You never know what your going to get in expansion games anymore. Some don't have enough new content, some are not long enough for the money, some are to different from the original, and very few are done just right. Blizzard has always been one of the best at making their expansion pack games worth your time and money and have put together some of the best. For example Star Craft and Diablo. WarCraft III Frozen Thorne is right with the others. There are enough new units and upgrades to please the die hard player and the length of the game is basically a new game all together. This Expansion also comes with an added bonus mini-game that is a real nice ad-on. If you have played the original
WarCraft III Reign of Chaos and have not played this expansion than you need to pick this game up.
This review is written to explain the new features of this game and I presume you have already played the original WarCraft III Reign of Chaos game. If you have any questions please let me know.
Story-Line 5/5 The story-line picks up right where
WarCraft III Reign of Chaos left off. The Lich King Ner'zhul's soul sits frozen deep in the arctic land of Northrend. While the lord tries to find a way to free himself, a renegade Night Elf Illidian (bent on revenge) and the new leader of the Undead (the Death Night Arthas) head to the Icecrown glacier in hopes of freeing the lord. While the Humans and Night Elves are tied together trying to stop this from happening.
Each mission is story-driven and tie nicely into the games new story. After a cinematic scene with the Demon Hunter Illidian awakening a new NPC race called the Naga, you will start out this time using the Warden Maiev (the new Night Elf hero) on a mission to bring Illidian to justice. She is obsessed on imprisoning him once again for his crimes. Illidian will use this new race as he is out for revenge on those who betrayed him. The Naga race has a large part in this and you will even find yourself playing with them quite a bit. The human story has an uneasy tie with the Elves which are now known as the Blood Elves.
The Undead are still bent on total destruction and chaos. The Death Knight Arthas is now joined by your new Undead hero, the Crypt Lord. You will find yourself playing both heroes throughout this campaign.
And the Orcs are absent from the main story all together. They have their own story revolving the rebuilding of their new home land of Durotar. All though not involved in the main story they have some of the most entertaining twists and turns. You play the Orcs as an added bonus game which is explained in a later section.
Campaign Mode 5/5 This is where this expansion really stands out. This game is not just your typical RTS game. They pick up right were the original left playing the Night Elves, humans, and last the undead. There are twenty six new and unique missions to play through as the four factions again. The variety of these missions are excellent. You will find yourself playing most of these missions without the normal RTS standards of building your base, create your army, then destroy your enemy bases. A lot of missions you be given a certain amount of troops (along with your Hero) and you must go through the mission with what you start with and what you may get as mission unfolds. There are also some missions you will have the ability to control more than one base each with their own small roll to play. Each faction has about eight chapters in their respective campaigns.
Bonus Campaign The bonus campaign revolves around the orcs and Thrall. You play as the Beastmaster (which is also a neutral hero in the game) and will have the new Orc Hero the Shadow Master with you. Your long mission is to help Thrall rebuild their new home on Durotar by doing various missions. These are not done the same as in the regular campaign mode and are not done in any specific order.
This campaign takes place on one large map and several mini-maps that you will find doing various quests. This is more of an RPG style game like the Diablo games. As you talk to many NPC characters you will pick up these quests. Again, it makes no difference what order you do these in. As you move around the large map you will be attacked by various creeps and after a short time these creeps re-spawn again. So there is no shortage of ways to level up as you will be fighting a lot. Your hero starts at level one and needs to work his up like normal advancing his skills along the way. The only twist here is, you can also upgrade his strength, agility, and intelligence like you would a normal ability. This raises these stats by three each time and you place a skill point into it. This is also true for your Shadow Master companion. You will have a base that you report your completion of quests and receive any rewards. In this base you will have a barracks that (after completing a certain quest) you will be able to hire some units to go with you. There is also a stash to place unwanted items or you can sell them at the shop for gold. At the shop you can by items to take with you or upgrades to make your hero stronger.
This truly is a game inside the game. It is well worth the time to play through all of the quests and took me a little over two hours to complete. I had heard that Blizzard was going to make add-ons to this but, as of right now, I am not sure if they did. This bonus is called act I and they talked about making act II and III. If they did let me know I would be curious.
Game Play 5/5 The game play for the most part is the same as the Original game, excellent. There has been some small improvements worth noting. Of course you have new heroes, units, upgrades, and structures to help build your army. Instead of just having a mercenary camp hiring some fresh brutes to your army you can now hire neutral heroes. These heroes have some nice abilities and spells. Each faction is now able to build a new structure that you can buy items for your heroes. Some of these are specific to your faction as well. This helps on travel time not having to run to a merchant to pick up something you need. The AI has also been improved somewhat and play even smarter.
Graphics 4.5/5 The 3D graphics have been smoothed over slightly. You may notice this when you zoom in now. The cinematic scenes are still breath taking and the in-game cut scenes are still a little cartoonish. However, the frame rate still never misses a beat. You will not need too buy a new graphic card or anything to run this game just as well as the original. Still all around very well done.
Sound 4/5 The sound has had no real change. A few different voice overs and that's about it. The new heroes have new voices each and thats about it. The sound is still solid however, some may wish to tune out after some time.
Multi-Player All of the original basics are intact and work great they have added some nice improvements. There was an emphasis on player clans and tournaments. There are also a lot of new on-line maps for ladder and standard play and scenarios to play through. Some of these using the three new tile-sets found in this expansion. Some of these maps even support a new 6vs6 team play matches. The game still has fast loading times and smooth game play even with the new units and upgrades. You can also chat while searching for a game. There are still plenty of games and game types to found even today.
A quick list and description of the New Heroes, Units, structures, and Upgrades Human Blood Mage This is the new human hero you will use during the campaign. He can control magic and has a ranged attack which attacks land and air units. He has a Flame Strike spell which conjures a pillar of fire which damages ground units. The Banish spell which slows a units movement speed and makes them not able to attack with regular attacks. The Siphon Mana spell that leeches an enemy unit over time. And his ultimate attack the Phoenix. A flying unit that damages land and air units. It slowly destroys itself but, creates an egg that will reborn itself.
Human Units Spell Breaker: Can steal a positive buff from and enemy or negative buff from a friendly and switch it. Can destroy an enemy's mana or control a summoned unit.
Dragonhawk Rider: Flying unit mounted by an elf attacking land and air units. They can stop an enemy structure from using it's ranged attacks or bind and enemy air unit so it can't move or attack.
Building Arcane Tower: A new magical defense structure attacks land and air units.
Upgrades Barrage: Gives the siege engines the ability to attack air units.
Flak Cannons: Gives your flying machines an area-effect damage against air units.
Fragmentation Shards: Increases the area attack of your mortar teams (this makes them a little to powerful but if you get the patch it fixes this).
The Undead Crypt Lord This new hero is my personal favorite hero which has some very unique abilities. He only attacks ground units and summons insects to aid him. He can slam the ground with his Impale ability releasing spike tendrils to impale enemy units. His Spiked Carapace ability in cases his body in barbed layers that increases his base armor and returns damage to enemies attacking him. He can summon Carrion Beetles from corpses which aid him and do not have a time limit to how long they last. his ultimate ability is to produce a Locust Swarm which attack enemies converting damage they do to hit points for the Crypt Lord.
Undead Units Obsidian Statue: A statue that can regenerate the health and mana of nearby friendly units. Attacks land and air units also.
Destroyer: A flying unit that has to consume others magic to replenish it's mana. They attack land and air units.
Building Nerubian Tower: Your Ziggurats can now be upgraded to deal cold damage and slow enemy units.
Upgrades Burrow: Crypt Fiends can now burrow to regenerate hit points faster and scout.
Exhume Corpses: Meat Wagons can now generate corpses themselves to be used by other units.
Skeletal Mastery: You will now be able to spawn skeletal mages with your skeletal warriors.
Night Elves Warden Her name says it all. She can learn Fan of Knives the hurls knives at multiple enemies. Her Blink which teleports her a short distance away. There are plenty of times in the campaign you will be needed to do this or to find special items. The Shadow Strike ability lets go poison dagger that damages the unit over time on top of its initial damage. Will also slow down the units attack speed and movement for a time. Her ultimate skill is Vengeance. Creates an Avatar of Vengeance that summons invulnerable spirits from friendly corpses. These spirits are some tough companions which attack land and air units.
Night Elves Units Mountain Giant: A slow moving but tough to take down land unit. They can learn the Taunt skill, War Club which adds to attack, and Hardened and Resistant Skin making them even tougher.
Faerie Dragon: A Small flying unit adapt at killing enemy casters. Can learn Phase Shift which helps them to avoid continuous damage and Mana Flare that can damage enemy casters when they cast spells.
Buildings None.
Upgrades Well Spring: Makes your Moon Wells even better.
Mark of the Claw: This allows your Druids to cast Roar.
Mark of the Talon: Allows your Druids to cast Faerie Fire.
Orcs Shadow Hunter This Hero is good with healing and voodoo magic. Another fun new Hero to play around with. He can attack land and air units and learn Healing Wave to heal your units, the Hex spell that can turn an enemy into a small creature, can summon a Serpent Ward to attack your enemies and his ultimate Big Bad Voodoo. This turns friendly units invulnerable.
Orc Units Troll Batrider: flying siege unit. Can learn unstable Concoction that creates an explosion dealing damage to flying units. Also, Liquid Fire which damage enemy buildings over time.
Spirit Walker: A Tauren caster that can fight ground and air units and can learn Spirit Link that links several units together so they all share damage they inflict together. Also Disenchant which removes removes buffs and deals damage to summoned units, and Ancestral Spirit that can resurrect another fallen Tauren.
Buildings None
Upgrades Troll Berserkers: Makes your Troll Headhunters tougher.
Reinforced Defenses: Upgrade your towers and burrows with fortified armor.
Burning Oil: Causes Demolisher attacks to light the ground on fire damaging enemy units in an area.
Neutral Heroes Naga Sea Witch You will get to know her while you play through the Night Elves campaign. She has a ranged attack and can cast Forked Lightning which is an electrical attack that damages multiple enemies. She can also have Frost Arrows which slows down an enemies attack rate and movement. She has Mana Shield which with absorb her mana supply instead of taking damage. And her ultimate Tornado attack. This slows down all enemy troops and damages buildings.
Pandaren Brewmaster He excels at absorbing or avoiding damage. He is a melee fighter and is a blast to play. Drunken Haze douses an enemy with alcohol which slows them down and makes them miss more often. His Breath of Fire attack deals damages enemy units and if they have Drunken Haze on them they will burst them into flames. He can also summon a Quilbeast to fight at his side and his Stampede ultimate attack summons a herd of beasts too stampede over enemy ground units.
Beast Master He is the one you will play as in the Orc bonus quest. He is a powerful fighter that can attack land units. He also can summon a large Bear, Quilbeast, and Hawk to fight at his side. He also has the Stampede ultimate attack.
Dark Ranger She can attack land and air units. Her Silence ability makes all spell casters in an area silent. She can fire a Black Arrow which does extra damage and will turn an enemy killed by this turn into a skeleton for the Dark Ranger. She can Life Drain enemies for a period of time replenishing her own hit points and cast her ultimate Charm attack. This will control an enemy non-hero unit.
Pit Lord You may recognize him from the original game. He is a melee fighter that can call forth a Rain of Fire spell that damages initially and over time. He can let loose a Howl of Terror that reduces enemy attacks for a duration. He's Cleaving Attack damages multiple enemies at once and is always in effect and his ultimate attack Doom makes a target unit unable to cast spells and damages them over time until they die. Once the unit is dead a Demon will spawn to fight for you.
I highly recommend this game.
Thank you for reading.
Related game reviews if you are interested in reading them WarCraft III Reign of Chaos Lord of the Rings "Battle for Middle earth II Stronghold Dungeon Siege Diablo II "Lord of Destruction Diablo II
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