I have always enjoyed Blizzard's stuff. And the Warcraft series is no exception. I played it a little back when it came out, and decided to buy it 4 years later. While I like the game, I forget how 4 years of technology moves on and that it has no chance what-so-ever to compete graphically with any current titles. Oh well.
After playing the earlier Warcraft games and Starcraft, I have noticed some obvious trends in the way the games are laid out, trends I wish I could change. For instance, does this sound familiar; "Ultra-high tech race is wiped out by savages; ultra-high tech race comes back with 1 hero, builds an army, wipes out savages; savage hero escapes and haunts ultra-high tech race." Whatever. Another annoying thing is that there is so much similarity across the Blizzard universe; peons gather resources (some form of money, and some form of combustible), there are always 2 or 3 unit-producing strutures, 1 or 2 town defense structures, and about 8 different unit types ranging from the guy who sticks his finger up his nose to the guy who shoves a stick of TNT up yours. Also, you are limited to selecting (and thus grouping) about 8 units at once, and the max number of units is usually around 100. "Total Annihilation" was a game from the 90's and was never encumbered by such immature obstacles (but it had other problems).
I do like how the Blizzard team threw in some twists. The Hero unit is a nice addition, able to carry items and gain experience. I wish all the units gained experience. In addition, some of the special Hero abilities have some nice eye-candy, and some abilities are actually quite useful in battle (Invincibility, Blink, Storm of Blades, summon creatures, etc). I appreciate how there are different races that try to alter the "status quo" a little; the Burning Legion and Night Elves let you assign 5 peons and basically soak up the gold without traveling back and forth; the Night Elves structures are mostly all mobile (and can attack!), and the Naga are water-based (but amphibious). I am still finding it hard to shake off that feeling that this is Warcraft 1 just in prettier clothes.
