Last year's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was an excellent real-time strategy game that took place in Blizzard's fantasy-themed Warcraft universe, in which orcs, humans, elves, and undead creatures fought for control of a war-torn land. And while it was highly praised for its combination of interesting small-scale battle tactics and hero system, as well as its great single-player story, this year's expansion pack, The Frozen Throne, makes a great game even better--to the extent that you may find it impossible to go back to the original game once you've played with the expansion's new rules and new units.

The Frozen Throne's single-player campaign resolves the story of Arthas, Illidan, and the Lich King that began in the original game, and while some of the expansion pack's structure seems a bit confusing, since you'll often switch between playing enemies and allies within the same campaign, it still features interesting characters brought to life with high-quality voice acting, not to mention some truly imaginative single-player scenarios.

But every one of Blizzard's many devoted fans knows that Warcraft III is all about multiplayer play, and The Frozen Throne is clearly the result of the developer's careful analysis of each of the game's four playable factions--specifically, certain gaps or weaknesses in each side's strategy have been filled with all-new hero units, and neutral mercenary heroes that all factions can use have been added. In addition, the expansion makes many balance improvements to the game--including universally lowering unit costs and making several tweaks to existing units and buildings--not only to make the game faster-paced, but also to allow a greater variety in strategies. The original Warcraft III was occasionally criticized for deciding battles at the very beginning--that is, the player who memorized the best and fastest "build order" of units and buildings was usually at an advantage over other players. With The Frozen Throne, Blizzard set out to allow players to change their strategies and their armies midgame, so they wouldn't be at a severe disadvantage from having chosen the "wrong" build order--and the expansion pack succeeds on this and many other counts. The Frozen Throne does what the best expansion packs do: It adds plenty of great new single-player content, makes great additions to the multiplayer mode, and prolongs the life of the original game by making it even better.