To the Bitter End

[Soul Reaver]

This campaign is very hard.

-I'm on chapter 8 and only kill two Void Children Bosses.

-And from what I heard, then I have to deal with two Void Children Bosses at the same time and are now more powerful than before.

-what is the best strategy to beat them?

Hi camilopezo,

Hopefully I can give you some pointers to help you defeat the Void Children in Chapter VIII.

First, you need to understand why they are so powerful: while you are fighting the Void Children, the boss will be channeling an ability that makes them regenerate extremely fast. As a result of this, you can't out-last the Void Children - they'll quickly recover unless you kill them fast.

You have two options:

A) Fight the Void Children while they're regenerating - just do enough damage fast enough that they die
B) Find and stun the boss. This will stop the Void Children from regenerating, but will mean the boss will come after you too (personally, I don't recommend this).

Here are some strategies for beating them while they regen:

1) The last pair of Void Children arrive around the time you drop the boss' HP to 25%. It'll be easy to tell this has happened because the music will change, and you'll hear their hisses. At this point, get ready.

2) Try to force the Void Children to waste their channeled Ultimates. Each of them has one, and they are both very powerful but have a long cooldown - if they waste them, you you'll be able to avoid the worst of the damage they could have done to you. The red Void Child uses Storm of Hate, which causes big fireballs to come rolling along the ground toward you, while the blue one uses Soul Rending, which regularly hits every target in a huge area with a powerful green blast every 1.5 seconds.

One way to make them waste the Ultimate is to stun them just as they start casting them, so have stun-inducing abilities ready. Another way is to summon some creatures (Abyssal Mass, Skeletal Minions, or Daemons) and send them as a separate group to attack the Void Children far away from your heroes - if you're lucky (and particularly if you send a large enough group), they'll respond with one or more of their Ultimates (which will kill your Summons, but if you're far enough away, will leave you unharmed)

3) Fight near some Mana Splinters. You will almost certainly need to use at least one, and you can't afford to let up your attacks to get one that's far away.

4) Try to save up some of your Ultimates for this fight. Face of the Heavens, especially, will make this fight a lot easier.

5) Stun them! AoE stun abilities are super-useful, especially if you catch both Void Children in them. Just as the stun wears off from one ability, use another. Darkbolt Barrage and Mass Fireballs are the best due to their long durations and decent cooldown. If you have them available, Nature's Wrath, Sphere of Annihilation, and Catacylsm all do a great job (though aim carefully!). Arrow Storm works, even if briefly, and the Divinity Arrow item is great though you'll probably only get one use out of it.

The Black Steel Gauntlets item is slow to trigger so may not be the best choice - especially since you'll probably want Soul Reaver's damage - and similarly Kitharsis' Sandstorm isn't reliable enough and you'll probably need him adding his muscle to the fight too.

6) Focus on killing one of the Void Children. While keeping BOTH of them stunned is a good idea, focus standard attacks, high-damage abilities and debuffs on just one of them to kill it as quickly as possible. Which one you go for first is up to you - I usually prefer taking the blue one out first - but make sure you keep your focus on whichever one you choose. Good abilities for quick kills include Lightning Storm, Dark Lash, Mass Fireballs, Piercing Shot, Psychic Blast, Blood Plague, as well as the Rage Axes, Underslung Heavy Flamer and Kurusunami. Nukes like Sphere of Annihilation and Celerity are great too (and have such a large AoE and stun that you should try to hit both Void Children with it). Avoid using Blooddrinker or Celerity unless there are no other enemies around, as they tend to make you dash around and attack targets other than the intended one.

7) Use the Anti-Magic Amulet! The blue Void Child can cast Sorcerous Seal, which prevents you from attacking or casting spells. This is a big problem normally, but is an even bigger problem when both Void Children are regenerating so fast. Soul Reaver's Anti-Magic amulet can dispel the effects and get you back into the fight. Be aware that it also dispels the regenerating effects of a Mana Splinter however, so be careful.

 

[DarknessRain]

The opening cinematic was probably the best I've ever seen. Seems like it would have taken ages to make.

I find myself having to save after every single encounter, because any one could be the one that kills me, this makes things pretty frustrating and tedious. I'm only on the second level, and the difficulty, in my opinion, is not the game play itself, it's deciding whether to take 30 seconds and tent up before the next fight or not. That's it, just a simple choice. I'm only this far in, and I'm already asking myself "is it worth it to keep going like this? Am I having fun?" Everything is so stylized and well made, but I don't think it's really my cup of tea.

 

[Soul Reaver]

The opening cinematic was probably the best I've ever seen. Seems like it would have taken ages to make.

I find myself having to save after every single encounter, because any one could be the one that kills me, this makes things pretty frustrating and tedious. I'm only on the second level, and the difficulty, in my opinion, is not the game play itself, it's deciding whether to take 30 seconds and tent up before the next fight or not. That's it, just a simple choice. I'm only this far in, and I'm already asking myself "is it worth it to keep going like this? Am I having fun?" Everything is so stylized and well made, but I don't think it's really my cup of tea.

Yeah, I'm afraid the high difficulty level isn't for everyone - and in truth, Chapter II is comparatively easy. It's not until Chapter IV that it really gets hard. I personally have a preference for really difficult games, because I find them a lot more rewarding when I do win, but obviously not everyone shares that preference.

You can reduce the difficulty a bit by opening the chat window (Enter) and typing in "easy". That will adjust the HP values of all your enemies in the current Chapter. It'll still be hard, but a bit less so.

Typically, you should use a tent whenever you feel your HP and/or MP is lower than you feel comfortable with - in my case, I'd use it if I'm under 75% HP or less than 50% MP after an encounter in Chapter II. Chapter II has a very generous time limit, and unless you REALLY waste time (ie, waiting for your Ultimates to cool down after every use) you're unlikely to run out. Early chapters are slower paced, but things will get more hectic later.

Regarding the comment about being able to get through fights just as long as you know when to use the tent, I tend to disagree. In early stages of the game, simply resting before every fight might get you through it (though the timers are often in place to discourage this), but you'll find that as your abilities grow more powerful and numerous (and your enemies do too), your battles will get more complex and you'll need to make a lot of very quick decisions about what ability to use where, who to retreat and when, and so on. The outcome of a given battle can be radically different depending on how you manage your ability usage during it. The tent also doesn't scale, so you'll find it plays less of a role in survival later in the game for the most part.

On the other hand, if it's all too much for you and you prefer to watch someone else play through the campaign, there's an excellent (and often hilarious) set of Let's Play videos of it on Youtube, uploaded by The Azothan. Scroll down a bit at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDzdeZTVbd0THF1M-OJfaV2zdu-tSjGqf and you'll see them there.

 

[Brachyceran]

I love this campaign but the chapter 5 (Reunion) is really hard. I stopped there after over 10 attempts not including the countless times I failed after 2 minutes playing, seriously. Fei Serumen dies very easily if we dont watch over him because he cant leech hp and use skills if we dont use the skill, and with that low hp hes vulnerable to enemies. after that 20 minutes of defending, the next fight seems epic but again the king dies so easily =.= I managed to kill almost all the Drakhul and then suddenly saw a messege saying the king has died, I didnt use orb of anihilation or blooddrinker or cataclysm and the king just died that way. then after that fail my Fei died again at the enemies' base, and then I failed again because I spent most of my time over Fei and let others die. After all those failure I finally gave up on this =.= Its great campaign but way too hard for me, at least that 5th chapter. Btw HPNY!

 

[Soul Reaver]

I love this campaign but the chapter 5 (Reunion) is really hard. I stopped there after over 10 attempts not including the countless times I failed after 2 seconds playing, seriously. Fei Serumen dies very easily if we dont watch over him because he cant leech hp and use skills if we dont use the skill, and with that low hp hes vulnerable to enemies. after that 20 minutes of defending, the next fight seems epic but again the king dies so easily =.= I managed to kill almost all the Drakhul and then suddenly saw a messege saying the king has died, I didnt use orb of anihilation or blooddrinker or cataclysm and the king just died that way. then after that fail my Fei died again at the enemies' base, and then I failed again because I spent most of my time over Fei and let others die. After all those failure I finally gave up on this =.= Its great campaign but way too hard for me, at least that 5th chapter. Btw HPNY!

Happy new year to you too!

If you're having trouble keeping Fei alive during the first part of the map, click on one of the belltowers in his base and ring the bell there - Prince Sorin will then station his reinforcements there, which will considerably help you to keep Fei alive.

The next fight, the main trick is to rush in as soon as the fight starts. Don't let Prince Sorin or King Garamond rush ahead, or they may get caught between you and the enemy, which will prevent them from retreating if they get badly hurt, so you need to get stuck in as soon as possible. Use lots of Area of Effect abilities if you can: Darkbolt Barrage, Mass Fireballs, Meteor Shower, Abyssal Mass and Unbridled Rage/Sandstorm (if you can avoid getting stunned) are all great. Sphere of Annihilation and/or Cataclysm are good too, but aim them well to make sure you don't catch allies, and make sure you've already started some other stuns on the enemy first, as the casting delay so early in such a fast battle can easily cost you victory.

During the last fight, there's just a lot of multi-tasking to do. You have to keep pushing forward with your heroes. Your aim is to push forward enough so that Fei can join with Sera and Soul Reaver, and Cameron can join with Kitharsis, and then everyone can join together. Keep an eye on Prince Sorin and King Garamond - they retreat if they get badly hurt, but you need to make sure they don't get overwhelmed/surrounded or take on tough enemy heroes alone as these situations might kill them before they manage to retreat.

And one last option: press enter and type in 'easy', it'll reduce the HP of all enemies in the current Chapter, making it (a little) easier.

 

[WaerercraftKillers]

Very Good map that's cool especially the cinematics so 5/5 you Rock!

 

[Zeatlan agralem]

Really good !
But so hard

 

[Dreamshock]

This is the best campaign, i have ever played! THE BEST! Maybe even better than the original story.
Story 10/10
Music 10/10
Heroes and ideas 10/10
Overall 10/10 - Truly the best campaign at this moment, i suggest everyone who havent played it to play it, i still havent completed it yet, but i cant wait to do it ! Its really good that it is difficulty is hard, not easy one which makes me even want to play it more.I would be glad to see second Bitter end!

 

[Soul Reaver]

Very Good map that's cool especially the cinematics so 5/5 you Rock!

Thanks, I spent quite a while on those cinematics.

Really good !
But so hard

Yeah, I know it's tough. But I've never found victory satisfying if it was easy!

This is the best campaign, i have ever played! THE BEST! Maybe even better than the original story.
Story 10/10
Music 10/10
Heroes and ideas 10/10
Overall 10/10 - Truly the best campaign at this moment, i suggest everyone who havent played it to play it, i still havent completed it yet, but i cant wait to do it ! Its really good that it is difficulty is hard, not easy one which makes me even want to play it more.I would be glad to see second Bitter end!

Thank you very much, I really appreciate it! Remember to vote on the front page if you enjoyed it!

Unfortunately I don't have plans to make a sequel to To the Bitter End (at least not in the foreseeable future) but I am working on a different project at the moment (a gamebook).

Also I'm currently busy testing and bug-fixing v1.0.04 of the campaign, which will be a fairly substantial update once released.

 

[Brachyceran]

wow, now I notice the rating is all 5.00 by 33 players! Now its 34 (I forgot to rate the map)

 

[WaerercraftKillers]

Well at least you Deserved it.

 

[Dreamshock]

Thanks, I spent quite a while on those cinematics.



Yeah, I know it's tough. But I've never found victory satisfying if it was easy!



Thank you very much, I really appreciate it! Remember to vote on the front page if you enjoyed it!

Unfortunately I don't have plans to make a sequel to To the Bitter End (at least not in the foreseeable future) but I am working on a different project at the moment (a gamebook).

Also I'm currently busy testing and bug-fixing v1.0.04 of the campaign, which will be a fairly substantial update once released.

Another Campaign bro? I have almost finished To The Bitter End, so good im in love with this shit Would love to see again such awesome story and epic gameplay.. !!

 

[Soul Reaver]

wow, now I notice the rating is all 5.00 by 33 players! Now its 34 (I forgot to rate the map)

I know, I'm honestly really happy (and touched) at the rating. I'm hoping that my upcoming updates will make the campaign even better.

Well at least you Deserved it.

Thank you!

Another Campaign bro? I have almost finished To The Bitter End, so good im in love with this shit Would love to see again such awesome story and epic gameplay.. !!

Unfortunately no, it's not another Warcraft 3 campaign. It's a 'gamebook' (at least for now - perhaps I'll make it into a visual novel type game in the end). While it is set in the same multiverse as To the Bitter End, it doesn't revolve around the the same epic world-travelling immortals, and it's not a case of whole worlds being at stake. It's a much smaller story, slower paced and more about atmosphere. It's about an Orc who was employed in a dungeon, but has had enough of his uncaring master and now only wants to escape to the surface. He'll have to face a lot of hazards and monsters along the way, and maybe prove that even the simple orcs that many heroes slay off-hand are capable of considerable heroics themselves.

But it's still a work-in-progress, so it'll probably be some time before it sees the light of day.

 

[Soul Reaver]

我支持这个战役我是他的忠实玩家（I support the campaign I was loyal to his game player）

非常感谢你的支持。我很高兴你喜欢这个战役。
(Thank you for your support, I'm glad you enjoyed playing the campaign.)

 

[Joinma]

2nd Non100% playthrough

I played to the bitter end again until chapter 7.

In chapter 2 , when Soul and Fel wait for rune to be collapsed, I thought it was too long. The time should have been reduced by half. The enemies were no match for both heroes so it was so repetitive.
In chapter 7, Each fight against the counterpart seemed too long due to the runes. If it was possible I would prefer 2x or 3x times less runes.

I have not played chapter 8 again yet but I am pretty sure it must be so epic.
Although the two above are annoying, the others are still so good that these two can be ignored.
Really, 1 year after the first review, this still deserved 5/5.

 

[Malhorne]

I think in the chapter 7 the time of the fights are worth the epicness ^^

 

[Soul Reaver]

Time again for an announcement:

To the Bitter End has been updated to version 1.0.04.

This is the biggest update since the files were packed into a campaign. There are a huge number of rebalances, fixes, and changes. A non-exhaustive list is below:

- Implemented a Damage Detection system that gets used with Blooddrinker Possession and Celerity, among other things. This will make these abilities more 'accurate', with no chance of teleporting away before finishing a hit
- Some name changes: Void Child Desolation is now Void Child Sorrow. Previous Void Child Sorrow is now Void Child Anguish. And the summoned Anguishes have been changed to Misery.
- Fixed a weird bug that was causing Kitharsis to permanently lose 2 Strength points at the start of every Chapter.
- Kitharsis' Sanstorm now spawns sandstorm twisters closer to his foes
- A failed Blooddrinker Possession should no longer cause Soul Reaver to attack Daemonic allies or his own Warp Gates
- Fixed a small bug in AI for Eryion Xanatha in Chapter VII
- Soul Reaver's Black Steel Gauntlets require less time to trigger. Their stun duration is slightly shorter against Heroes than it used to be, but due to an earlier bug, is now longer against normal units
- Fei Serumen's Blood Frenzy has been given a small additional damage bonus
- Cameron Aileron's Explosive Shells has gained a small additional damage increase
- Cameron Aileron's Psychic Onslaught code has been changed. It should now no longer be possible to exploit its AI to 'lose' it and have it attacking independently
- Maelstrom is faster and his Obliterate ability has a larger radius and a shorter explosion delay, so expect a greater challenge
- Dustwalker's Shadowcall has been revamped; a hit from a Shadow slows its target less than before, but their attacks always hit, the ability has a larger radius, and the Shadows spawn near their target, rather than near Dustwalker. Dustwalker's Malign Presence also has a larger effective radius, making it deadlier
- Death sound for Shadows fixed
- Dharuk Officer's Deafening Battle Cry now has a short cast delay and reduced duration against Heroes. Rally Strength has been improved. Both abilities have improved AI
- Dharuk Champions/Warmaster Whirling Frenzy does less damage but has a lower mana cost.
- The end of Chapter VI has been rebalanced to make it a little easier, with some additional healing available during the battle. This should help compensate for the additional threat posed by the faster, more powerful Maelstrom
- Apocalypse spell has been revamped. The runes are much tougher. They now will not trigger as long as they are being attacked, but will completely heal if not attacked for 2 seconds. Disrupting them all simultaneously is still the best strategy and works more reliably now
- Music code rewritten to prevent bug that sometimes causes music not to play after loading a game
- Fei Serumen model slightly modified to remove some 'excess' weapon glow
- Various dialogue changes
- A number other small fixes to tooltips, bugs, and game balance

 

[youness]

So,what is the new feature and updates soul reaver?

 

[JesusHipster]

I guess you could upgrade campaign's visuals more. I mean, come on, did this manual ever ever came in handy to anyone? You could have used the effort to improve character models, skins and map's landscape instead

 

[Soul Reaver]

So,what is the new feature and updates soul reaver?

Hello Youness - read the post above your one, there's a pretty extensive list of changes and fixes there.

I guess you could upgrade campaign's visuals more. I mean, come on, did this manual ever ever came in handy to anyone? You could have used the effort to improve character models, skins and map's landscape instead

The effort that I put in this update didn't go into the manual (the manual only got its credits listing updated). Instead, the effort went into bugfixes, rebalances, and new functions (such as the damage detection system). It basically ensures that almost everything functions how it should, so I don't think it was a wasted effort.

That said, have you read the manual? It's packed with background stories and fleshes out the world considerably. While these aren't needed to play, anyone who is keen on lore will love it (such as The Azothan - he says as much in his Let's Play video of Chapter IV at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jRQizrPsC4)

 

[MasterTrainer]

No matter how hard I try, I cannot pass the 2nd level :/

 

[youness]

I have one quetion:why u don't put any musics in every chapter sou Reaver?

 

[Soul Reaver]

I have one quetion:why u don't put any musics in every chapter sou Reaver?

There is music in every Chapter, though it doesn't play all the time. Though if you use the 'music off' chat command they won't play.

Chapter I: starts after you regain your equipment
Chapter II: starts when you meet the first miniboss
Chapter III: starts only during the boss battle
Chapter IV: starts once you start being pursued
Chapter V: starts soon after the start of the mission
Chapter VI: always on
Chapter VII: during the various boss battles
Chapter VIII: always on

No matter how hard I try, I cannot pass the 2nd level :/

You can find some general hints on To the Bitter End here: http://www.familykrieg.com/tothebitterend/hints.htm#General Strategies
And some Chapter II-specific hints here: http://www.familykrieg.com/tothebitterend/hints.htm#Chapter II

If it's just a case of it seeming too hard, you can bring up the chat window (hit enter) and type in 'easy', which will reduce enemy HP in the current Chapter.

I'll gladly give some advice specific to your situation too, but you'll need to let me know where you're getting stuck (and it would help to know what abilities you've got for your hero)

 

[Malhorne]

Chapter V music is so awesome
Ahah I can't hold myself to thank you again xD !

 

[Feldheld]

Starts out heavily scripted, next thing a timed event, cut scenes around every corner, how's that supposed to be fun gameplay?

 

[Soul Reaver]

Starts out heavily scripted, next thing a timed event, cut scenes around every corner, how's that supposed to be fun gameplay?

Various chapters have various levels of 'scriptedness' - Chapter I and II very scripted, other Chapters less so. That said, it's a linear campaign, not a sandbox one. This was done intentionally: the heroes have to keep moving forward to complete their quest and don't have time to go out and hunt for 10 wolf pelts or help villager A bring a locket to villager B, so I wanted the campaign to keep a similar focus. If you're looking for a sandbox-like RPG or lots of sidequests, this probably isn't the campaign for you.

Time pressure - either through explicit timers or through other more hidden mechanics - is common in the campaign. For the vast majority of these, the time limits are generous and are just there to ensure that players don't cheese through the game by waiting for all their HP and MP to regen and their Ultimates to cooldown before each and every fight - this introduces a level of resource management, forces player to decide when to use their abilities and when they need to save them, and helps keep up the pace. There are a few events where the time limits are more strict, but again, as long as you don't seriously waste time and keep focussed on the objective they are also comfortably doable.

The game has a fairly involved plot, told through cutscenes, but if you're not interested in them, all the cutscenes can be skipped (just press the 'esc' key). But again, if you're looking for less plot and more sandbox, this might not be the right campaign for you.

The pace, action and difficulty of the campaign trends upwards over the course of the campaign, so expect fights to get more intense as it goes along. Chapter I is the 'slowest' in that regard.

I made a campaign that I enjoyed playing, and I hope you'll grow to like it better over the course of the game, but naturally not everyone's got the same tastes.

 

[Feldheld]

Fair enough. Just consider 2 things:

1. people love freedom.
2. people need time to learn.

The best games allow me to set the pace and scale the challenge myself. For me, thats the mere definition of fun. Its also the best way to learn and grow at playing it.

 

[Soul Reaver]

Fair enough. Just consider 2 things:

1. people love freedom.
2. people need time to learn.

The best games allow me to set the pace and scale the challenge myself. For me, thats the mere definition of fun. Its also the best way to learn and grow at playing it.

While I agree that games that offer a lot of choice are great, I've also massively enjoyed much more linear action games (eg, Freespace/Freespace 2), and that's what I was shooting for with this campaign.

You can slightly adjust the difficulty of the current chapter in-game by typing in "easy", "medium" or "hard" into the chat window (hard is the default), but it's winnable with enough perseverance, attention to detail, and some trial and error even on hard (there's a cool series of youtube Let's Play videos by The Azothan showing him doing just that). The campaign is fundamentally designed to be difficult though, as I only tend to enjoy games that genuinely challenge me.

 

[Feldheld]

Ah, that will be really helpful, thanks , bit stuck at the moment with the big ass machine boss in the forest.

I dont mind a challenge either (stopped playing WoW because they made it so easy that I couldnt find a trace of a challenge for the love of me), but when Im new the first challenge lies in getting used to my abilities. I absolutely prefer to take my time there. If I hardly have the time to read through the description cause Im already under constant time pressure Im really annoyed. Makes me feel like way back when I was a young kid and everyone was trying to push me around. Nothing good can come out of that, and everything good starts with people learning to leave you the fuck alone.

 

[Soul Reaver]

Ah, that will be really helpful, thanks , bit stuck at the moment with the big ass machine boss in the forest.

I dont mind a challenge either (stopped playing WoW because they made it so easy that I couldnt find a trace of a challenge for the love of me), but when Im new the first challenge lies in getting used to my abilities. I absolutely prefer to take my time there. If I hardly have the time to read through the description cause Im already under constant time pressure Im really annoyed. Makes me feel like way back when I was a young kid and everyone was trying to push me around. Nothing good can come out of that, and everything good starts with people learning to leave you the fuck alone.

My recommendation is to save the game whenever you get a new hero, then take all the time you need to read through their ability and item tooltips. Once you're done, load the game and pick the abilities you would like to use.

Another tip: read the quest log occasionally, especially if you've been skipping cinematics.

Good luck against the Juggernaut - let me know if you need any tips. Remember you can return to Eivahin for rapid HP/MP regeneration!

 

[droxor]

mmmm no

 

[Malhorne]

What ?

 

[ironymon]

My recommendation is to save the game whenever you get a new hero, then take all the time you need to read through their ability and item tooltips. Once you're done, load the game and pick the abilities you would like to use.

Another tip: read the quest log occasionally, especially if you've been skipping cinematics.

Good luck against the Juggernaut - let me know if you need any tips. Remember you can return to Eivahin for rapid HP/MP regeneration!

Awesome campaign, i believe no other warcraft map or campaign made me rage as much because it was simply THAT difficult, and i love difficulty, but it was so balanced. If ya don't use all the heroes spells non stop and in the right order, you're done for. It was hard but i guess no average player can even beat this campaign imo. Dota must have a lot of influence on this. Last boss was a blast too. Kicked his ass in roughly 47 minutes. With about 20-30 save loads. I believe saving is the key to winning thsi campaign, it's not just a save and load, u have to know WHEN to save, otherwise it's pointless. I won't post any spoilers unless someone want screenies for proof
I'd vote this 10/5 if i could

edit: lol i didn't knew i could change the difficulty. I must've played on default the whole time. I know one thing though, i'm not playing through this nightmare again. Pretty sure u intended all this, i could feel the desperation fighting against impossible odds and only succeeding through sheer will and determination. Recall playing this a few years back, got my ass handed to me and didn't touch this since then until recently, missed out on much Not anymore. Thanks again.

 

[Soul Reaver]

Awesome campaign, i believe no other warcraft map or campaign made me rage as much because it was simply THAT difficult, and i love difficulty, but it was so balanced. If ya don't use all the heroes spells non stop and in the right order, you're done for. It was hard but i guess no average player can even beat this campaign imo. Dota must have a lot of influence on this. Last boss was a blast too. Kicked his ass in roughly 47 minutes. With about 20-30 save loads. I believe saving is the key to winning thsi campaign, it's not just a save and load, u have to know WHEN to save, otherwise it's pointless. I won't post any spoilers unless someone want screenies for proof
I'd vote this 10/5 if i could

edit: lol i didn't knew i could change the difficulty. I must've played on default the whole time. I know one thing though, i'm not playing through this nightmare again. Pretty sure u intended all this, i could feel the desperation fighting against impossible odds and only succeeding through sheer will and determination. Recall playing this a few years back, got my ass handed to me and didn't touch this since then until recently, missed out on much Not anymore. Thanks again.

Thanks ironymon, I'm happy you enjoyed the campaign, and a big congratulations for completing it! I'm glad you came back to it years after first discovering it.

And yes, you're right - knowing when to save is an important part of the game, and it can be hard to remember to do so in the midst of the battle! You're also right about those feelings of desperation: they definitely were intended.

However, I can honestly say I wasn't influenced by DotA, since I've never played it - in fact, I almost never play any multiplayer games. Any similarities to DotA (living or dead) are purely coincidental.

 

[Deolrin]

W...wait... Let me get this straight...
There's a HIGHER difficulty than the default one?

 

[edo494]

there is easier mode, dont know if there is harder mode

 

[Soul Reaver]

W...wait... Let me get this straight...
There's a HIGHER difficulty than the default one?

there is easier mode, dont know if there is harder mode

No, there is no higher difficulty level - the default IS hard. I playtested the game in that mode in such a way that I could scrape through pretty consistently even if I made a few mistakes, but it was designed to be pretty unforgiving.

There are easier modes (medium and easy) that you can activate via the chat console.

The only way to make it harder than the default would be to play with a touch pad, or with your eyes closed, or without ever saving, or something else equally ill-advised.

 

[Deolrin]

Oh, phew... I just realized that I misread what ironymon said - while he wrote "i'm not playing through this nightmare again", I thought he said: "i'm not playing through this again on nightmare"... Which I took to mean there is a "nightmare" difficulty level. Which would, indeed, be quite nightmareish. :O

 

[edo494]

making this any harder? not possible

 

[Tanasren]

Anybody struck by the "Soul Reaver" and "Kaine" ?
During years I thought this was a copy of legacy of kain on warcraft 3 so I avoided it. I killed kaine and it's not related xD

 

[Soul Reaver]

Anybody struck by the "Soul Reaver" and "Kaine" ?
During years I thought this was a copy of legacy of kain on warcraft 3 so I avoided it. I killed kaine and it's not related xD

Glad that you're giving it a go now! I actually address the above in the FAQ in the manual:

Q: Why do you call the main character Soul Reaver even though this thing doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Legacy of Kain?
A: I actually came up with the name ‘Soul Reaver’ for my character long before even Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen was released. The two stories are completely unrelated.

The reason I picked the name 'Kaine' for the Necromancer is because of its similarity to the biblical character of Cain. Sharing a similar-sounding name with what the bible says is the world's first murderer should suggest to the player what sort of person Kaine Shariven is.

No doubt the creators of the "Legacy of Kain" games had a similar thought when naming their vampiric protagonist 'Kain'.

 

[Tanasren]

Oh ok, I read a little the manual and diddn't see that.

 

[Skipper]

Doesn´t work for me. Intro is stucked in Black screen with music playing. And first mission stucked in first cinematic looking to the wall.

 

[Malhorne]

What version of war3 are you using ??
Also how the hell is it constructive to note without testing because only you had a bug ?
Just saying

 

[Soul Reaver]

Doesn´t work for me. Intro is stucked in Black screen with music playing. And first mission stucked in first cinematic looking to the wall.

That's strange - it's not a bug I've had anyone report before. It sounds to me like Warcraft III is not processing any triggers in the map past the very first ones, as if there's content missing or something.

It's not a problem with the campaign itself, since this is the first time I've heard this reported from a huge number of users including the admins from hiveworkshop, and you can see youtube videos of other people playing it successfully. Most likely the problem is either with your version of Warcraft III or with the particular .w3n file you're running.

1) What version of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne are you running?
To the Bitter End requires the latest patch (v1.26a) to run correctly. If your game isn't using the latest patch, you can get it from here: https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/classic-game-patches

2) It could just be that your download of the campaign is somehow corrupted. The full campaign file (To the Bitter End.w3n) should be 78.4 MB in size. I'd recommend re-downloading it (from HiveWorkshop), perhaps even using a different browser (in case the browser you're using has cached the corrupted download), then using the redownloaded file.

3) Ensure you're running the campaign correctly
Make sure you're running To the Bitter End.w3n from within Warcraft III itself, by starting the game, selecting 'Single Player', then 'Custom Campaign'. Don't run/test it from the World Editor, it probably won't work correctly.

4) What sort of machine are your running Warcraft III on?
What operating system are you using? And do you have full admin rights on the machine you're running it on? It seems unlikely, but maybe the problem is some sort of security setting that's blocking the trigger calls (in the same way that Windows can stop some games from saving/autosaving if you run the game without admin rights). Make sure you're running Warcraft III with full admin rights. Alternatively, if you're running it in a strange way (eg, from a virtual machine or something) perhaps that's somehow responsible for the issue.

5) Is your Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne install ok?
If you're using a modified or pirated version of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, perhaps that could be causing the issue. If you suspect it might be one of the above, try reinstalling it from the legal CDs to your harddisk with no modifications. Note that I haven't tested the game with non-English versions of Warcraft III - while I don't THINK it matters, I'm not 100% sure if non-English versions of the game will work.

I'm keen to hear if you manage to resolve the issues, and what you did to fix it, so please let me know if any of the above fixes worked! Feel free to email me at [email protected] or reply here.

 

[Deolrin]

I've used a pirated version of Warcraft III for a very long time. It runs exactly the same as a non-pirated version. I really doubt that's the issue here.

 

[Soul Reaver]

I've used a pirated version of Warcraft III for a very long time. It runs exactly the same as a non-pirated version. I really doubt that's the issue here.

Any 'full' version of the game (pirated or not) shouldn't have a problem, but obviously pirated versions are unregulated and it may not be possible to tell if a pirated version someone is using been modified in some way. For example, I remember when there were a lot of old 'abondware' games that had cinematics stripped out or only had low-res textures loaded (in an ill-advised effort to save space), and this could potentially lead to all manner of problems, crashes or weirdnesses.

It's the least likely cause (and thus the last on my list), but if everything else checks out it's one of the last things I could think of that could be causing it.

 

[Deolrin]

That sounds like ancient stuff. Nowadays pirated games don't differ in any way from the source material except for limitations for online play.

 

[leviathan221]

Great story and fun gameplay.

 

[Soul Reaver]

Doesn´t work for me. Intro is stucked in Black screen with music playing. And first mission stucked in first cinematic looking to the wall.

Since Skipper doesn't seem to want to try my suggestions (or in any way acknowledge the email and the PMs I sent him) I'm unfortunately unable to look into these alleged issues until someone else reports them and is willing to work with me to try and fix them. So if anyone has seen a problem like this (or something similar), please get in touch with me so I can figure out what might be causing it and add it to the troubleshooting section of the manual.

Great story and fun gameplay.

Thank you leviathan, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it!