WarCraft III 📽 Through the Lens

And how'everyone doing on the start of this fine week? Winter is almost over folks, and let me tell ya - it can't finish soon enough. 🙂 Me personally, can't stand the cold and am beyond excited for the sun to come back. ☀️

But we are still in the den of winter, so less time to go outside - and more time to ponder our life choices (😭). In one of these deep meditative states I came to the conclusion: Warcraft 3 was such a great game.

Aaaaaaaand, now I'm here writing another article. Figures. Well, since it's about the best RTS game of all time arguably, I think you'll forgive my indulgence. Remember: as good as Diablo and BroodWar put Blizzard on the map, it was this game that made the studio a household name. 😤 Deservedly so.

In this edition of Through the Lens 🎞, we will talk about a trendsetter if there ever was one. The originator of a universe that still dominates the industry to this day. Blizzard's 2003 smash hit: Warcraft 3, Roll it! 📽

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🚩 UP TOP 🚩

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👏 Before we get started, I encourage everyone to travel back in time and listen to the OST while reading this piece:

_{Warcraft III Frozen Throne OST}

Don't get it twisted, we are talking about the OG WC3 - none of that Reforged nonesence up in here, thank you.

Also, we are talking about the whole package. That means both Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne. i.e. the ultimate warcraft 3 experience.

While BroodWar reigned in South Korea, Warcraft 3 was making its mark on the western world. The practices and standards established by this game, are being followed by RTS developers (they exist! I promise! 😅) to this day. As well as taking the Warcraft IP to heights few gaming franchises dream of reaching.

We're talking superstardom here people! Let's see how they did it.

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⚔️ RTS ⚔️

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For some of us it was Command and Conquer, for others it was Age of Empires - for me, it was Warcraft 3. 😎

The RTS genre doesn't really exist anymore, as gamers have seemed to move past it(?) I dunno what's going on but there aren't many RTS games anymore. But back in the day, this genre was IT❗️

Its design might be archaic by today's standards, but at the time it was crisp. For instance, control groups could only go up to 19 units, and you could only have so many groups. Keybindings were generally awful, and you couldn't rebind them. But trust me it was great. 😅

The design was also flexible as it lent itself to all manner of different types of games (we will explore this in more detail in the Costum Map section).

Moreover, the game's NetCode is the stuff of legends, and battle.net was a game-changer for online video games - it was the first such functionality and it was baked in the game itself. 💯

I'm telling you, this game was a trendsetter in more ways than one. Including...

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🎊 A+ PRESENTATION 🎊

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I'm telling ya, dude, you felt you were in Azeroth when playing this game. 😁 At the time, there were few experiences that allowed you to have that level of immersion. The sound and art teams pulled their weight - but the world-building is the real hero here.

Everything felt solid. All the screws were super tight and the elements worked in synchronicity. The music fit the art and vice versa. The character voice lines were memorable and well thought out. They weren't just generic blurbs but actually added to the world, and more importantly, to the character itself. 🤗

BONUS CAMPAIGN

So, in Frozen Throne, there was this bonus single-player campaign I can only describe as proto WoW. It was The Founding of Durotar a vast map that you could explore as Rexxar. Devoid of all the RTS mechanics you've grown used to, this campaign was something different. And to me it was obvious that blizz were trying stuff out for future WoW mechanics - as everything that would be in Classic WoW is present in this campaign. This mode was unlike anything else in the game, and I bet blizz could've developed a whole game in this concept. Guess they took it a step forward and made WoW.

But that bonus campaign is not the only bonus content you got in this game. 😅 Oh, no, my sweet summer child... this game has so much bonus content that it's active to this very day.

How?

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🍁 COSTUM MAPS 🍁

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What are those? I believe nowadays they call them paid DLCs 😂. Ah, when times were simpler... and our industry wasn't this huge corporate beast... I miss those times...

Warcraft 3 - like its predecessor Starcraft before it - came with a custom map editor. People could create whole new games essentially in the Warcraft 3 engine and play them with their friends. A novel idea to this day actually.

You could even play these games on battle.net.

It is here where the game gets its longevity and renown. The campaign and style of the game are superb. But this custom scenario feature took the game to heights few have reached.

_{Some of the more popular Warcraft 3 among the catalog of thousands.}

Its obvious that wc3 created the MOBA genre (AoS from Broodwar might have something to say about that, but they were still called dota-clones and not AoS-clones, so there's that. 😁) And I'm pretty sure tower defense as well. Amongst many other lesser-known genres.

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🏆 LEGACY 🏆

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What is there to say about this game that hasn't been said a hundred times? Not much really. 😅

A giant amongst its peers. Played both casually and competitively to this very day. Heck 😈 there are still tournaments for this game.

A campaign that has led to many a gamer thinking they could become authors. Characters that transcend the game and have entered popular culture. I mean, the list goes on and on, and on, and on, and on...

If you by some miracle haven't played this game, and are prone to the RTS gameplay, then you def need to give this gem a try. 😌

Boy was this fun to write. 😁 Took me back to when I would play this game religiously. I truly hope I've stirred some nostalgic feelings in some of you.

Reforged was a disaster and I remember how hyped I was for that remake. But as with everything, Blizz is not the company it once was (not by a long shot) - and I should've expected dissapointed.

If by any chance you wanna try this game, don't get Reforged, it sucks. Just get the original and you're gucci. 😎

Shout-out to the 🍕PIZZA🍕 gang, 🤙 gang. 🤙

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Stay safe and have a great week! 🙌