With Warcraft III: Reforged coming later this year, I thought it’d be a good idea to review the classic game behind the reforged version. Warcraft III has 2 different games that will both be “reforged” with the new version. This review will have a storyline, gameplay
Table of Contents
Storyline
Warcraft III is a game that puts a lot of effort into its story on its well-established universe. Both games have a different campaign mode that tells the story through each race’s point of view.
Because the story is a lot to digest, I will put a short version and a long one. The short version is that in every campaign, you control a race, and then move to the next until you’re finished with all four.
Each campaign gives you the story, and you are the one that advances it by playing. Every new race you change picks up from around the point where the previous’ one ends. Once you play them all, you will have completed the story.
And now for the (very) long version:
In the first game, after the prologue where the orcs must escape the human-controlled lands and sail west, you take the humans as they try to cull an uprising scourge.
Immediately after the human storyline ends, the undead one picks up as it tries to finish the job they started during the previous’ campaign storyline. They wreak havoc on the formerly grand human kingdom, but the heroes you control are all doing this thinking they are serving the Lich King, a powerful sorcerer trapped in ice, or the Frozen Throne. In reality, they were serving the Burning Legion, and its master Archimonde, who they manage to free. Archimode’s purpose is to conquer this world.
The orcs’ storyline begins somewhere around the end of the undead one as they try to survive in the new lands they landed. At some point, they find out that humans have also set foot on this land, and they must deal with that as well. There is a side story where the orcs’ second in command has to contend with a mysterious new race for resources. That mysterious race has the help of a demigod, and in order to kill him, they must sacrifice something in return.
Finally, the new race’s storyline begins about when their demigod is killed by your army of orcs. This mysterious race, the night elves, have to antagonize the newly-formed alliance of humans and orcs which is slowly destroying their land; night elves are naturalists. After some skirmishing, they will find out that the true enemy is the undead, and after awakening Malfurion, a druid, and releasing from prison Illidan, a demon hunter and Malfurion’s brother who deemed a traitor, they join the alliance, reluctantly, to defeat the overpowered demon warlock Archimonde.
Frozen Throne’s storyline is the direct aftermath of the war from the previous game. The game begins with the night elves this time, as warden Maiev tries to catch the now rogue Illidan, who tries to destroy the frozen throne. To aid her, she calls Tyrande, the night elf priestess from the previous game, and her husband Malfurion. In the end, as Illidan, Malfurion and the Blood Elves, former High Elves now addicted to magic, search for the lost Tyrande, Illidan is forgiven by Malfurion for his crimes and escapes to Draenor, the orcs’ former homeworld.
The story picks up from the humans’ point of view, more specifically the High Elves. The High Elves struggle with their uneasy alliance with the humans, and after capture, they escape with the help of Illidan’s Naga, former Night Elves that were mutated. The High Elves manage to escape to Draenor, now called Outland. They pledge their alliance to Illidan, who in turn promises to satisfy their need for magic. Illidan’s master tries to kill Illidan when he finds out that he didn’t destroy the Frozen Throne but Illidan responds by merely saying that he was gathering more forces for another attack.
You continue by controlling the undead. Firstly, you try to conquer the remaining former kingdom of the humans with the death knight who started it all in the previous game and the aid of Sylvanas Windrunner, a former High Elf that was corrupted into a banshee in order to serve the undead for eternity. As you carry on, the death knight notices that his powers are diminishing. Then the Lich King telepathically tells him that the loss in power is due to Illidan’s attacks on the Frozen Throne. Thus, he is summoned to defend it. He leaves Sylvanas back to tend to his new kingdom. The storyline then splits into two different stories. From one side, you battle Illidan and his Naga, on a race to the Frozen Throne in the treacherous frozen wastelands of Northrend. From the other side, Sylvanas, now in control of her powers, tries to kill any undead that are loyal to the Burning Legion and claims the land for her and the other undead that are freed from the Lich King’s grasp. She dubs the new, more peaceful undead as the ‘Forsaken’.
Finally, you play the orc storyline, which is more of an RPG that a real-time strategy game. Unhindered by anything of the above, the storyline focuses on how the orcs try to build their new permanent home, and their skirmishes with some remaining human forces that aren’t willing to accept the newly-formed alliance.
Gameplay
As mentioned, Warcraft III is an RTS or real-time strategy. This means that gameplay is dynamic, and there are always things happening on the map. There are of course some base-building elements, as in order to build your army, you must find resources and build your base of operations.
Micromanaging is essential in the long run, as you have to keep your eyes on your base, resources, any battle that is happening and your hero(es) and his/their experience. In huge battles between the army, being able to manage each of your units’ spells and target the right receptor is key. That is why Warcraft III takes so much time to master.
Another point is the races. Each race has its distinct buildings, heroes, and units. That means that every race has their own playstyle, with their respective strengths and weaknesses. Frozen Throne generally has more content, as it adds some extra units and buildings, as well as a new hero for every race.
Heroes was a new thing back in the day, and each hero had three stats and armor, and one of those stats was their dominant stat, which would show their role. They also had four spells, three regular and one ultimate. They could gain experience by killing units and items by killing strong neutral mobs that are scattered in each map. The could also be revived if you had to build each race’s specific altar.
Warcraft III could be played online through its Battle.net. While you could play the classic game (which is competitive to this day), there were many custom user-created maps that totally changed the way you play the game. Some were survival, and others were battle royale-like. You could anything you wanted, and that is a big part of Warcraft’s success.
The SFX was very good, and it still is. The voice actors sound convincing, and the rest of the sound of the units had their own selection of lines, and not just two or three.
Every unit had at least 5 different lines, a trait evolved into today’s games. There is a nice Easter Egg, where if you repeatedly clicked on the same unit too many times, they would begin saying funny troll lines that had nothing to do with the game.
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Visuals
The graphics are exactly what you’d expect from the early 2000s. The models for each building, unit, and hero are 3D rendered, but they look extremely outdated.
The graphics are generally weird and old and they haven’t aged well. Of course, those graphics were pretty successful back in their day, and you can say the completed their purpose, as they were relevant for nearly a decade.
Personal Thoughts
This is the game that raised generations of gamers. This is also the game that is the ancestor of many of today’s popular genres, most predominantly the MOBAs and the MMORPGs. Not to mention the countless memes that it contributed to the gaming culture.
There aren’t many more things to say about this game, besides that the only reason you wouldn’t play this game now would be the graphics, and an updated version comes out soon. So, I will leave you with thy hype for Warcraft III: Reforged.
Final Verdict
Storyline: 9.0
Gameplay: 8.8
Visuals: 2.5
General Rating: 6.7
Will you buy Warcraft III: Reforged? Have you played Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and/or Frozen Throne. Let me know if you have, or if you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I will answer as soon as I can.
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