Oh boy, I am gonna get bitched out for this one, but until one week ago I had never even laid eyes on Warcraft 3. It's strange really: the game was one of the most trumpeted RTS games of its time, and I happen to keep fairly up to date with the RTS genre, but I never heard a peep about it. Well, when I was strolling through the local Wal-Mart with the goal of getting a PC game when I noticed the Battle Chest sitting there, ready and waiting. Having played the first two as a kid, and enjoyed them both, I was eager to get back to killing some Orcs.
First things first: there are four factions in Warcraft 3: the Humans, their brutish green-skinned counterparts the Orcs, the Undead(a series of zombie-like beings and necromancers), and the Sentinels(forest-guarding night elves). The Undead and Sentinels were new additions to the lore when the game was released: but they don't feel out of place, or like a carbon copy of the other races. Each faction is VERY unique and has its own ups and downs. The Sentinels are a good example: their buildings are like Ents from the Lord of the Ring series. While they're rooted, they can produce units. However, they can uproot themselves and walk, allowing you to transfer most of your base to a new gold mine if the one you're at has run out. This doesn't mean that they're defenseless either: they can attack while walking, and eat trees to regain health (a bizzare sort of cannabalism, but it works.) Each faction has abilities that balance the game out wonderfully, and encourage you to try out many strategies in order to find the most efficient methods of taking down your opponent.
Ignore the large group of zombies assaulting this base. They're obviously no threat.
Hero units are a major new addition to the franchise as well. The heroes tend to come out in three types: a spellcaster, a supporter, and a melee fighter. Each one can level up by killing things in order to gain new abilities. These abilities have all sorts of effects: some deal area-of-effect damage, some summon minions, others allow you to spy on your enemies, and the best tend to be the ones that give your nearby underlings better stats. You're encouraged to send your heroes out as soon as possible in this game, as stronger heroes can practically turn the tide of battle by themselves, especially if they learn their fourth and final spell. Your hero can also equip items that you find around the map(often hidden behind computer-controlled beasts), so you're encouraged to send your hero out with a scouting party VERY early on in order to get a leg up on your opponent. This helps relieve the doldrums of early base building, and is a welcome addition in my book.
The campaign mode is an interesting one. You wind up playing through as each of the various factions as they try and save their race from the three D's of death, doom, and destruction. The main plot of the game revolves around the rise of the Undead, as all the other factions scramble to save their people and their homes. It's a very engrossing tale, and there are several interesting twists that throw you off. Some unresolved plot threads are there, but as they get wrapped up in the expansion, you won't mind unless you bought this game by itself. The mission types tend tend feel varied and unique for the most part, but there are far too many dungeon-style levels. These wind up being little more than gameplay-extending cannon fodder for your heroes to level up, and one mimicks the Mines of Mordor so much that I halfway expecting Gandalf to trod out at the end of the level. Another minor irritance is the occasional presence of an incredibly stupid or stubborn character that you KNOW will cause you trouble later. Those who have already played through the campaign ought to know what I mean. Blizzard also could've made the campaign better by having all of the cutscenes done outside the game's engine(only the ending cutscenes for each faction were made without it.) The in-game cutscenes can be a little hard to watch after a while, though the top-notch voice acting does wonders to add to it. It's just that the character models don't look as nice up close, and the portraits aren't lip-synched to the dialouge, which sometimes gives you the feeling of watching a old Godzilla movie with more knights and less Japanese people running around.
This pales in comparison to the sweet ending cutscenes.
The tactics of Warcraft 3 encourage maintaining small strike groups as opposed to making huge armies. Being on the defensive won't get you very far in this game: you have to go and attack your opponent to earn your victory. The game has an upkeep system that reduces the amount of resources you can collect when you have more units, which restricts your unit production. It's well implemented and makes the player try to limit his forces to preserve his resource intake rather than subscibe to the Starcraftian philosophy of the Zerg Rush. You're also constrained by the food resource(gained by purchasing certain buildings.) Units all have advantages over each other: artillery takes out buildings, archers take out mages, mages take out warriors, and so on. Flying units are always interesting to fight: sometimes you have to have a unit or two that is anti-air mixed in with your task forces to make sure that they can counter them, or else you'll find yourself weeping as your mini-armies are decimated by units that they can't touch. Nightfall is another interesting element: as time passes in-game, the enviornment changes from day to night. This restricts the sight of some units and gives others special abilities(nearly all the Sentinel foot soldiers can stand still during the night-time to go invisible, making ambushes a very lethal possibility.) It all adds up to an experience that encourages heavy planning and swift decision-making, something that draws the players in well and holds them there.
All in all, I give Warcraft 3 my highest recommendations. A good campaign mode mixed with balanced multiplayer makes this one of the best RTS games out there. It may be a little outdated graphics-wise right now, but it still has enough spunk and content to make it worth the price.
For the Horde! For glory!
EDIT: Since this review got bumped, and I didn't make a prior reviews section till later, please search for my Braid review if you want to see all my previous work. I'll edit my old reviews later to have the previous reviews section, but for now please put up with my sorry butt 
EDIT X 2: Since this review got bumped (again), I suppose I shall stick the current list of previous reviews up.
First things first: there are four factions in Warcraft 3: the Humans, their brutish green-skinned counterparts the Orcs, the Undead(a series of zombie-like beings and necromancers), and the Sentinels(forest-guarding night elves). The Undead and Sentinels were new additions to the lore when the game was released: but they don't feel out of place, or like a carbon copy of the other races. Each faction is VERY unique and has its own ups and downs. The Sentinels are a good example: their buildings are like Ents from the Lord of the Ring series. While they're rooted, they can produce units. However, they can uproot themselves and walk, allowing you to transfer most of your base to a new gold mine if the one you're at has run out. This doesn't mean that they're defenseless either: they can attack while walking, and eat trees to regain health (a bizzare sort of cannabalism, but it works.) Each faction has abilities that balance the game out wonderfully, and encourage you to try out many strategies in order to find the most efficient methods of taking down your opponent.
Ignore the large group of zombies assaulting this base. They're obviously no threat.
Hero units are a major new addition to the franchise as well. The heroes tend to come out in three types: a spellcaster, a supporter, and a melee fighter. Each one can level up by killing things in order to gain new abilities. These abilities have all sorts of effects: some deal area-of-effect damage, some summon minions, others allow you to spy on your enemies, and the best tend to be the ones that give your nearby underlings better stats. You're encouraged to send your heroes out as soon as possible in this game, as stronger heroes can practically turn the tide of battle by themselves, especially if they learn their fourth and final spell. Your hero can also equip items that you find around the map(often hidden behind computer-controlled beasts), so you're encouraged to send your hero out with a scouting party VERY early on in order to get a leg up on your opponent. This helps relieve the doldrums of early base building, and is a welcome addition in my book.
The campaign mode is an interesting one. You wind up playing through as each of the various factions as they try and save their race from the three D's of death, doom, and destruction. The main plot of the game revolves around the rise of the Undead, as all the other factions scramble to save their people and their homes. It's a very engrossing tale, and there are several interesting twists that throw you off. Some unresolved plot threads are there, but as they get wrapped up in the expansion, you won't mind unless you bought this game by itself. The mission types tend tend feel varied and unique for the most part, but there are far too many dungeon-style levels. These wind up being little more than gameplay-extending cannon fodder for your heroes to level up, and one mimicks the Mines of Mordor so much that I halfway expecting Gandalf to trod out at the end of the level. Another minor irritance is the occasional presence of an incredibly stupid or stubborn character that you KNOW will cause you trouble later. Those who have already played through the campaign ought to know what I mean. Blizzard also could've made the campaign better by having all of the cutscenes done outside the game's engine(only the ending cutscenes for each faction were made without it.) The in-game cutscenes can be a little hard to watch after a while, though the top-notch voice acting does wonders to add to it. It's just that the character models don't look as nice up close, and the portraits aren't lip-synched to the dialouge, which sometimes gives you the feeling of watching a old Godzilla movie with more knights and less Japanese people running around.
This pales in comparison to the sweet ending cutscenes.
The tactics of Warcraft 3 encourage maintaining small strike groups as opposed to making huge armies. Being on the defensive won't get you very far in this game: you have to go and attack your opponent to earn your victory. The game has an upkeep system that reduces the amount of resources you can collect when you have more units, which restricts your unit production. It's well implemented and makes the player try to limit his forces to preserve his resource intake rather than subscibe to the Starcraftian philosophy of the Zerg Rush. You're also constrained by the food resource(gained by purchasing certain buildings.) Units all have advantages over each other: artillery takes out buildings, archers take out mages, mages take out warriors, and so on. Flying units are always interesting to fight: sometimes you have to have a unit or two that is anti-air mixed in with your task forces to make sure that they can counter them, or else you'll find yourself weeping as your mini-armies are decimated by units that they can't touch. Nightfall is another interesting element: as time passes in-game, the enviornment changes from day to night. This restricts the sight of some units and gives others special abilities(nearly all the Sentinel foot soldiers can stand still during the night-time to go invisible, making ambushes a very lethal possibility.) It all adds up to an experience that encourages heavy planning and swift decision-making, something that draws the players in well and holds them there.
All in all, I give Warcraft 3 my highest recommendations. A good campaign mode mixed with balanced multiplayer makes this one of the best RTS games out there. It may be a little outdated graphics-wise right now, but it still has enough spunk and content to make it worth the price.
For the Horde! For glory!
EDIT X 2: Since this review got bumped (again), I suppose I shall stick the current list of previous reviews up.
Your Review And You. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.120165]
Jade Empire [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.119321]
Mega Man 9 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.119167]
Deja Vu [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117801]
Hooray For the New Blood: An Unofficial Article. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117338]
Manga Mashup #2: Prepared to be Schooled. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.115803]
Manga Mashup #1: Attack of the A's [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.111313]
Braid [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.110777]
Max Payne [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.110027#1897580]
Indigo Prophecy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.108202#1817369]
WarCraft 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.107685]
Fallout 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.105151#1683250]
Mirror's Edge [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.102291#1586312]
Jade Empire [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.119321]
Mega Man 9 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.119167]
Deja Vu [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117801]
Hooray For the New Blood: An Unofficial Article. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.117338]
Manga Mashup #2: Prepared to be Schooled. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.115803]
Manga Mashup #1: Attack of the A's [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.111313]
Braid [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.110777]
Max Payne [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.110027#1897580]
Indigo Prophecy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.108202#1817369]
WarCraft 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.107685]
Fallout 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.105151#1683250]
Mirror's Edge [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.102291#1586312]
