The Warcraft series has been popular for a while, but there was a big time gap between W II and W III. The question on everyone’s mind is, was it worth the wait?

In my humble yet correct opinion, yes and then some. I love this game. There are many new features added, such as heroes, and then the 2 new races. This brings strategy to a whole new level of gaming.

I personally was worried that the heroes they made would be too powerful, you know, be able to single handedly win your battle. But they weren’t. They're just right. When they start at level one, some times basic units are better fighters then your fighter hero. But when your hero gets into battle and levels up, he will easily become your strongest unit. They won’t win your fights for you, by no means could they, no matter what level, but they can turn the tide of a battle in your favor.

And another good thing about them is you feel like you're in the game more, you can identify with the hero, pretend to be him in the fight. In other strategy games you feel like this weird sprit floating above the battle ground. But with the hero, you feel like your right there with them.

The first of the new races are the Undead. Their hero's have the ability to revive fallen units, not alot. 6, and that’s only after your hero is level 6. And their units are quantity over quality. One of there draw backs is you have to build the buildings on unholy land. Much like the Zerg from Starcraft.

Then there is the Night Elves. I love the Night Elves (But I suck at playing as them. If you could help a guy out I’m at Garet42@hotmail.com thx)

"Jerk."

What?

"Using your work..."

Forced Labor Activity, or as I like to call it FLA

"FLA to help you out with you horrible Night Elves skills."

Couldn’t hurt.

"Like anyone reads this any way."

See, so I’m not hurting anyone.

"What about me?"

Yea, see your my computer with really old cheerio's in it.

"That hurts."

Yea, well the night elves use alot of ranged attacks, and stealth to there advantage, but probably the coolest thing about them is the ancients. The ancients are buildings that can uproot them selves and fight to defend them selves. It’s helpful in a pinch.

But I need to mention this one last thing. The plot. Yes, this game has a lot of campaigns, and they have an enthralling plot of betrayal, hope, death and rebirth. You won’t be able to stop playing.

The in game graphics are okay, but not incredible. But it’s understand able, with all that’s going on in the game, if they made the graphics any better then the game would... freeze... every.. two.. seconds. See annoying, but luckily they avoided that.

The real eye pleaser is the cut scenes. I’ve seen allot of good cut scenes, being a big RPG fan, but noting can hold a candle to these. The best example I can give, was in one i was watching you could tell the prince was wearing velvet. No joke, I was watching it and knew it was velvet. I couldn’t believe it. They did a better than amazing job on them.

This is classic Warcraft, and if you don’t know what that means, then I’ll tell you. Some of the guys are really serious, and say cool things, but to lighten the mood Blizzard’s guys made some of them say some funny stuff. Allot of it is corny, but it doesn't get old.

But other that that, nothing spectacular, good, but doesn't stand out as a pillar.

Gameplay is still the same basic idea, but with allot of extra’s put on it. You build building that make or upgrade the guys, so then you can make better building, and thus better guys, or gals.

But this is were the hero’s come in. I think this is one of the best aspects of the game, I have had my hero die upwards of 3 times a skirmish, but i just revive him and start again. I think that it shows that the hero’s are not invincible, they are actually quite vulnerable. Because people are scared of them they are sometimes the first to go.

I’ve already said allot about the hero’s and the new races, so I won’t bore you further, but trust me, it’s good.

This is also the basic same thing, hotkeys, click here, click there. Nothing special, but nothing to dismiss easily. But I will.

+ Heroes

+ Night Elves

+ Undead

+ Enthralling Story

- I suck with the Night Elves

? My life long dream is to own an armadillo and name it Kangaroo

? Why are baby kangaroo’s called Joeys?

Overall (not an average): 9/10