Click to enlarge

The FiringSquad has posted a hands-on preview of Blizzard's often-hyped sequel, Warcraft III. The article gives lots of good information about the game, so fans of the series will surely want to check it out. They discuss issues like a second resource (mana) being added, how the day/night will affect gameplay, and many specifcs about the game's units and heroes. Here's an excerpt:

Blizzard has confirmed the addition of a second collectable resource into the game - mana stones. Unlike gold, which is harvested from gold mines and is plentiful, mana stones can only be collected by killing NPC "creeps" on the map. There are a small, finite number of mana stones on any given map.

The primary use of these mana stones is to purchase and build new heroes. Blizzard's Rob Pardo mentioned that they might also be used to purchase high end upgrades for heroes and possibly all upgrades, but that detail has not yet been decided. Players will start with enough mana stones to build one hero. This basically forces players to go out and explore the map to find NPC characters to battle with so that more mana stones can be collected.

The addition of mana stones into the game design fits into Blizzard's plan that heroes should not be treated as merely super combat units. In early play testing, Pardo mentioned that it became a problem when testers would simply mass build a large unit like the Abomination to go out and fight. In response, Blizzard has weakened the fighting ability of low level heroes in order to encourage players to level them up. The mana stone requirement to buy heroes should also keep players from just substituting a lot of low end heroes for regular combat units. Resurrection of dead heroes will cost no mana stones, so recycling old heroes could be more cost effective than building a bunch of new ones.

After you check out the preview, be sure to read through IMG's own article our recent visit to Blizzard HQ. Warcraft III is expected out around the end of the year for the PC, with the Mac version following 'soon' afterwards.

IMG Preview of Warcraft III

Preview of Warcraft III at the FiringSquad

Blizzard Entertainment (add to watch list)

WarCraft III (add to watch list)

Buy WarCraft III

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.