Clarification: 1:03:10 - WC3 was not the first ever 3D RTS game, nor was it the first RTS game with 3D elements, but it was amongst the first made using a *_FULL_* 3D game engine. (What I mean by this is that every aspect of the game was rendered in 3D, including the menu screens, portraits and the story cutscenes - not just the units/buildings etc). Clarification: 1:06:37 - When I say other NPCs, I'm referring to the computer AI. This is not meant to be some attack on Blizzard's current standing or storytelling in any way, it's just a fun retrospective. One more thing - If you launch WC3 through Battle Net then the game, regardless of whether you have purchased Reforged or not, will come with the Reforged campaign screens, cinematics and likely more changes I am not aware of. I could not find a work around for this so I had to use them in this video. EDIT: Wow this video is getting a lot of traction lately. Thanks for 1k views! EDIT: 10k views, absolutely insane. Cheers! EDIT: 100k views... bruh. EDIT: It's been over a year since this was uploaded. Thanks for all the views and kind words. When I look back on this video, I feel I get way too excited towards the end... to be honest, I am not entirely happy with the way it is delivered in general, but whatever, it's just a RUclips video, right? Replaying WC3 was super fun - it really was a memorable gaming experience for me growing up, so playing it again brought me a lot of joy. This video was always meant to be a light-hearted look back on the story. A reminder of all the great moments in the campaign whilst giving extra information on stuff like the Orcs' blood pact, the Lich King's grand design and Illidan's role in the War of the Ancients, amongst others. I believe that was achieved here. Thanks again.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I teared up a bit, reminiscing the late nights playing this at home and gaming cafes. Here is an idea for a series of videos(not sure some one has done it). People like me never played WoW but love Warcraft lore, would be nice to know what happened to the lore, release by release.
RUclips seems to have blessed you these days. My two cents - Warcraft became a cultural phenomenon in Russia/Ukraine. Just like LotR terms can be quoted on state TV (at least, the term "Orcs"), so Warcraft is immediately recognisable - and intrinsically tied to the juggernaut of DotA. And the whole edgy story of Arthas applied all too well to the emo spirit of the 2000s. You can still find music edits of WC3 and Lineage 2 cinematics set to Rammstein. Meanwhile, WoW never had the same popularity. No Russian will call Arthas the Lich King during WC3. - Adûnâi
Regarding WoW, I will add my voice to those unable to take its lore seriously. The scope of things in WoW diminished. When in WC3, entire continents burned and new races emerged, WoW is all about an artificial tug of war between two boring factions. WoW actively made the Night Elves and Forsaken boring by shoving them into the Alliance and the Horde. Of course, small-scale storytelling in vanilla WoW was amazing, but especially TBC-WotLK destroyed WC3's legacy much more than Reforged. I would actually praise Cata-MoP as the high point of WoW lore (the purge of the Sunreavers was a rare case of real politics), but then Legion onwards, it transformed into a philosophical tale of cosmic proportions with little regard for geography or kingdoms. - Adûnâi
What do you mean by "full 3d engine"? Star Trek Armada 2 had 3d movement (ships can move up and down) half a year earlier (and both it and its predecessor were fully 3d rendered), and others probably had it even before
Yeah, it started with TBC, despite WOW fans praising it as the best expansion of the game, the lore and characters were so atrocious, it basically spit on Warcraft 3's narrative.
@@ixian_technocrat Even at the time people thought TBC's story was pretty bad. It wasn't really clear WHY we were fighting Illidan. Why did Kael'thas suddenly turn evil? Like players were excited to see them but didn't really get it. I think Wrath was the expansion that fans really liked the story for, and for good reason. It's the only WoW expansion that to me feels like a real successor to Warcraft 3. Still has some missteps (THERE MUST ALWAYS BE A LICH KING, Anub'arak getting done so dirty, etc) but a good time overall.
I'd say it's not that one sided. There is some good lore there, although latter expansions slowly retconned it. I mostly enjoyed the story up until Warlords of Draenor, when blizzard clearly started making things up
@@SoundwaveSC Oh you were fighting Illidan because you were manipulated by Legion (and by Illidan's classic hubris and arrogance). And i would say Kael's downfall was also clearly coming. He made deals with progressively more tainted creatures, first Naga, then Illidan... no surprise Kil'jaeden was next on his line of masters. And, to be fair, Blood Elves becoming Eredar 2.0 would have cured their magic addiction
One of the saddest things about the cutscene where Arthas commits regicide is that, despit e what he did in Stratholme, King Therenas was fully willing to forgive his son. He and the entire city organized a freaking celebreation with people cheering and throwing down sweet-smelling petals to rejoice the return of The Prince. *King Therenas was just joyful and infinitely grateful to have his son back after so long and Arthas killed him, and the rest of Lordaeron in cold blood in return* That's is tragic.
There was nothing to forgive in Stratholme. Culling was the only realistic way to contain the plague and Uther knew it, even if he didn't want to dirty his hands. The whole point of their dispute was that Uther believed his duty was to stay clean handed as a paladin, while Arthas's duty was before his subjects (alive ones) first and foremost. And there was no time for Arthas to argue his cause, nor was there any excuse for Uther's dereliction of duty and Jaina's abandonment of her old friend in his darkest hour. Though there was one mistake Arthas committed in Stratholme (which he could have been stopped from by any of his friends and comrades have they not forsaken him right before): he missed the reason Mal'Ganis led him to Stratholme and continuously taunted him while in the city - it was to lure him to Northernd before his wrath subsides. Stratholme was the biggest port of the whole realm and always had a huge fleet docked, with both trading and military ships ready to be embarked at a moment's notice.
it's kind of funny. Arthas was abandoned by some of his closest friends, left feeling isolated and betrayed... but when you take a step back, you realize that the people loved him. he inspired incredible loyalty in his men, the populace adored him, his father cherished him... and yet he still wound up feeling so cold and empty. that's the power of trauma and mental illness.
@@rdsasuke1 Uther and Jaina told Terenas while Arthas was in Northrend, it's even mentioned in the "Arthas: RoTLK" Novel, I really recommend reading it. It just expands the whole story of Arthas Menethil even more with Arthas's horse Invincible, how he have inspired his people since Child, some Undead-Arthas Sarcasm, and the Relationship between him and Jaina. And also, Poor Kael getting wrecked by Arthas since Youth
@@AnMComm I'm not sure if I would say Uther didn't want to "dirty his hands" so much as he just couldn't face the pain of having to slaughter his own people. It was only the intense fury built up inside Arthas that allowed him to carry out the culling. If you were to take Arthas from the very beginning of the campaign and have Uther be the one asking Arthas and Jaina to cull Strathholme, I don't believe Arthas would have done it.
Holy shit watching this just reminds me of how far Blizzard has fallen. The story back then had no equal, and still doesn't from anything Blizzard has made.
I also loved the books, the War of the Ancients trilogy is amazing, the stories about Medivh and his mother, Rhonin saving Alexstrasza, the lore and story was so good.
Blizzard's story is akin to the Arthas' or Grom's corruption. Only the redemption arc hasn't happened yet, if it ever does. It's quite sad how something we all grew up with during our formative years fall so low to the morass it has become now. I can only hope a hero also rises to cleanse Blizzard of its corruption.
i'm 33 years old and since i was 6 -7 i remember playing games on PC. Throughout the years i've played so many fantastic pc games but one thing will never change for me. Warcraft 3 will always, ALWAYS be may favorite game of all time. Thank you good sir for this great video. I hope this channel will grow, you deserve it.
Ok, i just finished watching the video and wanted to see the comments. Then i saw...72 Subscribers, 2.2K views? Is this a re-upload? If not i don't know what to say. The voice, the commentary, the editing is flawless man...you have HUGE potential. Please keep doing this.
@@acritical Just wanted to comment that I feel the exact same way. I'd heard of a big RUclipsr/streamer named "Critical" with a funky spelling but never checked them out so idk their normal content. I genuinely misread the view count as 5.4 million, never looked at the upload date or channel numbers, and just took it as correct given the quality of video. Lovely stuff man, though I'm biased to love a Warcraft lore video anyway.
I actually teared up watching Grom kill mannoroth. I spent a lot of my early to late teens on this game playing custom maps. This is my favorite game of all time. The campaign was absolutely epic as well. Loved the video
Rewatching the cutscenes made me realize how wow writing was never at w3 height and funny enough , somehow the aged graphics looks still fresh, no wonder wow had to update
Agreed about the graphics, some how they still completely hold up to this day. It could be the nostalgia talking, but I do think W3 was indeed something quite special.
It's crazy how good WC3 is in every way. Interesting characters, good setting, amazing music, great visuals, strong story, incredible gameplay, etc. It's probably the best thing they've ever made. And I'm saying this as somebody that played SCBW until the late 00s.
Fun fact: in the Spanish dub of Warcraft 3, while Arthas was stabbing king Terenas in the cinematic he says these words: Let your eyes close, now that mine have been opened. While in the original dub this doesn't. Which bring a really good storytelling addition to what was already a legendary moment.
It's insane how well the cutscenes hold up two decades later. There are certainly some parts that look dated (Archimonde in particular), but on the whole even most modern cutscenes fail to measure up to the cinematic direction on display.
Ah, yes. I remember when Kael'thas was a member of a neutral faction rather than "WENT CRAZY/DRUNK WITH POWER" like every other Blizzard character with any sort of depth.
honestly i can respect how that turned out, its not great, not even good, but tbf, consuming fel magic as a rule wasn't going to not have terrible consequences, if nothing else i can respect that it was consistent with the lore
Blood Elves joining the Horde is fine (great even) imo but they really ruined Kael'thas completely. Also Blood Elves were kinda cool at the start of TBC being badass light-suckers but they kinda ruin it at the end.
I'll have to disagree hard on the Orc campaign being the low point. It starts slow, but the final mission is my favorite in the entire game. That scene with a sad music, where Jaina, Thrall and Cairne talk uneasily and realise they have more in common than they knew was fantastic, especially coming after two games where orcs and humans were at each other's throats. It's a redemption story done right, where the vilains were guilty, but the new generation that came after them learned from their mistakes and led their people to a better path. Overall, excellent video =)
I also really love shipwreck and caravaning plots so the intronwas great to me. And quilboar are great, I first met em as a wowbaby and loved em ever since.
I’m really happy you said this because I was thinking the same thing. I don’t think there’s any other RTS game that managed to tell a more compelling and emotionally affecting story. This was THE peak of ‘real-time strategy’ although my 12 year old self did not know it.
The first time I landed in the Reign of Chaos main menu, this overwhelming feeling of mystery, adventure, and purpose came over me. I don't think I've ever felt that again, since. Life goals? The music is also great, not sure if you pointed that out, but it is. Sigh. If only one were able to re-live the greatest moments in one's past!
Listening to this retrospective made me feel so much emotion. It's really a shame that Activision drooped the ball so hard with Warcraft 3 Reforged. How could ANY executive ever think that remastering one of the greatest RTS games of all time WOULDN'T SELL!? This game was a huge part of my childhood. I remember sitting next to my father with my sister, watching him play the game. Because we couldn't understand the story at the time, we just called Arthas "Gold-Hair Knight". My sister was so devastated when later on he turned into "White-Hair Knight". XD
Arthas is 100% the main character of WC3. If you break down the story arcs of the games, it can be summed up with "Arthas, Crown prince of Lordaeron, is corrupted by the Lich King so as to subvert the legion and bring about the rule of Scourge and release of the Lich King". Right, everything ties into that. Why is the Legion present? Because the Lich King had them summoned using Kel'Thuzad to corrupt Arthas so as to escape? Why does Illidan have his story arc--because the Lich King orchestrates it via Arthas in order to escape? Etc. It all revolves around Arthas's integration into the Lich King? Etc. It all ties back into Arthas's tragedy. Now, if we were talking WC2/1--That story is 100% the story of the Silver Hand and the Doomhammers.
@@Wiimeiser Kael, Illiboi, Sylvanas and Arthas had one thing in common in WCIII: an arc. In WoW, only Sylvanas had an arc, that made a lot of people angry but that's a whole other can of worms
I'm surprised that this video doesn't have 500k views already. Wonderful video and I also love this game so much, it still has a special place in my heart even at my 31 years of age.
You can? Often everyone just left as soon as they saw what dungeon they randomed into. Only thing where it was worse was Halls of Reflection. Oh and maybe the Storm Peaks one with Muradin and that wave defense thing. I guess it depends on the patch. xD
58:22 - When grown men cry. That song gets me every time after I looked up what the lyrics meant. That side of his humanity and showing what he's become is jarring and always leaves me emotional. The song title is "Invincible".
"hey, thrall, that was crazy how those hordes undead, demons and warlocks tried to annihiliate our race and all the mortal races on this planet" "yeah, good thing thats over" "so anyway, we decided warlocks and demon magic is okay now" "what!?" "and we decided to ally with an explicitely evil undead faction no better than the lich king, whos "lich queen" literally has a demon as adviser" "WHAT?" "and oh hey, you know the night elves we fought alongside against the demonic invasion? yeah, we declared war on them just so that we could cut down trees in ashenvale" "but our houses are made out of clay, hide and bone!" "yeah, but we really just enjoy killing elves. so now they've joined the alliance"
logically the nelves and the orcs should have never been enemies. Especially when you read the lore about how tauren and elves were kindred races. Like oh yeah lets throw away 10k years of peace over some stinky green dudes who were unironically vital to saving the continent we live on. Let's go ally with those humans on the other side of the world
Ottime,cannot agree with you...Arthas was Just a boy,and he was not perfect of course....but he had also a lot of good qualitirs,and if you really deeply know his story,you know it.....The Person he really Is Is shown in the end of WotLK,when Uther tells US that the part of Arthas inside the Lich King Is All that keep that Monster from destroying everything.It means that the Will of Arthas Is not the same of the Lich King,and he was struggling AGAINST the Will of that powerful being,instead that alongside with him.He was struggling with US,for us .These are not the traits of a villain or of a bad king..These are the traits of a Hero.S fallen Hero,but still a hero
The houses absolutely had wood. And lots of it. Also the Undead were good at at least semi hiding or justifying their worst actions when the Horde were paying attention.
@@DIEGhostfish I was mostly joking Still, there is a reason why every other civilization in human history that decided to build their homes in a desert decided to use sandstone and stone rather than wood. Starting a war with the night elves is beyond unnessecary and stupid. Also, the undead werent at all good at hiding their atrocities. If anything the horde actively looked the other way or supported their evil actions.
@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 They still often had some wood beaming. Horde probably only got at best some glimpses of them committing horrors against the Scarlets who were committing horrors right back.
This is a really good video on Warcraft 3, but I feel there were a couple of times throughout the story section where you would miss out on some details that add more context. For example, when Tyrande freed Illidan she also attacked the Watchers, since they were not keen on letting her release Illidan, the reason Maiev was mad at Tyrande wasn't just because she freed Illidan. Other than missing out on some details, this is a very well done video and Warcraft 3, along with the franchise in general, is very close to my heart and has been for a long time. It was very enjoyable to hear someone passionately talk about it.
She was partly mad at Tyrande for killing her Wardens and partly for Tyrande disrespecting her. The Wardens were created 10000 years ago with Maiev in charge for the sole purpose of guarding Illidan, that later got expanded to keeping watch over all prisoners but the very reason for the order's creation and Maiev's job was the jailing of Illidan and Tyrande just thought meh I wana free him.
@@adrianbozdog9702 Maive was also jealous of her, as they were both priestesses of Elune back in the day, and she REALLY did not like Tyrande. After Tyrande became the new high priestess, Maieve, chose to be a warden instead since she refused to work under Tyrande, where as the Watchers were technically under the Druidic order's command.
@@ZanathKariashi Yep it's also why she calls Malfurion "shando" which means teacher as he was the one who founded and technically commanded the Wardens (though that passed to Maieve when they all went to sleep) but the Sentinels were and are the official NE guards and they answer to the priestess of Elune which for over 10000 years has been Tyrande. While she never liked Tyrande she only started actually hating her after she freed Illidian and killed her watchers.
What I find interesting about W3's ending is how savagely depressing and sour it is.At the end of the game, you no longer play a single good guy. Just a bunch of evil and corrupted characters fighting for power and domination, and the worst of them won, and boom. Fin. I can hardly recall a game with an ending as incredible as this one, allowing us not only to play the villains but to also WIN as them is very bold. The rise of the Lich King was supposed to sign the end of the world, in a sense. Then WoW came along and kind of went "Yeah Lich King's asleep Illidan's away don't worry". WoW was a great game for a while, loved every second of it when I was younger but it's evident the story was poorly handled after W3.
If I remember correctly vanilla WoW story was written pretty much simultaneously with Frozen Throne and Warcraft RPG. If there's any noticeable difference in writing quality and narrative style it's between Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne, then things haven't changed much up until Cataclysm
@@Pihtorich Interesting to know, although I'm not surprised either. Up until Cata, the story was about things Warcraft enthusiasts knew, whether through game or books, what was going on. So I'll assume you're right!
Most of Blizzard's early signature titles had a similar format, where the story ends bleakly for the good guys. Brood War ended with Kerrigan/Zerg victory, Diablo 1 ends with the Hero driving the soulstone into his own forehead, and Diablo 2 ends with the worldstone being corrupted, and Tyreal having to destroy it. The writing style only started to change after WoW's release, and they mostly departed from the RTS genre.
Watching this reminds me of what made Blizzard great. It also explains why the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for WoW was so good. It's like they rode on WC3's lore until it ran out and didn't really have a plan for afterwards.
If WotLK was so great, then it wouldn’t have been the point where WoW stalled out and stopped growing its player base. I started WoW in the winter of 2004 vanilla, and boned out early on in WotLK.
I hope some of you will see this, and some even remember. In my homeland, Warcraft 3 was entirely dubbed, all cinematics, all cutscenes, all move commands... and all jokes.... were localised or were entirely replaced by new ones. It's a masterpiece of translation, dramaturgy and voice acting. All the scenes, you know in English, are, I dare to say, better in Czech. It's unbelievable experience, hilarious and awesome. I can't share this nostalgia with you, but it's incredible that the care developers had for the game, traversed the ocean and struck translation team with the same energy.
Ugh this was great. Really made my night. You flooded me with memories of being 13 again and playing warcraft 3 with my best friend all through the night. Its def in my top 3 fav games of all time. Thank you for this piece, it does bring me back to simpler times.
The final video when Arthas murges with the lich king, gives me chill also.. the game was the main thing in my life for many years, with the custom maps and multiplayer. Hours and Hours of tower defence in LAN play.. my gawd it was glorious..
do warcraft 2! the loading screen art is insanely good and it was much darker and scarier in every aspect like the death throes units make. the unit models look more badass and plausible also
Such a great video. I loved every second of it. I remember playing W3 as a 13 year old kid with my friends from school. Definitely one of my favorite games all of time. It's sad what Warcraft has become since then. But that's what memories are for. Keep up the great work, and thank you!
I just want to say when I was 10 years old all the boys at my primary school including me was playing this game on the school computers. Basically every lunch was a massive lan party of 30 guys playing Warcraft 3 footman frenzy or bleach vs one piece or other mods or just the base multiplayer. Our teachers also played with us until one day we got a new principal. She thought video games made kids violent so they were banned. Maybe because we also played cs 1.6 and halo but yeah.
This video brought so much memory back to me and why I and my friends and family were utterly disappointed by Reforged and what Blizzards become. It is often a joke among us that Blizzards is exactly a mirror of Arthas and his descent into becoming the Lich King.
@@caiusion3893 To my recollection as an admittedly small child at the time, people seemed to quite love it - but worth noting is it wasn't really a test of WoW, but really a reference back to Diablo, Blizzard's other hit game franchise.
@@mattrocde uh no Blizz said as much that it was a test of what wow was to be. This was confirmed At The Time to be the case when wow was about to release
@@ConnorNotyerbidness They might've used it to test some of WoW's core mechanics for questing, seems likely (would like too see the interview on it, sounds interesting), but the design is undeniably Diablo through and through what with the perspective, pacing through sub chapters, entering different maps for dungeon exploration.
You are so right about it - this was the golden age of the WarCraft Lore. It was because of this story line that I felt compelled to play WoW as soon as I could. It's such a powerful story. Arthas' single dimensional way of thinking brought to his downfall. "The way to hell is paved by good intentions". There was no cost that was too high to pay and he got consumed by his thirst for vengeance. I remember sneaking into Undercity for the first time in Vanilla as an Alliance rogue and feeling goosebumps.
not only the animation and the story was top notch but also the voice acting was impeccable, the ambient sounds and the environment were carefully crafted with care and love which are the main ingredients for a good game. Care and love by the creators.
probably nobody will read this, but great video! WC3 was one of my absolute favorites when I was young and you captured the reasons for why that is very well. If I had one thing to add however, I would have loved to see part about all the custom made maps, although that would honestly deserve its own video if not own channel all by itself. Despite the fact that WC3 had great storytelling, cinematics and gameplay I think its editor and all the maps/games that came from it was ultimately what made it probably one of the most influential games of all times. Giving birth to a whole new Genre with DOTA and so many more. I remember we used to make lan parties back in the day, where we would basically only play WC3 custom made maps as there were so many great ones, footmen frenzy, TowerDefense, Hero Defense, Defender of the Acients, tons of RPG like maps and the list goes on and on.
when i was a kid i used to play this game all the time, cosntantly, so many custome games like hero wars and wintermaul, and it fucking hurts the only way to paly it (apart from cracking it) is to buy it all over again, even thogh i own 3 physical copies of rfrozen throne and reign of chaos. Apart from that, amazing game, i love the orc camapaign and the undead campaign. thje seige of dalaran is so fucking good idek
This was one of the first games I played as a kid, it was the gateway to my love for strategy games. The video was a sentimental watch, thank you for the work you put into this.
This was such a brilliant walk down memory lane for Warcraft 3 - thanks for taking the time to make this video and please continue to make more. Love your work
I'm totally with you bro, I can recite entire pre-mission cutscene dialogue with my brother from memory for way too many missions. Some of those quotes stay with you for a long time "I'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth if I have to. Do you hear me? TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH" "Ah, Thrall. You always believed that the demons corrupted our race, but that's only half true. We gave ourselves up willingly on Draenor! The other chieftains and I... we drank Mannoroth's blood, Thrall. We brought this curse upon ourselves!" "You did this...to our people...KNOWINGLY?" "To arms my brethren. To arms, brave orcs and humans! Twilight falls, and the enemy awaits." One detail that always surprised me was Arthas actually throwing away his hammer to pick up the Frostmourne. Another is at the end of the Culling, Arthas raises his hammer to shout out the quote I put above but Reforged couldn't even manage that simple animation.
My chest still pounds with the nostalgia shock whenever I remember the very first moment I launched WC3 and entered WoW... Gosh that is something cannot be removed from your life... not even Blizzard's downfall can change it.
When I was young I discovered this gem in the internet cafe. I sucked badly. First ever experience pvp with friends, I chose undead and my friend who was a warcraft fanatic laughed told me I chose the most difficult class. I was taunted the whole game how badly I was playing If not for that I would have never invested myself into becoming better and destroying my friends. But what really drew me in was the World editor, I simply love making my own stuff. I was poor so I saved all my lunch money all week just to play 4hours of warcraft. When my parents bought me my firs laptop, warcraft was the first game I got but it was just the demo, again poor and didnt know pirating existed. So my absolute favorite map and most time ive ever spent was in the orc tutorial. After pirating it. Me and my friend competed to make a cool map every week and had so much fun, over time I learnt triggers and made movies, even voiced them. This game is such a gem, and I was so exited for reforged and so crushed when it was released. It could have been a new time of fun... If I had to make an estimation of how long I played it, including the map editor, it could be minimum of 2000hours, estimation comes from me playing it for 6years, every year less and less.
Your content is definitely much, much more professional and high quality than I would expect from a 3 month old channel. I subscribed and I am excited to see what new content you're going to create.
Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne is still to this day, the greatest video game I have ever played. The story, the characters, the music, the level design, the replayability, the competitive ladder matches, the clans, the modding community, the lore, THE CUSTOM MAPS! Everything about it... *chefs kiss* fucking honed to such a degree, I have never seen its like since.
People usually Half Life 3 this, Half Life 3 that. And there's me, and I am sure I ain't alone who for a time patiently waited for Warcraft IV... Crazy how it was indeed the pinnacle. Giving birth to WoW and what would ultimately become Dota. Rexxar's campaign is my favorite in Frozen Throne, that's for sure. Warcraft III also remains the best example of what a truly balanced game should be.
Great take and recap on what is one of my favorite games of all time. I've watched a couple of your videos after this one to get a better picture of your work, and I can only say you're doing a great job so far. Clean script, good pacing, good b-rolls and editing. On top of that you have a very easy to listen to voice and style of narrating. I can't imagine you entered this circus with no experience in the field, at least in script writing. If you did, I'm impressed. Either way, if you keep this up I am sure you will soon get more attention and reach a bigger audience, because it's well deserved. You have my subscription, I can say that much. Cheers!
after I finished watching this video, I closed the full screen only to subscribe into this channel that surely has at least 2 milion sub..... HOLY SHIT! You gave us 2 hours of summary of our best years and you barelly beggining your RUclips journey?! SUBSCRIBED
Underrated. According to production quality, channel sub number should’ve been over 200k rather than 200s. Keep up the good work and please watch the Eastory channel’s video about youtube success. Thanks for reminding the good old days.
High Elves are those Highborne who sided with the Night Elves, were unable to stop using Magic, hence, were exiled, inherited a vial of the waters of the Well of Eternity, that later became the Sunwell when it was poured on a ley line.
@@xJdog You're confusing the High Elves and the Highborne. Highborne were the ruling class of ancient Night Elf society before and during the first stages of the War of the Ancients (they kinda betrayed their race and they kinda let the invasion happen, so they were replaced by Tyrande and Malfurion as the new leaders)... While most, including the queen, Azshara, became the naga, some, as the other replies explain, became the High Elves and founded Quel'Thalas (highborne -> high elves -> blood elves)
Man the amount of times i played through the campaign, and most of all watched the cutscenes is insane, the games aesthetic and characters defined most of my taste in fantasy for years, Illidan and Arthas were what cool was for me, probably the reason why even until now antiheroes and villains are usually my favorite characters in media. The video was amazing fam, i can't describe the feeling of rewatching those cutscenes and remembering the story of the game now. One of my all time favorite things in media.
This video brings back so many memories. Subscribed. I read the subscribers as 1.4 million at first because the quality is out of this world and I did not question it. After re-reading 1.4K thousand; I am shocked.
Its amazing how precisely you've echoed my own experience with this masterpiece. I came up playing C&C, rollercoaster tycoon and all the other stuff too and then bam: I discover this mature, character driven, deep wellspring of cinematic storytelling, worldbuilding and gameplay. It was a profound experience that forever changed how I viewed entertainment media in general. And yes paradoxically, looking back at it fills you with both joy as well as sadness for an era that was truly magical but one that is too far removed from what passes as artistry in our current age. Like this was also a time when the LoTr trilogy had just come out and we even had wc3 custom maps depicting the battle of helms deep etc. It was a golden age of prime escapism and inspiration.
This is a fun video! I disagree slightly with this interpretation of Arthas's character - I think he starts the story, as a to-be-king, exhibiting negative traits that would be awful for a king to have: being stubborn, quick to anger, taking advice bitterly, etc. He's surrounded by people who love him, and you can imagine that he's in an ideal position to grow, but instead he turns away his friends in order to double down on his convictions. I really love this dark twist on arthurian legend because while Arthas's negative traits in life would have made him a terrible king, in undeath they're totally ideal traits for the Lich King to have, and I think focusing on seeing Arthas as someone trying to do the right thing and being corrupted by a higher power takes away some of his agency as a character.
That is very interesting, thank you for sharing. I do get what you're saying - Arthas' descent was very much of his own making and his character traits fueled that. I do think he had good intentions in the beginning, likely at the shock of seeing his fellow humans turned into Undead, but it seems that what drove him more than anything was a selfish pursuit of revenge and "saving the kingdom" became a convenient excuse for him to go as far as he did.
Ultimately, Arthas was a good soul turned bitter by his situation. Here is a young man, already under the pressure of being a prince, paladin and soon-to-be-king. You couple this with the fact that an obscure, new plague is ravaging their lands. In his crusade to thwart this threat, Arthas learned more about the plague than any other. Hence when we got to Stratholme, Arthas understand all too well what was to inevitably become of the citizens. Uther, with all due respect, was an idealist who had little experience with the plague and was not privy to how it worked. There was no other way. If they had done what Uther suggested and had Dalaranian magi contain them while they found a cure, it would have taken far too long. By the time magi got out there, contained the city and searched for a possible cure, the people would have already turned and become slaves of Mal’Ganis whilst the plague ravaged the rest of Lordaeron. Arthas, as much as it caused him grief, understood what had to be done. And in return…his friends and allies, those he counted on, abandoned him. Arthas is the story of a young hero with much expectation thrust upon him, simply trying to do what was right at any cost. Naturally this led him down a road of questionable decisions and immorality ultimately leading him to being corrupted by the voice of Ner’Zhul speaking to him through Frostmourne. Did Arthas have some character flaws? Of course. That’s what the original Lich King (Ner’Zhul) played off of. That’s why he selected Arthas to be his champion. But that does not negate the fact that Arthas was good intentioned. This truly is the story of a fallen hero. Anyone can make questionable decisions and become something they never thought if the situation is right. What this story should prompt us to inquire is this: Is justice, at any cost, justice at all?
@@sheevpalpatine8257 Jaina knew just as much as Arthas did about the plague and did not agree with purging the city. At this point, he's set to be the king of his country, and he even invokes that in the scene - and yet he's completely unable to yield to the people he should trust the most, nor is he able to convince them of something he feels so sure of. That is the makings of a terrible leader. He gave no recourse, allowed his friends no time to come up with an alternative solution, and rather than try to convince the people following him to work with him, he ordered them to do his bidding under threat. Being decisive when it matters is important, but not be able to acquire the consent of Uther deprived Arthas of his help and ultimately led to him being completely isolated in Northrend. Whether or not Uther was an idealist, whether or not purging Stratholme was the only option, it was Arthas's decision and inability to yield that divided Lordaeron at the worst possible time. Arthas completely failed as an aspiring leader. The point I make in my original post, though, is this isn't actually a character flaw at all when looking at Arthas the person who would eventually become the Lich King rather than the person who would become the king of Lordaeron. Being the Lich King is perfect for him because it means he has no one to question him, and his unyielding conviction is a strength as a murderous king of death rather than a weakness as a friend to his companions. When I first played Warcraft 3, I did feel Arthas was an essentially good person who was corrupted by evil - and it's not like I see him as a monster or anything, but every time I've revisited the game since then, I think more and more he's kind of just a shitty guy who needed to grow, could have grown, and chose not to.
@@otomegrandma7472 the point is... Even if they were at odds with Arthas's methods both Jaina and especially Uther just gave up on situation and left Prince to do everything by himself... Ok fine you disagree with methods but abandoning your future King is straight up treason (seriously no other way around it), heck Arthas was left with weakened army as a result and could've died right here and there - try to explain this to King. If you are so inclined and worry that Arthas is about to do something stupid or go overkill on solutions - stay and control the situation to AVOID it getting it out of hand. I can excuse Jaina as she is Young and just a fellow magician and purging whole town was too much for her... But, c'mon, Uther was straight up put in his position exactly to do that and stand by kid's side, not leave him behind. First they leave Arthas to his own devices then wonder WHY - he abandoned by people whom he trusted the most and left without their advice - went revenge crazy and all downhill from there.
@@Ghostel3591 I'm not sure I agree with the premise of this line of thinking at all. Uther didn't 'get up and leave', Arthas suspended him and his paladins. I think Uther being indignant at Arthas pulling rank is pretty reasonable, since he's been Arthas's teacher and protector for most of his life, and is himself more experienced and, I imagine, far more respected among their peers. Uther being willing to deny an order he believes is wildly unjust is admirable, whether or not it is treason, and whether or not what Arthas suggested was right. Again, these two people were friends, and I think it's totally reasonable why Uther was willing to question Arthas and objected to Arthas trying to order him. It's true that Jaina is also young and inexperienced, but out of the three of them, she ultimately achieves the most, as she's the one who made the decision to flee with the survivors to Kalimdor, and was the only one to follow Medivh's advice. She went through the same losses Arthas did, and lost every friend and peer in Lordaeron she could rely on, but throughout the story she is never motivated by revenge. I hope I'm not giving the impression I'm criticizing Arthas's character! I love Arthas. I think he's great, and I like him because of his flaws.
This video was just recommended to me. A wonderful and quite in-depth retrospective of one of my all-time favourite games! Warcraft 3 and the Command & Conquer saga are my favourite RTS games primarily because of the story they tell. I was never quite as taken with Starcraft as I was with Warcraft 3 and the Tiberium universe. It's amazing to see what old Blizzard did with Warcraft 3 and how it lead into World of Warcraft and culminated in Wrath of the Lich King, with all pre-established plot lines largely settled. I love this myth arc of the world and I will never be tired of revisiting the Outlands, or the good old world and lore of Azeroth. Cataclysm and onwards notwithstanding.
27:55 Illidan "The leader of the undead has been destroyed and the forest will heal in time" Malfurion "In the cost of your soul? You are no longerbrother of mine! Begone this place". Later on... Mafurion puts a trap for Archimonde, sacrificing thousands of ancient elven souls to make him implode. 30:30 Medivh "Roots will heal in time" It is something that as a kid I saw as very intriguing : the two brothers do the same thing, but one is supposed to be wrong by doing so, because he burnt some trees and sacrificied his elven form. The other sacrified wisps and for some odd reason is right.
Damn, this brings nostalgia, knowing I was just a kid not knowing everything but seeing every recurring scene has been clear to me how the story progressed. Insane video, and damn it is also explained very well. Cheers to you man! It also made me got introduced to Dota, so that's a thing I wouldn't regret!
When I played this campaign some 20 years ago I was really confused and even angry at the plot: why must everyone speak in such a vague and concise manner when it comes to the most critical moment of their world's history? You can't seriously expect a government to relocate an entire country to the other side of the ocean just because a birdman tells them "humanity is in peril be very afraid!" Nor should you expect your own mentor/paladin superior and a whole army to carry out some exterminatus order without even bothering to explain to them wtf is actually going on. It seems as if these people just didn't want their audience to believe them. If I were King Terenas or Uthur I wouldn't buy these BS either.
Medivh knew that he had to choose his words carefully knowing his background. After he was corrupted by Sargeras and coerced into opening the dark portal, he was executed by his brethren. If he revealed himself early to Terenas or any other character, he would've either been killed or 100% ignored and assumed to be an imposter or still possessed by Sargares, and considering that the human leaders at the time were being influenced by the Burning Legion via Balnazaar, he probably knew that the odds were incredible against him. He also knew that his immense power could be felt by other beings like Jaina and Thrall. Though most of his acts of persuasion failed, his main strategy of communicating with a wide array of people worked.
Arthas was already in a maddening state when he talked to Uther, an event that the Lich king foresaw. Suffice to say there was little to no sanity or logic in Arthas' head.
@@DIEGhostfish Kind of too specific and I believe the moment he stepped into the royal chamber, he already knew that they were beyond reasoning or help.
it was not THAT great, but it was pretty good. Also, a century is a long time. But, I can understand the nostalgia. It hurts because they massacred our boy.
@@randjan8592 a Large amount of people think it's one of the best out there. Some disagree. But with it's amount of fan, I wouldn think it's one of the best.
Rarely writes a comment on a video. This was beautifully put together. Did not think that I would watch the whole video when I started it seeing that it's quite late where I am, but here I am drowning in nostalgia. Would not surprise me if this hits 100k views soon. Thank you for a well made video and the trip down memory lane. It gave chills. EDIT: not sure if I just read wrong, but you've already reached 100k views. So, would not surprise me if it hits 1m views soon! Good night!
Author, you have 1 crucial mistake about lore in RoC. The main characters during campaign are goblins. They developed goblin mines, which helped arthas to eliminate human bases during Archimonde summon mission AND helped Tyrande to eliminate first undead base and kill Archimonde during last 45 mins mission. So the circle is complete. Forget about Scourge, Legion and other races - goblins are main antagonists and protagonist in Reign of Chaos.
Keep going, i just found this video because it was on my recommended. A great video. Dont mind the subs, they will eventually come if the content is this good. Subbed.
Holy S...! This is one of the best videos I've ever seen in my life! I do not comment ever, and hardlyyy ever see an hour long video, and honestly... after seen it, I wish it was longer. I won't congratulate you, I'll just leave it with a thank you. You've sent me back to the best years of my life.
Without wishing to downplay anyone's experience but two things to point out here: 1. Warcraft is a watered down version of Warhammer. Basically - they'd take the real thing and then dumb it down for the masses/children. We all liked it because we were kids. While their MO stayed focused on being easy/shallow (just look at HotS compared to LoL and Dota or Heartstone compared to MTG) - we did grow up over time and needed more. I remember really liking Starcraft and replaying it as I got older only to realize to which extent it offers less than the WH40k lore. 2. Most of their games have the same formula when it comes to the storyline: promising protagonist turned main villain (Kerrigan/Arthas), misunderstood good guys who seem never to be able to prove their good intensions (Dark Templar/Orcs)... You see the pattern, and the list is long. The reason I'm saying this is that I did enjoy SC, but then found WC3 too childish. Everyone around me was praising the Diablo story - except for us who actually played Baldurs Gate and Planescape Torment. What I'm arguing here is that what Blizzard is (was) good at is not stories or characters, but rather creating gameplay smooth enough not to interrupt the storyline by taking you out of it at a time where rarely anyone else could do that (Valve came close with HL2). Their storytelling didn't get worse - other companies just caught on to how to make a game polished enough mechanically that the immersion is easy and smooth to the player.
This WC3 is childish take is so weird. As someone who has been into Warhammer fantasy and 40k for 25 years. Calling these franchises copies is just stupid. They are thematically completely different. Starcraft has some 40k original inspiration but warcraft takes far more from DnD than Warhammer. Also acting like warcraft is slop for the masses when GW's entire business model for years has been a slop factory is pretty funny.
Really great video and I wholeheartedly agree, but I would propose that the WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King is in my opinion the culmination of the Warcraft (3) story, with the later expansions butchering the lore so much that the universe is unrecognizable, and not in any good way. I would honestly be happy if there was a true RTS sequel to Frozen Throne, with it completely ignoring anything related to WoW and simply continue after Arthas' ascension into the Lich King.
Yea the lore of wow after that is just blizzard trying to make something bigger and bigger to outmatch the previous expansion and it comes to the point where the characters are way too powerful. They pulled the jailer out of their ass as a guy who planned it all before War3 and now his master plan is unfolding..
commenting for the algorithim... loved the organization and your take on wc3. I feel like a lot of younger generation dont know how impactful this series was to nerdy milennials in the early 2000s. also, i really hope long form content like this takes off on youtube! i call it the salt factory style lol... hope you get more views on this video and your channel! P.S. I noticed the view count went up 200 while i was watching!!!
Can't believe I watched this entire vid. Haha Nice job recapping all the lore. WC3 is def one of those games with a story on another level, especially for its time.
Warcraft 3 and Baldur's Gate share a curious quality: Polish dubbing is absolutely godlike and even better than the original. It's a bit debatable in case of Baldur's Gate, but I think it's obvious to whoever listens to Sarevok or narrator.
I can still remember the summer when i started playing this To this day the ilidan cinematic ( specifically the moment the naga appear ) gives me chills Edit: i remember reading somewhere that yes,the founding of durotar was a way to test if people would enjoy a rpg-ish game and low and behold people loved it Also there are videos of a developer that worked on the game that talks in great detail about each and every lvl of the game and the youtuber abelhawk ( hope i am not wrong ) has a entire series dedicated to ALL of the easter eggs in the game
Absolutely amazing job on the video, exactly the kind of videos about Warcraft 3 i've been looking for. Would like to see more Warcraft related videos in the future. I applaud you sir.
Huge appreciation for the scene where Arthas murders Terenas, specially given how easily Frostmourne's blade rips the King's flesh apart, like it goes through butter as if mortal flesh was air to the sword. Masterful, bone chilling, peak Blizzard. To this day I long for an animated series with this amount of work and care put into it. WC3 deserves it above all else, the potential is there.
I do also love the Orc campaign. While the Human/Undead, and Night Elf had the superior story arcs and characters, coming from Warcraft 1/2 and high fantasy in general, it was refreshing to see Orcs or "Monsters" portrayed in an honourable way.
It was also nice to see Grom again, now representing the Old Horde and it's ideals and being paired with Thrall, not only a "new orc", but also a "new warchief", leading his people not to battle and glory, but to peace and prosperity Honestly, Grom was my favorite of all of Warcraft 3's characters - seeing his downfall felt natural and realistic, his motives were ulterior yet clear, he was bloodthirsty and vicious, yet honorable and noble to an extent, he was high of himself yet he was also highly obedient Many times his respect and brotherly compassion for Thrall had turned into hate due to demons being present nearby Seeing such a split from Warcraft 1 and 2's orcs was quite nice honestly (also his scream when he was running at Mannoroth was helluva awesome)
I also love the intro scene at Stratholme, that was the moment where I truly started to love the game. The camera angle change when Arthas asks Uther "Have I?" is just iconic to me. Amazing character development all around.
Virgin Azeroth Humans: They easily die. Always blame it on the horde. Easily become a undead and Easily betray Humanity. badly made weapons vs Chad Gensokyo Humans: Has a unique shrine maiden called Reimu for having a smallass hitbox. Humans can be hard to become a Youkai. Can get rid of Youkais if needed. 2 Shrines. FUMO. Very Rarely dies and has good weapons and magics (Marisa's laser is an example)
you know usually retrospectives or those "[insert game title here] in 20 minutes" normally have some dude just blabbing on for the whole time, but I really like how you gave the original cinematics time to shine. It felt like I was playing the game again. gj from one wc3 nerd to another. also, how the FUCK did they make the CG look better than pretty much anything I see today? Art direction? They look fucking great
A LOT of rendering power, time, hard work, and some tricks. Also keeping them concise with good storytelling beats to fit into a shorter cutscene instead of having to stretch budget over a longer production.
Buddy there’s an error with RUclips I think, the views are 164k instead of 2+ million it obviously should be... Great video! Hope you get more recognition, subbed!
Keep making these kinds of videos man you'll blow up. You fit right in with the bigger lore channels for various IPs and such and general lore nerds on my feed. You got the voice, the mind and the talent. Run with it. You definitely just caught a new sub with me.
Clarification: 1:03:10 - WC3 was not the first ever 3D RTS game, nor was it the first RTS game with 3D elements, but it was amongst the first made using a *_FULL_* 3D game engine. (What I mean by this is that every aspect of the game was rendered in 3D, including the menu screens, portraits and the story cutscenes - not just the units/buildings etc).
Clarification: 1:06:37 - When I say other NPCs, I'm referring to the computer AI.
This is not meant to be some attack on Blizzard's current standing or storytelling in any way, it's just a fun retrospective.
One more thing - If you launch WC3 through Battle Net then the game, regardless of whether you have purchased Reforged or not, will come with the Reforged campaign screens, cinematics and likely more changes I am not aware of. I could not find a work around for this so I had to use them in this video.
EDIT: Wow this video is getting a lot of traction lately. Thanks for 1k views!
EDIT: 10k views, absolutely insane. Cheers!
EDIT: 100k views... bruh.
EDIT: It's been over a year since this was uploaded. Thanks for all the views and kind words. When I look back on this video, I feel I get way too excited towards the end... to be honest, I am not entirely happy with the way it is delivered in general, but whatever, it's just a RUclips video, right? Replaying WC3 was super fun - it really was a memorable gaming experience for me growing up, so playing it again brought me a lot of joy. This video was always meant to be a light-hearted look back on the story. A reminder of all the great moments in the campaign whilst giving extra information on stuff like the Orcs' blood pact, the Lich King's grand design and Illidan's role in the War of the Ancients, amongst others. I believe that was achieved here. Thanks again.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I teared up a bit, reminiscing the late nights playing this at home and gaming cafes.
Here is an idea for a series of videos(not sure some one has done it).
People like me never played WoW but love Warcraft lore, would be nice to know what happened to the lore, release by release.
RUclips seems to have blessed you these days. My two cents - Warcraft became a cultural phenomenon in Russia/Ukraine. Just like LotR terms can be quoted on state TV (at least, the term "Orcs"), so Warcraft is immediately recognisable - and intrinsically tied to the juggernaut of DotA. And the whole edgy story of Arthas applied all too well to the emo spirit of the 2000s. You can still find music edits of WC3 and Lineage 2 cinematics set to Rammstein. Meanwhile, WoW never had the same popularity. No Russian will call Arthas the Lich King during WC3.
- Adûnâi
Regarding WoW, I will add my voice to those unable to take its lore seriously. The scope of things in WoW diminished. When in WC3, entire continents burned and new races emerged, WoW is all about an artificial tug of war between two boring factions. WoW actively made the Night Elves and Forsaken boring by shoving them into the Alliance and the Horde. Of course, small-scale storytelling in vanilla WoW was amazing, but especially TBC-WotLK destroyed WC3's legacy much more than Reforged.
I would actually praise Cata-MoP as the high point of WoW lore (the purge of the Sunreavers was a rare case of real politics), but then Legion onwards, it transformed into a philosophical tale of cosmic proportions with little regard for geography or kingdoms.
- Adûnâi
How about you make one about the first Warcrafts (I and II)
What do you mean by "full 3d engine"? Star Trek Armada 2 had 3d movement (ships can move up and down) half a year earlier (and both it and its predecessor were fully 3d rendered), and others probably had it even before
It's kind of impressive how WoW managed to retcon, disrespect, or downright ruin almost everything that Warcraft III managed to build.
Yeah, it started with TBC, despite WOW fans praising it as the best expansion of the game, the lore and characters were so atrocious, it basically spit on Warcraft 3's narrative.
@@ixian_technocrat Even at the time people thought TBC's story was pretty bad. It wasn't really clear WHY we were fighting Illidan. Why did Kael'thas suddenly turn evil? Like players were excited to see them but didn't really get it.
I think Wrath was the expansion that fans really liked the story for, and for good reason. It's the only WoW expansion that to me feels like a real successor to Warcraft 3. Still has some missteps (THERE MUST ALWAYS BE A LICH KING, Anub'arak getting done so dirty, etc) but a good time overall.
I'd say it's not that one sided. There is some good lore there, although latter expansions slowly retconned it. I mostly enjoyed the story up until Warlords of Draenor, when blizzard clearly started making things up
@@SoundwaveSC Oh you were fighting Illidan because you were manipulated by Legion (and by Illidan's classic hubris and arrogance). And i would say Kael's downfall was also clearly coming. He made deals with progressively more tainted creatures, first Naga, then Illidan... no surprise Kil'jaeden was next on his line of masters. And, to be fair, Blood Elves becoming Eredar 2.0 would have cured their magic addiction
@@konstantinriumin2657 WoW had good LORE, terrible storytelling.
One of the saddest things about the cutscene where Arthas commits regicide is that, despit e what he did in Stratholme, King Therenas was fully willing to forgive his son. He and the entire city organized a freaking celebreation with people cheering and throwing down sweet-smelling petals to rejoice the return of The Prince.
*King Therenas was just joyful and infinitely grateful to have his son back after so long and Arthas killed him, and the rest of Lordaeron in cold blood in return*
That's is tragic.
There was nothing to forgive in Stratholme. Culling was the only realistic way to contain the plague and Uther knew it, even if he didn't want to dirty his hands.
The whole point of their dispute was that Uther believed his duty was to stay clean handed as a paladin, while Arthas's duty was before his subjects (alive ones) first and foremost.
And there was no time for Arthas to argue his cause, nor was there any excuse for Uther's dereliction of duty and Jaina's abandonment of her old friend in his darkest hour.
Though there was one mistake Arthas committed in Stratholme (which he could have been stopped from by any of his friends and comrades have they not forsaken him right before): he missed the reason Mal'Ganis led him to Stratholme and continuously taunted him while in the city - it was to lure him to Northernd before his wrath subsides. Stratholme was the biggest port of the whole realm and always had a huge fleet docked, with both trading and military ships ready to be embarked at a moment's notice.
it's kind of funny. Arthas was abandoned by some of his closest friends, left feeling isolated and betrayed... but when you take a step back, you realize that the people loved him. he inspired incredible loyalty in his men, the populace adored him, his father cherished him... and yet he still wound up feeling so cold and empty. that's the power of trauma and mental illness.
It was medieval times. I doubt the news of Stratholme spread far or fast. I'd wager average people in the capital had no idea it ever happened.
@@rdsasuke1 Uther and Jaina told Terenas while Arthas was in Northrend, it's even mentioned in the "Arthas: RoTLK" Novel, I really recommend reading it. It just expands the whole story of Arthas Menethil even more with Arthas's horse Invincible, how he have inspired his people since Child, some Undead-Arthas Sarcasm, and the Relationship between him and Jaina.
And also, Poor Kael getting wrecked by Arthas since Youth
@@AnMComm I'm not sure if I would say Uther didn't want to "dirty his hands" so much as he just couldn't face the pain of having to slaughter his own people. It was only the intense fury built up inside Arthas that allowed him to carry out the culling. If you were to take Arthas from the very beginning of the campaign and have Uther be the one asking Arthas and Jaina to cull Strathholme, I don't believe Arthas would have done it.
Holy shit watching this just reminds me of how far Blizzard has fallen. The story back then had no equal, and still doesn't from anything Blizzard has made.
I also loved the books, the War of the Ancients trilogy is amazing, the stories about Medivh and his mother, Rhonin saving Alexstrasza, the lore and story was so good.
Blizzard's story is akin to the Arthas' or Grom's corruption. Only the redemption arc hasn't happened yet, if it ever does. It's quite sad how something we all grew up with during our formative years fall so low to the morass it has become now. I can only hope a hero also rises to cleanse Blizzard of its corruption.
Starcraft 2 is pretty popular now and has a small but strong community. On the other hand, Blizzard is just recycling or maintaining old games.
You nailed it. This was someone's baby. Many many hours of creative thinking went into this title. The story was legendary.
@@ivanaleksandartsanev1693 Wasn't huge onnWar of the Ancients but did like the first three novels a ton
i'm 33 years old and since i was 6 -7 i remember playing games on PC. Throughout the years i've played so many fantastic pc games but one thing will never change for me. Warcraft 3 will always, ALWAYS be may favorite game of all time. Thank you good sir for this great video. I hope this channel will grow, you deserve it.
Ok, i just finished watching the video and wanted to see the comments. Then i saw...72 Subscribers, 2.2K views? Is this a re-upload? If not i don't know what to say. The voice, the commentary, the editing is flawless man...you have HUGE potential. Please keep doing this.
Thanks for the kind words.
@@acritical Just wanted to comment that I feel the exact same way. I'd heard of a big RUclipsr/streamer named "Critical" with a funky spelling but never checked them out so idk their normal content. I genuinely misread the view count as 5.4 million, never looked at the upload date or channel numbers, and just took it as correct given the quality of video. Lovely stuff man, though I'm biased to love a Warcraft lore video anyway.
dude I didn't even notice. thanks for pointing it out
@@TheGenericDavis "I genuinely misread the view count as 5.4 million" Give it time....
100% agreed.
I actually teared up watching Grom kill mannoroth. I spent a lot of my early to late teens on this game playing custom maps. This is my favorite game of all time. The campaign was absolutely epic as well. Loved the video
The mid 00´s were peak gaming time. WC 3 was such a hype game in every internet cafe
OMG ! Internet cafes and Gaming network places.......those were the good days
Dota, Counter Strike, WC3, Starcraft, etc. the 2000's internet cafe is magic!
Rewatching the cutscenes made me realize how wow writing was never at w3 height and funny enough , somehow the aged graphics looks still fresh, no wonder wow had to update
Agreed about the graphics, some how they still completely hold up to this day. It could be the nostalgia talking, but I do think W3 was indeed something quite special.
@@ryankelly8428 I played Warcraft 3 for the first time 2 years ago. It still holds up.
The graphics weren't very good, even considering its age, but they had a style to them which makes them hold up to this day.
That low poly count ps1 era graphic can be quite charming when it has a great direction like in ww3 case.
Its not about graphics but its the design which make them memorable.
It's crazy how good WC3 is in every way. Interesting characters, good setting, amazing music, great visuals, strong story, incredible gameplay, etc. It's probably the best thing they've ever made. And I'm saying this as somebody that played SCBW until the late 00s.
blizzard fucked up starcraft 2's story as well. can't believe they turned the zerg into Kerrigan's cuddly misunderstood pets.
WC3 and D2LoD was the hight of gaming. Nothing ever came close
@@DAN1078CJ Warcraft click based advanture stories are one of my fav single player exp game too
@@OmegaTrooper at least Starcraft 2 had good gameplay. The story is so forgettable in comparison to SC1 and War3.
Warcraft 2 was better.
Fun fact: in the Spanish dub of Warcraft 3, while Arthas was stabbing king Terenas in the cinematic he says these words: Let your eyes close, now that mine have been opened. While in the original dub this doesn't. Which bring a really good storytelling addition to what was already a legendary moment.
no sabía que no decían eso en el english dub! increíble, el momento sería mucho menos épico sin eso
I never got into WOW, but oh this game... the music... the story... the feel of it... gosh it was something special.
great time to do so
It's insane how well the cutscenes hold up two decades later. There are certainly some parts that look dated (Archimonde in particular), but on the whole even most modern cutscenes fail to measure up to the cinematic direction on display.
Ah, yes. I remember when Kael'thas was a member of a neutral faction rather than "WENT CRAZY/DRUNK WITH POWER" like every other Blizzard character with any sort of depth.
Yes they were already ruining the lore already on Burning Crusade
ITS CORRUPTIN TIME
Moral of the story: don't do drugs kids, and if you are addicted to it, seek therapy rather than your own poppy field
honestly i can respect how that turned out, its not great, not even good, but tbf, consuming fel magic as a rule wasn't going to not have terrible consequences, if nothing else i can respect that it was consistent with the lore
Blood Elves joining the Horde is fine (great even) imo but they really ruined Kael'thas completely. Also Blood Elves were kinda cool at the start of TBC being badass light-suckers but they kinda ruin it at the end.
I'll have to disagree hard on the Orc campaign being the low point. It starts slow, but the final mission is my favorite in the entire game. That scene with a sad music, where Jaina, Thrall and Cairne talk uneasily and realise they have more in common than they knew was fantastic, especially coming after two games where orcs and humans were at each other's throats. It's a redemption story done right, where the vilains were guilty, but the new generation that came after them learned from their mistakes and led their people to a better path.
Overall, excellent video =)
I also really love shipwreck and caravaning plots so the intronwas great to me. And quilboar are great, I first met em as a wowbaby and loved em ever since.
I’m really happy you said this because I was thinking the same thing. I don’t think there’s any other RTS game that managed to tell a more compelling and emotionally affecting story. This was THE peak of ‘real-time strategy’ although my 12 year old self did not know it.
more reason to hate wow, they trow everything to the trash
@@clintgolub1751 They peaked with SC2 WoL. Story quality went downhill right after.
How great was Old Blizzard? I bought a DVD of their WC3 and StarCraft cinematics. They were great once.
3d animators aren't an entire company
The first time I landed in the Reign of Chaos main menu, this overwhelming feeling of mystery, adventure, and purpose came over me. I don't think I've ever felt that again, since. Life goals?
The music is also great, not sure if you pointed that out, but it is. Sigh. If only one were able to re-live the greatest moments in one's past!
Listening to this retrospective made me feel so much emotion.
It's really a shame that Activision drooped the ball so hard with Warcraft 3 Reforged. How could ANY executive ever think that remastering one of the greatest RTS games of all time WOULDN'T SELL!?
This game was a huge part of my childhood. I remember sitting next to my father with my sister, watching him play the game. Because we couldn't understand the story at the time, we just called Arthas "Gold-Hair Knight". My sister was so devastated when later on he turned into "White-Hair Knight". XD
Two RUclipsrs Jayborino and Wtii made good videos that explain what exactly went wrong
Because rts games are probably more niche than fighting games by now
Rest in peace Warcraft 3, you were something truly special.
wdym rest in peace it's still here
I would argue with that Arthas is the main character in my opinion its him, Illidan and Thrall they are the three most famous w3 characters.
Sylvanas seems to be protag as of late. And for some reason I think Kael is more important than he actually is.
I'd add medivh
I'd absolutely place Uther in that pantheon as well ^_^ Him and Hellscream were big players as far back as WarCraft II.
Arthas is 100% the main character of WC3. If you break down the story arcs of the games, it can be summed up with "Arthas, Crown prince of Lordaeron, is corrupted by the Lich King so as to subvert the legion and bring about the rule of Scourge and release of the Lich King".
Right, everything ties into that. Why is the Legion present? Because the Lich King had them summoned using Kel'Thuzad to corrupt Arthas so as to escape? Why does Illidan have his story arc--because the Lich King orchestrates it via Arthas in order to escape? Etc. It all revolves around Arthas's integration into the Lich King? Etc.
It all ties back into Arthas's tragedy.
Now, if we were talking WC2/1--That story is 100% the story of the Silver Hand and the Doomhammers.
@@Wiimeiser Kael, Illiboi, Sylvanas and Arthas had one thing in common in WCIII: an arc. In WoW, only Sylvanas had an arc, that made a lot of people angry but that's a whole other can of worms
I'm surprised that this video doesn't have 500k views already. Wonderful video and I also love this game so much, it still has a special place in my heart even at my 31 years of age.
Cheers mate. Glad you enjoyed it.
Heh. I was 37 when Warcraft 3 came out. Loved it then.
Same here as a 30 year old now - truly a masterpiece of gaming
@@Fabulist Older gamers rule.
We can all recite the Culling of Stratholme speech from doing that dungeon so many times in Wrath.
Precisely! Those were fun times.
@@acritical idk the expansion sure. The dungeon wasn't so great....
@@mr.voidroy6869 dungeon was great, trying to hit the speedrun for the drake was a lot of fun
You can? Often everyone just left as soon as they saw what dungeon they randomed into. Only thing where it was worse was Halls of Reflection. Oh and maybe the Storm Peaks one with Muradin and that wave defense thing. I guess it depends on the patch. xD
@@AurallWow Halls of Reflection was awesome!
58:22 - When grown men cry. That song gets me every time after I looked up what the lyrics meant. That side of his humanity and showing what he's become is jarring and always leaves me emotional. The song title is "Invincible".
Most iconic scene. Puts into perspective how nothing is left of his human self, sitting on the Frozen Throne all by himself in a cold wasteland
Also, the tone Is lower than the current Invincible. Even sadder...
@@vaelisiousantorus ...I still like "That" edit with the alternate music.
"hey, thrall, that was crazy how those hordes undead, demons and warlocks tried to annihiliate our race and all the mortal races on this planet"
"yeah, good thing thats over"
"so anyway, we decided warlocks and demon magic is okay now"
"what!?"
"and we decided to ally with an explicitely evil undead faction no better than the lich king, whos "lich queen" literally has a demon as adviser"
"WHAT?"
"and oh hey, you know the night elves we fought alongside against the demonic invasion? yeah, we declared war on them just so that we could cut down trees in ashenvale"
"but our houses are made out of clay, hide and bone!"
"yeah, but we really just enjoy killing elves. so now they've joined the alliance"
logically the nelves and the orcs should have never been enemies. Especially when you read the lore about how tauren and elves were kindred races. Like oh yeah lets throw away 10k years of peace over some stinky green dudes who were unironically vital to saving the continent we live on. Let's go ally with those humans on the other side of the world
Ottime,cannot agree with you...Arthas was Just a boy,and he was not perfect of course....but he had also a lot of good qualitirs,and if you really deeply know his story,you know it.....The Person he really Is Is shown in the end of WotLK,when Uther tells US that the part of Arthas inside the Lich King Is All that keep that Monster from destroying everything.It means that the Will of Arthas Is not the same of the Lich King,and he was struggling AGAINST the Will of that powerful being,instead that alongside with him.He was struggling with US,for us .These are not the traits of a villain or of a bad king..These are the traits of a Hero.S fallen Hero,but still a hero
The houses absolutely had wood. And lots of it. Also the Undead were good at at least semi hiding or justifying their worst actions when the Horde were paying attention.
@@DIEGhostfish
I was mostly joking
Still, there is a reason why every other civilization in human history that decided to build their homes in a desert decided to use sandstone and stone rather than wood. Starting a war with the night elves is beyond unnessecary and stupid.
Also, the undead werent at all good at hiding their atrocities. If anything the horde actively looked the other way or supported their evil actions.
@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 They still often had some wood beaming. Horde probably only got at best some glimpses of them committing horrors against the Scarlets who were committing horrors right back.
This is a really good video on Warcraft 3, but I feel there were a couple of times throughout the story section where you would miss out on some details that add more context. For example, when Tyrande freed Illidan she also attacked the Watchers, since they were not keen on letting her release Illidan, the reason Maiev was mad at Tyrande wasn't just because she freed Illidan. Other than missing out on some details, this is a very well done video and Warcraft 3, along with the franchise in general, is very close to my heart and has been for a long time. It was very enjoyable to hear someone passionately talk about it.
She was partly mad at Tyrande for killing her Wardens and partly for Tyrande disrespecting her. The Wardens were created 10000 years ago with Maiev in charge for the sole purpose of guarding Illidan, that later got expanded to keeping watch over all prisoners but the very reason for the order's creation and Maiev's job was the jailing of Illidan and Tyrande just thought meh I wana free him.
@@adrianbozdog9702 Maive was also jealous of her, as they were both priestesses of Elune back in the day, and she REALLY did not like Tyrande. After Tyrande became the new high priestess, Maieve, chose to be a warden instead since she refused to work under Tyrande, where as the Watchers were technically under the Druidic order's command.
@@ZanathKariashi But that’s not lore from Warcraft 3 tho is it?
@@ZanathKariashi Yep it's also why she calls Malfurion "shando" which means teacher as he was the one who founded and technically commanded the Wardens (though that passed to Maieve when they all went to sleep) but the Sentinels were and are the official NE guards and they answer to the priestess of Elune which for over 10000 years has been Tyrande. While she never liked Tyrande she only started actually hating her after she freed Illidian and killed her watchers.
@@adrianbozdog9702I love the night elf lore the most! Thanks for sharing.
What I find interesting about W3's ending is how savagely depressing and sour it is.At the end of the game, you no longer play a single good guy. Just a bunch of evil and corrupted characters fighting for power and domination, and the worst of them won, and boom. Fin.
I can hardly recall a game with an ending as incredible as this one, allowing us not only to play the villains but to also WIN as them is very bold. The rise of the Lich King was supposed to sign the end of the world, in a sense. Then WoW came along and kind of went "Yeah Lich King's asleep Illidan's away don't worry". WoW was a great game for a while, loved every second of it when I was younger but it's evident the story was poorly handled after W3.
If I remember correctly vanilla WoW story was written pretty much simultaneously with Frozen Throne and Warcraft RPG. If there's any noticeable difference in writing quality and narrative style it's between Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne, then things haven't changed much up until Cataclysm
@@Pihtorich Interesting to know, although I'm not surprised either. Up until Cata, the story was about things Warcraft enthusiasts knew, whether through game or books, what was going on. So I'll assume you're right!
Most of Blizzard's early signature titles had a similar format, where the story ends bleakly for the good guys.
Brood War ended with Kerrigan/Zerg victory, Diablo 1 ends with the Hero driving the soulstone into his own forehead, and Diablo 2 ends with the worldstone being corrupted, and Tyreal having to destroy it.
The writing style only started to change after WoW's release, and they mostly departed from the RTS genre.
Watching this reminds me of what made Blizzard great. It also explains why the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for WoW was so good. It's like they rode on WC3's lore until it ran out and didn't really have a plan for afterwards.
If WotLK was so great, then it wouldn’t have been the point where WoW stalled out and stopped growing its player base. I started WoW in the winter of 2004 vanilla, and boned out early on in WotLK.
I hope some of you will see this, and some even remember. In my homeland, Warcraft 3 was entirely dubbed, all cinematics, all cutscenes, all move commands... and all jokes.... were localised or were entirely replaced by new ones. It's a masterpiece of translation, dramaturgy and voice acting. All the scenes, you know in English, are, I dare to say, better in Czech. It's unbelievable experience, hilarious and awesome. I can't share this nostalgia with you, but it's incredible that the care developers had for the game, traversed the ocean and struck translation team with the same energy.
that's pretty awesome.
Same can be said about Russian translation, it's a perfection. Original english dub is quite mediocre
it was really damn good in Spanish as well
There was an attempt at a Persian translation which was... far less good compared to what you guys got.
doufám, že tu hru mám ještě někde schovanou, bylo to boží :D
Great video. Such epic stuff when I was young. Still sad about reforged.
Cheers! I feel the same.
The worst part is how reforge actually made the original game worse because of the patch that binded them together
@@christianweibrecht6555 Skull and Bones be the only way now laddie!
@@ChadKakashi I don't know of any of those type of sides that actually deliver a functioning product that is not joined by God knows how many viruses
I didnt mind the reforge was fun returning in good grafics
Ugh this was great. Really made my night. You flooded me with memories of being 13 again and playing warcraft 3 with my best friend all through the night. Its def in my top 3 fav games of all time.
Thank you for this piece, it does bring me back to simpler times.
The final video when Arthas murges with the lich king, gives me chill also.. the game was the main thing in my life for many years, with the custom maps and multiplayer. Hours and Hours of tower defence in LAN play.. my gawd it was glorious..
do warcraft 2! the loading screen art is insanely good and it was much darker and scarier in every aspect like the death throes units make. the unit models look more badass and plausible also
Such a great video. I loved every second of it. I remember playing W3 as a 13 year old kid with my friends from school. Definitely one of my favorite games all of time. It's sad what Warcraft has become since then. But that's what memories are for. Keep up the great work, and thank you!
I just want to say when I was 10 years old all the boys at my primary school including me was playing this game on the school computers. Basically every lunch was a massive lan party of 30 guys playing Warcraft 3 footman frenzy or bleach vs one piece or other mods or just the base multiplayer. Our teachers also played with us until one day we got a new principal. She thought video games made kids violent so they were banned. Maybe because we also played cs 1.6 and halo but yeah.
This video brought so much memory back to me and why I and my friends and family were utterly disappointed by Reforged and what Blizzards become. It is often a joke among us that Blizzards is exactly a mirror of Arthas and his descent into becoming the Lich King.
the bonus campaign was a test of how W.O.W. would be recieved.
and what was peoples reaction about the bonus campaing instead of a normal orc campaing when the game came out ?
@@caiusion3893 To my recollection as an admittedly small child at the time, people seemed to quite love it - but worth noting is it wasn't really a test of WoW, but really a reference back to Diablo, Blizzard's other hit game franchise.
@@mattrocde uh no
Blizz said as much that it was a test of what wow was to be. This was confirmed At The Time to be the case when wow was about to release
source please?
@@ConnorNotyerbidness They might've used it to test some of WoW's core mechanics for questing, seems likely (would like too see the interview on it, sounds interesting), but the design is undeniably Diablo through and through what with the perspective, pacing through sub chapters, entering different maps for dungeon exploration.
You are so right about it - this was the golden age of the WarCraft Lore. It was because of this story line that I felt compelled to play WoW as soon as I could.
It's such a powerful story. Arthas' single dimensional way of thinking brought to his downfall. "The way to hell is paved by good intentions". There was no cost that was too high to pay and he got consumed by his thirst for vengeance.
I remember sneaking into Undercity for the first time in Vanilla as an Alliance rogue and feeling goosebumps.
not only the animation and the story was top notch but also the voice acting was impeccable, the ambient sounds and the environment were carefully crafted with care and love which are the main ingredients for a good game. Care and love by the creators.
This is a relic of greatness. Im happy i lived in this era and experienced art like this 👌
probably nobody will read this, but great video!
WC3 was one of my absolute favorites when I was young and you captured the reasons for why that is very well.
If I had one thing to add however, I would have loved to see part about all the custom made maps, although that would honestly deserve its own video if not own channel all by itself.
Despite the fact that WC3 had great storytelling, cinematics and gameplay I think its editor and all the maps/games that came from it was ultimately what made it probably one of the most influential games of all times. Giving birth to a whole new Genre with DOTA and so many more. I remember we used to make lan parties back in the day, where we would basically only play WC3 custom made maps as there were so many great ones, footmen frenzy, TowerDefense, Hero Defense, Defender of the Acients, tons of RPG like maps and the list goes on and on.
when i was a kid i used to play this game all the time, cosntantly, so many custome games like hero wars and wintermaul, and it fucking hurts the only way to paly it (apart from cracking it) is to buy it all over again, even thogh i own 3 physical copies of rfrozen throne and reign of chaos. Apart from that, amazing game, i love the orc camapaign and the undead campaign. thje seige of dalaran is so fucking good idek
custom maps were the best thing about this game after so many years.
This was one of the first games I played as a kid, it was the gateway to my love for strategy games. The video was a sentimental watch, thank you for the work you put into this.
60 subscribers? Is it some kind of joke? I thought you have a few millions of subs. This video is fantastic, keep going!
This was such a brilliant walk down memory lane for Warcraft 3 - thanks for taking the time to make this video and please continue to make more. Love your work
I've been replaying it myself and I agree with everything, what a great video.
I'm totally with you bro, I can recite entire pre-mission cutscene dialogue with my brother from memory for way too many missions. Some of those quotes stay with you for a long time
"I'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth if I have to. Do you hear me? TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH"
"Ah, Thrall. You always believed that the demons corrupted our race, but that's only half true. We gave ourselves up willingly on Draenor! The other chieftains and I... we drank Mannoroth's blood, Thrall. We brought this curse upon ourselves!"
"You did this...to our people...KNOWINGLY?"
"To arms my brethren. To arms, brave orcs and humans! Twilight falls, and the enemy awaits."
One detail that always surprised me was Arthas actually throwing away his hammer to pick up the Frostmourne. Another is at the end of the Culling, Arthas raises his hammer to shout out the quote I put above but Reforged couldn't even manage that simple animation.
My chest still pounds with the nostalgia shock whenever I remember the very first moment I launched WC3 and entered WoW... Gosh that is something cannot be removed from your life... not even Blizzard's downfall can change it.
When I was young I discovered this gem in the internet cafe. I sucked badly. First ever experience pvp with friends, I chose undead and my friend who was a warcraft fanatic laughed told me I chose the most difficult class. I was taunted the whole game how badly I was playing If not for that I would have never invested myself into becoming better and destroying my friends. But what really drew me in was the World editor, I simply love making my own stuff.
I was poor so I saved all my lunch money all week just to play 4hours of warcraft. When my parents bought me my firs laptop, warcraft was the first game I got but it was just the demo, again poor and didnt know pirating existed. So my absolute favorite map and most time ive ever spent was in the orc tutorial.
After pirating it. Me and my friend competed to make a cool map every week and had so much fun, over time I learnt triggers and made movies, even voiced them. This game is such a gem, and I was so exited for reforged and so crushed when it was released.
It could have been a new time of fun...
If I had to make an estimation of how long I played it, including the map editor, it could be minimum of 2000hours, estimation comes from me playing it for 6years, every year less and less.
Your content is definitely much, much more professional and high quality than I would expect from a 3 month old channel.
I subscribed and I am excited to see what new content you're going to create.
Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne is still to this day, the greatest video game I have ever played.
The story, the characters, the music, the level design, the replayability, the competitive ladder matches, the clans, the modding community, the lore, THE CUSTOM MAPS!
Everything about it... *chefs kiss* fucking honed to such a degree, I have never seen its like since.
People usually Half Life 3 this, Half Life 3 that. And there's me, and I am sure I ain't alone who for a time patiently waited for Warcraft IV...
Crazy how it was indeed the pinnacle. Giving birth to WoW and what would ultimately become Dota.
Rexxar's campaign is my favorite in Frozen Throne, that's for sure.
Warcraft III also remains the best example of what a truly balanced game should be.
Why tf is this channel not getting more views… I just binge whatched your entire channel, thank you for the high quality content you made my weekend
Great take and recap on what is one of my favorite games of all time.
I've watched a couple of your videos after this one to get a better picture of your work, and I can only say you're doing a great job so far. Clean script, good pacing, good b-rolls and editing. On top of that you have a very easy to listen to voice and style of narrating. I can't imagine you entered this circus with no experience in the field, at least in script writing. If you did, I'm impressed. Either way, if you keep this up I am sure you will soon get more attention and reach a bigger audience, because it's well deserved. You have my subscription, I can say that much. Cheers!
after I finished watching this video, I closed the full screen only to subscribe into this channel that surely has at least 2 milion sub..... HOLY SHIT! You gave us 2 hours of summary of our best years and you barelly beggining your RUclips journey?! SUBSCRIBED
i love warcraft 3 so much... honestly best game i ever played
Underrated. According to production quality, channel sub number should’ve been over 200k rather than 200s. Keep up the good work and please watch the Eastory channel’s video about youtube success. Thanks for reminding the good old days.
High Elves are those Highborne who sided with the Night Elves, were unable to stop using Magic, hence, were exiled, inherited a vial of the waters of the Well of Eternity, that later became the Sunwell when it was poured on a ley line.
Inherit? If i remember they stole the vial.
@@MalekitGJ Yeah, they stole a vial from Illidan. But I didn't wanna complicate it.
High elves became blood elves after arthur destroyed their home
@@xJdog You're confusing the High Elves and the Highborne. Highborne were the ruling class of ancient Night Elf society before and during the first stages of the War of the Ancients (they kinda betrayed their race and they kinda let the invasion happen, so they were replaced by Tyrande and Malfurion as the new leaders)... While most, including the queen, Azshara, became the naga, some, as the other replies explain, became the High Elves and founded Quel'Thalas (highborne -> high elves -> blood elves)
From a legal and moral standpoint inherit sounds right.
Its criminal that this vid doesnt have half a million views. Its criminally good for one with this few views and a channel with this few subs
Man the amount of times i played through the campaign, and most of all watched the cutscenes is insane, the games aesthetic and characters defined most of my taste in fantasy for years, Illidan and Arthas were what cool was for me, probably the reason why even until now antiheroes and villains are usually my favorite characters in media.
The video was amazing fam, i can't describe the feeling of rewatching those cutscenes and remembering the story of the game now.
One of my all time favorite things in media.
This video brings back so many memories. Subscribed. I read the subscribers as 1.4 million at first because the quality is out of this world and I did not question it. After re-reading 1.4K thousand; I am shocked.
Amazing video for an amazing game!❤
After 20 years, I still play the original War3 TFT on LANs with my friends.
Its amazing how precisely you've echoed my own experience with this masterpiece. I came up playing C&C, rollercoaster tycoon and all the other stuff too and then bam: I discover this mature, character driven, deep wellspring of cinematic storytelling, worldbuilding and gameplay. It was a profound experience that forever changed how I viewed entertainment media in general. And yes paradoxically, looking back at it fills you with both joy as well as sadness for an era that was truly magical but one that is too far removed from what passes as artistry in our current age. Like this was also a time when the LoTr trilogy had just come out and we even had wc3 custom maps depicting the battle of helms deep etc. It was a golden age of prime escapism and inspiration.
This is peak Warcraft lore and it was delivered spectacularly, thanks for this video!
Soon this'll be half a million views.
Great work mate, keep 'em coming
This is a fun video! I disagree slightly with this interpretation of Arthas's character - I think he starts the story, as a to-be-king, exhibiting negative traits that would be awful for a king to have: being stubborn, quick to anger, taking advice bitterly, etc. He's surrounded by people who love him, and you can imagine that he's in an ideal position to grow, but instead he turns away his friends in order to double down on his convictions. I really love this dark twist on arthurian legend because while Arthas's negative traits in life would have made him a terrible king, in undeath they're totally ideal traits for the Lich King to have, and I think focusing on seeing Arthas as someone trying to do the right thing and being corrupted by a higher power takes away some of his agency as a character.
That is very interesting, thank you for sharing. I do get what you're saying - Arthas' descent was very much of his own making and his character traits fueled that. I do think he had good intentions in the beginning, likely at the shock of seeing his fellow humans turned into Undead, but it seems that what drove him more than anything was a selfish pursuit of revenge and "saving the kingdom" became a convenient excuse for him to go as far as he did.
Ultimately, Arthas was a good soul turned bitter by his situation. Here is a young man, already under the pressure of being a prince, paladin and soon-to-be-king. You couple this with the fact that an obscure, new plague is ravaging their lands. In his crusade to thwart this threat, Arthas learned more about the plague than any other. Hence when we got to Stratholme, Arthas understand all too well what was to inevitably become of the citizens. Uther, with all due respect, was an idealist who had little experience with the plague and was not privy to how it worked. There was no other way. If they had done what Uther suggested and had Dalaranian magi contain them while they found a cure, it would have taken far too long. By the time magi got out there, contained the city and searched for a possible cure, the people would have already turned and become slaves of Mal’Ganis whilst the plague ravaged the rest of Lordaeron.
Arthas, as much as it caused him grief, understood what had to be done. And in return…his friends and allies, those he counted on, abandoned him. Arthas is the story of a young hero with much expectation thrust upon him, simply trying to do what was right at any cost. Naturally this led him down a road of questionable decisions and immorality ultimately leading him to being corrupted by the voice of Ner’Zhul speaking to him through Frostmourne.
Did Arthas have some character flaws? Of course. That’s what the original Lich King (Ner’Zhul) played off of. That’s why he selected Arthas to be his champion. But that does not negate the fact that Arthas was good intentioned. This truly is the story of a fallen hero. Anyone can make questionable decisions and become something they never thought if the situation is right.
What this story should prompt us to inquire is this: Is justice, at any cost, justice at all?
@@sheevpalpatine8257 Jaina knew just as much as Arthas did about the plague and did not agree with purging the city. At this point, he's set to be the king of his country, and he even invokes that in the scene - and yet he's completely unable to yield to the people he should trust the most, nor is he able to convince them of something he feels so sure of. That is the makings of a terrible leader. He gave no recourse, allowed his friends no time to come up with an alternative solution, and rather than try to convince the people following him to work with him, he ordered them to do his bidding under threat. Being decisive when it matters is important, but not be able to acquire the consent of Uther deprived Arthas of his help and ultimately led to him being completely isolated in Northrend. Whether or not Uther was an idealist, whether or not purging Stratholme was the only option, it was Arthas's decision and inability to yield that divided Lordaeron at the worst possible time. Arthas completely failed as an aspiring leader. The point I make in my original post, though, is this isn't actually a character flaw at all when looking at Arthas the person who would eventually become the Lich King rather than the person who would become the king of Lordaeron. Being the Lich King is perfect for him because it means he has no one to question him, and his unyielding conviction is a strength as a murderous king of death rather than a weakness as a friend to his companions.
When I first played Warcraft 3, I did feel Arthas was an essentially good person who was corrupted by evil - and it's not like I see him as a monster or anything, but every time I've revisited the game since then, I think more and more he's kind of just a shitty guy who needed to grow, could have grown, and chose not to.
@@otomegrandma7472 the point is... Even if they were at odds with Arthas's methods both Jaina and especially Uther just gave up on situation and left Prince to do everything by himself... Ok fine you disagree with methods but abandoning your future King is straight up treason (seriously no other way around it), heck Arthas was left with weakened army as a result and could've died right here and there - try to explain this to King.
If you are so inclined and worry that Arthas is about to do something stupid or go overkill on solutions - stay and control the situation to AVOID it getting it out of hand. I can excuse Jaina as she is Young and just a fellow magician and purging whole town was too much for her... But, c'mon, Uther was straight up put in his position exactly to do that and stand by kid's side, not leave him behind.
First they leave Arthas to his own devices then wonder WHY - he abandoned by people whom he trusted the most and left without their advice - went revenge crazy and all downhill from there.
@@Ghostel3591 I'm not sure I agree with the premise of this line of thinking at all. Uther didn't 'get up and leave', Arthas suspended him and his paladins. I think Uther being indignant at Arthas pulling rank is pretty reasonable, since he's been Arthas's teacher and protector for most of his life, and is himself more experienced and, I imagine, far more respected among their peers. Uther being willing to deny an order he believes is wildly unjust is admirable, whether or not it is treason, and whether or not what Arthas suggested was right. Again, these two people were friends, and I think it's totally reasonable why Uther was willing to question Arthas and objected to Arthas trying to order him.
It's true that Jaina is also young and inexperienced, but out of the three of them, she ultimately achieves the most, as she's the one who made the decision to flee with the survivors to Kalimdor, and was the only one to follow Medivh's advice. She went through the same losses Arthas did, and lost every friend and peer in Lordaeron she could rely on, but throughout the story she is never motivated by revenge.
I hope I'm not giving the impression I'm criticizing Arthas's character! I love Arthas. I think he's great, and I like him because of his flaws.
This video was just recommended to me. A wonderful and quite in-depth retrospective of one of my all-time favourite games! Warcraft 3 and the Command & Conquer saga are my favourite RTS games primarily because of the story they tell. I was never quite as taken with Starcraft as I was with Warcraft 3 and the Tiberium universe. It's amazing to see what old Blizzard did with Warcraft 3 and how it lead into World of Warcraft and culminated in Wrath of the Lich King, with all pre-established plot lines largely settled. I love this myth arc of the world and I will never be tired of revisiting the Outlands, or the good old world and lore of Azeroth. Cataclysm and onwards notwithstanding.
27:55
Illidan "The leader of the undead has been destroyed and the forest will heal in time"
Malfurion "In the cost of your soul? You are no longerbrother of mine! Begone this place".
Later on...
Mafurion puts a trap for Archimonde, sacrificing thousands of ancient elven souls to make him implode.
30:30 Medivh "Roots will heal in time"
It is something that as a kid I saw as very intriguing : the two brothers do the same thing, but one is supposed to be wrong by doing so, because he burnt some trees and sacrificied his elven form. The other sacrified wisps and for some odd reason is right.
Damn, this brings nostalgia, knowing I was just a kid not knowing everything but seeing every recurring scene has been clear to me how the story progressed. Insane video, and damn it is also explained very well. Cheers to you man! It also made me got introduced to Dota, so that's a thing I wouldn't regret!
When I played this campaign some 20 years ago I was really confused and even angry at the plot: why must everyone speak in such a vague and concise manner when it comes to the most critical moment of their world's history? You can't seriously expect a government to relocate an entire country to the other side of the ocean just because a birdman tells them "humanity is in peril be very afraid!" Nor should you expect your own mentor/paladin superior and a whole army to carry out some exterminatus order without even bothering to explain to them wtf is actually going on. It seems as if these people just didn't want their audience to believe them.
If I were King Terenas or Uthur I wouldn't buy these BS either.
Medivh knew that he had to choose his words carefully knowing his background. After he was corrupted by Sargeras and coerced into opening the dark portal, he was executed by his brethren. If he revealed himself early to Terenas or any other character, he would've either been killed or 100% ignored and assumed to be an imposter or still possessed by Sargares, and considering that the human leaders at the time were being influenced by the Burning Legion via Balnazaar, he probably knew that the odds were incredible against him. He also knew that his immense power could be felt by other beings like Jaina and Thrall. Though most of his acts of persuasion failed, his main strategy of communicating with a wide array of people worked.
Arthas was already in a maddening state when he talked to Uther, an event that the Lich king foresaw. Suffice to say there was little to no sanity or logic in Arthas' head.
@@tsarnicholasii419 "There are demons coming, they are behind this plague and hace far worse planned." Would have been clearer.
@@DIEGhostfish Kind of too specific and I believe the moment he stepped into the royal chamber, he already knew that they were beyond reasoning or help.
@@DIEGhostfish Plus Balnazaar was already shooting down Medivh's message.
The job u did is amazing, really good tribute to my favorite game of all time.
Oh no... not another 1H+ of me lamenting the death of one of the best piece of media of the 21st century :(
it was not THAT great, but it was pretty good. Also, a century is a long time. But, I can understand the nostalgia. It hurts because they massacred our boy.
@@randjan8592 a Large amount of people think it's one of the best out there. Some disagree. But with it's amount of fan, I wouldn think it's one of the best.
Rarely writes a comment on a video. This was beautifully put together. Did not think that I would watch the whole video when I started it seeing that it's quite late where I am, but here I am drowning in nostalgia. Would not surprise me if this hits 100k views soon. Thank you for a well made video and the trip down memory lane. It gave chills.
EDIT: not sure if I just read wrong, but you've already reached 100k views. So, would not surprise me if it hits 1m views soon! Good night!
Author, you have 1 crucial mistake about lore in RoC. The main characters during campaign are goblins. They developed goblin mines, which helped arthas to eliminate human bases during Archimonde summon mission AND helped Tyrande to eliminate first undead base and kill Archimonde during last 45 mins mission. So the circle is complete.
Forget about Scourge, Legion and other races - goblins are main antagonists and protagonist in Reign of Chaos.
Don't forget helping Arthas cross into Quel Thalas.
The hidden voice-lines were the best thing ! :D
Rexxar and the Panda guy campaign was great ! so many good memories..
Keep going, i just found this video because it was on my recommended. A great video. Dont mind the subs, they will eventually come if the content is this good.
Subbed.
Holy S...! This is one of the best videos I've ever seen in my life!
I do not comment ever, and hardlyyy ever see an hour long video, and honestly... after seen it, I wish it was longer.
I won't congratulate you, I'll just leave it with a thank you.
You've sent me back to the best years of my life.
Without wishing to downplay anyone's experience but two things to point out here:
1. Warcraft is a watered down version of Warhammer. Basically - they'd take the real thing and then dumb it down for the masses/children. We all liked it because we were kids. While their MO stayed focused on being easy/shallow (just look at HotS compared to LoL and Dota or Heartstone compared to MTG) - we did grow up over time and needed more. I remember really liking Starcraft and replaying it as I got older only to realize to which extent it offers less than the WH40k lore.
2. Most of their games have the same formula when it comes to the storyline: promising protagonist turned main villain (Kerrigan/Arthas), misunderstood good guys who seem never to be able to prove their good intensions (Dark Templar/Orcs)... You see the pattern, and the list is long.
The reason I'm saying this is that I did enjoy SC, but then found WC3 too childish. Everyone around me was praising the Diablo story - except for us who actually played Baldurs Gate and Planescape Torment. What I'm arguing here is that what Blizzard is (was) good at is not stories or characters, but rather creating gameplay smooth enough not to interrupt the storyline by taking you out of it at a time where rarely anyone else could do that (Valve came close with HL2). Their storytelling didn't get worse - other companies just caught on to how to make a game polished enough mechanically that the immersion is easy and smooth to the player.
This WC3 is childish take is so weird. As someone who has been into Warhammer fantasy and 40k for 25 years. Calling these franchises copies is just stupid. They are thematically completely different. Starcraft has some 40k original inspiration but warcraft takes far more from DnD than Warhammer. Also acting like warcraft is slop for the masses when GW's entire business model for years has been a slop factory is pretty funny.
As a Lore nerd up until 1-2 years ago I have to say - I forgot how good this story actually was. Thank you for the presentation. Great job!
Really great video and I wholeheartedly agree, but I would propose that the WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King is in my opinion the culmination of the Warcraft (3) story, with the later expansions butchering the lore so much that the universe is unrecognizable, and not in any good way. I would honestly be happy if there was a true RTS sequel to Frozen Throne, with it completely ignoring anything related to WoW and simply continue after Arthas' ascension into the Lich King.
Yea the lore of wow after that is just blizzard trying to make something bigger and bigger to outmatch the previous expansion and it comes to the point where the characters are way too powerful. They pulled the jailer out of their ass as a guy who planned it all before War3 and now his master plan is unfolding..
Let's see if they can work the Corrupted Blood and Jailer into WarIV.
Makes it even more fitting that Warcraft lore and games in general died with Arthas at Icecrown Citadel :/
I remember seeing the WC3 intro and being blown away.
And the 'succeeding you, father' cut scene. Oof!
commenting for the algorithim... loved the organization and your take on wc3. I feel like a lot of younger generation dont know how impactful this series was to nerdy milennials in the early 2000s. also, i really hope long form content like this takes off on youtube! i call it the salt factory style lol... hope you get more views on this video and your channel!
P.S. I noticed the view count went up 200 while i was watching!!!
Can't believe I watched this entire vid. Haha Nice job recapping all the lore. WC3 is def one of those games with a story on another level, especially for its time.
Warcraft 3 and Baldur's Gate share a curious quality: Polish dubbing is absolutely godlike and even better than the original.
It's a bit debatable in case of Baldur's Gate, but I think it's obvious to whoever listens to Sarevok or narrator.
Idk about baldurs gate but the czech dub for WC3 is legendary! So many 10/10 lines, inside jokes, memorable acting and powerfull deliveries.
Subscribed! Great content man, Warcraft 3 was one of my favorite games when I was a kid
I can still remember the summer when i started playing this
To this day the ilidan cinematic ( specifically the moment the naga appear ) gives me chills
Edit: i remember reading somewhere that yes,the founding of durotar was a way to test if people would enjoy a rpg-ish game and low and behold people loved it
Also there are videos of a developer that worked on the game that talks in great detail about each and every lvl of the game and the youtuber abelhawk ( hope i am not wrong ) has a entire series dedicated to ALL of the easter eggs in the game
Absolutely amazing job on the video, exactly the kind of videos about Warcraft 3 i've been looking for. Would like to see more Warcraft related videos in the future. I applaud you sir.
This just further shows how crappy the storyline has become in retail WoW... it's truly sad how much they ruined it
Huge appreciation for the scene where Arthas murders Terenas, specially given how easily Frostmourne's blade rips the King's flesh apart, like it goes through butter as if mortal flesh was air to the sword. Masterful, bone chilling, peak Blizzard.
To this day I long for an animated series with this amount of work and care put into it. WC3 deserves it above all else, the potential is there.
I do also love the Orc campaign. While the Human/Undead, and Night Elf had the superior story arcs and characters, coming from Warcraft 1/2 and high fantasy in general, it was refreshing to see Orcs or "Monsters" portrayed in an honourable way.
It was also nice to see Grom again, now representing the Old Horde and it's ideals and being paired with Thrall, not only a "new orc", but also a "new warchief", leading his people not to battle and glory, but to peace and prosperity
Honestly, Grom was my favorite of all of Warcraft 3's characters - seeing his downfall felt natural and realistic, his motives were ulterior yet clear, he was bloodthirsty and vicious, yet honorable and noble to an extent, he was high of himself yet he was also highly obedient
Many times his respect and brotherly compassion for Thrall had turned into hate due to demons being present nearby
Seeing such a split from Warcraft 1 and 2's orcs was quite nice honestly
(also his scream when he was running at Mannoroth was helluva awesome)
BTW, the "multiclick unit, get multiple responses" still lives in WoW. I was so happy when I found that out!
You know what? You ARE really f***ing cool for being able to recite the whole scene! 👏
And you get my support subscribe for this and the whole video!
Haven't reqched that point yet. But is it the baking scene?
I also love the intro scene at Stratholme, that was the moment where I truly started to love the game. The camera angle change when Arthas asks Uther "Have I?" is just iconic to me. Amazing character development all around.
Virgin Azeroth Humans: They easily die. Always blame it on the horde. Easily become a undead and Easily betray Humanity. badly made weapons vs Chad Gensokyo Humans: Has a unique shrine maiden called Reimu for having a smallass hitbox. Humans can be hard to become a Youkai. Can get rid of Youkais if needed. 2 Shrines. FUMO. Very Rarely dies and has good weapons and magics (Marisa's laser is an example)
This brought me back to my childhood. Thanks for the nostalgia and great video!
you know usually retrospectives or those "[insert game title here] in 20 minutes" normally have some dude just blabbing on for the whole time, but I really like how you gave the original cinematics time to shine. It felt like I was playing the game again. gj from one wc3 nerd to another.
also, how the FUCK did they make the CG look better than pretty much anything I see today? Art direction? They look fucking great
Right? For rts game from early 2000 the cg is freaking insane
A LOT of rendering power, time, hard work, and some tricks. Also keeping them concise with good storytelling beats to fit into a shorter cutscene instead of having to stretch budget over a longer production.
Buddy there’s an error with RUclips I think, the views are 164k instead of 2+ million it obviously should be...
Great video! Hope you get more recognition, subbed!
1:09:09 Use Arthas' Coil spell to heal Kel'thuzad in the last seconds.
Keep making these kinds of videos man you'll blow up.
You fit right in with the bigger lore channels for various IPs and such and general lore nerds on my feed.
You got the voice, the mind and the talent.
Run with it.
You definitely just caught a new sub with me.
The campaign and the story of WC3 were really good.
Sad that Blizzard collapsed.
Mate love the video, so many good memories came flooding back. Keep it up!