When comparing Unreal Tournament vs Warcraft III, the Slant community recommends Warcraft III for most people. In the question“What are the best LAN party PC games?” Warcraft III is ranked 24th while Unreal Tournament is ranked 93rd. The most important reason people chose Warcraft III is:
In multiplayer and skirmish matches, you get to choose which race you would like to control: Humans, Orcs, Elves, and the Undead. Each faction have their own advantages and down-sides, as well as wholly unique play styles. For example, the Orcs have units that are tougher and can deal more damage, while Night Elves units are completely invisible while standing still during the game's night cycle. This makes for gameplay that can change dramatically depending on which race is chosen.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great chance to get involved in the development
This game is in such early development and has so many tutorials for helping people get involved in development that if you're able to create a good map (or mod), there are still few enough mappers/developers around to where if you can get that map noticed, it might end up sticking around for the rest of the game's life as a main staple. Your map has the potential to live forever.
Pro Great movement
You can run, sprint, jump, dodge, slide, wall run, wall dodge, lift jump, and lift dodge. That's a lot of movements for you to utilize. And once you master them, it feels like you're surfing around the map, just flowing.
Pro Lots of pro players to learn from at this early phase of the game's development
Because it's still early in this game's development (UT4), a lot of the players you'll run into are top players from previous UT's (UT99, UT2K3, UT3) and have been at the game for over 15 years. This means that yes, while you'll likely get dominated when you run into these veterans, it's also a great opportunity to better your own play. There aren't a lot of gaming communities out there where you can just jump in and immediately start playing with and learning from the best players in the world.
Pro Completely free, open, and mod-able
Pro The cleanest graphic representation of projectile/area of effect/hitbox
You will know just from a glance how big of an area each weapon will EXACTLY affect, how long it takes for a timed grenade to explode, how big each projectile is and so on. Graphics are made for competitive accuracy but it didn't sacrifice the amazing visuals and cool (but subtle) particle effects.
Pro Strong community
Members of the community are beyond supportive, and they generate some amazing content. Gametypes, Maps, Custom Weapon Sets, etc. there are also semi-frequent ESL cups that anyone can join.
Pro You get to have your say in the game's development and future
The game is not yet in Beta. It's not yet even in Alpha - it's currently in the "Pre-Alpha" phase. You have the chance to interact with both Epic and community developers to make a difference.
Pro Four varied races give more play styles
In multiplayer and skirmish matches, you get to choose which race you would like to control: Humans, Orcs, Elves, and the Undead. Each faction have their own advantages and down-sides, as well as wholly unique play styles. For example, the Orcs have units that are tougher and can deal more damage, while Night Elves units are completely invisible while standing still during the game's night cycle. This makes for gameplay that can change dramatically depending on which race is chosen.
Pro Story-filled campaign gives players knowledge of the game world
Warcraft III has an excellent story that's told through the eyes of four separate races. As you progress through each race's story, you are presented with background knowledge of previous events in the world of Azeroth, while taking on new and challenging missions. Due to this, you are given a breadth of information about the races of the world, as well as key characters that make appearances in later missions and other Warcraft titles.
Pro Heroes that rank up and carry inventory adds a well done RPG icing
Pro Single Player campaign serves as a learning tool
The campaign acts as a tutorial for each of the game's four races. New units become available every mission, which feature their own unique abilities and skills. By giving you access to different units over time, the game allows you to acclimate yourself with each individual unit type as the campaign progresses. This gives you an understanding of how each race plays, thus helping you develop a desirable playstyle.
Pro Multiple build orders make each Multi-Player match feel different
Warcraft III gives players the freedom to build their bases in any order they choose, to fit any strategic purpose they need. This allows players to start each match with a certain strategy in mind, build toward it, then alter it if it's no longer viable. For instance, players can build toward a rush of low-cost units at the start of the match and abruptly switch their strategy, constructing buildings that will enable them to train flying units instead. This keeps matches interesting, requiring players to adapt their build order at a moment's notice if their strategies change.
Pro Wonderful design
Cons
Con This game is abandoned and will never be finished.
It's been over 2 years since Epic Games did any work on Unreal Tournament, and the last communications they have had with the community is a few throaway comments on a stream or a Discord chat server. The game is dead and older Unreal Tournament games are more polished & populated, go play those instead.
Con Difficult to know how big the game will ever get
The Unreal Tournament franchise has been around for over 15 years and used to reign supreme above all the other FPS's. Today however, it's much harder to predict how well it'll do compared to other top FPS games. That combined with the fact that it's a very difficult game to learn, you might end up honing your UT skills for nothing at the end of the day.
Con Constantly changing game mechanics and balancing
Because the game is still in "Pre-Alpha," the game has the potential to change in both major and minor ways from build to build. The majority of your gained experience will transfer from build to build, however it can be a bit of an annoyance having to relearn balances over and over again.
Con Playerbase is a little small these days
Con Unbalanced weapons
As of writing this (8/19/2016) the flak canon is over powered, but it's not a big deal because they change the weapon balance with each new build (about once a month).
Con There's a huge skill gap
Many of the players currently involved in the community at the moment have been playing Unreal Tournament for over 15 years. If you're new to the UT franchise or arena shooters in general, there's a chance every time you boot up the game that you'll run into and get trucked by those vets.
Con Heavy focus on micromanagement makes Warcraft III too strenuous for casual play
The combat in Warcraft III relies heavily on the micromanagement of units in each encounter. The crux of each engagement is unit placement: Each individual unit has to be positioned properly, with their abilities activated the moment they are off cooldown. Due to this, every battle requires constant focus and the maneuvering of individual units, which can be quite difficult for casual players to maintain.
Con Macromanagement supplies casual players with a difficult learning curve
Warcraft III provides players with a difficult balancing act of maintaining armies, upgrades, and economy. Each unit takes a large amount of resources to complete, so it is imperative to keep as many of your units alive as possible with each fight. In order to do so, you must research technologies that increase their effectiveness and resilience in combat, making it imperative that you queue these upgrades once you have the money to do so. However, as your army grows in size, you will gain less resources due to an Upkeep Tax that is levied against you once you reach a certain population. This will make it harder to replace fallen units and purchase additional unit upgrades. Because of this intensive macromanagement of army, upgrades, and resources, casual players will find it difficult to master the balancing act required in order to win each match.