Blizzard’s announcement of “Warcraft III : Reign Of Chaos” at ECTS
today might not have “changed the world” as their website has been
promising, but it certainly changed the world of Azeroth… The
game is aiming to “redefine the strategy genre”, and there are some
pretty major departures from previous Warcraft titles.
Eye Candy
The most obvious change is that Blizzard have finally discovered
3D. The entire world is made up of texture mapped polygons, as are
the units, characters and buildings within it. It’s all very
Warzone 2100, but the quality of the graphics was very
impressive – one journalist who couldn’t contain his enthusiasm
shouted out “Fuck!” as the first screenshot came up on screen. I
couldn’t have put it better myself…
The graphics are crystal clear, the units and terrain are detailed,
the skins look rich and colourful (as you’d expect from a Warcraft
game), and there’s plenty of pretty spell effects to exercise your
new graphics card.
The game also uses skeletal animation, allowing a wide range of
different animations for the various units without hogging your
memory, so it should look as good in action as it does in the still
shots.
Six Of One, Half A Dozen Of The Other
The inhabitants of Azeroth have also undergone some pretty major
changes, as the game is set after the never-released “Warcraft
Adventures”. The orcish race has “rediscovered its shamanistic
roots”, while the humans have fallen to in-fighting, blurring the
lines between good and evil that existed in the earlier games.
They’re not alone anymore, either. A race of demons called “The
Burning Legion” have landed on the planet of Azeroth, raining from
the sky in meteors like something out of War Of The Worlds. No
blurring of lines here – the demons are stereotypical bad guys,
trying to drain the magic from Azeroth and annihilate all of its
inhabitants.
In fact, although only three of the races have been unveiled so
far, Warcraft III will eventually include no less than six (count
‘em!) races, all of which should be playable in both single and
multiplayer. Strange Brew
If that’s not enough to keep you busy, you can also roll your own.
Like any self-respecting modern strategy game, it will of course
come with its own terrain editor that will allow you to create new
maps and set up new missions.
But that’s not all. Blizzard are trying to avoid using proprietary
file formats for Warcraft III, so you should be able to create new
units and buildings with your favourite modelling utility, save new
skins and textures in standard .pcx or .tga format, and the game
will even use a Java like scripting language.
This powerful scripting language will allow you to edit almost
everything short of the rendering and networking code. You will be
able to create your own units, spells, and scenarios. And taking it
further, you should even be able to design “mods” for the game with
whole new styles of play, just like you can for most first person
shooters these days.
Heroes
Blizzard are also adding more roleplaying elements to Warcraft III,
describing it as a “Role Playing Strategy” game rather than a
traditional RTS.
Armies will be led by heroes, who will gain experience as they
fight. Stick them in the thick of the action and they will gain
experience faster, or you can play safe and hold them back out of
harm’s way.
This allows you to build up the heroes over a series of missions in
the single player game, just like characters in an RPG. It’s also
possible that units will be carried over from one scenario to the
next, presumably gaining experience as they fight their way through
the campaign, though this hasn’t been decided on yet.
Other role playing elements include more questing and exploring, as
you track down magical items that your heroes can then use to
enhance their abilities. And some characters and towns will be
neutral, allowing trade with them. Bomb The Base
In fact, Blizzard are changing the entire focus of the game.
Resource management is out, and base building is much less
important as well, with more automation than in previous games and
(from what we’ve seen) much smaller bases. Instead the player will
have more time to concentrate on combat and tactics.
It’s a pretty radical move, and sure to upset some Warcraft
traditionalists, but it makes the game much more than just another
RTS clone. It will be interesting to see if Blizzard can pull it
off and create something coherent and fun that will appeal to both
RPG and RTS fans, or just produce a mishmash of ideas that manages
to upset everybody.
The bad news is that you’ll have to wait at least a year for
Warcraft III to be released. In the meantime we’ll continue to
bring you all the latest information about what promises to be one
of the biggest games of next year.
Article Source: www.eurogamer.net.
