Not the best. Not the worst.
Too bad it had not been a TA2 instead,and set in the same era as TA. What other rts would I rather play then TA:K ?
Warcraft 1,2 and 3.
Age of Empires
Age of Empires: Age of Kings.
Total Annihilation.
Some map Designs in Ta:K were alright. Couple maps I recall that I liked.
Unlimited resources in the form of mana points. Not a good idea.
Limited resources are logical for a time period such as that. Unlimited is not good unless you got tanks and bombers that you can use to bust a base down with.
They tried to think up a different idea for a resource gathering ,so the players could concentrate on the tactics of the game.
Race/Unit balance was terrible. Each race in WC3 is unique and it works very very well.
Even in Aoe2 when the opponent is a Briton and has those longbowmen there is a way to mow them down.
Defenses were insane. I do recall throwing many many troops at a highly defended spot. Only to see all my units get mowed down. The other side might as well have had modern day mortars and machine gun nests. The result of the attack would have been the same.
what it needed.
Better Unit balance.
All sides should have had some type of naval vessels.
All sides like in TA should have had some type of good Air fighters. ( Dragon Riders, Gryphon Riders etc)
Better balance between the races in that game.
Defenses that could have been overcome. ( Example. Towers in AOE, AOK Etc)
Some type of long range weapon. Since they had included magic in TA:K they could have included a long range weapon based on the use of magic, or just some type of GOOD siege attack weapon.
Difficulty: Very Hard to get past opponent's defenses. It can be done if you can sepnd 3-10 hours doing it. Even if your troops come from different directions to attack they still get mowed down a lot..
Fun Factor: Kinda lacking really. it can be fun at first to try out the new units and stuff,but after that it is frustrating to see all your attacks go down the tubes.
Compared to TA this game was Disastrous.
Actually compared to Aoe and Wc, Wc3 it was not very good at all.
Hopefully they got it right with Supreme Commander.