Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
| Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) |  Blizzard Entertainment  Sierra Entertainment  Capcom  Sonokong |
| Designer(s) | Rob Pardo |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS and Mac OS X (Intel and PPC) |
| Release | July 1 2003 July 1 2003 July 4 2003 February 27 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
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 the ownership of 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.
Story
Campaign
Illidan Stormrage has gained the allegiance of the Naga, former Night Elves who adapted to underwater life. The Warden Maiev Shadowsong pursues her former prisoner across the sea to Lordaeron. She asks the assistance of Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind, but Maiev holds a grudge against Tyrande for her actions in releasing Illidan, resulting in her lying about Tyrande's death to Malfurion. Malfurion and Maiev prevent Illidan from using the artifact called the Eye of Sargeras, but in the process, Maiev's treachery comes out, and the brothers Stormrage join forces to save Tyrande. Malfurion then pardons Illidan, 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.
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, with the addition of the Draenei and Naga. 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 are imprisoned by a racist Human leader, Garithos, but are eventually rescued by Lady Vashj and her Naga. Vashj then takes Kael'thas to Outland, the remnants of the Orc realm Draenor, to meet their master Illidan. After fending off Maiev and gaining the allegiance of the native Draenei, Illidan is able to conquer Outland, where he hopes he will be safe from his failure to use the Eye of Sargeras to destroy the Frozen Throne in which the Lich King was imprisoned. His master, the demon warlock Kil'jaeden, catches them nonetheless, and Illidan renews his vow to destroy the Lich King, who had betrayed Kil'jaeden.
In the lands of Lordaeron, now known as the Plaguelands, a civil war is taking 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 Dreadlords, loyal to the Burning Legion, unaware of the Legion's defeat. In the end, Sylvanas defeats the Dreadlords to become the nominal ruler of the Plaguelands, while Arthas travels to Northrend to defend the Lich King, battling the subterranean Nerubian race and Illidan's forces. After wounding Illidan in a duel, Arthas ascends to the Frozen Throne and becomes one with the Lich King. The new Lich King's further plans will be explored in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
Horde mini-campaign
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 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, old and new, 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, but the truce between the Horde and the Alliance seems forever strained by the battle.
Additions
For each race, The Frozen Throne adds several new units and buildings, 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 reviving hero. A nearby unit is needed to access the tavern.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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, the most notable being 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.
Awards and ratings
Like its predecessor, The Frozen Throne was well received among critics. It has an average rating of 90.5% on Game Rankings.[5]
- Best Expansion Pack - Gamespot
- Best Multiplayer Game - Gamespot
- Best PC Strategy Game (Readers' Choice) - GameSpot
- Game of the Month - IGN PC
- Editor's Choice (90 out of 100 rating) - Games Xtreme
- Editor's Choice (9 out of 10 rating) - Strategy Gaming Online
- PC Strategy Gamers' Choice - GameSpy
- 94 out of 100 rating - Next Level Gaming
- 94 out of 100 rating - Gamer Play Networks
- 94 out of 100 rating - Game Marshal
- 94 out of 100 rating - GameAxis
- 92 out of 100 rating - The Gamer's Temple
- 91 out of 100 rating - Action Trip
- 90 out of 100 rating - Gameguru Mania
- 88 out of 100 rating - GameSpy
- 84 out of 100 rating - PCGamer
- 10 out of 10 rating - Game Chronicles Magazine
- 9.4 out of 10 rating - GameZone
- 9.2 out of 10 rating - GameSpot
- 9 out of 10 rating - IGN PC
- 9 out of 10 rating - Gameinformer
- 8.9 out of 10 rating - Worthplaying
- 8.8 out of 10 rating - Gamer's Hell
- 5 out of 5 rating - GamePro
- A- rating - UGO
References
External links
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