This game came highly UN-recommended, and I'm not too happy about that since I think that it's a pretty cool game. However, I can understand what turned the people who hated this game off about it: the absolutely atrocious single player campaign.
It starts off relatively well, with the turorial with Thrall and the Orcs. Even though Thrall is sort of annoying (I am... the warchief) and Grom Hellscream has apparently been castrated (what happened to his cool insane voice?!), the missions are pretty cool and the graphics and lush and colorful (some people would say this game is TOO colorful).
Things take a sudden nosedive when you start on the human campaign. This nosedive has a name: Prince Arthas. This character is so incredibly annoying that I'm sure Gandhi would want to kick his arse. He's meant to be a snotty prince, but he comes off as more than snotty. He should have been killed at birth for being as ugly as he is. I mean, he's got a Mustard Jelly chewing on the back of his head! (Oh sorry, that's his hair). Then we're introduced to the hot babe of the game, whose name I forget at the moment. Well, "hot babe" only in concept... she looks like a friggin horse! (Incidently, she comes off as the exact opposite of Alleria in Beyond the Dark Portal, who had a hot face and an ugly voice) There is one cool hero in the human single player missions, a cool dwarf dude. Unfortunately, he's only in it for about three missions, and he dies and Arthas lives.
But wait... the human campaign's over... on to the new, cool Undead heroes! Come on, how hard would it be to screw up something as inherently cool as the Undead? It would take a force so annoying, so obnoxious, so incredibly lame that even Mother Teresa would want to beat in its head with a... uh oh... are you thinking what I'm thinking?! That's right, Arthas is back, this time riding a skeletal horsey that you've got to feel sorry for. To make matters worse, while he used to be a juggernaut with his new sword (who's the dumb schmuck that picks up an obviously cursed sword, anyway? The thing was called Frostmourne for crying out loud!) he's now a wimp who has trouble chopping through knights, much less actual enemies with skills and numbers.
And for some reason every hero, when you piss him off, seems to want to tell you his life story instead of saying something funny. Whatever happened to "Ya talkin' ta me? Hands off, grubba. Don't waste my time." In fact, whatever happened to the cool heroes from the expansion to the second game, anyway? Danath and Alleria would have been welcomed with open arms. Heck, even that annoying wizard-dude would be cool. Uther Lightbringer does show up, but only long enough to be killed by Arthas (the shame!) And he doesn't look anything like he used to, either.
I never managed to pound through the Undead campaign long enough to get to the green pastures of Orcdom. Maybe I'm actually saving myself some more disappointment. Howerver, the game does have a redeeming feature: its fun multiplayer.
This game would totally kick ass if we could get about six people gathered 'round the hub and swapping smacks upside the head courtesy your friendly neighborhood Tauren Chieftain or Dreadlord. Even with two or three people it's pretty cool (though I gotta admit that it's annoying to run into creep when you're bringing down reinforcements). Woohoo, that reminds me of another great thing about this game: the Creep.
Why exactly they're called Creep, I have no idea. What they are is little groups of monsters who stand around and guard things you want, like gold mines and goblin shops. They're cool because there's just so MANY of them. There's gnolls, fishy critters, all sorts of dragons, Yetis (called Wendigos), Sasquatches (called Sasquatches), trolls, spider people, and that's only scratching the surface. You can hire lots of them as mercenaries... it's always fun to pick up an Ogre or three (even though when they talk the proper head isn't always displaying the talking animation).
The speech in this game is pretty good, and often funny. I've got to send props out for references to Army of Darkness (this... is... my... boomstick!) and Full Metal Jacket (only two things come from Texas... and I've got horns!).
Which leads me to the part of this site I've been wanting to put up for a while... the Coolness Chart.
Coolest Hero:
Orcs: Tauren Chieftain - This guy had already won as far as I was concerned before I even played the game. Also, he said the Full Metal Jacket quote above.
Humans: Mountain King - Though the Paladin's pretty cool too, saying "Can ye add some points to my drinkin' skill?" won this guy the award.)
Night Elves: Demon Hunter - Night Elves have lame heroes overall, and the Demon Hunter looks a lot cooler than he actually is.
Undead: Lich - This dude is too cool to touch-literally. That's what Frost Armor will do for ya!
Coolest Normal Units:
Orcs: Tauren - These guys kick butt and take names in the game, and talk and look pretty darn cool too.
Humans: Dwarven Rifleman - This is a tough award to give, but these guys are hilarious (and say the boomstick quote)
Night Elves: The Trees - Whupping ass with some uprooted Ancients is just too much fun, dude.
Undead: Crypt Fiend - This guy is the reason I wanted to make this page, honestly. His attack line blows me away every time he says it: "He dreamed of life." I don't know what it means (is it from a poem? a song?) but it's sooo cool! UPDATE: I guess this was just wishful thinking, but all he really says is "Be drained of life." How lame. But as sad as it seems, I guess these guys are still the best undead unit.
Honorable Mention:
Troll Witch Doctor - This guy is hilarious-I love his Jamaican accent, mon!
Peon - How can you not love the peon? He looks so cute you just want to smack him around and make him break his back working.
Hall of Dishonor:
Dryad - I won't even hire this unutterably lame unit.
Banshee - Aargh, she's so dang ugly. Where's the hot Banshee I was waiting for?
Chimera - Come on, this thing had such high potential for a cool unit-how'd they ruin it?
Oh, and one more thing... the movies in this game ROCK!!! Arthas is actually COOL in the movie he's in where he kills his dad (oh I'm sorry, was that a spoiler? tough beans). I think I'll cheat to unlock the cut scenes, and only watch those. Don't hate me! I just can't stand the repetative levels and worst of all Arthas. You can't MAKE me play some more levels with him in it. You WON'T make me. AAAAAAAARGH.
UPDATE: Ok, you did make me. I finished the Undead campaign and started the Orc campaign. Then I needed to uninstall/reinstall to get the update, so I lost all my progress... man, that blows! Anyway, along the way someone showed me the final Orc movie, which of course totally reaffirmed my belief in Blizzard, Warcraft, Orcs, and Grom Hellscream. He'd better be resurrected somehow for the expansion, or for World of Warcraft.
UPDATE: I'm seen bits of the expansion. Illidan looks absolutely awesome. Gotta get it some day when it's really cheap.