Crypt Lord which is actually a big spider that can create Carrion Beetles in corpses to attack as well as call upon a Locust Swarm to replenish its health. The neutral heroes are just as interesting, and you can choose from among a panda, an undead Elven ranger, a half fish/half female archer, a half orc/half ogre master of beasts, and a huge demon. Since heroes have such a big effect on how each map is played, it's now possible to have a much wider variety of strategies depending on the map, your race, and the race of your opponent(s). What's great is that these new heroes don't replace the older heroes, but instead can be used alongside them with no loss in effectiveness.
The older units are not neglected either; several of them are given new abilities. The Orcish Headhunter can be upgraded to the Berserker which, in addition to having more hit points, can go into Berserk mode so it attacks 50% faster but takes 50% more damage. The Night Elves two main spell casters (Druid of the Claw and Druid of the Talon) could not cast spells while they were transformed in their animal form. Now Druids of the Claw can cast Roar when they are in Bear form and Druids of the Talon can cast Faerie Fire while in Crow form if they have the proper upgrade researched. The Humans Siege Engine is very powerful against buildings and other ground units, to a lesser extent, but had no way to defend against air units until now. You can upgrade them to add the Barrage ability which lets them fire powerful Dwarven rockets at nearby enemy air units. Not all units have been enhanced, but, then again, not all units needed it.
However, playing against other people is where the fun's at for many gamers, and there are new features on battle.net which makes this more enjoyable. The biggest is clan support which brings together people and gives them a private channel, a clan profile, and a ladder to rate the overall play of the clan. Another new feature of battle.net are automated tournaments which are open to everyone and which take place on a regular basis. You need a couple of hours free if you don't get disqualified since they take place on one day, but they're a great way to test your mettle. Blizzard also added new multiplayer maps and changed some of the older ones to balance them with the new features. Overall, it's easier than ever to play against human opponents.