Warcraft III Battlechest with Expansion & Two Strategy Guides

First off, it's hard to really rate or give a knowledgeable review of Frozen Throne because those of us that are beta testers are only getting to see the multi-player, on-line aspect of the game. There will also be an extension to the storyline of WC3, of which we can only guess at until the game is out. To give a really in-depth review of the whole game, a person would need the complete expansion.

Another thing that I find upsetting is that one of the reviewers has gotten a lot of helpful votes, just for the simple fact that people don't know whether he's correct or not. His review would have been appropriate when he wrote it. He wrote his review in March, and the game has made some drastic changes since then. So, for example, saying that Orc Batriders are overpowered is no longer applicable. To be honest, people rarely use them anymore.

Also, there is no Night Elf hero that can change Day into Night. That is an item that the Night Elves can buy from their own specific shop. To explain this, each race has the ability to build their own shop, which is very inexpensive at the moment, from which they can buy items, such as scroll of town portals, heath potions, etc. Each race has certain item specific to them. Like the Night Elf item to change the time of day or the Undead item called a Wand of Necromancy that can summon 2 skeletons from a corpse. But for some reason Blizzard decided to give Undead that item, but take away the Wand of Negation from the Original WarCraft 3. I haven't understood that move (taking away the Wand of Negation) since the beta started.

There are many other changes as well, but if I was to try and list them all, it would take me quite a while. Just rest assured that Blizzard has done a bang up job of not only making it feel like an expansion, but also adding the excitement back to when we first got WarCraft 3 and got to try out all the "new" stuff. And if I listed them all, I would take away some of the excitement of when you first pop it in and play it yourself.

Okay now that I got that off my chest, my opinion on FT so far is that it is fantastic! Bear in mind that I am only reviewing this game from the multi-player, on-line, battle.net aspect of it; I have no idea what the storyline will be to the game.

Veterans to WC3 will find some very interesting changes in Frozen Throne. While still not complete, the game seems to be reaching its home stretch. Blizzard does an excellent job of fixing balance issues, as many WC3 players already know. So that's why it was not a good idea for someone to post in March on how powerful certain units were, because Blizzard has since fixed that issue and it's no longer true. Recently they changed it so that you can get Wyverns at tier 2 now, but whether or not that will stay in the final edition, I can't say.

I personally give the game 5 stars because it excels at what I loved about WC3 so much. The on-line aspect. In all my years of gaming I don't remember a game that has pulled me in as much as WC3 has, and now Frozen Throne.

There is however a nice learning curve. Even if you are very good at WC3, you will run into some bumps in the road with Frozen Throne. But this is to be expected with new units, new heroes, new buildings and new creeps. Be warned though, a lot of the newer creeps are very, very tough and are not to be fought unless you have quite a few units. I say this mostly in the vain hope that I don't get to hear "our alley's hero has fallen" to creeps. So don't say I didn't warn you, he, he.


Is this game a Game of the Year or what?!   June 18, 2004
chaoslegion (Los Angeles, CA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

In my opinion, this game is definitly a Game of the Year back in 2002 or 2003. This game is like the good old Starcraft; simple, quirky and FUN!!! This game is very easy to learn and not complicated unlike Blitzkrieg, Medieval, or Rise of Nations and it can be mastered within a month if you are already familiar with the Blizzard games.

Requirements, like Blitzkrieg, is no problem. You can enjoy a single player with a Celeron 900mhz, 256mb ram, GeForce 2 MX400 (I have tried it on this PC) while the multiplayer needs a better rig such as Athlon XP 2000+, 512mb ram, GeForce 4 MX440, and at least a Cable or DSL (I have also tried on this PC) to play without any lags or any slowdowns. But speaking of lags, lags IS a big problem on Battle.net. Even though you have a good rig and a broadband, the opponent or an ally of yours might have the worst PC that you can ever think of but this is not very common.

Multiplayer, is simply the best feature in this game. You can play many mods (you already know what those are) and play the multiplayer game itself. But more people plays mods and it's a good thing. Like myself, I like the original RTS multiplayer games but some might like mods better which gives more choices for people and raises the replay value.

Finally, one word, a must have. Sorry, I meant three. Having to include a Game of the Year and its expansion, this Battle Chest is a must own. This game is one of the best that you can ever wish for but if you do not agree with me then you probably have never played the game before. (To make it simple, just think of it as Starcraft with more maps, different units, and better graphics)

P.S. But if you did played the game before and you don't agree wth me, you are out of your MIND!!!!!