Warcraft III Beta Report: The Undead Scourge

By Greg Kasavin, GameSpotPosted Feb 14, 2002 6:27 pm PT

Will the merciless undead scourge be the strongest of the four factions in Warcraft III? Learn all about them in this in-depth preview of the beta version of the game.

The Death Knight
Evil swords in hand, these arrogant undead warriors charge into battle on nightmarish steeds. The death knight is essentially an anti-paladin, and he's highly effective in close combat, thanks in part to his various spells. Death coil deals out damage to a single target and transfers its life force to the death knight; death pact instantly kills one of the death knight's own allies, transforming that creature's life force into a magical barrier, and animate dead, the death knight's ultimate spell, temporarily restores un-life to a number of the death knight's slain allies, letting them continue the fight.

It's safe to say that Warcraft III is the single most highly anticipated computer game of this year. Legions of gamers the world over have been extremely eager to get their hands on Blizzard's forthcoming real-time strategy game so they can reassume command of the armies of orcs and humans and wage fierce battles against their foes. How can you make a game live up to such stupendously high expectations? Simple--just test it with a dedicated sample audience to make sure it all works perfectly, and that they all love it, before you decide it's done.

Now that the Warcraft III beta test is going strong, with about 5,000 players logging in countless feverish hours since last week, we've noticed something surprising--it seems as though the orcs and the humans, the two factions that define the Warcraft series, actually seem to be the least popular factions. Instead, a lot of players seem to be gravitating toward the night elves, as well as the undead scourge--a new faction given rise to by the death knights of Warcraft II. Warcraft III's undead aren't just a hodgepodge of reanimated zombies and skeletons, though--they are a full-fledged army with an evil ambition.

The undead stand ready to repel an attack by their former compatriots, the orcs.

You may recall that Warcraft II's death knights fought alongside the orcs. These shadowy horsemen tenuously allied themselves with the savage orcs in order to overthrow a common enemy: the human alliance. Now the death knights are heeding a higher calling. Their master, the Lich King Ner'zhul, has managed to grow his undead armies to the point where the aid of the orcs is no longer necessary. As the undead march deep into human territory from the frozen wastelands of Ner'zhul's domain, the rest of the world is left to wonder just how far these fearless warriors are willing to go, and to what ends.

Like Frankenstein's monster, in gameplay terms the undead consist of a patchwork of concepts and ideas from Blizzard's previous games. So in spite of the unsettling appearance of its pale-skinned units, if you're a veteran of Blizzard's games, you may actually find that the undead aren't quite as alien as they may first appear. You'll find that the way they must build and expand their base and a number of their unique units and special abilities are similar to certain concepts from games like Starcraft and Diablo II.

Death and destruction come part and parcel with this powerful new faction.

Don't worry--the undead aren't just Warcraft III's answer to the zerg (although zerg players will likely feel most at home with Warcraft III's undead compared with any of the other races). After all, this race has a number of unique abilities and some original and fascinating units. Every race in Warcraft III has certain advantages over the others. The undead's advantage lies in its ability to quickly replenish its forces by reviving slain corpses or by restoring the health of its units through unorthodox means. This keeps the enemy guessing, as it can be very difficult to gauge just how large an undead army truly is. Undead units are also some of the most powerful in terms of their sheer strength--only the orcish units have comparable muscle.

So, what's the difference between a necromancer and a lich? What's that disgusting contraption called the meat wagon? And what's the deal with the infested lands that surround all undead bases? Find out next.

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1 Comments

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jakeboudville
Posted Sep 11, 2006 3:48 am PT

pretty impressive
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