Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos Preview

Here we go again. Back to the beginning, it seems.

Blizzard, it seems, can do no wrong. Sure, they take their sweet time to release a game, but when it's done (not that it's done yet -- ed), it's pure gold.

WarCraft III, at first look, is no exception to that rule. Back to Azeroth and Lordaeron we go, with the gritty, battle-hardened humans and the bloodthirsty, murderous Orcs being joined by the stealthy Night Elves and the mysterious Undead each vying for supremacy of the realm. And the realm has had a bit of a makeover.

My domain.

For the Horde!

Unless you've spent your days counting earthworms under a rock somewhere, you know that recently Blizzard has opened the doors to its beta test for WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos to an incredibly lucky 5,000 randomly selected testers. But I begged and pleaded and pledged my firstborn to the gods of Blizzard, and they took pity on me. The doors swung wide, and I was warmly greeted into a new RTS experience.

We all know that Blizzard pretty much revolutionized RTS gaming with the original WarCraft title, and as the genre evolved, Blizzard responded with WarCraft II, then StarCraft. Both of these games were classics in their own right, and showed the clear evolution of RTS gaming through the years (StarCraft was still my RTS of choice...until recently). Precariously combining diverse, yet balanced gameplay Blizzard has shown the world that they most certainly know what they're doing. And now with WarCraft III, they leave no doubt.

With the beta, there is only Battle.Net play - Single player and LAN play are disabled. They have given Battle.Net a bit of a makeover as well - the GUI is replaced with translucent windows suspended from chains that swing in and out as you make your choices. Most of the buttons are currently grayed out. Hopefully, as the beta progresses, we can access these features. The "arranged team" button allows you to join up with a group of friends and take on other teams, much like the single-player matching system. Also, there is a tournament signup button - possibly for one-day tournaments that should come about every so often. There are also a few buttons to administer your friends list, and a clan button to create and keep track of fellow clan members.

The most interesting change of note is the automatic play matching system. You simply hit this button, enter in the type of game you want to play, and Blizzard matches you with another player of similar skill seeking a game. The main benefit to this system is for the ladder. Once it is implemented, the only way to ascend the ladder is to use this random system. In this method, you don't know your opponent's name and race before you begin - you're simply thrown into the fire. That goes for teammates as well - it encourages specialization in one race, but it can lead to overloads with every team member selecting humans, or undead. But for the StarCraft faithful, you can create a game the old-fashioned way - setting and locking teams before the game starts.

WarCraft III is Blizzard's first real 3D engine - finally being able to go past 800x600 resolution is refreshing. Blizzard is one of the last developers to leave the 2D realm, but as the sands of the hourglass, times change and Blizzard goes 3D. They've done an admirable job - the game is exquisite looking. The camera doesn't rotate, but you can zoom in to see some pretty nicely detailed models, that are animated well. You can always tell the heroes - some of them can be quite large, and they give off a soft glow that is easily distinguishable.

Fountain of Health

and Tree of Life...

Along with the engine, the races have had a bit of an overhaul as well. The humans rely mostly on technology for warfare, while the orcs simply use their brute strength to bulldoze over everything in their path. Their economies behave much like WarCraft II, with peons mining gold and chopping lumber. The humans have no more elven archers; the primary ranged unit has been replaced by the Dwarven Rifleman, but most of the previous units from WarCraft II make an appearance here. The Orcs are no longer the Horde they used to be. A young Orc, known as Thrall (who was supposed to be the main character in a now-deceased WarCraft adventure game), has made it his quest to reform the disbanded Horde, with the ogres being replaced by the Tauren Minotaurs. The Wolf Riders are back from WarCraft I, complete with metal nets to ensnare opponents, making the Orcish race one to be reckoned with.

The two new races are quite interesting as well. The Night Elves are natural units, needing no food to speak of. They actually convert trees, which uproot and reposition themselves when a building is constructed. The female units are the main warriors, while the male warriors are shapeshifters - The Druids of the Talon convert to ravens, while the Druids of the Claw become bears. They have the ability to Shadowmeld, which renders Night Elf units practically invisible at night, making them an excellent race for springing ambushes.

The Undead behave somewhat like the Zerg - needing to convert the ground to the Blight (rather than the Creep) in order to gain buildable terrain. The difference here is that the Blight must be created by sacrificing Acolytes in a gory shower of purple blood, rather than the Creep simply extending from newly constructed buildings. They also take a page from the Protoss: instead of building a structure, they simply summon it into the game. Also, they mine gold differently as well. A few acolytes, instead of carrying gold out of a mine, possess the mine and create a force field around it, which must be broken before the gold stops flowing. They have no need to carry the gold back to their town. Many of their units deal with death or the dead, which can make for some interesting battles - Ghouls feed from the dead units to gain hit points, and Necromancers raise skeletons from corpses to fight for the Undead, making any battlefield a potential goldmine of new units for the Undead.

There was talk of a fifth race, the Burning Legion, when the game was originally conceived. This race has been removed as a playable race, but will factor heavily in the single-player campaign. It should be interesting.

The coolest effect from using the 3D engine is easily spellcasting. Back when WarCraft II was the big dog on the block, the Blizzard spell (ha-ha) was nice then, but now it's just so much more impressive, as large ice chunks fall from the sky, obliterating everything in its path. The Shockwave spell (from the orc's Tauren Chieftain) looks really nice too - the ground shakes as it spreads. And don't forget to check out the Undead's Plague Clouds spell, too...