"Warden" is a peculiar puzzle focused Warcraft 3 campaign composed of 5 individual missions.
I must say that when I first played this I didn't know anything about the map, so I found the Tutorial quite informative in telling me the basics and filling me up on the general purpose of the map, in other words the Tutorial was executed quite nicely and filled it's basic purpose.
I also noticed that the missions are not linked with one another but separate and don't support each other in terms of gameplay, you could argue if that actually makes a difference or not:
In my opinion "Warden" could actually benefit more from not having all the levels available to you but much like a campaign unlock as you finish the other ones, this would actually fit your style of puzzles being more of a focus on the combat and platform style than pure puzzles.
As I start the first level and fall down I get a sudden Tomb Raider feeling of discovery and exploration, the music fits in quite perfectly to the environment and proved to be perfect for the slow paced puzzle solving aim. I encounter a
bug while trying to activate visible mana in the X menu, if I press Q or any other key the screen goes black and the only way to fix it is to restart the level.
I see a missed opportunity by making the player go fight a tougher enemy ghoul instead of making him think there are other options to consider, by having the catapult instructions behind the ghoul you remove this option. This could be a nice subtle touch, further implying that this isn't a hack & slash dungeon crawler and there is always another option.
I reach the Owl areas and start realising the downside of having keyboard control, in those areas especially it is evident that the controls are sluggish, unresponsive and delayed at times, making the Owl areas an absolute nuisance and simply an unpleasant experience. The Owls aura is quite small for sluggish controls and don't even appear to be properly synchronised that coupled with delays it is inevitable to get hit, the owls are also a bit faster than you which adds up.I also realise that the game has more of a action/platformer style of puzzles instead of a more thinking style puzzling.
Reaching the final area I am welcomed by two Obsidian Statues that
despite being stunned they can still perform their stomp attack and damage me.
I must say during my first experience I enjoyed it all very much and found the puzzle to be quite fitting and pleasant, I especially enjoyed the harder one though it certainly wasn't that hard and found the bonus a bit too much.
The boss fight was cut short as you seem to have taken what I said earlier about avoiding hard fights too literally, I've one hit killed him and his minions afterwards the mission ended and I was left feeling empty.
In conclusion, I enjoyed the first level quite a lot the music fit in very nicely and the idea was there and executed nicely, in shorter words the first level was well made and I enjoyed it.
Starting the second level I found the atmosphere actually quite lacking compared to the first one, there isn't much to add about the first part.
Upon entering the burrow I get a much better and fitting atmosphere, though there is to note that if you reenter the temple the music resets to the default outside music same if you save and load.
I'm greeted by more parkour minigames and a nice puzzle which is simple and effective, the ghost do tend to get a bit lost and often offer large gaps due to them getting closer to eachother if you let them run long enough. The maze was more of a labyrinth actually, it really felt like I was walking from A to B and then to C, perhaps adding a few more dead ends or perhaps tempting the player with an open path then blocking it.
The Boss fight, I don't know if I missed a puzzle granting me invulnerability but I get there and fight the Lich, as I reach the top the atmosphere starts feeling bland much like the first part. I approach and start battling the Lich which keeps bombarding me with the same lines that make no relevance to the fight or atmosphere, the battle was quite generic where you hit and run the enemy which isn't really your fault they are practically the same in WoW. What hurts the overall battle is the bland atmosphere, all you hear is your chakram being swung and the ocasional line and ice hitting the ground, perhaps adding additional sounds and music to the boss fight would improve the atmosphere.
The second level was a completely different experience compared to the first one, it always seemed something was missing.
Getting in to the third mission I start hearing a happy carnival tune which in my opinion doesn't really fit in with the abandoned night elf temple, it wouldn't actually be so bad if it were not for the game acknowledging it and using it for the next puzzle. The terrain is of the same quality as in your previous missions though the green tile set makes it much more likeable.
The "may the music guide your path" puzzle was interesting, you could have however used a more appropriate music.
Exiting the sound maze I get an instant message about how I could move the Statue without even realising what the room was about, I got a similar feeling in the first level with the undead mages and the obelisk. I think hints should come a bit later or make it so you will only get the protagonist opinion if you type a command and ask for it.
I did promise I would finish all the level but that quickly changed when I saw more owls.
Overall I believe you can actually fix the sluggish controls by making them less obvious to the player, you can achieve that by adjusting the parkour areas to not show as much quick reactions that the controls are clearly not suitable for.
I must also admit that at first I thought this game was gonna be more puzzle oriented and the hack & slash being a secondary bonus, where the controls would actually not become so apparent and would have worked in sync with the gameplay. I would also like to note that the first level was perhaps too good and gave a high expectations for the next levels, thus why the other levels seem so full of discrepancies.
I think a more quirky approach with a more intensive puzzle focus with humorous dialogue would be very interesting to see.
The map is nonetheless playable and could be great fun for those interested in the genre.