Warcraft III: B.Net Games

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This is a list, along with descriptions, of various Custom games on Battle.Net for Warcraft III.   The numbers in parenthesis at the end of each review is a rating on a scale of 10, with 10 being the best.

• Great Games You'll Play Over and Over  

Sheep Tag - A game of tag more or less, with a big twist.  Team One consists of a group of sheep, usually 8 or 9, who build various types of farms to escape from Team Two, the wolves/shepards.  Wolves get to use wards, scouts, and can buy items for their hunt.  If a sheep is caught, anything he owns on the map is wiped out and he is sent to the pen in the center of the map as a wisp, in which case he must be attacked by another sheep in order to return to play.  Sheeps win if at least one survives for 20 minutes, or the wolves win if they kill all the sheeps before the time runs out.  The downside to this game is that sometimes wolves will camp in the pen, or sheep can sometimes hide in trees.  (9.5/10)

Kodo Tag - Another timer game very much like Sheep Tag.  Kodo Tag consists of two teams, the players and the computer-controlled Kodos.  Your job is to mine gold and also build defenses to prevent the kodos from killing you.  Unlike Sheep Tag, you need to mine gold to survive, you can revive all dead players by simply walking into the pen, and the second team is the computer.  The downside to this game is that sometimes players will backstab each other and ruin the whole game.  The game lasts for 25 minutes.  (8/10)

Tower Defense - There are so many versions of Tower Defenses (or TD for short) available that it's impossible to describe each one.  The main objective of any TD is to build towers to stop spawning creeps from reaching a certain area of the map.  If you let too many through, you lose lives, and when you run out of lives, the game is over.  Some TDs let you make heroes.  All TDs, unless otherwise noted, are cooperative - so if some people leak, you get screwed too.  Others are small team versus team, or some are just solo.  You win the TD when you have at least one life after all of the rounds of creep spawning are over.  (9/10)

Tower Wars - Tower Wars is somewhat similar to TD, in that you make towers to defend your own special area of the map with your small group of teammates.  However, money is obtained on an annual basis.  You make more money by buying creeps (also called summoning) from a building.  The creeps go into the territories of the other teams to try to make them lose all of their lives.  Some creeps also attack other players' towers.  A good combination of summoning and defense is needed.  Once the others teams lose all their lives, or if your own team does, the game is over.  (8/10)

Aeon of ... - Aeon maps, all of which have different names such as 'Aeon of Strife', 'Aeon of Elders', or 'Defense of the Ancients', are games in which you buy one hero and use it to destroy the other team's main building.  You level up your own hero by killing the other team's defenders and attackers, all the while making money for each kill to buy items at your base's shops.  Teams are usually five versus five, with two computers to control the armies - some games are 3v3v3 however.  Sometimes your hero can also buy creeps or tower builders as well.  The game ends if your team's main building is destroyed, or if the other team's is.  (9/10)

Uther Party - One of the newer maps that I've seen which consists of 8 players.  It's very much like the Nintendo game Mario Party, in that you play 5 (or 8) out of 9 mini-games of challenging fun.  The player(s) who win the most is the winner of the game.  This one doesn't take long to play, but it's a lot of fun!  (10/10)

• Somewhat Fun Games

Changeling/Murder-At-The-Mansion - These two games share a common theme, in that there is one murderer in a group of 12 players.  The murderer is chosen randomly, and it is that player's job to kill everyone else before the timer runs out.  In Changeling, this is the only objective.  In MATM, you have to try to stay alive, and once the timer is up, all the remaining players choose who they think is the murderer.  Anyone who is wrong loses the game, those who are right stay behind and must stop the murderer before he leaves the mansion.  These games are fun for a while, but they get long and frustrating after a while, esepecially if you die all the time or guess incorrectly. (5/10)

Ghost City - A very challenging game in which you and other players must get through a city full of deadly traps.  You get one life, until near the end of the game where you can buy an extra.  The traps are very easy to memorize, though some are moving targets which take more skill than thought.  It's fun to try at first, but if you lose too many times, it loses it's edge. (6/10)

Freeze Tag - Eight players on teams of four go around on a fairly small map trying to tag each other by attacking.  Players on the same team cannot see each other, and everyone is considered on the same team in a sense because there is no team chat and flares are seen by all.  When all players are frozen on a team, the other team gets a point.  The first team to get three points wins.  Players can be unfrozen if a teammate attacks them.  The downside is that there are certain areas where players can have a visual advantage (cliffs for example), and after a while the game gets long and boring. (5/10)

Princess' Castle - Another challenging game, Princess' Castle consists of a team of eight players who choose heroes to defend against timed creep attacks.  Players are awarded gold by kills only.  Once a player dies, the game is over for them, though they may still spectate.  The objective is to kill all the creeps to go to the next round, while protecting the yellow castle in the center.  The problem with this map is that the bosses are sometimes too hard and players all need to pick specific heroes to have the best odds of winning.  Unfortunately people don't plan and grab a hero based on what they want, not what's best for the game, and most games falter quickly. (7/10)

Protect the Guy - Like Tower Defense, players build towers around the first player, red, to protect him from spawning creeps.  Red is given a hero who can buy items as well as cast spells.  Strategy and cooperation are essential on this map.  The hard part, however, is that not everyone wants to cooperate, or knows what they're doing, which often leads to chaos and then a loss.  The last time I played it was impossible to win, because the final round was literally impossible, though the maker has made an updated version to my knowledge.  Also, gold is awarded by kills, so if you fall behind a little you get shafted into a boring position. (6/10)

Sheep Dodge - Sheep, sheep, and more sheep.  Fifteen rounds of chaos where players cross a board nearly covered in sheep.  The objective is not to touch any of these wooly creatures and to reach the goal on the other side.  If one players makes it, then all players come back to life for the next round where their unit moves slower than the last.  The farther a player gets across the map, the more money they make to buy an extra life if needed.  Players can pool their money, as they are in teams.  When all the players run out of lives, or if they complete all the rounds, the game is over.  This is a fun for a time game, but somewhat frustrating enough that it loses it's edge. (6/10)

Mailman Dodge - Similar to Sheep Dodge, players move through a spiral maze avoiding contact with any wolves.  There are three differences between MD and SD.  The first is that if a player dies, another player can step on the circle they leave behind to bring them back to life.  Second, there are items of haste and mana potions on the map that can be used.  Third is that players are allowed to cast sleep magic, however studies show that when the sleep magic breaks, wolves in the surrounding area will stampede.  This is especially frustrating on the bottom row of the maze because the stampede is so bad that nearly all players die.  Teamwork is essential, but often people will go on ahead and leave people behind, and when people die everything gets ugly. (7/10)

• Could Be Fun, But Is It?

Role-Playing Games - There are tons of RPG maps available, all of them vary in difficulty.  Most are based on Final Fantasy, Zelda, or are totally original.  The one thing that's bad about them is that the world is large enough and complicated enough that downloads are a killer.  Even if you have patience to download one, you might not have patience enough for everyone else.  A lot of these games also require cooperation which you can't get. (?/10)

• Why Do People Play These Games?

Kings and Knights - Four players who act as kings try to beat the other by hiring knights, which are the other players.  The kings mine gold, get their own hero, and go around with fickle knights who often switch teams at the drop of a hat.  The knights can pick who they want to work for and then ask for money, which they may or may not receive, then go around killing creeps and eventually the other kings.  The game is rigged because there are usually only two heroes worth getting, and heroes are decided by color.  If you join the game and you're not those colors, you won't even get the time of day.  So two kings (or only one) go around with strong aid while everyone else dies like crazy.  This game is lame. (1/10)

Illidan's Seven Demon Hunters - If you're looking for challenge, then look no further than this one.  This game is so hard in fact that it may not even be possible to win.  Seven players who are Demon Hunters with various special skills go around defeating creeps while protecting the Demon Hunter who is Illidan.  But the creeps are way too strong and also overwhelming in numbers.  Gold is awarded by kills, so you may never get any money to buy the items that aren't really worth buying.  As skills are assigned by color, like K&K, if you don't start with the right guy, you may not like the results. (1/10)

Final Fantasy Tactics - Snooze city.  It's just like FFT in which you kill stuff, level, and once you get to a certain level you can change to a different class by walking all the way back to the main base.  You can freely change classes, as long as you meet the requirements.  But besides the final boss the game has no purpose.  It's just an hour or two of killing stuff, and then you finish.  IT's interesting when you first try, but then you realize it's a waste of time. (2/10)

Arenas - I played an arena-type game twice now and I must say it was boring.  The point of the game is that two teams battle it out on a field, sometimes while killing creeps in between.  When a team has a total of a certain number of kills, they win the game.  Unfortunately there are favored heroes just like K&K and lots of time the whole game will be completely one-sided.  Based on what heroes people pick, there is essentially no challenge and if you're unlucky enough to pick something lame you waste a ton of time and kill nothing.  What a snoozer.  You'd be a LOT better off playing an Aeon game. (3/10)