I think I preferred the orc looking at me
So this is the expansion of the last game. Mostly it adds two new units a hero per faction, a merchant building and a higher roof on max army. So you get 100 units of food instead of 90. The definite version. New maps added and a possibility to hire mercenary heroes instead of going with the heroes the faction you play. But let us look at the campaign, the story tying this all together. And we start with a scene of Illidan summoning some sea monsters, the Naga. Illidan doesn't look like he used to. He got horns and hoofs so the skull of Gul'dan can't have been that good for him. But we don't play as Illidan, instead his jailer, Maeiv Shadowsong, a night elf avenger. Swift and with the ability to teleport short distances she can reach places no normal soldier can. They brilliantly use it as an exploration point. Leaving the army behind you can climb waterfalls, reach islands just outside of reach and so on. She hunts Illidan to a small fishing village and out to the sea where some unknown islands have appeared. Searching around you realise this is the islands that Gul'dan summoned during Warcraft II in search of the Tomb of Sargeras. Seeking the same artefacts as Gul'dan Illidan must be stopped. As you reach the tomb and go through it you find the writing of Gul'dan who goes more and more mad until he presumably dies. You are to late however to stop Illidan who claims the Eye of Sargeras and raise the tomb, trying to kill you, but using the blink ability you escape, but sadly leaves your troops behind. They even had one of the huntresses named as well, Naisha. Escaping Maeiv sends for help from Malfurion Stormrage who comes toghether with Tyranda, the one person Maiev blames the release of Illidan for. Hunting him to Lordearon Malfurion has to connect with the spirits so Tyranda and Maiev are left alone. They meet an blood elf commander for the Alliance and agrees to help protect their caravan if they in turn will help hunt Illidan. They agree and after almost making it safely away from the undead Tyranda stays behind holding a bridge that collapses and drags her away. Malfurion returns and Maiev tells him that Tyranda was torn apart by the undead and that his only chance for revenge is stopping Illidan. You fight of Illidan and stops his plan on destroying Northern, the arctic of Azeroth. It's then revelled by Kael'thas, the blood elf commander that Tyranda might be alive. Furious Malfurion releases Illidan so that he can help locate Tyranda since he also cares for her. They locate her and rescue her with the help of the Naga (who is night elves that were corrupted 10 000 years ago as their great kingdom fell into the ocean due to addiction to magic. Illidan is let loose and he takes a dimensional portal away from Maiev who's still after revenge.
Elves, night elves, nagas and now blood elves... how many elven races are there?
The next campaign is the human/blood elven one. Kael'thas arrives to Dalaran where his commander, Lord Marshal Garithos, a racist bastard if I ever seen one, berates him and order him to repair some observatories to scout out the undeads movement. They detect a massive army heading there way, but Garidhos takes command of all human and dwarf troops and leaves Kael'thas with only elves. A nice touch is that this is basically the troops that Arthas fought in the last game. They even made the flying unit part of the human army and they actually mention it if you designed your own map and gave yourselves the elven builder. But that isn't enough so a naga witch that helped you before of more support with troops to bolster your army and Kael'thas have no other choice. He wins the battle, but Garithos arrives and accuses him of treason and imprisons him in Dalarans dungeons. Vashi, the naga witch releases him and they break out and through the portal that brought Archimond to Azeroth. They arrive in Outland, what's left of the Orcs homeworld of Draenor. You rescue Illidan from Maeiv and you fight side by side to take over the fortresses of the Burning Legion to bolster your forces enough so that you have a chance to strike at the Lich King who is captured on the Frozen Throne in Northern. All this commanded by Kil'Jaeden, another demon lord. You win and Illidan starts his campaign to rid the world of the Scourge.
Meanwhile Arthas have returned to Lordearon, he confronts the remaining Dread Lords and takes back power from the Legion. As he is about to round up the remaining humans in the land he is suddenly weekend as the Lich King calls out for help. Arthas prepares to leave, but the Dread Lords stage a coup, but he is saved by the banshee's under his commander Sylvanas Windrunner who now serves him as an undead ranger. Sadly for him it's all a ruse since the Lich King failing powers have returned free will to Sylvanas that wants revenge. Kel'thusad on the other hand appears and save Arthas that leaves for Northrend. Sylvanas meanwhile establish the Forsaken and reclaims the lands of Lordearon for those like her, undead that have been given free will. She accomplish this by teaming up with one of the Dread Lords she defeated and Garithos who she released from a mind spell by another Dread Lord and promising Lordearon back to the humans. She of course back stabs him, but no one really feels sorry for him. Meanwhile Arthas arrives at Northrend and fight his way past Naga's and Blood Elves with the help of a Nerubuian undead hero that leads him through a shortcut under the mountain (geez, I wonder if they were inspired by the Moria section in Lord of the Rings). There you encounter the surviving dwarfs of Muradin and some unknown horrors of the deep, and it all ends with fighting a tentacled monster. You arrive outside and has to stop Illidan from entering the Frozen Throne. Succeed and a short battle between Arthas and Illidan occurs where Illidan falls wounded to the ground and Arthas ascend the stairs to the Frozen Throne and claims the Lich Kings crown, turning him into the new Lich King. And that is pretty much it for the rts campaigns.
Of course there is one more scenario, but it doesn't play as an rts. Instead it works as an rpg, where you control Rexxar, a Mok'nathal, half-ogre, half-orc that ends up in the founding of Durotan, the nation of the orcs in Kalimdor under the guidance of Thrall. You begin by giving a message from a dying orc soldier to Thrall and as you do small task for important people in Ogrimmar, the capital, you begin to discover that humans are harassing the wild life and your own people. Since the only humans in Kalimdor lives at Theramore Island under the leadership of Jaina Proudmore, Rexxar is sent out to investigate. Apparently these humans hail from Kul Tiras and occupy Theramore under their leader Admiral Proudmore... yes, the Admiral Proudmore that was one of your commanders in Warcraft II and Jainas father. So fuelled by hatred the only way to stop him is invade Thereamore with orcs, trolls, ogres and Tauren allies that Rexxar has gathered along the journey and the battle is tough, but in the end you slay the admiral and peace returns to Kalimdor and the truce between Orcs and Humans remains under the guidance of Jaina. This scenario is really fun and I suspect that it plays a bit like the mmorpg would play later on. You can't really die since there is resurrection stones scattered around the maps and you respond from the last one you were near. You see Thrall, Cairne and Jaina and even get to play with them at full strength. Sadly no Grom Hellscream, although he is mentioned.
There is supposed to be a demo campaign as well taking place after the prologue in the first game and the orc campaign and is about how Thrall ended up on a mysterious island occupied by Trolls and Murlocs. The Trolls aid them, but they are taken hostage by the Murlocs that plan to sacrifice them to a sea witch. Thrall rescues them, but their leader is killed and he makes Thrall promise to look after his people. Meanwhile the island is sinking to the ground. They escape and continues to Kalimdor. Basically it tells the story how trolls appear in the horde as they arrive in Kalimdor, even though Thrall says they aren't part of the horde in the prologue. No voices though. I can't find it and I don't know if you are supposed to win the game on hard or if it's hiding in some folder, but I don't care really.
Overall the story doesn't feel as good since it end with Arthas winning... he who clearly is one of the bad guys. Also, the stakes feels lower. It isn't about stopping the demons from taking over the world. It's about rescuing the one responsible for it in the first place. The Night elves and Blood Elves campaign works fine, but then again the final real level is the orc rpg and that work. Proudmore was hinted as well in the map designer since his avatar was there. I also know someone used him as a stand in for Boromir I believe in a map based on Lord of the Rings. The thing going for the undead campaign is the Sylvana chapters as well as the trek in "Moria". Sylvana who I can sympathise with for being turned into the undead as well as killing of despicable people like Garithos and the Moria segment is rather suspensfull together with some interesting lore tidbits about the faceless ones and primordial demons. Arthas, however, is still unlikable. Really wish they made another rts cause I don't have enough time to play through more than 10 years of updates and expansions for the mmorpg.
Meanwhile Arthas have returned to Lordearon, he confronts the remaining Dread Lords and takes back power from the Legion. As he is about to round up the remaining humans in the land he is suddenly weekend as the Lich King calls out for help. Arthas prepares to leave, but the Dread Lords stage a coup, but he is saved by the banshee's under his commander Sylvanas Windrunner who now serves him as an undead ranger. Sadly for him it's all a ruse since the Lich King failing powers have returned free will to Sylvanas that wants revenge. Kel'thusad on the other hand appears and save Arthas that leaves for Northrend. Sylvanas meanwhile establish the Forsaken and reclaims the lands of Lordearon for those like her, undead that have been given free will. She accomplish this by teaming up with one of the Dread Lords she defeated and Garithos who she released from a mind spell by another Dread Lord and promising Lordearon back to the humans. She of course back stabs him, but no one really feels sorry for him. Meanwhile Arthas arrives at Northrend and fight his way past Naga's and Blood Elves with the help of a Nerubuian undead hero that leads him through a shortcut under the mountain (geez, I wonder if they were inspired by the Moria section in Lord of the Rings). There you encounter the surviving dwarfs of Muradin and some unknown horrors of the deep, and it all ends with fighting a tentacled monster. You arrive outside and has to stop Illidan from entering the Frozen Throne. Succeed and a short battle between Arthas and Illidan occurs where Illidan falls wounded to the ground and Arthas ascend the stairs to the Frozen Throne and claims the Lich Kings crown, turning him into the new Lich King. And that is pretty much it for the rts campaigns.
He looks a bit like Darkwolf from Fire and Ice
Of course there is one more scenario, but it doesn't play as an rts. Instead it works as an rpg, where you control Rexxar, a Mok'nathal, half-ogre, half-orc that ends up in the founding of Durotan, the nation of the orcs in Kalimdor under the guidance of Thrall. You begin by giving a message from a dying orc soldier to Thrall and as you do small task for important people in Ogrimmar, the capital, you begin to discover that humans are harassing the wild life and your own people. Since the only humans in Kalimdor lives at Theramore Island under the leadership of Jaina Proudmore, Rexxar is sent out to investigate. Apparently these humans hail from Kul Tiras and occupy Theramore under their leader Admiral Proudmore... yes, the Admiral Proudmore that was one of your commanders in Warcraft II and Jainas father. So fuelled by hatred the only way to stop him is invade Thereamore with orcs, trolls, ogres and Tauren allies that Rexxar has gathered along the journey and the battle is tough, but in the end you slay the admiral and peace returns to Kalimdor and the truce between Orcs and Humans remains under the guidance of Jaina. This scenario is really fun and I suspect that it plays a bit like the mmorpg would play later on. You can't really die since there is resurrection stones scattered around the maps and you respond from the last one you were near. You see Thrall, Cairne and Jaina and even get to play with them at full strength. Sadly no Grom Hellscream, although he is mentioned.
There is supposed to be a demo campaign as well taking place after the prologue in the first game and the orc campaign and is about how Thrall ended up on a mysterious island occupied by Trolls and Murlocs. The Trolls aid them, but they are taken hostage by the Murlocs that plan to sacrifice them to a sea witch. Thrall rescues them, but their leader is killed and he makes Thrall promise to look after his people. Meanwhile the island is sinking to the ground. They escape and continues to Kalimdor. Basically it tells the story how trolls appear in the horde as they arrive in Kalimdor, even though Thrall says they aren't part of the horde in the prologue. No voices though. I can't find it and I don't know if you are supposed to win the game on hard or if it's hiding in some folder, but I don't care really.
Overall the story doesn't feel as good since it end with Arthas winning... he who clearly is one of the bad guys. Also, the stakes feels lower. It isn't about stopping the demons from taking over the world. It's about rescuing the one responsible for it in the first place. The Night elves and Blood Elves campaign works fine, but then again the final real level is the orc rpg and that work. Proudmore was hinted as well in the map designer since his avatar was there. I also know someone used him as a stand in for Boromir I believe in a map based on Lord of the Rings. The thing going for the undead campaign is the Sylvana chapters as well as the trek in "Moria". Sylvana who I can sympathise with for being turned into the undead as well as killing of despicable people like Garithos and the Moria segment is rather suspensfull together with some interesting lore tidbits about the faceless ones and primordial demons. Arthas, however, is still unlikable. Really wish they made another rts cause I don't have enough time to play through more than 10 years of updates and expansions for the mmorpg.
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