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Warcraft III: The Frozen ThroneFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from The Frozen Throne)Jump to: navigation, search
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Blizzard Entertainment (North America)
Sierra Entertainment (Europe)
Capcom (Japan)
Sonokong (South Korea)
Designer(s) Rob Pardo
Version1.24.4.6387 (March 13, 2010)
Platform(s)Windows, Mac OS and Mac OS X (Intel and PPC)
Release date(s)
NA July 1, 2003KOR July 1, 2003EU July 4, 2003JP February 27, 2004
Genre(s) Real-time strategy
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: T
OFLC: G8+PEGI: 12+
Media CD (1)
Input methods
Keyboard and Mouse
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is a real-time strategy computer game developed for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Mac OS X by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the official expansion pack to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, requiring Reign of Chaos to play. Released in stores worldwide in multiple languages beginning on July 1, 2003, it includes new units for each race, a new neutral race, four campaigns, five neutral heroes (an additional neutral hero was added April 2004 and two more were added in August 2004), the ability to build a shop and various other improvements such as the ability to queue upgrades. Sea units were reintroduced; they had been present in Warcraft II but were absent in Reign of Chaos. Blizzard Entertainment has released patches for the game to fix bugs, add new features, and balance multiplayer.
The setting, arguably one of the most acclaimed of the Warcraft mythology, plays a prominent role in the Warcraft MMORPG as the backdrop for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, as well as World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
Contents
[hide] 1 Story
o 1.1 Campaign o 1.2 Bonus Campaign: The Founding of Durotar
2 Additions 3 Ladder 4 Development 5 Awards and ratings 6 References
7 External links
[edit] Story
[edit] Campaign
Illidan Stormrage has gained the allegiance of the Naga, former Night Elves who were magically mutated during The Sundering, and became strange, reptilian creatures. The Warden Maiev Shadowsong pursues her former prisoner, Illidan, across the sea, first to the Tomb of Sargeras. However, Illidan gains an artifact known as the 'Eye Of Sargeras' and wipes out some of Maiev's best soldiers. Forced to call for help, she sends a
messenger back to the mainland of Kalimdor. She asks the assistance of Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind, but Maiev holds a grudge against Tyrande for her actions in releasing Illidan. Although they are able to chase Illidan to Lordaeron, while helping the Blood Elven prince Kael'Thas, Tyrande delays the advance on an Undead army that causes her to be swept away downriver: upon their reunion, Maiev lied to Malfurion, claiming Tyrande was killed in order to prevent Illidan's escape. Malfurion and Maiev prevent Illidan from using the artifact called the Eye of Sargeras, defeat his army and condemn him to death. Illidan tries to justify his actions by saying his plan was to use the Eye to destroy the Icecrown Glacier and kill the Lich King, thereby destroying their common enemy in the Undead, but Malfurion accuses Illidan of having indirectly causing Tyrande's death. Kael'thas then informs him Tyrande may have survived; Maiev's treachery comes out, and the brothers Stormrage join forces to save Tyrande. At this point, Kael'Thas supposedly takes a few more days to meet up with the human forces in the city of Dalaran, the exact same city in which they stopped Illidan. Malfurion then pardons Illidan after they save Tyrande, though he does not revoke his exile. Illidan then states that he could not join the Night Elves even if Malfurion did permit it, because his master will be enraged by his failure to use the Eye properly, and will hunt him down. Illidan departs for Outland, followed by Maiev. It seems as though Maiev would chase Illidan to the depths of the world, as she would do so. Malfurion then remarks that she has become 'vengeance itself'.
In the next campaign, the Alliance Campaign, the Humans are not the main focus unlike in previous games. Instead of the full Alliance, only the Blood Elven units are available (after the first mission), with the addition of the Draenei and Naga (who join forces with the Blood Elves throughout the game). Prince Kael'thas is the leader of the Blood Elves, a group of High Elves that survived the invasion of Quel'Thalas by the Scourge. Originally helping the Alliance, the Blood Elves take the help of the Naga to defend Dalaran and are imprisoned by Garithos, a racist Human leader prejudiced against the Blood Elves. In the dungeons, however, they are eventually rescued by Lady Vashj and her Naga. Vashj then helps free the other Blood Elves and takes them all to Outland through the same portal Kel'Thuzad opened to summmon Archimonde in Reign of Chaos. Outland is the remnants of the Orc realm Draenor, and Lady Vashj lead Kael'thas there to meet their master Illidan. After fending off Maiev and gaining the allegiance of the native Draenei, Illidan is able to conquer Outland, storming the stronghold of the ruling Pit Lord, Magtheridon, where he hopes he will be safe from his failure to destroy the Frozen Throne. His master, the demon warlock Kil'jaeden, catches them nonetheless, and Illidan begs for forgiveness, claiming that he was merely gathering more forces to defeat the Undead Scourge. Kil'jaeden gives Illidan one last chance to destroy the Frozen Throne...or suffer his wrath.
In the lands of Lordaeron, now known as the Plaguelands, Arthas returns to take his throne. After purging the capital city of humans once more, a civil war takes place. The Undead forces splinter into three major factions: Arthas and Kel'Thuzad, loyal to the Lich King; the Forsaken, led by the Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner; and the 3 Dreadlords (Balnazzar, Detheroc, and Varimathras), loyal to the Burning Legion, seeking to avenge the Legion's defeat by controlling the Undead. Although it is speculated that
Arthas would dominate all factions, he is forced to journey to Northrend, as Illidan's use of the Eye of Sargeras, while failing to kill the Lich King, has cracked his glacial prison and caused his power and that of his followers to weaken. In the end, Sylvanas defeats the Dreadlords, enslaving Varimathras and slaying the others, to become the nominal ruler of the Plaguelands, while Arthas travels to Northrend to defend the Lich King, stealing the treasure of the ancient blue dragon bull, Sapphiron, and turning him into a vicious Frostwyrm and battling the subterranean Nerubian. Arthas has to go underground through the dreaded kingdom of Azjol-Nerub with the assistance of Anub'arak, Ancient-King of the kingdom. They fight their way through the tunnels of the kingdom and spot a massive Forgotten-One which looks like C'Thun, though slightly smaller and weaker. They flee and manage to escape the depths. They rest as Sapphiron flies overhead to ready their troops and battle the forces of Illidan, Vashj and Kael'thas. After a ferocious battle between the Undead army of Arthas, and Illidan's Blood Elf and Naga troops to siege the four obelisks, which allows access to Icecrown glacier, Arthas defeats Illidan in a duel, and ascends to the Frozen Throne. He becomes one with the Lich King by donning the armor of Nerzhul. The new Lich King's further plans will be explored in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
[edit] Bonus Campaign: The Founding of Durotar
The mini-campaign focuses mainly on two Heroes, Rexxar and Rokhan.
The Orc mini-campaign is a departure from the rest of the game. It has features more like an RPG similar to Diablo, featuring a Beastmaster named Rexxar as he helps the Orcs defend and develop their new home of Durotar from various enemies. The Orc mini-campaign was created because the game designers felt that the Orc storyline didn't fit into the main plot of The Frozen Throne. The mini-campaign allowed the designers to move away from standard real-time strategy conventions and explore new level design and gameplay concepts. This campaign was extended by two more chapters through patches of the main game.[1] It also established plot and setting details in preparation for Blizzard's MMORPG World of Warcraft. Completing the other campaigns is not a requirement to play the mini-campaign as the menu immediately allows the player to choose between the campaign missions and the mini-campaign.
In the wilds of Kalimdor, Rexxar comes across an Orc messenger who is attacked and mortally wounded, subsequently passing on his message to Rexxar before he dies. Rexxar gives the message to Thrall, the warchief of the Horde. He stays in the city of Orgrimmar with one of Thrall's Troll Captains for a while, performing a number of duties for the Horde to earn his keep. Eventually, he discovers that a force of Humans is planning an
invasion of Durotar, led by Grand Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, who has seized control of the Theramore islands from his daughter. Rexxar gathers allies for the Horde, the Tauren led by Cairne Bloodhoof the Trolls led by Rokhan, and the Ogres led by Rexxar, and leads the assault on the islands to end the threat to the Horde. The Admiral is slain, and the Orcs leave the island in peace, letting Jaina Proudmoore control the remnants of the City, so that the orcs and humans can live in peace, at least at Theramore.
There is also an extra hero, Chen Stormstout the Pandaren Brewmaster available for playing if the optional quest 'Strange Brew' is completed.
[edit] Additions
A Human base.
For each race, The Frozen Throne adds several new units and buildings, including a player-controlled shop, and one new hero per race. The entirely new race "Naga" has also been added, and can be played in several Night Elf and Blood Elf missions, as well as in custom maps if their basic unit (the Mur'gul Slave) is added via the World Editor. A smaller race, the Draenei, have also been included, though they can only be played in the Human campaign and World-Editor created maps. The old siege engines of the Humans, Orcs and Night Elves have been renamed and remodeled, receiving new upgrades in the process. The population limit has been increased from 90 to 100.
The expansion and its subsequent patches made the addition of neutral Hero units, which appear in the single player campaigns. Neutral heroes can be used in melee maps via the Tavern, a neutral building to hire them. The tavern can also instantly revive any fallen hero, with an increased resource cost, and reduced health and mana of the revived hero. A nearby unit is needed to access the tavern.
In addition, The Frozen Throne re-introduces naval battles, which were almost completely absent in Warcraft 3. Although generally only available in the campaign, naval units can be placed using the World Editor and can be purchased from certain buildings in melee maps.
The Warcraft III Map Editor program now allows the user to do more custom work with regards to editing skills and new tileset and models to work with.
[edit] Ladder
Battle.net servers host PvP Ladders for The Frozen Throne. Kalimdor (Asia), Lordaeron (USWest), Azeroth (USEast), Northrend (Europe),ThaiCyberGames (Thailand) all have influential players of their own[citation needed]. However, the varied styles of play and range of skill is heavily favored towards foreign realms such as Kalimdor and Northrend. These competitive ladders have driven the game along with yearly pro competitions. In recent years the steady decline of top players on the domestic realms has led to the few remaining top players to leave to Kalimdor, Northrend, retire altogether or move onto the Blizzard MMORPG World of Warcraft[citation needed]. The battle.net ladder includes Solo, Random Team, Arranged Team (2vs2, 3vs3, 4vs4) and Free For All, giving a wide range in which a player can determine and choose which ladder best suits them.
The current matchmaking system also prevents players with very positive records from being able to find a game in a reasonably short time. At the same time others will join and leave many games repeatedly with an automated program to be matched against players with negative records in what is referred to as "AMM abuse"[citation needed].
[edit] Development
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was originally announced on January 22, 2003.[2] On February 14, 2003, Blizzard announced the first beta test for the game, which offered 10,000 players to sample the game.[3] On March 10, 2003, 10,000 more players were selected to participate in the beta test.[4] On May 29, 2003, Blizzard announced that the expansion set had "gone gold". There have been many patches, including patch 1.21b which allowed the game to be played without the official CD. On April 4, 2008 Blizzard released a new test version of Warcraft III patch 1.22. The patch was available for testing on the "Westfall" beta server. The Westfall server was recently taken down and a message by Blizzard was given stating that a live release of patch 1.22 to all realms would be forthcoming. On July 1, 2008 patch 1.22 was released. Due to the latest patch, version 1.23, many third-party programs have been rendered unusable. Several third-party programs that reveal the entire map, commonly known as maphacks, have been released for the update. It also disabled collided maps, which would make modified custom maps appear to be the same as the original. Another effect of the patch, which is not included in the release notes, is that custom maps with large filenames will not appear in the game. The limit is believed to be 20 characters, but this has not yet been tested.[5] The 1.23 patch included no actual changes to gameplay, and the 1.24a and 1.24b patches followed suit.
[edit] Awards and ratings
Like its predecessor, The Frozen Throne was well received among critics. It has an average rating of 90.75% on Game Rankings.[6]
[edit] References
1. ̂ IGN: Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Orc Campaign Continues
2. ̂ Warcraft III expansion revealed - PC News at GameSpot3. ̂ Warcraft III expansion beta soon - PC News at GameSpot4. ̂ The Frozen Throne beta expands - PC News at GameSpot5. ̂ [1] Version 1.23 patch notes6. ̂ Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne on Game Rankings
[edit] External links
The official Frozen Throne website
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne on WoWWiki, a Warcraft wiki Official Patch
Warcraft III: Reign of ChaosFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Warcraft 3)Jump to: navigation, search
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
North American box art
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Blizzard Entertainment (North America)
Sierra Entertainment (Europe)
Capcom (Japan)
Designer(s) Rob Pardo
Version1.24.4.6387 (March 13, 2010)
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X
Release date(s)
NA July 3, 2002EU July 5, 2002JP 2003
Genre(s) Real-time strategy
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)ESRB: TOFLC: G8+
MediaCD (1), Download (Demo Version)
System requirements
Recommended:600 MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM, 32 MB 3D video card, DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card (Windows)
Input methods
Keyboard and Mouse
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (War3 or WC3 or RoC) is a real-time strategy computer game released by Blizzard Entertainment on July 3, 2002 (US). It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and it is the third game set in the Warcraft Universe. An expansion pack, The Frozen Throne, was released on July 1, 2003 (US).
Warcraft III contains four playable races:[1] Humans and Orcs, which had previously appeared in Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and the Night Elves and Undead, which are new to the Warcraft mythos.[2] Warcraft III's single-player campaign is laid out, similarly to that of StarCraft, being told through all four of the game's races in a progressive manner. Multiplayer mode allows for play against other people, via the internet, instead of playing against computer-controlled characters as is done in the single-player custom game mode. Due to the dual storylines of the previous Warcraft games, the story can only be understood if using the proper storylines of one of the campaigns in the previous games, being the Orc Campaign on Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and the Human Campaigns on both the Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal.
The game proved to be one of the most anticipated and popular computer game releases ever, with 4.5 million units shipped to retail stores and over one million units sold within a month.[3] Warcraft III won many awards including "Game of the Year" from more than six different publications.[4]
The events played out in Warcraft III eventually set the stage for Blizzard's first MMORPG, World of Warcraft, and its subsequent expansions.
Contents
[hide] 1 Gameplay
o 1.1 Campaign o 1.2 Multiplayer
2 Synopsis o 2.1 Setting o 2.2 Plot
3 Sound 4 Modding 5 Development
o 5.1 Other versions 6 Reception 7 References
8 External links
[edit] Gameplay
A game of Warcraft III takes place on a map of varying size, such as large plains and fields, with terrain features like rivers, mountains, seas, or cliffs. In Campaign mode, the map is initially covered with the Black Mask, a dark layer which obscures the landscape beneath until it is explored. The Black Mask, once gone, is permanently removed.[5] Areas that have been explored but no longer are within sight range of an allied unit or building are covered with the fog of war. Though terrain remains visible, changes such as enemy troop movements and building construction are unseen.[5] During a game, players must establish settlements to gain resources, defend against other players, and train units to explore the map and attack enemies (computer controlled foes). There are three main resources that are managed in Warcraft III: gold, lumber, and food.[6] The first two are required to construct units and buildings, while food restricts the maximum number of units the player may control at one time.[7]
The game also introduces creeps, computer controlled units that are hostile to all players.[8] Creeps guard key areas such as gold mines or neutral buildings and, when killed, provide experience points, gold, and special items to a player's hero.[8] Warcraft III also introduced a day/night cycle to the series.[9] Besides having advantages or disadvantages for certain races, at night most creeps fall asleep, making nighttime scouting safer; however, the line of sight for most units is also reduced. Other minor changes to the gameplay were due to the 3D terrain. For instance, units on a cliff have an attack bonus when attacking units at lower elevations.[2]
In previous Warcraft games, there were only two playable races, Orcs and Humans, which had more similarities than differences. Barring cosmetic changes, most Orc units were identical to their Human counterparts. In Warcraft III, the Night Elves and the Undead are added as playable races.[1] Additionally, as in StarCraft, each race has a unique set of units, structures, technologies, and base-building methodology.
In addition, Warcraft III adds powerful new units called heroes. For each enemy unit killed, a hero will gain experience points, which allow the hero to level-up to a maximum level of 10. Progressing up a level increases the heroes attributes and also allows the hero to gain new spell options (bringing RPG elements to the series).[10] Certain hero abilities can apply beneficial auras to allied units. All heroes can equip items to increase skills, defense, and other abilities. At level six, the hero can obtain an "ultimate" skill that is more powerful than the three other spells that the hero possesses. Heroes can also utilize the various natural resources found throughout the map, such as controllable non-player characters, and markets in which the hero can purchase usable items.[11] Often, the playing style of ones hero units (it is bound up to three at one time) decides who wins or loses the match/battle.
[edit] Campaign
Warcraft III's campaign mode is broken up into four campaigns, each featuring a different race which the player controls. Each campaign is itself divided into chapters, which are like missions. Unlike previous Blizzard titles, such as Warcraft II or StarCraft, players are not directed to mission briefings in which plot exposition occurs and objectives are announced; rather, Warcraft III uses a system of "seamless quests."[12] Some plot development happens in an occasional cinematic, but most occurs in-game with cutscenes. Objectives, known as quests, are revealed to the player during the progress of the map. Main quests are those that the player must complete to proceed to the next chapter, but there are also optional quests which are not initially revealed, but can be discovered and completed alongside the main objectives.
Through each race's campaign, the player retains control of one or more heroes, which slowly grow in experience as the levels progress. This experience is carried over to subsequent missions, allowing the hero to grow throughout the course of the campaign.
While different in terms of storyline and precise gameplay, all of the different races' campaigns are structured similarly. Each begins with a level involving simple mechanics to introduce the player to the race and the basic elements of their hero and units. After one or two such levels the player's first "building mission" occurs, requiring them to build and maintain a base while competing with one or more enemy forces. The only campaign that breaks this pattern is the Night Elf campaign, whose first mission involves building a limited base. The last level of each race's campaign is an "epic battle" which means that the player has to strike down a large number of enemy foes and finally destroy their main base. For that, the player has to use the knowledge he acquired during the latest quests and also has to invent some war-strategies.
[edit] Multiplayer
While campaign games can have many different objectives, the sole objective in melee games is to destroy all the opposition buildings. In default melee matches, players can pick their own heroes, and losing one will not end the game. To make the game proceed more quickly, by default the map is covered in fog of war instead of the Black Mask.[2] Warcraft III, like Blizzard's previous title StarCraft, allows for single and multiplayer replays to be recorded and viewed, allowing a game to be played at slower and faster speeds and viewed from the perspective of all players.[13] Like all previous Blizzard titles since Diablo, Warcraft III uses the Battle.net multiplayer network. Players can create free accounts in regional "gateways," which helps reduce lag; these are Azeroth (U.S. East), Lordaeron (U.S. West), Northrend (Europe), and Kalimdor (Asia).[14] Unlike previous Battle.net-enabled games, Warcraft III introduced anonymous matchmaking, automatically pairing players for games based on their skill level and game type preferences, preventing players from cheating and inflating their records artificially.[15] If players want to play with a friend in ranked matches, Warcraft III offers "Arranged Team Games", where a team joins a lobby and Battle.net will search for another team; as with anonymous matchmaking, the enemy team is not known beforehand.[15] Players can also host custom games, using maps created in the Warcraft III World Editor. The game also offers Friends Lists and Channels for chatting, where players can create custom channels or join Blizzard-approved ones.[16] Warcraft III also allows players to band together to form "clans", which can participate in tournaments or offer a recreational aspect to Warcraft III. Global scores and standings in matchmaking games are kept on a "ladder".[17] These rankings can be checked online without the need of the game.
Due to the latest patch, version 1.24, many third-party programs have been rendered unusable. Several third-party programs that reveal the entire map, commonly known as maphacks, have been released for the update. It also disabled collided maps, which would make modified custom maps appear to be the same as the original. Another effect of the patch, which is not included in the release notes, is that custom maps with large filenames will not appear in the game. The limit is believed to be 20 characters, but this has not yet been tested.[18]
This patch also rendered many custom maps unplayable due to custom map scripts. Even some versions of the famous Defense of the Ancients were no longer functioning.
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] Setting
A small Human army (red) attacking an Orcish base (blue).
Warcraft III takes place in the fictional world of Azeroth. Several years before the events of the games, a demon army known as the Burning Legion intent on Azeroth's destruction corrupted a race called the Orcs, and sent them through a portal to attack Azeroth. After many years of fighting, the Orcs were defeated by a coalition of humans, dwarves and elves known as the Alliance; the surviving combatants were herded into internment camps, where they seemed to lose their lust for battle. With no common enemy, a period of peace followed, but the Alliance began to fracture. The events of Warcraft III occur after a timeskip from Warcraft II. This period was originally intended to have been documented in Warcraft Adventures, but that game was canceled in mid-development.[19]
[edit] Plot
The game's plot is told entirely through cinematics and cutscenes, with additional information found in the Warcraft III manual. The campaign itself is divided into five sections, with the first acting as a tutorial, and the others telling the story from the point of view of the humans of Lordaeron, the Undead Scourge, the Orcs, and the Night Elves.
The game opens with the Orc leader Thrall waking from a nightmare warning him of the return of the Burning Legion.[20] After a brief encounter with a man called "the Prophet", and fearing that his dream was more of a vision than a nightmare, he leads his forces in an exodus from Lordaeron to the forgotten lands of Kalimdor.[21]
Meanwhile, the Paladin, Arthas defends the village of Strahnbrad from demon-controlled Orcs slaughtering them all.[22]. He even gets his hammer enchanted from slaying Searinox, the black drake and one of King Deathwing's finest warlords. He then joins Archmage Jaina Proudmoore, who aids him in investigating a rapidly-spreading plague which kills and turns human victims into the undead. Arthas kills the plague's originator, Kel'Thuzad, and then purges the infected city of Stratholme. Jaina parts ways with him, unwilling to commit genocide, or even watch him do so. The Prophet, after previously trying to convince other human leaders to flee west, begs Jaina to go to Kalimdor as well.[23] Arthas pursues the dreadlord Mal'Ganis, who was the leader behind Kel'Thuzad, to the icy continent of Northrend, where he helps his old friend Muradin Bronzebeard find a powerful sword called Frostmourne. Meanwhile, Arthas begins to lose his sanity, burning his ships to prevent retreat even when given an order to leave. Fortunately, Arthas and
Muradin find Frostmourne and soon Muradin learns that the sword is cursed;[24] Arthas disregards the warning and offers his soul to gain the sword. By doing so, Muradin was struck down by a shard of ice when Frostmourne is released, and is presumably killed. Arthas kills Mal'Ganis and abandons his men in the frozen north as his soul is stolen by the blade, which was later revealed to be forged by the Lich King. Some time later Arthas returns to Lordaeron and kills his father, King Terenas.
Now a Death Knight, Arthas meets with the leader of the dreadlords, Tichondrius, who assigns him a series of "tests". Arthas first exhumes the remains of Kel'Thuzad, contains it in a magic urn of the ashes of his father, which was protected by Uther. Arthas killed him too, then set off to Quel'thalas, kingdom of the high elves.He then later attacks the gates and destroys their capital of Silvermoon. He kills Sylvanas Windrunner, the Ranger General of Silvermoon (only to resurrect her as a banshee), corrupts their sacred Sunwell and revives Kel'Thuzad as a Lich. The Lich informs him of the Burning Legion; a vast demonic army who are coming to consume the world. Kel'Thuzad's true master is the Lich King, who was created to aid the Legion with his Undead Scourge, but in truth he wishes for the Legion to be destroyed. Arthas and Kel'Thuzad open a dimensional portal and summon the demon Archimonde and the Burning Legion, who begins his purging of Lordaeron with the destruction of Dalaran. Arthas and Kel'Thuzad were cast aside by Archimonde, and Kel'Thuzad reveals to Arthas the Lich King has already foreseen it and is planning to overthrow the Burning Legion.
Thrall arrives on Kalimdor, meeting Cairne Bloodhoof and the tauren, and clashes with a human expedition on the way to find an Oracle. Meanwhile, the Warsong clan are left behind in Ashenvale to build a permanent settlement, but anger the Night Elves and their demigod Cenarius by cutting down the forests for resources. To defeat them, the Warsong leader Grom Hellscream drinks from a corrupted fountain of health contaminated with the blood of the Legion's pit lord commander Mannoroth, successfully killing Cenarius, but binding his clan to the Legion's control. Thrall manages to reach the Oracle, in fact the Prophet, who tells him of Grom's doings. Following the Prophet's directions, Thrall and Jaina join forces to purge both Grom and the world of demonic influence. They succeed in capturing Grom and healing him of Mannoroth's corruption. Thrall and Grom begin to hunt Mannoroth and Grom kills him, dying in the process, but in doing so freeing the orcs from the demonic control of Mannoroth at last.
Tyrande Whisperwind, leader of the Night Elves, is outraged to find the humans and orcs violating the forests, so she initially vows to destroy them. However, she soon finds out that the Burning Legion has arrived on Kalimdor. In order to oppose the Burning Legion, Tyrande reawakens the sleeping Elf Druids, starting with her lover, Malfurion Stormrage, and frees his brother Illidan Stormrage from prison. Illidan meets Arthas, who tells him about the powerful "Skull of Gul'dan". Consuming the Skull and becoming a demon-elf hybrid, Illidan uses its power to kill Tichondrius. he is however banished from the forest by his brother as he is now part demon. Meanwhile, the Prophet summons Thrall, Jaina, Tyrande and Malfurion, and reveals that he used to be Medivh, the Last Guardian and the betrayer from Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. The humans, Orcs, and Night Elves form a reluctant alliance to spring a trap on the Burning Legion, and delayed him long enough
for many ancestral spirits to destroy Archimonde at Mount Hyjal. Peace once again comes to Kalimdor as the Burning Legion's forces wither away in defeat.[25]
[edit] Sound
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Most of the music within Warcraft III was composed by Tracy W. Bush, Derek Duke, Jason Hayes, and Glenn Stafford.[26] The Limited Edition of Reign of Chaos came with much of the orchestral music on a separate soundtrack. Each of the four playable races has different music: monastic music for the humans; ambient and Native American-sounding music for the Night Elves; warlike African-sounding music for the Orcs; and fast, haunting music for the Undead. New musical themes were added in the expansion.
One of the signatures of Blizzard games are the unit quotes. If a single unit is clicked four or more times in a row, the unit's voice samples become increasingly comical. The unit may start getting angry at the player, or make allusions and references to other games, movies, or jokes. Movies quoted include Monty Python, Blade Runner, Star Wars Episodes IV & V: A New Hope & The Empire Strikes Back, Army Of Darkness, and Toy Story. Games like Mortal Kombat, Warhammer 40,000, Blizzard's own StarCraft, and Banjo-Kazooie are paid homage, in addition to shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Twilight Zone, and Beavis and Butthead.
[edit] Modding
As did Warcraft II and StarCraft before it, Warcraft III ships with a "World Editor" program that allows players to create their own custom scenarios and maps. The World Editor has features such as unit editing and event triggers. Through Battle.net, players can download and play peers' custom maps. To facilitate modding, third-party developers released tools for spell editing through SLK spreadsheets, customizing skins with .BLP converters, JASS editing, and a file importer that opened up .MPQs. The World Editor was expanded and improved for The Frozen Throne expansion. Though the editor has received updates through game patches, it is not officially supported as a product.[27]
Some custom maps have enjoyed great success, with Defense of the Ancients (DotA) being a tournament item at Blizzcon 2005 and other tournaments around the world.[citation
needed]. Various new types of games have been created included Role Playing and Tower Defense maps.[28]
[edit] Development
This section requires expansion.
The game was announced with a press conference inside the Henley-Suite at the European Computer Trade Show 1999 around 1:00 PM. The development started in early 1998 and the development stages were presented at ECTS 1999, 2000 and 2001, E³ 2000, 2001 and 2002 and on a tour where Bill Roper visited computer game magazines.
The game was announced as role-playing-strategy game (RPS) with a flexible camera movement. The first version shown at ECTS 1999 had no interface, except portraits for the heroes. In articles from that time you can find that abilities and items were used via right-click on a unit and a appearing icon collar.
Around January 24, 2000 a video from Korea appeared on the Internet; it shows some gameplay and in the background Rob Pardo explains some things. This version already had an interface concept, but the most part of the interface were placeholders, it had map with some kind of 3D look, icons for abilities and orders and an eye-shaped display for gold.
Around April 19. 2000 Blizzard released some new screenshots of the game, these were completely without interface. These screenshots showed many heroes and some abilities and had a fixed but zoomable camera.
The next screenshots came around May 10. 2000. These screenshots showed the new interface of the game. It looks a little bit like the human interface of the release version, but has little cannons above the minimap and the command button space. The gold display is still eye-shaped, but the last screenshot before E³ 2000 shows a rectangle-shaped gold display. Most models, icons, textures and abilities that you can find on these screenshots never appeared in the retail version.
Then from E³ 2000 around May 12, 2000 to ECTS 2000 the game didn't change very much. The next big changes came between ECTS 2000 and E³ 2001, when a different interface and the Nightelf race were revealed.
The next interesting change came at ECTS 2001, when the interface became almost what it is today. The biggest changes of this version are, that lumber became a resource and heroes got an inventory, though in a video from April 2001, you could already see an item on the ground.
After ECTS 2001 Blizzard experimented with different resources and had version of the game with gold, lumber, mana stones and upkeep or a race depending resource that represented the population, like the needed food in newer versions.
In the middle of January 2002, Blizzard shipped out 5000 beta versions of Warcraft III to randomly selected testers in order to help improve it before being released in stores, the beta release had all the game’s units and races, however was only playable over Battle.net. Single player games and LAN play were not playable on the beta version of the game.[29].
[edit] Other versions
The Battle Chest box and contents
In addition to the regular game, there also exists a limited Collector's Edition Warcraft III bundle. The collector's edition box contained a Warcraft III cinematic DVD, including behind-the-scenes features and the cinematics of all prior Warcraft games; a Collector's Edition Soundtrack; a Collector's Edition instruction manual; The Art of Warcraft book; and lithographic prints.
Blizzard Entertainment also released the Warcraft III Battle Chest, which contains Reign of Chaos bundled with The Frozen Throne in one box, along with guides from BradyGames.
Another version, the Exclusive Gift Set, came bundled with the cinematic DVD, official BradyGames strategy guide, and Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition.
Warcraft III is also available in the Best Sellers Series along side StarCraft, StarCraft: Brood War, Diablo, Diablo 2, and World of Warcraft. Also, a selection of games from other companies other than Blizzard have been included in the Best Sellers Series.
[edit] Reception
Publication Score NotesIGN 9.3/10[30] "Outstanding"GamePro 4.6/5[31] Editor's ChoiceGameSpot 9.3/10[32] Editor's ChoiceGame Rankings 93.1% (average of 58 reviews)[33] [None]PC Gamer 94% Editor's Choice
Reception of Warcraft III was extremely positive; the game averages a 93.09% at GameRankings.com,[33] and "Universal Acclaim" at MetaCritic, based on dozens of reviews.[34] While GamePro noted that "WarCraft III doesn’t revolutionize the RTS genre", they still praised Blizzard for delivering a title with "a well-executed story, drum-tight game-play and a long shelf life as a multi-player title."[31] GameSpot noted that as with StarCraft, the ability to experience the action from all sides "is of great appeal." The
reviewer also noted that Warcraft III made the early stages of the game more interesting and less formulaic; in most RTS games, he noted, "the initial build-up period in such games is merely a race to get to the best units first."[32] Most reviewers noted that Blizzard had finally fleshed out the storyline of the first two Warcraft titles, finally giving each side its own motivations and differences beyond cosmetics.[35] IGN noted that "There's not a ton that's new to RTS buffs out there, but it's done well enough that you either won't notice or won't care."[30]
However, criticism included the inability of the player to change the fate of Arthas' "turn to the dark side." Instead, Gamecritics.com noted, the player "has to sit by as Arthas slides into insanity."[35] Other reviewers noted that the character models were of mediocre quality, especially when viewed up close during in-game cinematics.[32]
