Found this old gem a few months ago. Yes, the gameplay is very solid, but the main characters are hateful and despicable
***SPOILERS***
Prince Arthas, Thrall and yes even the Lich King are, in a word, Despicable. These supposed 'protagonists' are unlikeable, loathesome, and inspire hatred and dismay merely by exisiting. Sorry about all this bile-spewing talk...but it is all true.
Now Thrall i can perhaps understand. He is an Orc after all, and anyone who has ever played a Warcraft game or read a book written by someone named Tolkien know that Orcs Are Bad. Fair enough.
But Prince Arthas? A human? From about the Third mission of the first campaign, he begins his descent into what can only really be described as the Dark Side. We, the player, are powerless to put Arthas on a different path. We are made to watch his fall into madness and must unwillingly help him attain his goal of becoming a Death Knight (if I have lost you by this point then you really need to play the game to understand). With some clever storytelling, this demented twist may have been acceptable.
But it is not. Prince Arthas is not likeable. He makes no tongue-in-cheek comments. There are no winks at the camera. There is nothing whimsical or approchable or endearing about him in any conceivable way. One especially disturbing example: In one of the last Arthas missions, the Death Knight Arthas and his army unceremoniously slaughter an Elven city and "kill" the Elven Hero...except that Arthas does not kill the Elven hero (i dont remember her name), instead he captures her soul in the process of death and more or less forces Her to serve as a Banshee Sorceress in his Death Knight army...isnt that nice?
well this is my first real post on GameSpot and i think ive gone on long enough. I realize this isnt much of a review-no talk of multiplayer or music or things of that nature- but i just had to get this off my chest about this rather overrated game. Booyah!