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Warcraft III: Reign of ChaosReviewed By: Erica Marceau Review Date: August 13, 2002
WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos takes place after the portals to the Orc world of Draenor were destroyed and the war-weary inhabitants of Earth believed that healing and rebuilding could take place. The Human Alliance was able to maintain an uneasy peace by constructing internment camps for the Orcs that remained behind even though the High Elves and several other kingdoms withdrew from the alliance. This calm did not last for long as the Burning Legion came to lay waste to the Earth, along with the mysterious Undead as their agents of destruction. The Night Elves, an old enemy of the Burning Legion, could prove essential in averting absolute ruin and destruction for everyone and everything.
So, you have four unique races (Humans, Undead, Orcs, Night Elves). While you have some duplication of abilities, the units are unique enough to require using them in different ways. As an example, let's look at the Priests from the Human race and compare him to the other healing units. Priests can set their healing ability to autocast, which means if any injured unit comes close to the Priest and he has enough mana, he will heal the unit. The Troll Witch Doctor from the Orc race can heal, but he uses Healing Wards which heal everyone in a certain radius for a limited time, and it can't be set on autocast. What this means in a practical sense is that I often included one or two Priests when I played the Human campaign because they healed automatically and I could concentrate on fighting. However, since the Troll Witch Doctor doesn't have that ability, I often had them use their Healing Wards in an area before I engaged in battle (and tried to stay within the healing area), or I just healed afterwards. Night Elves have the Druid of the Claw who can heal one unit over a period of time and who can't autocast so, I had a tough time using it in battle. The Undead don't even have a healing unit (except for the Death Knight hero), but every unit naturally regenerates health. So, you can see that even the simple task of healing is very different for each of the four races, and these differences extend to every unit and hero.
Speaking of huge quantities, there's a limit of 90 food, and each unit uses differing amounts of food. Furthermore, once you use between 41 and 70 food, you are in Low Upkeep and you only get 70% of the gold at each gold mine. Between 71 and 90 food, you are in High Upkeep which means you only keep 40% of the gold at each gold mine. This means that you will probably be in Low Upkeep for most of the map . You'll need at least two gold mines to have enough gold to produce troops and buildings, so exploring and expanding is almost essential. In addition, the best way to increase your hero(es) level and find items is to kill Creeps (random monsters sprinkled about that only attack you if you attack them). But, let's get back to the food limit and the fact that youÕll probably only have about 12-24 units at any one time without getting into High Upkeep. Can you really face the enemy with so few forces and have a chance of winning? The amazing answer is a resounding "yes." You need to be able to use the unit's special abilities and to manage each of your units more carefully, but you don't need dozens and dozens of units to be successful...a big change from other real-time strategy games. It also makes raids on enemy towns more exciting because if everything goes wrong and the enemy repels your attack and takes the battle to your town, you probably don't have any troops there to defend it.
On the other hand, the background music fits with every race and isn't intrusive, so I didn't even think about turning it off. The voice that tells you you're under attack or that an upgrade is finished is very clear and easy to understand, and is also different with every race. Overall, I'd say the graphics are great, the music is fitting and easy to listen to, and the units response to clicking needs to be improved.
Performance was mostly great on my G4 400MHz with 256MB of RAM and the ATI Rage 128 Plus with 16MB of memory running OS 9. I set every option to medium and used the 800x600x16 resolution. I only had slight problem when engaging in large battles, and the problem might have been more in me losing track of the cursor amongst the fighting units than in any real performance issues. I then tried the game out at 800x600x32 and found everything to be much more crisp. I also tried it at 1024x768x16 and 1024x768x32 and didn't really notice a significant difference with the bigger resolution. So, if your computer is like mine, I'd try Warcraft III at 800x600x32 with the rest of the video options at medium and you should have a good combination of performance and graphic detail. WarCraft III is a terrific game that will be played for years to come because of the many tactics and strategies that are possible and because the multiplayer capability is wonderful. The editor is powerful, and I'm sure there will be many great maps made that will use it to its full advantage. Whether you're a veteran at real-time strategy games or are just wanting to see what the genre is like, WarCraft III is the game to buy and play.  [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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The biggest change to WarCraft III (WC3) is the introduction of heroes who gain experience and levels. Each race has three different heroes, each of whom has three skills that can be raised from level one to three and one ultimate skill that is available when the hero reaches level six. Most heroes have one passive skill which requires no mana and helps either all nearby friendly units or the hero him/herself. For example, the Priestess of the Moon from the Night Elf race has the Trueshot Aura which increases the damage of all units that have a ranged attack and who are within the aura's radius. Furthermore, each hero can hold up to six items that can make the hero stronger by increasing his/her strength, agility, intelligence, or damage. The hero can also use potions to replenish the health or mana of him/herself or units nearby, among others. If the hero falls in battle, you can revive him/her at the same building where you hired the hero in the first place...experience and items intact. While you can't win maps with the heroes alone, they are an essential part of every player's arsenal.
Another change is the different types of weapons (piercing, normal, siege, spells) and armor (small, medium, large, fortified, hero) each unit has and their strengths and weaknesses against each other. All of this information is presented in-game, so you donÕt need to memorize it. ItÕs important to have a variety of units so you are as efficient and deadly as possible. For example, let's say you want to kill your enemy's hero and then destroy his town so the hero can't come back again. All heroes have the hero armor which reduces damage from piercing and siege attacks by 50% and magic spells by 75%, but takes fulls damage from normal attacks. So, you should defeat the enemy hero with your units that have a melee attack such as the Human Footmen or the Orc Grunts. Once the enemy is defeated you want to destroy the buildings which have fortified armor. To quickly destroy them you should use your siege units (damage increased by 150%) or spells since both piercing and normal attacks are reduced in damage by 35% and 50% respectively. This adds a level of strategy since itÕs best to counter what the enemy uses with troops that are best against them. On one map in the Orc campaign I just received the Raiders unit and I thought I should use them instead of the Grunts because I thought the Raiders were better and more powerful. In the mission, however, the Raider died quickly and were not as effective as I thought they would be. I then realized that I was facing mainly Human Footmen, Sharpshooters, and Priests who all have light armor against which Raiders are less effective. I switched to using mainly Grunts and a few Raiders to attack buildings and did much better with fewer losses.
The graphics maintain the same bright colors that were in WC2, and add a considerable amount of detail, much to my delight. I especially like the water ripples in lakes and streams, and the waterfalls are very pretty. There's even rain and snowfall, and your units--particularly the siege units--sometimes leave tracks behind them when they walk. They also move in place when not doing anything else, and the buildings have a visual indicator to show they are busy (upgrading or producing a unit). Each of the different environments (forests, snow, cities, deserts, and caves) have a lot of unique features that add to the game's atmosphere. What detracts from the atmosphere is what the units say when you click on them, especially if you do so repeatedly. I really wish Blizzard wouldn't have the female characters talk as though they are sluts, and the lame jokes grated on my nerves. Having the Archer unit from the Night Elves race talk about g-strings and the Sorceress from the Human race make a reference to Britney Spears by seductively saying, "Click me baby, one more time"--among other examples--are completely unnecessary. I might be nitpicking, but I'd rather the units had something useful to say and be true to their character instead just producing a one-time chuckle.
Playing on battle.net with some friends was a blast, and the new Friends panel makes it much easier to keep track of who you know and who's on where. Setting up custom games is as easy as it has always been, and finding random games is even easier since WC3 will do that for you automatically based on your current skill level and the map you want to play. With the included map editor, there won't be any shortage of new maps to test your skills, and you can find plenty at