Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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128 of 141 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Warcraft 3 Beta Review, February 24, 2002
"This Battle.net Beta includes all four of the game's races as well as a significant number of the full product's items, creeps, and neutral buildings. However, the beta is playable only through Battle.net. You can play any of the four races including Humans, Orcs, Undead, and Night Elves against other players on battle.net. Excluded from this Battle.net Beta are the following full-game features: Single-player campaign, multiplayer LAN games, all cinematic sequences, computer opponents, the editor, saving and loading, and several Battle.net features."(Reign of Chaos Battle.net Beta Program)After having experienced the game myself, Warcraft III puts all other real time strategy games to shame. Commenting on the graphics, everything looks outstanding from units to buildings as well as the scenario. Blizzard really does a nice job making the texture and colors pleasant to look at even when zoomed in. In the previous Warcraft series, the main plot is basically battles between Orc and Human. In Warcraft III, Blizzard adds two more races (Undead and Night Elf) to increase more strategies. Although these two races are new, many people have already grown to love them. I really enjoy using the Undead. Like Warcraft 2 and StarCraft, the battle system is pretty much the same. Unlike other strategy games such as Red Alert and Age of Empires, learning how to play a new race in Warcraft is like learning how to play a different game. They don't just change the colors of different races; they change everything from units, structures and the style you should play. Warcraft 3 uses the two resources gold and wood and various kinds of units and structures. For those of you Diablo fans, Blizzard bends the meaning of strategy having to include the option of RPG. Every race has heroes to choose from. Each hero is capable of gaining experience, leveling up, learning new skills as well as keeping an inventory for items such as scroll of town portal, health potions and mana potions. It really adds a nice touch of Diablo to it. The Undead, one of the two new races, really takes skills to play. In order to win the game, you need to master the resources as well as understanding the abilities of every unit. The first time when I played, I build a lot of tough-mean-looking units and invaded my opponent. Clearly I thought I was going to win for my force really out numbered his. My opponent was smart enough to use the abilities of his units by casting some destructive spells and frying my guys. Take the Undead unit Necromancer for example; it can learn skills such as Corpse Explosion and Summon Skeletons, which can be very deadly and useful. In summary, I really enjoyed playing Warcraft 3. This is not just an ordinary typical strategy game where you will be through after playing once. Learning how to play Warcraft 3 is really like playing four different games. I'm not going into any more details on every race. Let's just hope Blizzard is able to release the damn game soon.
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122 of 136 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gold Code Review--Game of the Year, no question, June 26, 2002
Right off the bat I should say that I'm not easily taken to PC games. I don't have the patience to sit in front of my computer playing a 50+ hour game (Morrowind anyone?) instead of on my couch with my Xbox or PS2. Needless to say the game had better be pretty damn good to garner my attention.Cast absolutely all doubt aside that Blizzard might have lost its touch in moving to 3D, Warcraft III is an absolute masterpiece. The RTS-style gameplay hasn't varied significantly enough for any fans to make any true complaints about it; despite rumors to the contrary, this is not an RPG. The light amount of RPG elements infused in the game are welcome and appropriate since you will be spending a great deal of each campaign with a given character and you would like them to grow somewhat between missions while you are still forced to rebuild the rest of your base. To sum this up, as far as gameplay goes this is about as rock solid as it gets; some may complain about the 90 food limit on unit construction, but it adds a necessary strategy element to the game that makes the battles less about rushing and more about careful planning and intelligent use of the unique abilities of your given race. Speaking of races, unlike in Warcraft II, there are some serious distinctions between the different races that makes each have separate strengths and weaknesses. For instance, although the Orcs have an impressive selection of ground units and are able to build base defenses quickly, their air power is relatively weak. The Night Elves on the other hand have the ability to make themselves invisible at night and to harvest wood without actually cutting down trees so you have no fear of accidentally cutting a hole in the perimeter of your base. I'm only citing a few examples here; the differences could sum several pages and some are quite subtle so you'll want to experiment by playing the entire single player campaign before you decide to tackle the multiplayer mode. Speaking of the single player campaigns, I have to say that the level of cinematic storytelling in Warcraft III exceeds even that of Starcraft and Brood War. This is the most engrossing storyline in a PC game I have seen EVER and is worth picking up just for the single player missions (which number over 30). Graphically the game isn't going to win any awards, but I found absolutely nothing to complain about either. The terrain looks great, the models aren't noticeably blocky even in close up in game cutsceens and in general it looks like Warcraft III's graphics will age just as superbly as its predecessors. I haven't had much opportunity to play with the multi-player mode, battle.net isn't up yet since the game hasn't been released yet (mine is a LEGAL review copy by the way) but from what I can tell from the balance in games with friends over a LAN, Warcraft III looks to be THE RTS to beat for the next few years to come. Blizzard's tendency to hold back a game seemingly forever prior to an actual release is criticized by some gamers who just want to play the damn thing already. But what most struck me after I had finished Warcraft III was the intense amount of quality and love that had gone into polishing and tweaking the formula to perfection. This isn't merely an attempt to cash in on a winning franchise folks, Warcraft III can easily stand on its own as one of the best RTS games of all time and if you are smart you will pick up a copy on release day and cherish it like there is nothing else in the world. Trust me on this, the guys who made it did exactly that and it shows.
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48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant game!, March 31, 2002
(I received the Beta) This is easily Blizzard's best offering to date. The graphics are amazing, and gameplay is very original and extremely fun, and the multiplayer support promises to be very reliable.However, fans of Blizzard's "Starcraft" may be surprised by the style of gameplay: the focus is much more on unit efficiency and small numbers of well-organised, highly-upgraded, coordinated and mixed units than on massive numbers of identical, quick forces. Emphasis is on teamplay and cooperation. In general, players who liked warcraft II love warcraft 3, but players who liked Starcraft and its expansion have had mixed opinions. This is a definite buy for any blizzard fans.
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