fantasy

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.

Bottom line: wait until this dud gets to the bargain bin -- don't [buy it] because it is BORING!

I love StarCraft, and enjoyed WarCraft II because they emphasize GAME PLAY. WarCraft III emphasizes appearance over playability, scripted hollywood-style bombast over decision-making.

Check out the dozens of negative reviews at the end of the Amazon.comreview list -- they all describe the following shortcomings:
• cartoonish graphics
• inexcusably sluggish performance on all but the highest-end systems (check it out: one update per second on my 550 Mhz G4)
• the lack of anything meaningful to do during battles (units are a mishmash of flickering graphics, you're lucky to be able to heal a few before they croak)
• the limitation of about 25 player-controlled units (must have been a performance issue)
• the tedium of the campaign -- it's all scripted out for you
• the generic quality of the 4 "races" -- different names & appearences, identical functionality.
• the dullness of online battle; "build 'em and rush your enemy!"

To be fair, some of my disappointment may have been caused by the poor quality of the Macintosh port -- I imagine it will run with more vigor on a medium-level Windows machine (it takes almost 30 seconds to load each new level on the Mac!)

In addition, the story line (though it is linear and without any choices) is interesting. The voices are often cool and so forth.

...

I give this game 5 stars although there is one problem that makes me really upset - the game downloads, but does not run on my laptop. I get error message telling me to check that the CD is in the CD drive and try again. I think this is a problem of my laptop having a CD-rom, DVD and CD-writer combo. Since I dont have access to a PC right now I cannot play Warcraft. I wish I could, I need a rest from Everquest :oP

If anyone has a solution for this, please write to me at russian_enchantress@hotmail.com.

Buy this game you will LOVE it!