| 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 |
| Series | Warcraft |
| Version | 1.26.0.6401 (March 24, 2011) |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X (Intel and PowerPC) |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T OFLC: G8+ PEGI: 12+ |
| Media/distribution | CD (1), Digital Download |
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,[1] requiring Reign of Chaos to play. Released in stores worldwide in multiple languages beginning on July 1, 2003,[2] 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),[3] 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.
Contents |
As in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, the single-player campaign of the Frozen Throne follows each of the main races in sequence. In this game, that is Night Elves (Maiev Shadowsong tracks the escaped Illidan Stormrage), Human (or Blood Elves, following the struggles of the last High Elves in Lordaeron after it was destroyed by the Scourge and the Burning Legion), and Undead (following Arthas' return from Kalimdor to Lordaeron, and his subsequent journey to find the Lich King of the Scourge). The Orc campaign is separate from the other three being a stand-alone story and using more role playing game mechanics over real time strategy game mechanics. The campaign chronicles the early days of the Orc Horde's establishment in Kalimdor.
In the first campaign of the game, Illidan's former warden, Maiev Shadowsong, hunts for Illidan and finds the serpent-like Naga who vow to "retake the surface world" from the Night Elves. Maiev later follows Illidan to a recently erected islands and to a vault located within. It is revealed that Illidan Stormrage has gained the allegiance of the Naga, mutated former night elves by The Sundering, and obtained an artifact called the Eye of Sargeras from his tomb (in chapter 3 of the campaign), which grants him extraordinary power. Maiev Shadowsong, calls for the aid of Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind to capture Illidan. Partway through the pursuit, Tyrande is swept away by a river while helping a group of blood elves to retaliate against the undead. Maiev convinces Malfurion that she died at the hands of the undead. When they finally capture Illidan, he explains that he planned to use the Eye to destroy the Lich King, ruler of the undead... much to Maiev's dismay. At this point Illidan's Naga Scouts discovers that Tyrande may still be alive. She was surrounded by water and undead settlements. Only Illidan and his naga can reach her (By water). The brothers Stormrage work together in order to rescue her. Malfurion then pardons Illidan for his actions done with the Eye, but reminds him that he is still exiled. Illidan then flees to Outland (only know after the cutscene where blood elves met Illidan at Outland where he speaks of how he came to be).
The second campaign follows the blood elves, the last of the High Elves, led by their prince Kael'thas. They are given the job to fix watchtowers and defend them by a human leader named Garithos, who despises non-humans. He later discovers that Kael'thas was helped by the Naga and imprisons the blood elves for this. They are rescued by Lady Vashj, leader of the Naga, who leads them all to Outland. Once there they join forces with Illidan and conquer Outland, with promises of claiming magical energy to satisfy the Blood Elves' addiction to the arcane.[4] Once Outland is conquered, Illidan's master - the warlock Kil'jaeden the Deceiver - finds Illidan and prepares to punish him for his failure to destroy the Lich King. However, Illidan convinces Kil'jaeden to give him one more chance, claiming that he was gathering more forces to assault the Lich King's Frozen Throne. The Deceiver lets Illidan's failure go, but warns him to kill Ner'zhul or face his 'eternal wrath.'
The third campaign follows the undead, who have split into three factions. One is led by Arthas and is loyal to the Lich King and accompanied by the necromancers of the Lich, Kel'thuzad. (Largely controlled by the player in the game); another is led by the banshee Sylvanas Windrunner (who has a chapter controlled by the player in the game); and the third is led by three dreadlords and are loyal to the Burning Legion. The brothers are complaining that they haven't heard from Archimonde the Defiler, who was killed just about a week ago. Sylvanas asks Kel'Thuzad what happened to the Legion. The Summoner states that the Burning Legion took off after Archimeonde was slain. The conversation is interrupted when Arthas [mounted on his prized horse Invincible] bursts through the gates and thanks the brothers for looking after Lordaeron while he was gone. One of the brothers, Balnazar, says the Scourge is owned by the Legion. Arthas cleverly states that Archimonde's death was announced. The brothers retreat. After emptying the kingdom of the remnants of the Alliance, Arthas prepares to travel to Northrend for an expedition there, but the 3 brothers trap him inside the castle, much to Kel'Thuzad's shock. Kel'Thuzad has no choice but to turn around and run away. Arthas manages to escape and is taken to a spot for rest by some banshees. Arthas is shot in the leg by Sylvanas for turning her and her people into banshees. Fortunately, Kel'Thuzad appears from the shadows and drive Sylvanas away. The poison wears off, and Arthas leaves for Northrend. When he and his forces get there, Arthas learns that he needs to defend the Lich King from Illidan, the Naga, and the Blood Elves' combined assault after having painful attacks and visions of the Lich King commanding him to the Frozen Throne. First they are given help by Anub'arak, the Ancient King of Azjol-Nerub. He knows the kingdom will be a shortcut to Icecrown Citadel. As they travel, they recruit the ancient blue wyrm, Sapphiron of the Blue Dragonflight (servant of Malygos the Spell-Weaver), into the undead Scourge. They then use the giant wyrm to smash other enemy forces that might counterattack.
Meanwhile, back in the subcontinent of Lordaeron, Sylvanas is lamenting over her being an undead, although she and her forces are permanently freed of Ner'zhul's grasp. Later, a demonic portal appears. Emerging through it is one of the Nathrezim, Varimathras. He offers Sylvanas to join the Burning Legion and rule the subcontinent and the Kingdom of Lordaeron. She refuses, much to Varimathras' displeasure. However, Sylvanas and her forces attack and corner him. He begs for mercy and joins Sylvanas's force, now known as The Forsaken. They then approach a stronghold held in the grasp of Detheroc, the oldest of the 3 brothers. They brainwash what's left of Garithos' forces, besiege the stronghold and free Garithos by killing Detheroc. Although Garithos knows Sylvanas might be one of the Scourge, she reassures him that she is free. Varimathras and Garithos argue over something out of subject until Sylvanas calms them. They then besiege the kingdom and corner Balnazaar. Sylvanas orders Varimathras to slaughter him. He at first refuses, but is forced to attack. Garithos, driven by racism, orders them to leave, but Varimathras cuts his neck, causing him to bleed to death. Lordaeron is now the home of the Forsaken, who then join the Horde after learning Thrall's shamistic powers.
Arthas, Anub'arak and the undead forces are at the right place: Azjol-Nerub. However, a small group of dwarves have the front gates shut. Arthas orders Sapphiron to attack. He flies in and spits a bolt of frost at the gates, which fall to pieces. Arthas wishes to take Sapphiron with them, but can't because the confines of the dark earth isn't a place for Sapphiron, who flies to the other side. They then meet with Bealgun, who tells Arthas and his forces of the horrors that dwell deep within the kingdom, that they be careful. Anub'arak realizes Bealgun's stories are true. They then encounter a gigantic Forgotten One and rip it to pieces... but more Faceless ones show up and chase them off. Arthas senses the ceiling is about to cave in and darts to the other side just in time... Anub'arak simply smashes through the boulders with his massive bulk. They eventually find the exit and get some rest before going on.
After a fierce battle between Arthas' undead forces and Illidan's, Illidan appears to be slain and Arthas is able to reach the Lich King's Frozen Throne. Once there, Arthas shatters the ice-prison that held the Lich Kings remains, releasing him. Arthas dons the Lich King's helmet, joining their souls into one ultra-powerful being: Arthas, the new Lich King.
The separate RPG-style campaign follows the Horde defending their land and building up a new kingdom called Durotar by Thrall in the name of his father Durotan. The main characters of the campaign are Rexxar, the beastmaster/adventurer - he admires the orc art of war - the private shadow hunter Rokhan, and later Cairne Bloodhoof, the tauren Chieftain. After defending Durotar from a series of lesser threats, Rexxar learns that a force of humans from the island of Theramore, led by Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, plans to invade Durotar. Admiral Proudmoore is unwilling or unable to accept a truce between the Horde and the Alliance despite their combined armies having defended the World Tree in Reign of Chaos. The orcs invade Theramore (aided by a guilty Jaina Proudmoore) and slay the Admiral, replacing him with his daughter, Jaina.
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 worker 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 weapon and armor type system has been completely revamped and a lot of units have been given new weapon or armor types. Because of this, battles and strategies are different than the ones in The Reign of Chaos.
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 used 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.
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 non-US realms such as Kalimdor and Northrend. These competitive ladders have driven the game along with yearly pro competitions. 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".
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne also includes an additional feature which includes a plethora of custom, user-created games from which the players can play cooperatively online. These custom games are all designed to be multi-player, and is one of the most popular features of the game. After clicking on the Custom Games button located on the Home Page, users are brought to a screen which has a list of games currently being hosted and a picture and short description that provides more details about the game such as the number of suggested players, the map size, and the creators of the game. Many custom games are hosted by automated bots that continually host the same games over and over. The game that these bots host are commonly the most popular games that users are always seeking to play, and the list includes well-known games such as Defense of the ancients, Footmen Frenzy, Trolls and Elves, and many different variations of tower defense games, which are extremely popular. In addition, users also have the option of hosting custom normal games, which are often called Observer games. In these types of games, the experienced players will play a normal game while many other users will simply observe and watch these more experienced players play. Many more amateur and novice players utilize these observer games to watch what the experienced players do and learn from their different tactical strategies.
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was originally announced on January 22, 2003.[5] On February 14, 2003, Blizzard announced the first beta test for the game, which offered 10,000 players to sample the game.[6] On March 10, 2003, 10,000 more players were selected to participate in the beta test.[7] 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.[8] The 1.23 patch included no actual changes to gameplay, and the 1.24a to 1.24e patches followed suit.
Since Rosetta support has been removed in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, the game is supported but not the installer nor the updater.
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