Your Base is Under Attack: The RTS Part 2/5

Some may ask what on earth 'Z' is; for my generation, it largely slipped under the radar, swallowed up by the wake of RTS titans like Command and Conquer. So allow me to surface, if you will, and present a strategy that helped to quite literally change the face of the gaming industry as we know it. I give you number four for the top five RTS games of all time...

4) Warcraft III (Blizzard, 2002)
Before I begin, I should let you know I have not played a lot of Warcraft III, nor have I even played the previous two. I have spent a lot of time on some of the custom maps such as Element TD (Tower Defense), Burbenog TD and of course DotA (Defense of the Ancients), but I have never completed the campaign for either the first game Reign of Chaos or the second The Frozen Throne. However, I believe for the purposes of this list this is largely irrelevant; I've played enough to recognise that this game is a very significant strategy game released by the quality team at Blizzard.

 Picture: Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne covers, left and right respectively.

The original release is titled 'Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos', and in its fantasy setting it features four playable races: Humans, Orcs, Night Elves and the Undead, with each race having a unique single player campaign, tech tree and set of units. The story is one of the key factors in the success of Warcraft III; it laid the foundation for the phenomenally renowned Blizzard MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game 'World of Warcraft'. I won't go into any details, but the game is set after the events of the first two Warcraft games, where a great threat looms to the 'Alliance', principally of humans, elves and dwarves. An epic tale of heroism, treachery and unrivalled strength ensues as the races battle for domination and survival in the world of Azeroth.

Unlike Z, the gameplay mechanic essentials are fairly standard, with base building, resource gathering and technology research alongside unit production. So what is it that sets this game apart then? Well I believe aside from the polished feel, unique races, online fighting through battle.net and ultimate Blizzard style, it is the hero system that truly makes this game so extraordinary. In both single player and multiplayer, there are up to three heroes that can be built and subsequently leveled up to a maximum of 10 through accumulated experience points. It was introduced in this game, and it gives combat an extra spark that many other games do not possess. Warcraft III also introduces 'creeps' as NPC's (Non-Playable Characters), which the player can kill for gold and experience; and a day/night cycle, which serves story advancement purposes as well as many others.

It comes as little surprise, then, to hear this game had over one MILLION sales within a month. The user created content thrived, and now a mind boggling number of custom maps are available on the net (more on this later). A truly stunning game, and thus ends the post with Warcraft III deservedly at number 4. Thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for the number three RTS of all time, coming soon!