A game that managed to keep it all balanced and together.

I remember when this game first came out. I could not be happier, and the map creation kit, unlike it's Star Craft brother was immensely more powerful. With the ability to make your own units and even incorporate your own models, it was a slice of something else. It was the power of this kit that gave birth to a HUGE amount of entertaining and innovative online maps available now, and one of the reasons the game is still so strongly played online *that and it's a great game to play*

The storyline for this game is fairly weak and cliche. Great forces of darkness show up at your door, vanquish them, the icon of salvation turns into an icon of destruction through corruption, blah blah blah. Nobody bought this game for the story anyways, it was all for the online play baby!

And what an online play it was! Servers were quick, lag was minimal, the diversity of each race *human, elf, undead, orc* gave room for some very powerful strategies, and the strengths and weaknesses of each unit didn't prove to be crippling, nor too advantageous, so the beginner could play and put up a fight while still having fun, while the expert could gain the upper hand quicker.

Despite all the differences of the races, it was the ability to keep things balanced that made the game so strong.

And Warcraft 3 was one of the first games to introduce leveling heroes. Starting them off weak but titans once they hit their max level, the heroes really made a difference in battle, but again, they didn't DOMINATE completely. A hero by themselves, at any level, was going to get their asses handed down to them.