Warcraft III

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Warcraft III is an RTS videogame that was developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, and as its title shows, it is the third game in the famous Warcraft series. It has the option of either playing the single-player campaign, or playing multiplayer locally or online.

-Objectives-

Warcraft III has some big differences when compared to the first two games, especially when it comes to the campaign's storyline. There are now four playable races (Human, Orc, Undead, and Elf), compared to only Human and Orc in the first two games, and each race has their own story. Within each level, the objective is usually to destroy the enemy's base, although numerous (sometimes optional) sub-objectives may be given as well. These can range from making specific units to destroying certain enemies. The overall objective of each race's story is generally to reach a certain point, and then survive an intense battle in order to perform an action, whether it is defeating the enemy army, acquiring a powerful weapon, or simply waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

-Conflict-

The conflict within each story is that of the battle between the player and the opposing forces. Generally, the opposing forces are also a playable race (for instance, the Humans fight the Undead for most of their story), but it may also be a computer-only one (such as the demon characters which show up in several of the stories). The conflict each race faces is as different as the races themselves are, with the Humans trying to prevent the Undead plague, the Orcs trying to make a new home for themselves, and the Elves trying to protect the world from the trouble the Undead create within their story. The conflict is usually resolved by the end of each story, but the end of the stories usually sets up the conflict that arises in the next story that is unlocked for the player.

-Resources-

Of course, one cannot talk about an RTS game without discussing resources. There are two main resources in Warcraft III: gold and wood. Gold can be obtained by sending units to mines, while wood is gained by sending units to nearby trees. Gold and wood are used to buy buildings and upgrades. Buildings can then be used to create specific units, which usually have a gold cost and a food cost. Food is another resource, and it serves as a limit on the number of units a player can have. The amount of food one has can be increased to certain point by building certain buildings, and when a unit dies the food it cost is given back to the player.

The units each player controls also count as resources in a way. Each race has their own unique resources, though they may fill general roles (a gold gatherer, a basic attacking unit, a basic ranged unit, etc.), though in each race, certain roles overlap in different ways. For example, the Undead's basic attacking unit can also collect wood, but the Undead have a weaker gold gathering unit than the other races. Some units are more powerful than all the others, but the player can only one or two of them at max. These are called "Heroes", and they are generally story-related characters. Each race plays differently due to their units, both Hero and normal, as well as other quirks- the Undead, for example, can only build on "infected" land, which expands when they build on the border of what is currently infected.

-Players-

As mentioned earlier, Warcraft III can either be played alone, or with other players. Up to 16 players can be in a multiplayer match, with the type of gameplay being decided by the map chosen. While some maps feature the normal Warcraft III gameplay (where a player loses when all their buildings and units are completely destroyed), with all the players working against each other (or working against the other teams of players, if there are any), there are many custom maps that change the gameplay entirely. Some of these maps feature free-for-all games, like basic multiplayer, but others may have players teaming up on one specific player, or even all the players working together to beat an AI-controlled enemy. The appeal of different gametypes is why many players continue to play games in the Warcraft series, as well as Blizzard's other popular RTS series, Starcraft.