Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Are all you really need.

As back in the day I was neither clever nor patient enough to clear the "Warcraft III" story campaign, I gave it one more try with this remake. Too bad that this time I had to give up again due to the bugs. The Mac version keeps freezing while saving every now and then. Other than that, I can’t understand all the hate as this is a carbon copy remake of the original (you can even switch back to the original graphics). The graphic overhaul is alright, even though a little cartooney for my taste. As with the original, I loved the wide variety of civilizations you can choose from, as well as the narrative world created by Blizzard for this title. The bigger focus on the story and expansion of the game contents was a big deal and a huge upgrade from "Warcraft II", and despite the not too friendly user interface the game still holds pretty well.

Absolutely hated this game on release, in small part because the performance on my PC was much worse than Starcraft when big battles hit the screen. I came back to it repeatedly over the years and I now think it's equal to or better than Starcraft...

Really, the only flaw this game has is the upkeep limit; very annoying. But I suppose that balances the ladder-multiplayer modes? DotA 1 custom maps in the 6.7x to 6.8x versions are still really fun to play, even with bots...

The story can get a little too high-fantasy (lots of jargon and pointless lore) during the Night Elf campaign as well.

I dont quite understand the admiration for this one when Age of Mythology came out on the same year and stood the test of time much better. Warcraft 3 has CGI cutscenes and a permanent hero that upgrades throughout the campaign, its inferior in every other way.

Its a RTS focused on action over slow paced base building, but for such a game that UI, movement and responsiveness of the game is severly lacking. I feel that im struggling against the controls more often than not. I also dislike how long it takes to actually kill an enemy unit. Its odd how this is handled much better in older Blizzard titles like the original starcraft than here. Maybe its the big unit models that makes them more clunky to get where they want. Nevertheless, its not a satisfying RTS to play.

The campaign is well paced despite the gameplay. The maps often have a couple of secrets for the player to find and improve the hero character, and the challenges offered are pretty diverse. I couldnt care about the actual story of the game though.