Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Expansion Pack

The expansion set creates up to 9 new missions for each race like the original except for the Orcs. This means that you are getting a game pretty much the same length as the original only with fewer film sequences. The Night Elves, Humans and Scourge are set in the main scenario and one must be played to the end to access the others. The Orc have very little to do with the main story of the Frozen Throne and so have been give there own little story as a "bonus". The Orc story is very hero driven as you will play just as a set of heroes for all of the Orc Campaign. There are no characters that you will see or hear throw the entire game unlike the original and most of the drive of each races story evolves around new characters that are rarely supported by returning heroes from the past game. This fact plus that each race has it's own objective that only hints at the whole story means that it sometimes appears to be less "solid" story wise than the previous game but that doesn't mean that the story is below par or a bad one. The story pans out well with only a few "shady" parts that are a bit questionable but nothing too bad to detract from the overall thrust.

Only a hand full of these new missions involves you building up a base and battling the enemy. Nearly all of the other missions have you commanding a set amount of units and a number of tasks to complete so this might be a little off putting if you enjoy base building and resource gathering. This fact however shouldn't put you off buying the game. Some missions, like the original, only allow you certain units which not only introduce you to the new units and the abilities but means that you have to develop tactics around these units.

Each race gets a "vault" building which is similar to a goblin merchant, the hero units are allowed to buy certain items from a vault depending on their race. These items can be very useful to the player for a number of reasons. There are also a number of added upgrades for each race as well. A new hero and two new units are added for each race. The heroes and the new units go with each army well. Each race is only allowed to have 3 heroes so a player must choose which heroes to have in their army. A new set of creeps has been added not only to the existing map types but to the Mercenary camp as well. Not only that but 5 neutral heroes can now be obtained at a Tavern each has its own abilities and can fill in gaps that your army does not have or bolster an already strong attribute. One thing that many Warcraft players will be happy to hear is that you can have ships...but you have to purchase them from a shipyard and they are very few in the main campaign. Also the ship battle is quite basic and not as engrossing as the Warcraft 2 game.

The game also includes a few changes from the original. The price of gold/lumber for certain buildings and units have changed as well as some of the animation and graphics for a few units. For Example the Orc Catapult has been replaced with a Demolisher which looks different but is sensually the same unit. Three new tile sets have been added and the World Editor has been revamped which makes it easier for a creative player to create a scenario.

The game is very enjoyable and if you are not careful you will find that you have spent hours playing as you have become enwrapped in the game. The multiplayer has become more fun with the new units and creeps as well as the new maps that have been added for you to select. If you enjoyed playing the original Warcraft 3 game then I can safely recommend this game to you. Blizzard have a well deserved reputation of creating quality games and even better expansion sets and this one does not break that mould. The only problem with the game is that on Normal difficulty setting the game can be too easy. Players who want to be challenge or experienced Warcraft players should play throw on the hard setting.

1. single player campaigns
2. multiplayer online playing

I will try and point out the changes, modifications and developments in TFT (The Frozen Throne) compared to RoC (Reign of Chaos)

1. the single player campaigns further develop the story of the Warcraft universe, starting in the aftermath of where RoC ended - ie, the great battle where Humans, Orcs and Night Elf Sentinels united against the Undead Scourge and the Burning Legion. The focus of the story is on two main characters whose fate we didnt discover in RoC, Undead hero Arthas and Night Elf DemonHunter Illidan.

The plot of TFT sets them against each other, as was previously implied in RoC - and the high point of the expansion set is their clash, but as I do not want to post any spoilers, I will just leave it at that.

Playing the sinlge player campaign is meant to gradually introduce the player to new units (2 new units per race), new heroes (9 in all) and modifications made to the existing ones, which is more than necessary for those players that later wanna play custom map games and online games.

You can play the campaign in NORMAL or HARD mode. For the relatively new player (I say relatively because as TFT requires RoC to be installed, I suppose noone can really be completely new to the game) NORMAL is the mode to begin with, as the HARD mode is REALLY HARD (AI attacks are more frequent, with more units that are upgraded, stronger creeps that get in your way, etc).
Important thing is the campaigns are very diverse (although there are some, not many) tasks that are repeated from RoC, and are, in fact quite challenging, sometimes even very hard, to complete (and this is for NORMAL mode).

There are many campaigns where you have to protect your hero from dying, then there are timed tasks (you have to finish something in a specific timeframe), there are classic SEARCH and DESTORY EVERYTHING IN SIGHT type of tasks - and also, some chapters of the campaigns are 'solve the puzzle' types.
Also, there is a hidden level campaign, based on a very much liked and played TOWER DEFENCE type of map. Also, we see a kind of comeback of use of ships, which was used in Warcraft II campaigns a lot.

The Warcraft Universe is developed further: the player meets many completely new races and landscapes, and also finds out history of the known races. The order of the campaigns is: 1. Night Elf Sentinels, 2. Alliance (Human) and 3. Undead Scourge.

The Orc campaign (and the Orc story) is separate from the main plot of TFT, but it follows up on the Orcs and their new homeland. It is made more as an RPG type of game than classic RTS, where, instead of massing an army of units, you only control heroes, and you have many tasks to finish using just them. The Orc scenario is very fun, and a real refreshment. It is also quite long, which is not a bad thing. Since the Orc campaign which is featured on the cd is just act 1, Blizzard has announced acts 2 and 3, which I suppose will be free to dowload from battle.net, but dont take my word for it.

2. the online aspect of playing has been almost radically changed: the intorduction of 4 new heroes (each race gets one) + 5 neutral heroes changes the gameplay a great deal. The limit is still 3 heroes per player, so choosing from 9 (4 race ones and 5 neutral) makes the game strategically more challenging.

One of the big changes is also in the treatment of creeps - the money that a player gets is significantly smaller, so the purpose of creeping has been changed from creeping to get gold to creeping to level up the hero. Also, leveling of the hero(es) is much faster, so you can get high level heroes pretty fast.

a big intoduction is the fact that players can now build their own, race-unique shops, in ther own bases, which stock various items (potions, scrolls, weapon-inducing items, town portals, etc).

there are also taverns, where you can choose from 5 different neutral heroes to balance and improve the race you're playing with (most of the neutral heroes you get to use in the single player campaigns).

A big change is also that the food limit is upped from 80 to 100 food, meaning you can produce a much more varied armies.

Also, the emphasis on resources has been moved from gold to wood (ie. buildings and upgrades take MUCH more wood than in RoC)

there are many changes, these are just a few of them. Blizzard's tradition is to introduce patches to the original form of the game, balancing out the gameplay on bnet, based mostly on reactions of the players, so I expect that TFT will have its own patches which will influence the small but important details of gameplay.

In the end, to everyone who has followed the Warcaft series TFT will not be a disappointment. I found that TFT served it's purpose very well, being a well-tought, well-made extension pack, with many surprises on top of that.