First impressions
blizzard didnt go out of the way to do anything groundbreaking. If you like war2, or starcraft, you will like war3, just dont expect much more than that. war2, 2 races, starcraft,3 races, war3, 4 races. Not really pushing the envelope. The graphics are better, but not earth shattering. You can zoom in and thats where it gets cool. But its really more a novelty, and moving around while zoomed is clunky. Then again, this isnt the first game to do that either, so its nothing to go whooooa about either.
the other wrinkle is the heroes. They are cool and all, and if someone is really good at controlling a battle (im not) they might be useful. the whole leveling and items and stuff just seems tacked on. It might be cool in single player, but in multi there is just so much to do that its not really all that useful other than opening up some spells. I will say that some of the spells sound awefully cool, but i havent had a chance to check em all out yet. Its tough in the beta so far if you like 2v2 or higher as someone is always dropping. so while ive tried like 6 or 7 games, ive only finished like 2, and didnt get along far enough to check out a lot of stuff.
Much like starcraft, in the end i know war3 will be a really polished rts. They did a nice job with the unit balance with starcraft, and i think they will pull it off in war3, although it will take more effort. They did pack a lot of content in there from what ive seen. And adding the extra race does add another much more than one would think. Part of the problem is that play balancing is tough with so many skill levels of players. When a game has as much as what war3 may have, a collection of spells, or units in an average joes hands is balanced, but some stud can take it to the next level, and only then do they find out that a certain race is overwhelming if used a certain way. War3 is still a long way from retail.