Warning : very huge recital incoming. Take a seat and breathe heavily.
Greetings, Turnro. My name is Luke Hakurei, I'm a fellow Warcraft III gamer from France. I'll do my best to write properly, and apologize for this disastrous grammar.
First of all, I'd like to congratulate you for your astonishing work. I began to play Warcraft III - Reign of Chaos when I was 10, or something like that ; twelve years later, I came back to this wondrous game and nostalgia pumped through my veins. Soon after I bet the fudge out of Archimonde once again, this time without the "whosyourdaddy" godly gift, I found myself lonely doing the Frozen Throne extension. Curiously, the magic I felt while playing the first game wasn't as tremendous as that first experience. I was kinda disappointed.
That's where you interfere, Turnro. Several month ago, I heard about a customised campaign that proposed an alternate storyline from the original story of the game of my childhood. My heart was shaking. I spoiled myself the last interlude of Resurrection of the Scourge (sadly, that’s this youtube video that told me about your works), and decided to further investigate. Soon after, all your four campaigns where downloaded and ready to be played.
Now I’m there, having played almost all of your maps (only the last Sentinel mission of Malfurion’s Quest remains to be done). I got numerous questions to ask you about. But first, as a gift for this nostalgia drive back you granted me, allow me to deliver you all of my impressions about your fantastic work, and review all of the four campaigns that you built up. I hope for you that you like reading long texts, ‘cause in my country, I’m quite well-known for being talkative !
First act : General reviewing
The very first reactions I had when launching the first mission of Rowan’s Adventures were as follow :
- OH MY GOD, IT HAS NEW MUSIC !!!
- God, the scene is so beautifully set !
- This is just like Warcraft III originally was !
- Yeah, I like it.
- OMG WTF BBQ IT’S MOTHER HUGGING DUBBED !!!
Yeah, it was kinda eccentric.
But that’s just how I felt. I wasn’t really expecting anything from this campaigns and had feared that this was a good idea that wasn’t properly exploited. I was all wrong. In numerous ways, you just blew my mind. Let me develop all of the points I found important in your works and comment them.
1- Concerning the maps
Probably one of the features that struck me the most. The hugging maps.
For all four campaigns, without any hesitation, I’d say that the Warcraft III spirit was admirably respected. I didn’t felt any difference from the original maps level design at all, and really felt like this is an alternative version of Reign of Chaos itself.
Roaming through the Fog of War and through adventure, that was with an unspeakable pleasure that I played all of the missions you offered us. It was truly fantastic.
Your art of map designing is godlike, Turnro. This is something I just can’t withstand. Of course, from the Adventures of Rowan to Malfurion’s Quest, you improved quite a lot ; but even at your beginning, some years ago, you were excellent at it.
The exploitation of the wideness of the maps is very good, from creep placement to objectives location. We really expect the quests to trigger and resolve at the moments it should. The mastery of this map designing is almost perfect, and you got all my blessings for sharing this art with us.
2- General difficulty
Difficulty is something very hard to handle. But you managed to do it quite well.
There’s some slight moments were difficulty vary too much, unfortunately. As an example, when fighting the Antiques in Normal difficulty with Rowan, I had probably the hardest time of all the human campaign. Whereas in the last mission, I really didn’t have any hard time to literally STOMP the undead purple base and then destroying the Lich King. Though it was most exciting.
Another hard moment is when you have to do that optional quest in Highborne story with Malfurion : destroying regular then corrupted Furbolgs. Gold is depleting too soon as your forces are being crushed down, from furbolgs to Illidan’s wild forces (even though the animals are the true menace here). I had to regurlarly save and then load back to win this fight. It was really close at numerous moments.
However, I’m quite the bad gamer and doesn’t handle RTS with such skill. Maybe I’m just bad after all.
Overall, the balancing was good anyway. Seeing our own heroes progress and improve through the levels are a really pleasing thing to see.
3- New content
Another point where you hit me with amazement.
New objects, new heroes, new units, and huge more.
Especially within Rowan and Furion’s campaigns, you literally spoiled us with an infinity of beautiful improvements. That is probably the reason why, when I was playing your game, I didn’t felt old or anything : I was playing the game of my dreams, with a couple of radiant shiny newness that brought me back in time, when I was discovering the wonderful game of Warcraft III. Yes, that’s it : all these improvements just allowed me to play Warcraft III, without having the impression of always doing the same thing than twelve years ago. I discovered it once again.
This was especially the case when playing Rowan, this new hero and his new fellowship, and Furion, in a world that needs him and allow him to choose from a regular destiny or a complete, mysterious, dark and mystical other fate. That’s also maybe why I appreciated Orcs and Undead campaign much less than the others, but it can also be explained by the fact that these are my less favourite two races. But I’ll come back to it later.
Let me just say this as a word of conclusion for the new content of your games :
“Congratulations !”
4- Marvellous musics
Music is my guilty pleasure when playing games. For I love all of the Warcraft III soundtracks, I have to say that the new OST you brought within the Human and Night Elf campaign just gave me a heartblow.
These were just PERFECT.
I could felt all of Rowan’s bravery and power with the awesome tracks playing while wandering around enemy bases or roaming into the most cruel wilderness.
I could sense my soul flow like a calm stream snaking through Ashevale’s Forests as Furion headed his way to rally all the forces of the ancients.
I could grasp the essence of magic, and grant myself power as the Highborne taught me true power and let me see what the world should become.
I could fear for my life and the future of Azeroth while the Burning Legion came to end all of what we love, and the orcs desperately fought for the living of all things.
All this, just by the power of music.
You, Turnro, are a hero. The fine selection you made for the tracks playing within this game is spectacular. It’s just a pity we didn’t have enough of this treasure within the second and third campaign. With this, even the one playing about the races I don’t really like could have sounded like a true masterpiece.
5- Set up the scene !
About interludes, and in-game cutscenes with characters.
Just like I said before, the scenes are always beautifully set. The camera takes good angles, have good movements, and show characters in good positioning and attitude.
Just like you did with the maps, the in-game scenes were pure gold. It respected the full Warcraft III spirit, with the same material, the same intelligence, the same attention to detail. What else ? I can only be fulfilled with happiness.
All the means used to create a bright new Warcraft load of campaigns were used. Everything you could do to make this loyal to the original franchise, you did it. And for this, good sire, you have all my respect.
6- Talking about some criticism
Unfortunately, nothing is truly perfect, and despite all I said just before this, there are some things that just disturbed me while playing the campaigns. Here are the flaws I felt during this experience.
The first one, and I hate to admit it : dialogues.
Dialogues are, with music, one of the things I look for the most, in video games and Warcraft above all else. And here, I can just say that somewhere, I felt kinda disappointed.
Warcraft III offered me quite cool lines, and quotations that even in French, I can remember today.
« Tremblez, mortels ! Et perdez tout espoir ! La malédiction envahit votre monde ! »
“Tremble, mortals, and despair ! Doom has come to this world !”
I could not meet again with these lines as I played your campaigns. There wasn’t any line that struck me like they did in the original campaigns. It was like… Something common, and dull. Of course, there were moments where I could feel something from what was being said (Like the interlude where Rowan speaks to all his forces before the final assault, though it’s more like the music is making this scene truly epic).
I’m not criticizing the dubbing, which was really good for a project like yours. It’s within the very lines where I couldn’t find the quality I looked after. That’s a real pity, because without this flaw, your game could almost be perfect.
The second flaw I could say is about the inner storyline of each campaign. Or just one or two missions. But I will say more in the next act of my review.
In fact, all campaigns have its pros and cons. Some fail where the others succeed and vice versa. That’s why I’ll deal with each of them later.
Finally, the last flow is the lack of real character development that lies within these campains. Only Resurrection of the Scourge allowed me to deal with characters that where not just pure evil and stupidity, or light and kindness. The character’s personality, in general, are too stereotyped. It’s really hard for me to get attached to any of the characters in these stories, although I really liked some of them (Rowan, Furion and Varimathras are my most favorites). It would have been really cool if more heroes could have been confronted with deeper problematics and inner conflicts. Instead of that, they are always focusing on their missions and don’t talk about anything else. Fortunatly, Furion’s treatment is tending to make this affirmation false. Especially during the last interlude to date in the Sentinel campaign (the one before the 5th mission), the discussion he has with Tyrande made me smile.
Aaaaand that’s it. In fact, generally speaking, I have to say that you succeed in flawless victory with the making of the maps, the technical part, the “gaming” mecanics.
But where you fail is something different, more like the “story telling” aspect of Warcraft III. In the end, the story you propose is kinda classic and does not really offer something that different from the original story. There’s no revolution in there : we’re always here to prevent the Burning Legion to take over the world, and that’s it.
However, I can’t figure out how it could have been better myself. To tell the truth, fighting against the Burning Legion is one of my favourite dreams since I bet Archimonde at the roots of Nordrassil. Even if the story doesn’t differ much from the original one to this point, I can’t really say that it disturbs me. I’m just eager to kick Kil’jaeden’s butt within the shortests delays.
7- As a word of conclusion
I’d just say that despite these flaws, I just had a splendid experience playing these campaigns. I just can’t wait for Malfurion’s quest to be finished. It is a true masterpiece that is to come. For all what remains to be done, Turnro, you have all my support !
Second act : Four campaigns to rule them all
I – The Adventures of Rowan the Wise
There is lots to say about your first work, and I can’t figure out everything that should be told.
With Rowan came the discover of your fine maps, and the emotions I shared with him are still beating within my heart. I love Rowan, I love his friends, I love the music, I love almost everything in this campaign.
This is the only one which is dubbed, and it’s probably its greatest quality. Even if the dubbing is not as good as professional, the efforts put in it are worth the trick. I highly appreciate the work of all dubbers, even though Arthas’ mic should be renewed really soon ! =p
Like I just said, there are lots of things that made me dream in this campaign :
- The musics. They’re probably the coolest in the entire series. Still today, I love to listen to them, and I play this missions just to do it !
- Rowan. Yes. It’s probably one of the most ingenuous and candid of all the characters here, but I couldn’t help but feel attached to him.
- That freaking last mission !!!
- An alternate ending for Lordaeron against the Scourge.
All Rowan’s adventure was cool as hell. We ventured through lots of scenery and peril together.
The first mission, which serves as a tutorial, was nicely designed and a good introduction to your series. The flow of the story led us to meet lots of friends, and assemble a party of five comrades ready to do everything to save what could be saved. The general storyline was kinda good.
I really liked the way that you proposed us, here, how the story could have turned if it wasn’t up to Arthas but Rowan. A good ending for Lordaeron.
That’s also why I love Rowan so much : he’s the hero that I didn’t have myself, twelve years ago, when the ten-years-old-me looked upon the fall of Arthas and got traumatized by the ending of the human campaign.
However, I have to say that this campaign just had some moments that bothered me quite hard.
First of all. What the fudge did you just do to Uther ? Seriously, what ?
Uther is one of my favourite characters in Warcraft franchise, and the treatment he had in this series left me a bitter taste.
When Arthas came to Rowan to say that Uther was driven mad and was turning into a chicken to kill innocent people for the lone sake of obtaining valuable items, I seriously hoped for a bad joke. Or at least, that Arthas was just manipulating Rowan to make him kill Uther. Unfortunatly, that turned out to be a real deal and we just got to slay a load of chickens to discover that the Silver Hand leader was one of them, kill him, and end of the story.
Seriously, what ? I can’t understand the deal here. Uther is just forgotten afterwards, and we’ll never know what drove him into this stupid madness, leaving me in total incomprehension.
That kind of strange things that darkens the magnificence of this campaign doesn’t end to this disturbing detail, though Uther’s Madness is probably the worst of all.
E.g. : Even though we assume it normal that Arthas falls to the darkside, we don’t have any clue about how it comes to him in this alternative storyline. He found himself a new master, well, okay but, how ? And why ? And when ? And what relationship tie him to Mal’Ganis ? Is he the master that Arthas talks about, or a regular minion, just like he’s treated in the last mission ?
E.g. 2 : Antonidas treason. I just don’t understand how a powerful wizard can open a gate to another world and just walk alone into it without letting anyone come with him. I mean, is the portal just designed for one use ? If that’s the case, how come the two others mages didn’t figure it out, and played along with him knowing that only one person could pass through it ? And even in the end, why does Antonidas takes a whole speech to say them that they are doomed and can’t go with him, instead of just jumping in and leave them to death ? And why does the two mages don’t even try to attack him to pass through the portal instead of him ? This scene was just ridiculous.
E.g. 3 : Nathan’s voice. And Uther voice, too. I know it’s funny how a character can literally sound stupid, but in fact, it just annoyed me. I think I just don’t like stupid characters anyway, especially when their stupidity is useful to the plot (Fortunatly it’s not the case here).
E.g. 4 : wtf that ending.
Oh well. Despite these pesky details, I really enjoyed the whole campaign. Each mission were really nicely designed, and the story is carried out quite well.
If I have to talk about two missions in particular, I’ll say the most impressive are the last one and the interlude that is just before it.
This interlude, not the ending but the one just before, just kicked me into the action. Seeing all five heroes together brought a very satisfying feeling and forecasted the biggest deal yet to come. All the armies, together under a brilliant and tremendous music, set me on fire as I was eager to finally deal with the undead and put an end to the Lich King terror.
And what a great turnabout ! With three whole armies to my disposal, I was able to lead three terrible factions for a total of 300 food stacks. Needless to say, the Undead couldn’t stand the strength of that unbelievable alliance, and the reunion of all these powerful forces just stomped on the enemy bases and carried our will to the Frozen Throne.
The final battle was astonishing. All five heroes against all five Undead enemies. Even the music did change for the final fight, which lasted for longs and intense minutes ! In fact, it was kinda easy, but the emotions I felt during this battle were very satisfying whatsoever.
For all this magic, Turnro, I’d like to say : thank you. This final mission was a true climax, and worth the whole campaign. In here, in fact, I can even say that you surpassed Blizzard itself : for the exception of “Twilight of the Gods”, the last Night elves Mission in Reign of Chaos, none of the missions designed by Blizzard offered me such sensations.
This quality of yours is not limited to the Adventures of Rowan the Wise : ALL of your finals mission are just God’s gifts. These are true climax and pure orgasm to the mind of those who loved Warcraft III.
With that in mind, I just cannot wait for the finals of Malfurion’s Quest ! It’s gonna be pure enjoyment, and I know it !
All of this said, sadly, there a last shadow I have to talk about in this wondrous campaign. In fact, it concerns the very last seconds of it.
Why the hell is King Terenas assassinated to let Rowan become king himself ?
As it is shown, it’s even as if Admiral Proudmoore was the one who ordered this murder. But why ? Why kill a king who righteously ruled the whole kingdom for 70 years to replace him by a paladin that indeed saved the kingdom, but has still probably not much more to live than the old king himself ? That doesn’t make any sense to me. And the way we hear Terenas being murdered in the end, as the words “the end” are displayed, is probably the most casual and ridiculous death that can be comprehend. That’s such a pity…
Anyway. Generally speaking, that campaign is still good, even marvellous. In spite of disturbing flaws, it remains a fantastic experience thanks to its music, characters, new content and design. That was a really cool introduction to your series, Turnro. And to this day, this is my second favourite of yours. Thanks for the emotions !
II – Jeopardy for the Horde
Talking about Jeopardy for the Horde will probably be shorter than Rowan.
I was kinda sad when figured out that it wasn’t dubbed anymore, but that’s not that bad. In fact, dubbing voices that we already know in the original franchise would have probably been strange to the ears. The only drawback effect is that the dialogues seems to last for too long when playing. I had the time to read them three times before the next line displayed, and English is not my main language, as you figured out for sure.
This campaign was good, but to my mind, way too similar to the original one of Reign of Chaos. Almost the same events are being displayed : Thrall assemble the Horde to get to Kalimdor, meet with Cairne there, confront with his forces to the Night Elves, Hellscream gets the doom of the Fel Orcs, et caetera.
The newness I could felt with Rowan was considerably lessened down with Thrall, although I love this hero too. Unfortunatly, even if I still enjoyed the story, that brought down its quality a lot to me.
That lack of innovation isn’t that bad, however. Hellscream survives his curse, and for the very first time in the whole Warcraft gameplay experience, you offer us a choice within the campaign ! Even though I just took the bad one and finished the story without the support of Rexxar. I just figure it out when playing it again after finishing the last mission.
Then I’d like to talk about one of the features of this campaign that I, frankly, don’t know if it’s a pro or a con.
Heroes !! Heroes everywhere !!!!
There are too many heroes, here ! Too many ability to be used, too many units to control ! I really just got the impression that you were trying to cast every single possible orcish hero in the franchise, here, and that made me kinda amused.
Even if I forgot Rexxar and if the Shadow hunter (I can’t remember his name…) saved my butt countless times with his heals, I felt like having seven to eight heroes to my disposal was just too much.
However, the last mission kinda justify this choice. And what hell of a last mission ! Just like Rowan’s one, it’s amazing. Getting up to Algammon wasn’t easy at all when I had no control on the building of my barracks, and I had to force my way and exterminate every single Night Elf before trying to kill the Demon. And what a turnabout it was to fight against the whole Burning Legion after that.
I was already suspecting something with the title of the mission (quite the spoiler one, huh), and the strange demonic circles I found with Satyres all around Ashenvale, but I couldn’t expect that.
When I was roaming around the forest, trying to keep alive my forces as we attempted to destroy all five portals, the music reminded me as desperate my situation was. We couldn’t achieve the destruction of all that portals without the sacrifice of almost all my army, and my seven heroes were trying to keep up with all the mess. When I saw that Azgalor remained to be killed, I thought it was truly impossible.
Fortunatly, having all these heroes to my control wasn’t a bad thing in the end. Without then, I could never have beaten that Pit Lord. As the Burning Legion destroyed every single base on the map, I couldn’t grant myself reinforcements and was forced to deal with these monsters with my own remaining men. I cursed the Night Elves to let us deal with this fight alone, but assembled my brave heroes and dealt with these demons once and for all.
Just like destroying the Frozen Throne in Rowan the Wise Adventure, ending Azgalor’s existence provided me a huge satisfying feeling, this time with the difficulty rate pushing my strategy to the limit. Indeed, this last mission was even better than the last one !
Indubitably, that climax was clearly all the point about Jeopardy for the Horde.
I just regret that some features were missing, compared to the previous campaign. No new music until the last mission, not much of a new story, no dubbing.
But compared to Rowan’s campaign, that one didn’t suffer at all from plot holes or ridiculous situations. If I liked the orcs more than that, if the story proposed was bigger and if new music had responded to the call, maybe it even could have go farther than Rowan’s Adventures in my rating. Unfortunatly, it will only have the third position for my preferences !
III – Resurrection of the Scourge
Let me get this clear : I don’t like the Undead.
Clearing the Undead campaign, in Reign of Chaos just like in Frozen Throne, always had been a pain in the butt for me. There is no particular reason for this : I just don’t like the units, I don’t like the buildings, I don’t like the gameplay of that race. Of course, I like Arthas, the hero design and general story of the Scourge ; however, playing it never had been a pleasure.
That’s quite impressive that despite this, you made me have a good time playing this campaign. Especially with the innovation of letting us play as three dreadlords, each of them granted with custom abilities, instead of flooding us with heroes just like you did in Jeopardy for the Horde. Dreadlord are my favourite heroes in the Undead race anyway, so it was well initiated.
Forgetting about my personal preferences about the Warcraft lore, let’s try to talk impartially about Resurrection of the Scourge.
For the very first time, this campaign offer me something the others couldn’t achieve to do : internal conflicts and true interactions between its characters. Tichondrius’s strange plans, Dalvengyr’s brutality and Varimathras trying to cope with all this things, was a good cocktail to have the alchemy of a good story. It turned out quite well, in fact. Each character had its proper personality, no pure evil nor pure loyalty, even if we still talk about the Undead and the Burning Legion.
However, some things really bothered me during this story. Talking about it, the story is probably the weak point and the strong one of this campaign. This paradox is quite impressive, in fact. Let me explain myself :
What this story is good at, it’s its suspense and tension. We all know that something is wrong in all this and we can’t say what. If I hadn’t spoiled myself with the ending of the campaign, I could even have been surprised. This time, unlike the two other campaigns, you manage to create a real mystery with a development in the whole process, a build-up that ends in the very last interlude which reveals everything that was needed to be known. Just like a police movie.
And that’s precisely what’s wrong with the campaign. The Undead. Police movie.
How come this can even be the slightest compatible ?!
When I think about Burning Legion or the Scourge, I figure myself great armies, desolated worlds, blood and death. Not an inquiry about who is the traitor and why he’s doing this ! I can easily accept that there are treasons in these organisations, but the fact that it becomes the whole point makes me quite sceptical. There where many races where it could have been better to develop this : humans and night elves, I think. That’s why doing this with the Undead is making me so puzzled.
This is quite a minor flaw in fact. After all, manipulation and evil schemes are a demon’s job. And with this, I can say that you didn’t offer us anything knew from the original franchise. It was quite audacious, in fact. And it could have been really interesting if some things didn’t turn out so unlikely at some point.
I’m talking about a special interlude, and you will soon know which one.
How the flying freaking hugging hell, does the Burning Legion elect its leader to the Universal suffrage ? Is that a freaking democracy ?! The Burning Legion, a democracy ? I just can’t believe it.
Burning Legion is an army which consumed countless worlds with fire and brutality. Seeing them taking decision with votes and democracy is just the most improbable thing I saw in your entire series. To determine which leader should be taken on after Sargeras, Azgalor and Kil’Jaeden should just have fought one and each other to death. That would have been much, much more consistent. Instead of that, Kil’Jaeden just curse about his defeat and plan a machiavelic scheme to kill Azgalor and take his place, 10 000 years later. Yeah, cool. It could have been exactly the same thing if he lost at Azgalor’s fight, and asked for mercy for not being killed. Burning Legion lost lots of credibility with this useless vote.
That’s maybe the worst point about Resurrection of the Scourge, to my mind. Unfortunatly, it’s not the last one.
A bit earlier, I said that I didn’t really bothered about stupid characters if their stupid actions didn’t impact on the plot. Guess what, it’s the case here !
- The first character I’d like to talk about is this … useless Magroth. The whole character is a clumsy oaf that says nothing but trash. Fortunatly, it’s not a one as important as Uther was, and his stupidity doesn’t really matter on the plot. Yes, he federates the humans against the Dreadlords in the end, but it’s a pretty good thing in fact. Until he just goes in the melee and suicide himself with all the stupidity he had since the beginning.
- Garithos. I know that he’s not the smart one, even in the original franchise, but here, he’s just worse than everything else. I just couldn’t bear with him. Especially when he’s the one destroying the whole alliance with the Apocalypse spell in the end… What an idiot. Kinda ironic, in fact. If the humans were stupid enough to let him rule the armies, it’s a good payback that he’s the one ending them all. Or almost them all. Yeah, Garithos just got on my nerves. He’s the kind of guy impossible to take on seriously…
Besides all this, finally, there are few minor things I could say about this campaign. I’d call them the “how convenient” damage.
- First of these is about the potions that are supposed o prevent death from the apocalypse spell. For something capable of ending almost all of the human kingdom, I find it very, very, very convenient that some kind of random potion is sufficient to save Tichondrius and Varimathras from the doom. And even more when the ingredients are so rare that Araj can only create two of them ! It just looks like all this kicks in randomly, just because it is needed for the plot to go on. That’s why I could just say “Oh, how convenient”.
- Another thing like this is the spell around Medivh’s spellbook. In fact, I don’t really see what is the purpose to this for the plot. The only thing it does, is that Araj let the potion to Varimathras, knowing that his death will eventually come anyway. And also that it reinforces Tichondrius betrayal for Varimathras. That’s puzzling.
Well, even though all of this sounds strange and artificial to me, I have to say that this campaign is quite different from the others in many points that make it worth the play. Particularly, because almost all of the heroes we controlled died in the end ! I wasn’t expecting Dalvengyr death at all, not even Araj’s one until the last mission. And if I hadn’t spoiled myself the ending, Tichondrius death would have been a surprise as well. All of this say, even Varimathras survival seems miraculous !
Varimathras is my most favourite of all Dreadlord because of his personality. Dalvengyr and Tichondrius are like two sides of the Undead that almost conflict each other every time they can, and I felt like Varimathras was more like the natural balance between these two. He didn’t understood why was Tichondrius was hiding all these things to them, and was smart enough to spot that something was wrong about his doing, and not to resolve this with Dalvengyr’s brutality and simple-mindedness. I’m just glad he made it to the end. And look forward for his next apparition in Malfurion’s Quest, if he has to come back once again.
Last thing I’d like to say, is about the general gameplay : I really liked the way all dreadlord could invoke the dead, from the necromantic tomes. That was truly a good idea, with new game possibilities from the original franchise. A great point for this campaign !
And to conclude : the treatment you reserved for Arthas is just laughable. Even though his death is completely underrated, and does not have any consequences, I just found it hilarious how come the great Lich King we all know from the original franchise gets rekt by a bunch of demons. He was saying that he’ll be back some day…
“I highly doubt that !” – Rowan the Wise
Quite the ambivalent campaign, for this one. It has the qualities that lacked in the others, but suffer from their worst flaws in addition. With me not liking the Undead, it’s not really surprising that this remains my least favourite of all four.
IV – Malfurion’s Quest
Okay. So this is it. The final round of your epic series…
Night Elves are my favourite race. For a final quest, it’s kind of the best opportunity to end the story, to me !
And what a great exploitation of such opportunity.
The very first interlude of the campaign, which cast all of the background and the basics elements about the future plot, is pure gold. Genious work. It is the climax of all your skill in map development, scene setting up, music selection, new content, use of the original lore, and much more !
I found this introduction a little long, but it was worth it. Isn’t everything you displayed here, for the exception of Furion’s sinister vision about the future, about canon lore ? I think so, just not sure. Whatever it is, it’s a brilliant introduction with very good scenery and setting up.
And I haven’t talk about the Highborne yet ! That new “race” is very, very, very well designed in-game. Even though the models are very similar to regular night elves, it is very easy to distinguish one from the others, and their outfit is perfectly in phase with what they represent.
Malfurion’s Quest began with this splendid cutscene, I should say longscene, about the background and all the issues of the story that is to come. There was no more perfect way to introduce the final epic campaign of your series. Right when I began, I already was astonished by the improvement since Resurrection of the Scourge.
This kind of nice surprises didn’t falter anyhow. The very first mission with Furion’s awakening only gave me good feelings. Furion’s personality was clearly respected. His love for nature, his kindness, and his concerns ; they were all there, just like in the original campaign. The only thing that disturbed me, not only in a bad way however, was that dark voice echoing inside him.
“What does that mean ?” I said. “This is called Malfurion’s Dark Voice, this cannot be good”.
I continued the process. Eventually, came the biggest choice of all of the campaign. Drink the water, of destroy the fountain ? Here, I just figure myself some kind of reasoning : “Hey, this just looks like a choice between bad and good ending. I’ll just take the bad one in order to finish the adventure with the good one afterwards.”
Was I wrong or right ? Only the future will tell me. Whatever we say, I think there’s a little problem with that choice, but I’ll tell more afterwards.
A – By the blood of the Highborne !
Let’s just talk about the first choice I made : the Highborne.
As I didn’t spoiled myself from anything, I couldn’t even imagine that you developed a whole brand new playable race for this campaign ! It was a very nice surprise.
Getting used to that new gameplay wasn’t easy at first. I find these new units and armies surprisingly weak for a race who was supposed to dominate all the others with magic and rituals. I soon understood that training a whole group of clerics and letting them just follow my troops to heal them when needed instead of including them in my attack groups, was maybe the best strategy to order stomps over enemy bases. Pretty powerful, in fact. I’m just not used to use such numerous abilities and the new units weren’t properly learnt at first.
In fact, I found this campaign pretty hard. Not impossible, but pretty hard. And I was playing in Normal difficulty (I can’t even imagine the hell it has to be in Insane mode !!).
As usual, your genious about map development and new content was up to the rendezvous. Roaming this adventure was really cool, the music was truly inspiring, and there was a huge load of new items/ability/units/buildings/gameplay to obtain and command. All of this is clearly the pinnacle of all your skill and mastery of Warcraft III’s mecanics and programming opportunities. I am speechless before all this. This is just majestic.
However, there is a little point that tickles me in all that alchemy of brilliant ideas. In fact, it is about that “Dark” side of Furion.
I’m not totally dumb. Of course, consuming the fountain waters was a bad idea. Our hero just becomes an asshole after drinking it, and it was most predictable. That’s the point where something is bad : this is way too predictable.
The whole problem with the two choices of that campaign, is that it is too Manichean. On the one side, Furion stay the same kind, gentle and caring druid he’s always been. On the other side, brutally, he becomes the greatest asshole in the universe from nothing to everything. That is quite surprising, and not in a good way.
In fact, I am pretty enjoyed by the idea of Shan’do descending to the darkside. This is clearly a good idea, with lots of good things to do with. However, I think it’s way too fast appearing, and Furion’s transformation is way too brutal.
That’s not such a big deal too, but I have a problem with that “Furion’s Dark Voice”. I mean, it’s called “Dark voice”. Isn’t this much of a spoiler ? Let’s think about it.
When we are confronted with the choice of the main storyline, that Dark Voice had constantly bullied us, threatened us, and treated the hero as a pitiful guy, just like all his allies. How the hell are we supposed to trust that thing ? It’s clearly a bad guy talking inside Furion’s head here. It’s a trap so obvious that none in this freaking world would fall for it. So here, while taking this choice, I was just like :
“What the hell Shan’do, how stupid can you be falling for such an obvious trap ?!”
In short, with all these elements clearly telling us not to trust in that “Dark voice”, it’s really hard to take on seriously the fact that Shan’do falls for it. I mean, it’s a “dark” voice, and it’s acting just like every single classic and dull bad guy does in every bad movie or manga. How can our hero be so stupid to listen to it ?
To my mind, renaming this voice from a dark one to something like “Malfurion’s inner voice” would be a first step to something way more convincing. It would sounds much less of a trap like this, and maybe it’ll be more inviting to think about what is good or bad to do in order to save the world. Just like Furion said in a Sentinel mission, this voice should more be treated like his conscious, and I don’t think Shan’do conscious is so proud and despicable. To me, it should be more calm, more relevant, dealing with true arguments other than “you are stupid and weak” in order to become realistically manipulative. With this, Furion’s fall for the trap would be much more believable, and even the player could be deceived. Because for the time being, it is impossible for us to be deceived by such obvious manipulation !
Well, anyway, Furion’s descent toward the dark side is quite quick. Fortunatly, there are steps during this transformation, such as Faradrella’s pursuit and Furbolg’s mayhem. In fact, it is pretty well done for this personality’s change, even though it still tickles me.
Not only Furion becomes addicted to power, but I found it quite stupid that he despise every single other races because of his power. I mean, this is the Legion we’re dealing with. Why should we exterminate every other races before attacking he Legion, instead of trying to dominate them and lead them to war ? I think that would be much more clever. Well. If that’s the way of the Highborne…
I was incredibly sad when Furion killed Tyrande. That brought me quite a feeling of revolt inside of me. Yes, Furion’s changes in personality are indeed interesting, compared to the one he used to be. And I think the doing of this “dark voice” doesn’t limit to the fact of pressing him to drink the corrupted waters. But … I don’t know.
Just like he says in an interlude of the Sentinel choice line, while he roamed for 10 000 years within the Emerald Dream, he did nothing but always thought of Tyrande. And then, several days (or weeks ?) after awakening, he just kill her with an emotionless face ? What a mother hugging douchebag.
Frankly, I don’t know if I have to count Tyrande’s Death as a flaw or not. Because it is very striking, and even though it just shows our fallen hero as a monster, it brings lots of emotions. Maybe the only flaw of this choice of killing her, was not to show enough reactions of Furion after his doing. At least, might he be grieving, even just a little ? Tyrande’s Death, whether being his doing or not, should be affecting him by one way or another. And maybe it could even persuade him that what he’s doing is necessary, and that this was an inevitable sacrifice to save the world, as an example.
From this point now, maybe you figured out that relationships between characters are one of my biggest concerns about stories…
That’s also what I meant by “Manichaeism”. In the Highborne storyline, Furion is only being a douche that craves for power and try to erase everything else. There is nothing interesting in this. At least, I’m more interested by the reactions of all his old friends when they are seeing what he has become, than in Shan’do himself. Because Furion just became a faceless machine, unable to feel anything and impossible to be sympathized with. That’s it. If Furion has to be reduced to increasing power in the Highborne storyline, without any inner conflict within or even concerns about anything else, I don’t think I’ll like the pursuit of this story.
And what a waste it would be. Because the idea of Furion descending towards the darkside was truly genious.
I really hope that the ending of the 5th mission will have an impact on Furion. That he won’t just get up and say “oh well, I’m fine, let’s just head to Nordrassil and absorb its energies”, and question himself about what just happened and why he failed at protecting Kalimdor and his new people, even after making the choice of consuming the corrupted waters that were supposed to grant him great power. Get ahold of yourself, you damned Arch Sage !
… I think I got a little carried away here. Sorry for all that negativity, maybe it was a little too much. That’s everything in found wrong about that campaign, I think I’ve said everything I had to say for the cons of that storyline.
For everything else, what can I say except that the amount of work for such a quality is colossal ? It’s almost as you created a whole new gameplay all by yourself. Of course the story and the characters could do better ; however, that doesn’t change the fact that you encoded a whole new set of units and buildings, and new abilities too, and the result is unbelievable. I had lots of fun playing this race, and the difficulty never was a frustration. It gave me quite the challenge, and with all that new content, the nostalgia drive back about discovery and everything in Warcraft was up to its maximum.
I’m not good with gameplay mecanics, so reviewing it would be quite hard. All I can say is that I didn’t felt any difference with the holy thing I hang to since the beginning of that review : the original Warcraft III spirit. It’s here, it is real.
And it even has good innovations. I can still remember the sequence where we have to chase Faradrella, which was a very nice new gameplay sequence. Thank god you advised us to save before, because I failed many times before making it.
I could said again that the music choices were delightful. But I guess you understand it well now, as many times I said that !
I guess that’s all for he Highborne series. In general, I could say that the creation of all that new species and it’s gameplay is an amazing feat. The story could prove better, but is quite good nonetheless. It’s much appreciable that a real player choice can influence the whole destiny of a hero, and even if I still find it too Manichaean, that’s a pretty audacious choice you made in the development of this campaign.
Good luck to finish that great work !
B – Sentinels, attack !
The ending of the last mission of the Highborne is quite abrupt. I was still in the heat of the story when the main menu brutally came back to me. I didn’t even know that Malfurion’s Quest was still in development, so I was quite shocked … I thought it was just the end of the world and that’s it, end of the story. I’m relieved that it’s not the case.
So, I just loaded back an old save, got to the crucial choice once again, and destroyed the fountain. There began a new adventure…
So, in the Sentinel storyline, Furion is still the wise man we all know and assemble his old friends to fight for the legion. Surprisingly enough, I have not many things to say about it whereas that campaign was probably the best experience I had through the entire gameplay of your series. Maybe I just can’t say much because it has no flaw at all !
This campaign is very loyal to the original NightElves ones, yet is still different and offers a real new experience.
Unlike the Highborne one, Furion has his own internal conflicts and question himself about how to deal with the Burning Legion with care and seriousness. He assemble many allies and roam through Kalimdor, giving his advices and help to anyone who needs it. That’s the hero I needed after doing the Highborne ! And he wasn’t alone.
Surprisingly, I found Faradrella very endearing. Even though she talks too much and like a kid, she has a unique personality between all the other characters and that’s what make her special. I love her innocence and her joyful attitude. What a good one to have within the hero team !
Tyrande’s character were respected as well. Even though she did serious and bad things, just like she says in the last interlude, she has regrets towards it and sees herself relieved by Furion’s presence. A strong warrior hiding a lonely heart, is truly what I wanted Tyrande to be. Thank you for respecting this !
This storyline achieved something the others couldn’t do : offer me some nice character’s interactions, development, and sociability. All of the people fighting here are really interesting and I’m eager to follow their adventures. Please, just go on like this ! And to make Furion even more interesting than he already is, you could for example make him question himself once again about the original choice he made not to drink the water, and the consequences it had on his quest. This idea can also be applied to the Highborne line too.
Well, I don’t know what’s your point of view about me doing suggestions like that. Maybe I shouldn’t, I’m here since very little time, and I’m already kicking in your work like a scumbag. I’m sorry if I offended you, all I said about that was just ideas I figured out while playing your game, and I just wanted to share them to you in case you’re out of inspiration. Feel free to do whatever you want with these, I don’t really care about that.
To go on with the review, I’ll say the same thing I already said about the Highborne : the map development is perfect and the quests very inspiring. I wasn’t really surprised when I saw that the maps of the third and fourth missions were the same as before, with the quests log changed and other stuff to vary (a gold mine from the Highborne disappeared with the sentinel for example). The exploitation of all the stories and quests you can do with a single map is very intelligent, here. I couldn’t even believed that I was just there some time ago, doing the opposite of what I was doing right at the moment !
But you didn’t limit to recycle all your maps. I had the nice surprise to see that the fifth one was a brand new one ! And what a mother hugging great new map. It has new features, like map travelling and other great stuff !!
I haven’t even spoken about the new items yet. I think that’s where there is the most of this new stuff here, with a huge load of new objects, collectable like Pokemons. Hey, a rod that grants me the power to launch Lightning chain ? Such a BADASS !
What’s more, you even created new units, such as Shaman Furbolg or the men of the shadow league. New and endless gameplay mecanics can be discovered with such units, which insert themselves flawlessly into the Night elf race. Very great stuff !
And I think that’s all. Sorry, I don’t know what to say anymore. I found this storyline perfect, and haven’t got anything to blame about it. I’m just eager to play it when it will be finished. I’m just curious to see how Furion will deal with the Legion like this.
I guess you figured it out : Malfurion’s Quest, whether it is for the Highborne or the Sentinels, remains my top favourite campaign or all four. I’m glad that people still work on Warcraft III development nowadays, particularly if it’s to grant us such good gameplay.
You can be really proud of yourself, Turnro.
Third act : Pour conclure
I had a really, really, really good time playing your four campaigns.
If your challenge was to create a new Warcraft timeline, you succeeded brilliantly. Of course it’s not always perfect, but the good points of your work just erase the bad from existence, and playing these maps is as fun as playing the original game, if not even better.
I could say much more but that would just be repetition of all what I said before. I just hope that my grammar wasn’t too bad and that you could understand everything I said here. I’m studying English since my childhood but that’s the first time I have to write such a long text about my feelings and ideas.
So, to put everything in a nutshell, I’ll just say : “I’m Luke Hakurei, and I approve this !”
I hope that this review pleased you and gave enough feedback for all the good times you gave me for free. Consider it as a thank-you gift for these chilling and nostalgic moments that your work provided me.
To end this long message, I just have a final question to ask you !
In my country, I’m an amateur writer and I love to work with music. When I compose my texts, I almost always go on Youtube and let some good music play. Warcraft’s OST are one of my favourites choices when it comes to write some epic scenes.
I was just wondering, where does the musics you used in your campaigns come from ? Did you composed them yourself ? Is there any way I could listen to them without running the game ? I especially love Rowan soundtracks, and it would be a pleasure to write stories with these. So could you please tell me where could I find those ?
Whatever your answer is, thank you for reading this all ! I hope I didn’t take too much of your time. And may the Force be with you !
Have a nice day !
- Luke Hakurei
______________________________
tl;dr : this work is great.