[WC3] So far so good...

[Black Omega]

I have to wonder how far off the unofficial d20 conversation for Warcraft 3 is.

I've only had it a day, so I'm still getting the hang of it. Unsurprisingly, the graphics are worlds better than in previous Warcraft/Starcraft games. The cinematic cuts are excellent. The storyline starts a little slow but builds well. I'm just finishing the human campaign and it's been very entertaining.

Gameplay has changed quite a bit toward unit selection, instead of the hordes in past Blizzard games. Not only are limits on numbers lower, but the closer you get to the limit of 90, the higher Upkeep becomes, which means more taxes being taken out of your peno's trips to the gold mines.

The four races are interesting and seem well balanced, at a glance. Orcs and humans are still play much as before, though the orcs have been giving a shamanistic slant rather than the evil destroyers of before. Undead and Night Elves have been added as races. The night elves are not what you think, they have nothing to do with Drow. Instead, they are very nature and night oriented. Their special abilites favor fighting at night, while humans are orcs are both better during the day. The addition of night and day can make a big difference. You don't see as much during the night, but you have a better chance of catching creatures dozing.

I'm not sold yet on the leveling up for heros, or bashing crates in the search for magic items. They go a little too far in the RPG direction at times. Even so, WC is a great game, well worth a look.

 

[Lazybones]

I was a big fan of WC2 and Starcraft, so I was looking forward to this game. Unfortunately, I'm so deep into NWN that I don't think I'll be ready to buy a new game for a few months.

Luckily, by that time WC3 should be in the bargain bin .

 

[Painfully]

I didn't even anticipate this game coming out, but there I was at BestBuy and there was this great big stand. So besides buying the dwarf figure, I bought the game too.

It reminds me a lot of WC2, and some of the maps like Garden of War are faithfullly reproduced from that game. I still get the feeling that this is a game where timing is everything. The fastest ones to get the most gold and build their "first strike" army will almost always win the game. That's too bad.

I was hoping that improving structures and armies would be more like Age of Empires, where the fastest mouse clicker doesn't always have the advantage. I wish the maps in this game would be much bigger. The largest maps should be double their size for my tastes.

They also took away water-based units. Too bad. I liked the extra dimension it added to the game.

Graphically, this game is WC2 with updated graphics and NO WATER UNITS. They added heroes (you can get up to three) that can improve their skills as they get xp from killing (they get revived so you don't just start over with another one if you worked hard on one particular hero).

I would have rather that they offered way bigger maps, kept the water units, and offered scripted battle sequences so that you don't have to "be there" during every fight to use your hero's powers effectively.

 

[Thanee]

I just finished the single player campaign in Warcraft III yesterday. Very fun.

For multiplayer they did include some means to limit the better mouseclicking skills with the upkeep mainly, which will hinder the mustering of a huge army. As with Starcraft, the main speed issue is in the beginning to defend against rush attacks, afterwards it's more a tactical than a speedy game, altho during fights mouseclicking speed and quick keyboard commands are still important. But that's part of the RTS nature of the game.

I'd really like to see an option to disable heroes completely in multiplayer, tho, they seem to focus a little too much on them for my tastes. You really need to go adventuring with your hero as fast as possible and slay the random monsters guarding gold mines and merchant stores to gain experience and abilities to be better prepared to face the opposing armies.

Bye
Thanee