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Man, this is addictive

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 19
Date: June 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

So I just saw this on the shelf and picked it up. I never played any of the previous versions so I can't compare, but I can give you the opinion of an ignorant gamer getting his feet wet.

First this game is deep and I love that. The more creative and open-ended the better for me, and this game meets those requirements. It is a real-time strategy game but you also have a hero that goes from scenario to scenario. He/She gains levels and you customize every aspect of their creation and growth. There are something like 16 races and 20 something classes. I have a dark elf pyromancer, which is pretty fun. There are so many combinations, not to mention a random map generator, a map editor and multiplayer possibilities. Talk about replay value!! Yee Haw!

The graphics are not on par with the hottest games on the market, but they are more than fine and don't bother me a bit. Did I mention you can even have a retinue of units that follow you from scenario to scenario. And they gain levels and get stronger. I got this vampire following me around kicking everyone's butt.

There's more to this game that I havn't even touched on (tons of spells, items, units, monster lairs). Whew.....okay..

The campaign is pretty fun too. So you will have great amounts of fun whether you're single player or multi. Have fun!!

Good, but could have been better

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: June 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game really isn't as bad as a few news sources have claimed. That said, those sources (including the illustrious and respectable PC Gamer) do have their points. Let's go over the basic pros and cons of this game.

Pros:
- Incredible depth in terms of races (16!) and units, probably unsurpassed by any other current RTS out there
- Over 130 spells
- A unique RPG/RTS approach that others are starting to copycat
- A vast and addictive campaign
- Tons of cool new magical items for creating a personalized character
- A more involving storyline than WBII which (basically) offered a simple mandate to conquer the world. This one has a more developed and interesting story
- A refined interface, superior in every respect to the C&C series.
- Tons of strategic options, like the ability to set unit groups to have certain "attitudes" (i.e. cowardly, aggressive, rampant, fallback [units return to base when 25% HP], stand ground, magic defensive, etc), the ability to setup and monitor patrol routes, etc.
- A convenient resource system that isn't as anal retentive as Age of Empires but still complex enough to allow for strategic intricacy. You??ll have to weight your options between converting and razing buildings.
- A ruthlessly efficient AI in resource management and parallel production
- Extremely high replay value

Cons:
- An improved graphics system (over WBII), but one that still pales in comparison to most RTS's on the market.
- Very bad pathfinding issues, occasionally units will go in the exact opposite direction you ordered- not a good thing, obviously.
- Music, though appropriate, is a bit repetitive
- Sometimes units in a group will wander off for no reason and it can become tiresome to "herd" them back in.
- There are some bad balancing problems in this game. The Undead and Dwarves have severely undercosted units and two of the new races- the Plaguelords and the Scorpionmen or whatever, are a bit too weak at the beginning of the game. Several abilities have become abused (i.e. the "Energy" ability replenishes mana way too quickly.)
- the AI, although *economically* efficient as was aforementioned, is not very bright, at least as far as the main Campaign goes. For instance, on one of the early Pirate Treasure Island quests, there's this ridiculous hero who will come to your base, endure a ton of heavy artillery, run away to heal, *do the exact same thing* a few minutes later, like an idiot until you eventually nail him.

(To be fair though, the Skirmish mode AI is unusually strong however, and quite a challenge. Personally I just play the Campaign to get the cool items and play the Skirmish mode to get a real nice war. There is a range of difficulties, from ??Emperor?? to ??Squire.??)

Overall: Good, but could have been better. As a side note, many of the above problems and more have been fixed by a recent patch. GET IT NOW. (It??s at the official website by Enlight. I??m not allowed to post the link here due to posting guidelines.) Without patch, 4 stars; with patch, maybe 5 stars. I'll give it 4 stars though because they should have polished the game *before* selling it.

warlords shines again

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: May 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Where other games always claim to have strategic depth, Warlords Battlecry is one of the few series that truly shines. Warlords consist of having a hero leading an army to victory.

The hero, in rpg fashion, benefits from being a thief or a paladin differently. Of course, one could instead choose to be lichelord, a daemon slayer, or a merchant. There are a great number of classes, each benefitting the army or the hero's abilities in varied ways. Your hero can be one of 16 "races"--ranging from daemon, to insectoid, to knightly order, to greedy imperial, and so on. Shops exist to boost your hero's stats through items, which can also be earned through quests or by killing enemy heroes. There are several spell schools, trumped by the great Arcane sphere, which modifies other spells from other schools.

Conceivably, one could have a small game based on the heroes alone. From that point, however, one must select one of the 16 races as your army. These parallel the hero species, and include:
Undead, Fey (Fairies & Unicorns), Demons, Knights, Imperials, Barbarians, Insectoids (Swarm), Plaguelords, Minotaurs, Wood Elves, Dark Elves, High Elves, Dwarves, Dark Dwarves, Reptiles (with Dinos!), and Orcs.

While some of these sides share units, the majority of units for each side are unique, culminating with the Titan--the "god" of your race. The number of possible hero/race combinations becomes astronomical, guaranteeing you'll get your money's worth.

Adding to the battles is the ability to select the AI stance of each unit. This avoids the problems with setting all units to defence or offence. In fact, there is a large range of behaviors involved, from retreating when low in health to wandering and attacking everything in sight.

Finally, the icing on the cake is a campaign that has a story but allows for much free will. There are sections of the map you don't have to explore, but these mini campaigns will give your hero a chance to grow in power.

The only complaint one could make are the graphics, which are a combination of 2d sprites on 3d terrain. Personally, RTS graphics won't make the game last longer, so I didn't care. The graphics aren't bad mind you, I liked the claymation style of the units. The whole thing is both a funny cartoon (thanks to the unit voices) and deathly serious story of demons invading the world. The folks at infinite interactive made it work though.

Warlords Battlecry III

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The thing that sucks about RTS is that you fight your battles, and you're done. The Warlords series allows you to take your hero along a path and build him up. He gains spells, skills and items as he works his way through the ranks killing everything before him. An awesome number of races and classes makes for a new experience every time you start a hero. And with troops you can take with you from battle to battle and watch their experience grow.

Lower your expectations

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: June 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Battlecry 3 is another example of how the Warlords series cannot seem to evolve.

I want to enjoy this game, really. Just as I wanted to enjoy Warlords 4 (turn-based), but in both cases the series seems to have suffered from either a low-budget approach or a lack of innovation. Summarized, Battlecry 3 is Battlecry 2.

Graphics:
Almost precisely the same as in Battlecry 2. A 2-D isometric approach with a typically fantasy theme. But as you might expect with an expansion, they "improved" the graphics by making them murkier and hazier and even found a way in which to make it more difficult to distinguish your troops from the scenery.

Gameplay:
Gather, build, fight, rinse, repeat, get poisoned, repeat, uh-oh your hero is about to perish, what's the button I press to get to him?, oops too late. New races bring limited twists to the theme. The Hero concept is improved, though, and now gives you the ability to level up during a fight and combine classes.

Campaign:
The campaign is claimed to be non-linear and dynamic. It's a stretch. There's a critical path of scenarios you must complete and then a number of side scenarios. You can do them in a few different orders, but the scenarios you see today will be the same you see tomorrow. It's no fun when you travel back and forth from two points on the map and always (always!) get ambushed by the same group of enemies in the same spot on the same skirmish map. Credit goes for a good random map generator for skirmish battles outside of the campaign.

Sound:
Music is wonderful, as always, though the same old unit, spell, and battle sound bites have been recycled from way back to Battlecry 1.

AI:
Enemy AI is not bad, as is usually expected with a Warlords product. Pathfinding, though, is worse than Battlecry 2. Significantly worse.

Multiplayer:
Haven't tried. It's been improved nominally from the previous version, my understanding.

Longevity:
If you are a hard-core fan, it will stick with you for a while, at least until you've tweaked your hero enough to go online and the fun of that ebbs. If you're into the single player game, you'll have to work on not getting distracted by the TV while you are playing.

Overall:
There's few important innovations here. You're not going to call a friend to show him or her this game and insist on a purchase. Considering this could be the third time you've paid for the same artwork, sound effects, and general gameplay, you'll need to be a die-hard fan not to turn away when you see a shiny coin lying on the floor next to you.

the best game ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: August 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I havent played the propre game yet, but when my brother downloaded the demo it was the best! even though we could only be the dwarves and the swarm, it was still the best game ever. i had to give this game 5 stars any1 else who's played this game would probaly say the same. so what if the graphics r a bit dodgey its not them u looking at its the the gameplay who looking at.I've got 2 words to explanethis game it rocks!

Great Game!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: April 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I love this game! The other positive reviews are very much spot on. The only thing that comes to mind that would've been nice would be a easy campaign creator/player instead of having to do it as a hack. And the battles just on their own can get old (thus the overall rating of 4 stars) and you're otherwise left with the same 'ole campaign.

Revised review - now gets a thumbs down

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: July 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

After playing the game for quite a while and building a powerful hero, I have noticed a headache-generating problem. When I play scenarios that I have created, the game sometimes generates a crash. The problem is that it always happens when the game had advanced and there is no way around it. In earlier warlords games I have been able to stop a build or something like that and the game progressed. Not here. Furthermore, given the limited save game options, there is no backup to an earier point in that scenario. Tonight was the last straw. I had pain-stakingly assembled a powerful army of Titans as my towers and defenses slugged it out on the front-line. Hours and hours of building sufficient structures to make the men to man the towers, watching the towers to ensure I didn't lose any before I could repair them, allocating resources to have enough to build my Titans ... I could hear "Flight of the Valkyries" playing in my head. Give them their first orders and ... ... ... blink. My verbal response: "What the ****ing **** is this. This **** absolutely ****s." My physiological response: Increased blood pressure and a killer headache. My behavioral response: Uninstall the game and shelve it, pull out Battlecry 1 and play once more. No miocardial infarctions for me today, please.

I will not play this one again. The frustration is just too great for a recreational activity. Too bad, though. As my old review states, the game had potential to be cool.

By the way - I was going to give it 1 star to reflect my current rage. However, the game has good features.
_____

Old review:
I have been a fan of the Warlords series since they were first introduced. I love turn-based games like the original x-com, master of magic, warlords, etc. and these games created a bias for me. I tried the first Battlecry only because I was bored. However, I quickly becamed hooked.

Each installment gets better, but continues to be essentially the same game. By Battlecry III, the game has become rich and beautiful, but heart-pounding and challenging. We get new races, units, building and worlds. While it can become a bit overwhelming, even for the experienced gamer, it can be learned.

The depth creates interest that does not lag for quite a while. Once in a while, I still find myself saying, "What the @#$% is that!" or "Oh, oh. I'm in trouble." There is so much depth that you can be caught off-guard.

The AI is pretty good, especially on 'Emperor" level. It seems to know pretty well where to strike to weaken a defense. I might be off on some tactical action in one part of the map, not paying attention, when all heck breaks loose somewhere else.

In older versions of the game, once I started attacking on one area, many units would just head there. The upper level of AI in BCIII seems to know better.

The music is great, but gets a little old and can be easily shut off. I was also impressed by the very realistic weather effects. Thunderstorms are amazing. They sound and look wonderful.

Finally, I love all the new dragons.

So and in summary: This is a great game with engrossing graphics / sound, tremendous variety of enemies, and challenging gameplay. Anybody who love either turn-based or RTS games will probably love the game. Plus, now it can be had easily for under $10.

A good Upgrade

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

While there are those that may call it more of an expansion pack for Warlords: Battlecry II, I will maintain that there is nothing wrong with that.

The upgrades are all improvements on WB-2 and the control over your charcter growth is far better(you can even change the avatar for humanoid races to something you like). You can be a typically weak charcter(like a mage) but increase your stats to be a capable fighter as well. There are 3 new races that have interesting units and the humans have split into 2(the Empire and the Knights). The Empire is a great race for the merchant class as you can hire mercenaries from other races for reduced costs providing you with great versatility.

The campaign mode also has a Diplomacy feature where you can gain allies by helping races defending their lands. While the AI's in the campaign mode no longer invade each other and gain territories the way they did before I have found this to reduce the urgency of the last game.

The items are generally better as well.

Altogether it is definately better and more well thought out than the previous version.

I enjoyed it quite well actually.

The worst RTS game ever made in history!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 23
Date: March 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is complete garbage. All the grachics they use in this game are recycled from the last game. Not even the old 8-bit Sega Genesis games would dare use the exact same graphics as the last game. And they did this 3 times. Some of the units in this game were used in the first game which was released almost 4 years ago!!! I have more money on my Ebgames Card than the budget they had to make this game; and it shows! Graphics that are below Playstation 1; poor sound; stupid gameplay; worthless new races. The biggest thing though is that all the concept ideas for this game were stolen from the Warhammer games. Go to www.gamesworkshop.com and you'll see what I mean. But the Brits thought this game sucked so bad they didn't even waste time sueing this guys.

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