Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classy package for a classic game, July 4, 2002
By A Customer
I just picked this up in a store in Burbank about 3 hours ago. I was a player in the beta, and I loved how Blizzard shook up the old, VERY tired RTS genre. The world doesn't need another StarCraft clone, and Blizzard doesn't need to make one -- they own the franchise, after all.Warcraft III IS different: The heroes aren't just named ordinary units, like they are in StarCraft, but rather they are semi-RPG characters dropped into the game, that can level up and acquire new items. During the beta, nothing was more fun than finding a StarCraft player who ignored the value of a hero unit: One level 8 hero and a small entourage of units with him could easily demolish whole armies and towns that the StarCraft player was dutifully pumping out. I am about halfway through the first of the four campaigns in single player, and so far, the Human campaign has a nice variety in its levels, with some featuring no building or traditional RTS play at all, but just RPG play. The plot is strong and it draws you into the game. Needless to say, the amazing cinematics and the cool in-game cinematics help out a lot in that regard. If you pick up the Collector's Edition -- and you should, since the game plus the book it includes are almost the same price -- you get a beautiful fake leather box (it's HEAVY), the game with an autographed manual, The Art of Warcraft art book, a DVD of the cinematics -- BEAUTIFUL! -- a CD soundtrack and four art prints that are the covers of the regular edition. The art book is for sale seperately at Amazon and is a great book, full of pictures I've never seen in 7 years of playing Warcraft. And as I said before, buying the book plus the game is almost the same price. For a little bit more, you get all the Collector's Edition extras! GameSpy and PC Gamer are already giving this game 90+ reviews and what I've seen so far from the multiplayer beta and the Human campaign, I have to agree. This is a must-buy for gamers!
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Collector's edition worth the dough, July 15, 2002
A quick note on the collector's edition, just to get it out of the way: I found it to be worth the money. You get an art book, which to fans of the series, is worth the price difference on its own. You get a DVD, which contains not only the cinemas from the game, but a bunch of Warcraft trivia, that leads to the cinemas and cutscenes from the previous Warcraft games (scarily bad, in comparison). You get a soundtrack, you get a really nice box, and you get some prints of the other versions of the box cover art. I thought it was easily worth the difference in price, and I'd recommend it to anyone without reservation. The art book isn't chintzy in the least - it's defintiely coffee table quality.The game itself is fantastic - the alterations to the standard RTS formula are almost all wonderful. I've always had a problem with Blizzard's relatively arbitrary unit control and unit number limits, but in WC3, it works. It makes the battles smaller, it makes the games quicker. Not only do you have to get resources, now you have to manage them to maximize their benefit. The hero units are a fantastic addition to multiplayer, and it allows each person to play the game slightly differently, even if they're trying to "optimize" their strategies. The single player game is a pretty radical departure from the previous games in the series, and has a linear storyline, told through in-game voiceovers, and in-engine cutscenes that frame the individual missions. There are both major and minor missions, and some that you only discover by uncovering specific areas of the map. The storyline is compelling, and the mission structure is widely varied. Playing on Battle.net has been easy, and hooking up with friends is made extremely simple by WC3's battle.net interface. I wholeheartedly recommend the game, and on top of that, I wholeheartedly recommend the collector's edition over the regular one.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing less than perfection, regular Blizzard policy., July 24, 2002
A few days after I pre-ordered Warcraft III I though to myself, "What if this game isn't fine tuned enough and has tons of bugs?" Then I remembered that Blizzard was making it. The company with the best track record (another company that has one close is the Looking Glass studios, but they're gone).Warcraft III is amazing. Hands down. Sporting 4 campaigns that are full of depth. And at the end of each campaign lies a beautiful cinematic. Starcraft players will notice some very similar missions such as the mission to gain mass resources for the next mission, defend a person for a time limit, and survive for a time limit are all here. The multiplayer community is already well developed with a Lord of the Rings scenario, paintball, and a hero arena. All are fun although LotR doesn't seem balanced enough. Also there are plenty of regular games going on too like shared bases, FFA, and team game. The game controls and functions very similar to Starcraft. And that's just how they wanted it. Warcraft III has 4 different races. The Night Elves, Humans, Orcs, and Undead. The undead is a lot like the Zerg in Starcraft. The Undead are just strange. Some of their units can eat corpses to gain health, their siege weapon hurls half mangled corpses at buildings, and one unit has stitches connecting extra limbs. The Night Elves are strange too, but in a different way. All of their buildings are tree-like things, some buildings can up-root themselves and attack units, and the worker unit is a ball of light. The Orcs and Humans are pretty normal, or at least compared to the other two. The units are good but the real high point of the game is the hero's. Each race gets 3 different heroes. The heroes gain one level (usually) in the campaign and can get up to level 10 in multiplayer. Each hero has 3 regular abilities with 3 different power levels for each. Then there is one major power such as resurrecting a group of units, raising an undead army, or a "blade storm" that damages all surrounding enemy units. You advance or discover these magic abilities every time you gain a level. Each hero has an inventory that holds up to 6 items. These items can be gained at shops, by finishing optional quests, or killing other heroes. And don't think that you don't have to use the heroes because regular units are good but a good player with a hero and 11 units to back him up can wipe out groups of units. Another new addition to Warcraft is upkeep. While it may be annoying it is a great idea. Upkeep keeps the game under control. This is how it works. Once your population reaches 40 you go into low upkeep. This means that instead of getting 10 gold every time your miner gets back you only get 7. Once your population reaches 70 you go into high upkeep and only get 4 gold per return. So how is the Collector's Edition? Amazing and worth the extra [money]. It includes an art book full of drawings and explanations from every game from the Warcraft series. The environment setting soundtrack is nice to listen to if you're just lying around in bed or any other place. Also included are 4 pictures that appear on the regular boxes. These look very nice and add to everything else. A DVD with all the Warcraft III cinematics is also included. As said before, the cinematics are gorgeous. Just be sure to play through the campaign or else you won't get the movies. A collector's edition manual, technology chart, and product guide are also included. Another thing that is nice is the box. It is hard and doesn't open like a regular box, it slides out. The game itself is on a collector's edition disc and case. All of this makes up the collector's edition. Note: The bug were people are kicked out of games or immediatly disconnected has been fixed and is a required update... In short, Blizzard delivers an average Blizzard performance.
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by J.R.R. Tolkien
