Warcraft 3: A Review

You're probably asking me, "Warcraft? Really? One of the greatest wargame franchises needs a review? In THIS day and age?!" while throwing your keyboard through the window. Obviously, this game is well known and was the birth of the hit MMORPG, World of Warcraft. Many players seem to think that the 2002 wargame takes place during the events of the MMORPG, and some would say they're barely related. Due to time phases in the MMO and two different stories at one time period in the wargame, it's hard to tell what's going on when. What's the difference between the Alliance of Lordaeron and the one we have now? What happens in the time between Thrall goes to Durotar and Arthas killing everyone in Stratholme? And how long is it between this game and Wrath of the Lich King expansion for the MMO? Oh yes, it's extremely confusing.

Along the way of this review, I hope to reveal to you a lot of lore and the mechanics of the game, as well as a conclusion to the question: does this game deserve all the reputation it gets? So get comfortable in that Frozen Throne of yours - we're going to review Warcraft 3 and its almighty expansion!

As stated before, it's hard to tell when the story takes place. Because I haven't played the previous two Warcraft games, I'm lost for info and instead have to check "<character name here> Know your Lore" into Google to find out what I've missed. I do know that it's an excellent prelude to how the war between the new Horde and Alliance has been sparked, and how humanity is folding in on itself due to its dastardly deeds (knowing that Thrall was once a slave and was forced to kill fellow Orcs in battle for entertainment). The Alliance isn't strong as it is still recovering from blows from the Forsaken and Scourge in Lordaeron, the Elves who are beginning to doubt the humans for their lack of power, and various other things. The Horde on the other hand is weak at first as Thrall has few Orcs and other clans wishing to join at his disposal. He'll need help from the Darkspear Trolls, the Bilgewater Goblins and the Tauren later on, as well as heroes such as Grom Hellscream and Rexxar the Beastmaster.

I'll start with what I know when it comes to the campaigns: In Warcraft 3, you have the choice of either following the Human (Alliance of Lordaeron) campaign and play as Prince Arthas Menethil 2nd, or the Shaman Go'El (Known mostly as Thrall). Obviously I chose the Orcish campaign, and found I could only play two missions. There was much disappointment, as I was immediately referred to the Human campaign which goes on for several missions. It was that, or quit. Before I even started the Human campaign I rushed out to get the expansion and hope to learn more of the Orcish Horde, but little could be found. It was much different to controlling all units, but now I had to play as Rexxar and guide him with arrow keys and other units with the mouse.

OK, so there's the personal experience out of the way. The Orc story begins with Thrall having a dream about a prophet, being told to seek him out. He journeys throughout the land of wherever, and meets up with some Orcs. He asks them to join him, and he leads them with his Shamanistic prowess. Later on, he meets up with more Orc Warriors and Shaman, and again they travel together to meet the prophet. At the end of the mission, Thrall finds the prophet but knows little. Onto the second and final mission of the Orc campaign - here's a goodie. We get to build a base, units and lead them against a Human settlement holding Grommash Hellscream against his will. Such an Orc and leader of a load of clans is a worthy ally, so Thrall goes out with his troops to save him and slaughter many humans. They use the human boats and sail to Kalimdor, where they'll form the continent of Durotar, named after Thrall's father, Durotan.

Views on the Alliance of Lordaeron Campaign?

While this campaign isn't as interesting as the Orcs (in my honest opinion), it still answers any questions you may have in the MMO, such as "Why did Arthas kill a load of people" or, "How did Arthas become the Lich King's servant?" For the most part, the story will be leading up to the Culling of Stratholme (a major questline in WoW, which on Heroic difficulty, offers a mount if done in under 25 minutes), and how Arthas raced to kill the Humans instead of a demon turning them into Legion/Scourge slaves. Players will have control over the Hero Arthas mainly, but in some missions you have the power to control Jaina Proudmoore (the Alliance's most powerful Mage), and units ranging from melee to casters.

Warcraft is a major difference to the MMORPG, as selecting units, sending them here-there-everywhere with the mouse and building things is what this game revolves around. In the MMO, players control a single hero and get them to the highest level throughout quests - and yes, the story is much harder to understand in WoW than the wargame it was inspired by.

Each mission starts out with a base, or a hero and enough resources to build a base. A base will include things like Farms, Gold Mines, Lumber Mill and Forges to gather resources. Resources involve wood and good (for the creation of troops, upgrades, buildings), and food (the more food you have, the more troops you can feed and hence build a larger army). To build troops, you'll need a Barracks; For upgrades you'll need a Blacksmith; and for the spawning of peons/peasants, you'll need some form of Keep. While this may seem a tad generic to wargamers, remember that the Warcraft games before this were some of the younger wargaming platforms, and one of the most memorable.

Attacking is as simple as it gets - merely bringing your units over to hostile units gets them into batte. By selecting certain units, players can use their abilities (if they have abilities other than basic attacks) such as healing, magical effects or summoning. Units like the guard tower don't move, but will attack if hostiles approach and will stop until either one is dead, or out of range.

Each campaign and mission will have a different story - for the Orcs, it's soley about investigating who the Prophet is, and how the Orcish Horde can expand its numbers. For the Humans, the plot is a lot thicker and revolves around Arthas' madness and the purging of Stratholme. Missions will either be based on the defence of your keep until reinforcements arrive (thus ending the mission), wiping out all forces on the map (especially in Multiplayer) or going from your base to a required area in the fog of war. Often, you may be asked to do secondary objectives, such as find survivors or more troops in the wilderness, or maybe to eliminate a threat before it expands its military further, etc. Secondary objectives aren't relatively important, but can sometimes grant you experience points and items, so if it isn't too much hard work, give them a shot.

I've played little of the Alliance campaign of TFT, but I know for a fact that the Horde campaign has changed massively. In the Horde campaign, one plays as Rexxar the Beastmaster - a half-ogre who sends a near-dead courier's message to Thrall in Durotar. From here on, he serves the Horde in a fight to preserve Orgrimmar, and find out how Jaina and Thrall can seal a deal to keep the war between Orcs and Humans from raging any further. We also get to see the Darkspear Trolls join the Horde's ranks, and even fight against the Centaurs that treaten the Tauren of Mulgore.

Combat isn't similar, and we're not building bases, but instead controlling heroes like we would before and leading them on quests. Heroes in this are much stronger, and can often fight without the aid of healers or spell-casters, but it does help.

The campaign is OK, but if there was much more to the Orcish campaign and the original mechanics, I would've saved myself £15. I suppose The Frozen Throne does offer a lot of lore and greatly builds up to how Arthas was scourged later on, not to mention it brings information and the power to play as Elves and the Forsaken, which is another nice touch to the game.

While there are some features that could be added and some things that may be impossible in some people's eyes, remember that this is the third game of the franchise. There wasn't much competition or inspiration for the developers of this game, rendering the power of lore near-useless. The story is excellent and gripping even if you don't play World of Warcraft, and it's an excellent way to start your MMO career. It's not fair to say that the graphics are horrendous, as it's the best they could do at the time. At least units are clear and you know what does what, etc. The soundtrack is perfect for a fantasy game, and really brings out the Warcrafter in us all. However, there are flaws: it gets repetitive, and progression through the game is slow. You need to wait for around an hour before you have a decent sized army, and that's not including the constant raids you get from all directions. The story is thick, but if you don't want this kind of thing, it won't appeal to you. If you're too immersed in modern wargames, I doubt you'll like this.

Out of 9, how much does this game get? It gets an 8/9, as well as several awards such as "The birth of awesomeness" and "The founding father of something great"! Angry Joe (http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/author/angryjoe/) will tell you Starcraft II is the game to play, but because I haven't seen it yet, I recommend this one... two times!

LOK'TAR OGAR!