WarCraft III is fairly polished, moderately innovative, and a lot of fun.
WarCraft III adds two new playable races to the familiar Orcs and Humans we saw in the first 2 games: the mysterious Night Elves and the horrific Undead. All four races have enormous flexibility in their gameplay styles, and once again display the "balanced-but-unique" approach we saw in StarCraft.
Story - 4/5
With the storyline for the entire franchise fleshed out , expanded, and tied together powerfully, WarCraft III's got some serious depth to its world. The single-player campaign is intriguing and epic, but few exceptions the characters are shallow and predictable.
Graphics - 5/5
Six years later, I can safely say that the graphics of this game have aged incredibly well. The character models are detailed, the environments are lush, and the spell effects set the standards for all fantasy-themed games to follow. At the same time, none of the effects obscure the action; you can always tell which way the battle is going at a glance and make tactical decisions accordingly. As another plus, the game is surprisingly well-optimized, meaning that anyone with a reasonably new computer (less than 5 years old) will be able to run the game at highest settings with little to no lag (that includes any computer, not just gaming rigs).
Sound - 4/5
The soundtrack for the game is just about perfect: it's memorable, yet it doesn't take your attention away from the actual game. Sound effects are all excellent, and increase your feeling of immersion in the game world. My only gripe here is the voice acting; while it is decent, there's no question it's a notch under what we saw in StarCraft.
Lasting Appeal - 3/5
As a Blizzard game, WarCraft III is more or less guaranteed to have tens of thousands of players online at any given time. Featuring the most intuitive version of Battle.net to date, which includes a handy quick search button, this is one game you won't be able to put down any time soon. The quick search does not provide balanced matchmaking, however, which creates instant-leavers and makes for some pretty frustrating Battle.net sessions.
Overall - 4/5