Graphics and Sound

Why is it so slow?

Blizzard has never really been on the graphical forefront. StarCraft was released in 1998 with a 256-color palette at 640x480 resolution. This was at a time when Voodoo was gaining a stranglehold on the market and real 3D acceleration was a reality. Other titles had been using 16 bit 2D color for a while, or at the very least higher resolutions. The same applied to Diablo II, and now again WarCraft III.

Despite finally making the switch to 3D, Blizzard hasn’t set any new heights for RTS graphics. On the contrary – the simplistic cartoon models for all objects, with flat color textures and effects hardly as impressive as Morrowind or Neverwinter – these shouldn’t be as stressful on computers as they are. WarCraft III has a good deal of appeal due to this cartoon styling but we do have a hard time trying to fathom why it would tax a GF2 equipped 1GHz Athlon with 512MB of RAM.

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Bring it baby

Frankenstein's Monstar!!!1

The art style in the game also contrasts sharply with the cinematics. Diablo, StarCraft and Diablo II were undeniably dark games both in plot and graphics. For example, after playing through Terran and Zerg campaigns, many felt a sort of relief to see the lush, green world that the Protoss had. WarCraft II was also bright and colorful, but its cinematics were only about a typical fantasy battle between good and evil. WarCraft III has an unreconcilable contrast between cheery (game graphics) and gloomy (the plot and cinematics.) Considering the large role that in-game cutscenes play in the plot, it becomes even harder to imagine that the dark, shadowy beings from the cinematics are the same characters as the blocky, bright, goofy shapes from the game itself. This discrepancy makes suspension of disbelief much harder to believe – every once in a while we found ourselves wishing that the game followed the same style as the movies.

My life for Aiur

Blizzard has set the standard time and again for sound and speech. Even the most basic units have top-tier voice acting and sound effects associated with them. Of course, once again it is difficult to see a powerful, manly voice coming from a cartoon character. This isn’t a problem once in the game itself where the gamer finds himself immersed and overwhelmed, but during the many cutscenes during and between missions.

Blizzard by... Blizzard

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Take those pointy-eared freaks to school

With that uncanny Blizzard touch, sound effects have been chosen for every job. It’s one thing to make clanging noises for swords and whoosh sounds for magic, it’s another to make memorable, clear and useful notification sounds. These are vital in multiplayer and the order has most definitely been delivered.

Like past Blizzard RTS titles, if you keep clicking on a unit it will inevitably say some hilariously funny stuff. These are classic lines, some referring to events on the internet (Arnold prank calls) or in the world beyond the unhealthy glow of computer monitors.