Post by chimaera on Mar 4, 2009 12:55:21 GMT -5
Siege is truly a new-age Aeon of Strife, as its name suggests. An innovative mixture of strategy and power, this modification map created for Warcraft III is truly the best map I have seen from an amateur on any game, clearly a work from a designer with professional-level talent.
The main focus of the game is capturing and holding spawn points, which in turn spawn units to attempt to overtake the enemy city across the map and kill the enemy’s King. Nothing truly ingenious in that system in and of itself, until you learn of the questing system and weapon upgradability which makes for a sometimes harrowing and always thrilling experience. In order to give your soldiers a fighting chance, you must complete quests in order to upgrade their fighting ability, from buying weapons’ manuals to acquiring the heart of a mammoth hydra. What is truly fascinating and innovative about this particular feature is that the other team can sabotage your efforts- by simply reading the quest log, they can know what you are trying to do, and they can get there first and delay your efforts, whether by destroying the quest item or engaging and killing your own heroes.
The heroes: another part of Siege that I believe is wonderfully thought out. They are all stock models from characters in Warcraft III, but they have been given new spells with very graphically entertaining visuals, and they are all wonderfully balanced (mostly borne out from the designer’s constant tweaking and updating). Not too powerful, yet not too weak, some specialize in supporting the battle, and others prefer to get in the thick of things.
However, what really keeps me coming back to Siege is its replay value. No game plays out exactly alike-there are too many possible side quests, optional bosses to fight, and interesting ways to upgrade your weapon. Games typically last from half an hour to an hour (plenty long enough for me to bore of practically any other user-created map), but it is rare to find those who leave the game out of boredom. This is just another subtle feature that the designer has worked into the map, leaving me with no choice but to give Siege, and its creator, two big thumbs up.
Written by Matthew McGrail (Chimaera on Battle.net)
The main focus of the game is capturing and holding spawn points, which in turn spawn units to attempt to overtake the enemy city across the map and kill the enemy’s King. Nothing truly ingenious in that system in and of itself, until you learn of the questing system and weapon upgradability which makes for a sometimes harrowing and always thrilling experience. In order to give your soldiers a fighting chance, you must complete quests in order to upgrade their fighting ability, from buying weapons’ manuals to acquiring the heart of a mammoth hydra. What is truly fascinating and innovative about this particular feature is that the other team can sabotage your efforts- by simply reading the quest log, they can know what you are trying to do, and they can get there first and delay your efforts, whether by destroying the quest item or engaging and killing your own heroes.
The heroes: another part of Siege that I believe is wonderfully thought out. They are all stock models from characters in Warcraft III, but they have been given new spells with very graphically entertaining visuals, and they are all wonderfully balanced (mostly borne out from the designer’s constant tweaking and updating). Not too powerful, yet not too weak, some specialize in supporting the battle, and others prefer to get in the thick of things.
However, what really keeps me coming back to Siege is its replay value. No game plays out exactly alike-there are too many possible side quests, optional bosses to fight, and interesting ways to upgrade your weapon. Games typically last from half an hour to an hour (plenty long enough for me to bore of practically any other user-created map), but it is rare to find those who leave the game out of boredom. This is just another subtle feature that the designer has worked into the map, leaving me with no choice but to give Siege, and its creator, two big thumbs up.
Written by Matthew McGrail (Chimaera on Battle.net)
