Game Debate #202: Warcraft III

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

[Brickman | 3,994]

10. Played it this year for my backlog so I won’t repeat myself. A must play for RTS fans who haven’t played it.

[Sumez | 2,967]

Played the shit out of Warcraft 2 as a kid and was pretty excited for 3. I even played the leaked beta a lot with friends at the time.

When the game finally came out, I played it through once and I do recall probably enjoying it, but that's also about all I remember of it. I have no idea what I'd rate it.

I also have a massive collectors edition thing stored away in the attic...

[Mega Tank | 966]

7 hours ago, Sumez said:

Played the shit out of Warcraft 2 as a kid and was pretty excited for 3. I even played the leaked beta a lot with friends at the time.

When the game finally came out, I played it through once and I do recall probably enjoying it, but that's also about all I remember of it. I have no idea what I'd rate it.

Just about the same experience with Warcarft 3 and Stacraft 2. I like the new updated graphics, but the feels of both new games just didn't do it for me. I recalled there being issues with heroes being overpowered early on the games release and I just lost interest. Probably never gave them a good chance.

[RH | 4,921]

1 hour ago, Mega Tank said:

Just about the same experience with Warcarft 3 and Stacraft 2. I like the new updated graphics, but the feels of both new games just didn't do it for me. I recalled there being issues with heroes being overpowered early on the games release and I just lost interest. Probably never gave them a good chance.

I played this around 2005, I think, and I recall having the same general opinion.  I struggled between giving it a 4 or a 5 and went with a 4.  I also know it shouldn't matter but for some reason, sprite-based RTSs are more enjoyable to me, running in an isometric perspective.  It seems like it'd be cooler in the 2000s era for any game to high quality 3D graphics but when it came to the overall experience, I preferred playing all games like this in 2D.

Edited April 25 by RH

[Mega Tank | 966]

31 minutes ago, RH said:

I played this around 2005, I think, and I recall having the same general opinion.  I struggled between giving it a 4 or a 5 and went with a 5.  I also know it shouldn't matter but for some reason, sprite-based RTSs are more enjoyable to me, running in an isometric perspective.  It seems like it'd be cooler in the 2000s era for any game to high quality 3D graphics but when it came to the overall experience, I preferred playing all games like this in 2D.

I really like the graphics, but it just wasn't for me. Maybe we are just old 

Edited April 25 by Mega Tank

[NostalgicMachine | 238]

I've never played this!!!

[cj_robot | 543]

Had a similar experience as others here, I guess. Absolutely loved Warcraft II and got III when it was pretty new. I don't remember disliking it, but I just never ended up spending a lot of time with it. I did happen to come at a time when I wasn't spending so much time playing video games any more, so there's that. 

[Tulpa | 3,516]

Same here. Loved the first two Warcrafts and the expansion to II, but I think I was burnt out on RTS Blizzard games when III came out. I don't even remember actually buying it, so I think it was a friend's copy or something.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

I'm the opposite.  Starctaft and WC3 are 9/10 for me, whereas going back to WC2 after the fact (and after a bunch of other RTS) was painful.

[TDIRunner | 2,744]

Never played any of the Warcraft games.  

[Tulpa | 3,516]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I'm the opposite.  Starctaft and WC3 are 9/10 for me, whereas going back to WC2 after the fact (and after a bunch of other RTS) was painful.

Oh, I fully agree that going back to an older, clunkier RTS would not be ideal (especially in 2024), but at the time, it was "Okay, this is cool and more refined, but I'm kind of over WarStarOrcCraft style games."

[Tulpa | 3,516]

35 minutes ago, TDIRunner said:

Never played any of the Warcraft games.  

They're cool for the story and the humor ("Why do you keep touching me?"), but they definitely show their age nowadays.

[Tanooki | 4,939]

If I were given a copy or it was a dollar or two at a flea market I'd grab it, but it's nothing I'd go out of my way for.  I gave it a 5 and feel it's more than fair.

I've had it a few times over the years since it came out, and each time I lose interest largely because I disliked the forced nuances and situations around primarily the special characters meant for a stage.  I think it just kind of is a fun sucking pain in the ass more than a benefit.  I didn't care much for how the Ai differed in general for regular units either compared to Warcraft II which enjoyed most of all and the original not far behind that.  WC3 is far more fun as a story than a game...kind of like Halo.

[Webhead123 | 679]

I played quite a bit of Warcraft II (and even more Starcraft) but I've never played Warcraft III and I probably never will. The RTS genre just doesn't hit with me anymore and I vastly prefer turn-based strategy games. In fact, I was initially really excited for Dune: Spice Wars until I learned that it was an RTS. I'll probably never play that game either, unfortunately.

Edited April 26 by Webhead123

[DefaultGen | 5,413]

I've only played this at my friends house which I realize isn't any kind of fair shake, but I just didn't like building an army around hero units at all nor the slower combat. I was a Starcraft and Red Alert 2 boy at the time, and now you can just give me SC2 and AOE2 and throw out the rest of the entire genre. Strategy games require so much learning and studying that I will never have the time to play ones besides the ones that I already think are the best at this point.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,090]

The introduction of heroes in the WC II expansion was the beginning of the end for me.  I like WC I & II and Starcraft for essentially giving you command of your troops and a mission to accomplish.  Once it became about the hero's journeys and stories and fetch quests and whatnot, it became just like every other non-fps modern game in existence: story over gameplay.  I was turned off by this aspect of WC III so quickly that I don't even think I made it two hours in.  WC I & II, on the other hand, took months of my mid-90's life away...

[fox | 1,668]

I really dug it.  The story.  The hero unit.  All the different factions and campaigns (special shout out to the Rexxar.)  The endless amount of custom games (Dota, Pyramid Run, Run Panda Run.)  This was my go to game for a whole year or two.

I don't know if we will ever get a Warcraft 4.  WoW pretty much nuked the lore.  I think if any series need a reboot it is Warcraft.

[DefaultGen | 5,413]

51 minutes ago, fox said:

I don't know if we will ever get a Warcraft 4.

I'm not sure Activision Blizzard would ever deliver the game anyone actually wants when they make the majority of their money from mobile game microtransactions, season passes, etc. I know Starcraft 2 is the best RTS I'll ever get because I can't imagine a modern Starcraft 3 ever comes out in a "just buy the game and have it" format.

[Webhead123 | 679]

9 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

I'm not sure Activision Blizzard would ever deliver the game anyone actually wants when they make the majority of their money from mobile game microtransactions, season passes, etc. I know Starcraft 2 is the best RTS I'll ever get because I can't imagine a modern Starcraft 3 ever comes out in a "just buy the game and have it" format.

It's an honest tragedy to witness just how far Blizzard has fallen since the acquisition by Activision. To be fair, almost none of the core minds from "old" Blizzard are still there anymore and all of their games have ridden the greed-train so long that they are almost unrecognizable. Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, WoW, Overwatch...these guys used to rule the world.

[Tulpa | 3,516]

Pretty much what happens when you suddenly have shareholders.

[G-type | 2,483]

my co-worker and I used to vs each other in this whenever we had the office to ourselves. Good times.

[G-type | 2,483]

22 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

The introduction of heroes in the WC II expansion was the beginning of the end for me.  I like WC I & II and Starcraft for essentially giving you command of your troops and a mission to accomplish.  Once it became about the hero's journeys and stories and fetch quests and whatnot, it became just like every other non-fps modern game in existence: story over gameplay.  I was turned off by this aspect of WC III so quickly that I don't even think I made it two hours in.  WC I & II, on the other hand, took months of my mid-90's life away...

I thought the heroes thing was great. One of the most memorable aspects.

[Tulpa | 3,516]

Warcraft II: The Tides of Darkness (the non-expansion game) also had heroes. They just didn't have unique voices like Beyond the Dark Portal, instead used the generic unit ones.

[Mega Tank | 966]

9 hours ago, G-type said:

my co-worker and I used to vs each other in this whenever we had the office to ourselves. Good times.

I miss the internet cafe days where you'd just get a day pass and play vs people all day long. Getting to see and hear reactions to sniping them in Counterstrike 1.5 was priceless.