Warcraft 3 is a deadset classic real-time strategy game and it’s a game I’ve played with my friends and family for years since it was released. At home when I was younger, my brothers and I helped my Dad run network cables through the roof for our fairly ghetto local network setup. But ghetto or not we ended up with hundreds of hours of entertainment with just Warcraft 3 alone, so ultimately it was worth the time. Fans have been making custom content for Warcraft 3 since it was released and I remember nabbing a few fan maps back in the day but I never dove into a full campaign. Rise of the Blood Elves is a fan-made campaign from Hive Workshop user tomoraider and was originally released in December 2013. From their thread, the campaign features 12 chapters, 6 interludes, 1 epilogue and 1 cinematic. You can download the campaign and other required files from the Hive Workshop thread. I played this campaign through the Reforged version available on Battle.Net, so I can’t speak as to other versions of the game but in Reforged, it plays just like a campaign from Blizzard. The storyline loosely follows the plot of the Burning Crusade expansion pack for World of Warcraft from the perspective of the Blood Elves. This kinda gives us World of Warcraft without actually playing World of Warcraft.
Steam Deck Specifics:
Installing Battle.Net on a Steam Deck can be a bit of a pain. I wrote a guide on how to do this for Steam Deck. After installing Battle.Net, you can then install Warcraft 3. Once installed, you’ll have to track down the ‘compatdata’ folder with your Warcraft 3 game files. Once located, head to ‘C:\Users\steamuser\My Documents\Warcraft III’ and place the Rise of the Blood Elves campaign and cinematic files in the ‘Campaigns’ and ‘Movies’ folders. You can crank the graphics right up on this. It’s a fairly old game now, Reforged or not, so it doesn’t come as a surprise. You might suggest playing Warcraft 3 or an RTS of any sort on a handheld device seems pretty silly, and I get that. But, it works a lot better than you might think and it actually provides a few different options on how to play the game. Steam Input makes the controls a little more versatile than the traditional mouse and keyboard setup. I’ve made a couple different control options with my setup for Battle.Net. You can setup a range of options which are great for playing on the couch or in bed, then there is still the option of adding a mouse, keyboard and a monitor to play at a desk or just a mouse and keyboard to play in tabletop mode. I utilised a combination of all of these at different times, obviously the most comfortable is the classic mouse and keyboard. But if I’m playing on the couch or in bed, I’ll absolutely use the trackpads or the joystick depending on what I’m feeling. Really, you just have to find what works best for you.
Rise of the Blood Elves picks up immediately after the Frozen Throne campaign, we’re up finishing up the battle against the Scourge in Northrend which of culminates in a showdown between Illidan and Arthas. I guess you could say Arthas won, becoming the new Lich King being his prize. Illidan was spared by Arthas, leaving him alive only to suffer and witness this once noble prince rise to take the mantle on the Frozen Throne. Kael’thas and Lady Vashj arrive to pickup the pieces and flee back to Outland to allow Illidan to recover in the Hellfire Citadel. Arriving back in Outland, they discover that Outland itself is in a state of civil war. Even closer to home, the Blood Elves are experiencing their own such problems. Grand Magistrix Alessandra Katryne is formulating a plan to reclaim the Blood Elf homeland of Quel’Thalas which has been overrun by the Scourge. This goes directly against Prince Kael’thas’ wishes as he believes there is little point in potentially losing what little resources the Blood Elves have left due to the stranglehold the Scourge have in their once prosperous homeland.
Honestly, I think they’ve delivered a top tier campaign with Rise of the Blood Elves. We have the look and feel of an original campaign from Blizzard, but without the hefty price tag. Being fan-made there are a few areas where polish is lacking, but the only area that you’ll really notice isn’t on-par with Blizzard is in voice acting and some of the dialogue. There is a significant portion of the campaign that features no voice acting and is purely subtitles. Some of the dialogue is also fairly basic. Definitely don’t take this as me complaining or hanging shit on the creator, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire campaign. Just be aware there are a few parts where you will be reading subtitles for the story elements and the dialogue may be slightly lacking. Outside of that, the only other issue you might run into is that this campaign is hard. You’ll be looking pretty good and then all of a sudden a wave of AI will stomp you, your buildings and everything you hold dear. But this could be an issue of Warcraft 3 Reforged itself as opposed to this campaign in particular.
The story is deeply engaging and it’s a pretty memorable experience to see and control some of the most prominent Blood Elf Heroes in the Warcraft universe. We all knew it was coming, but witnessing Kael’thas spiral into madness in the lead up to his inevitable death is still incredibly compelling. The Blood Elves are a fully playable race complete with their own unique buildings and tech tree, which borrows from the existing Human tech tree. The race has been very well implemented, all the units and buildings look great. All icons, units and buildings each have a unique look that really belong in the Warcraft universe and adds to the enjoyment of this campaign. Rise of the Blood Elves builds on established roots of the Blood Elf story arc from The Burning Crusade and adds its own twists, turns and unique concurrent stories. We see the story from multiple perspectives with all the added and existing heroes having key roles to play. Some heroes remain loyal to Kael’thas, while others effectively stage a civil war within their own ranks and remain determined to reclaim their homeland of Quel’Thalas from the Scourge.The quests presented in each chapter feel perfectly in-line with what you’d expect from Blizzard along with added side-quests which have that same feel. I was very impressed with this campaign and I’m very much looking forward to completing their follow up campaign, Curse of the Forsaken, which follows Sylvanas and the Forsaken in her quest for revenge against the new Lich King.
Verdict:
Rise of the Blood Elves is a high quality addition to the Warcraft story. Borrowing heavily from The Burning Crusade, it delivers further closure to the Frozen Throne campaign. There’s obviously been a great deal of hard work and attention to detail to deliver us a fully playable Blood Elf race, along with unique heroes and a thoroughly engaging story. The only real area that falls short is in lack of voice acting and a few areas of the written dialogue. While it is a good campaign, be warned that it is HARD. The AI WILL roll you if you don’t have your wits about you. You’ll find yourself clinging to the time-tested motto of ‘save early, safe often’.
Deck Compatibility: 10/10
Overall Game Rating: 9/10 – Fantastic.
Dad with a Deck 
Leave a comment