strictly speaking only about reign of chaos' specific campaign: it's not good. somehow in comparison it makes starcraft seem masterclass in both writing and scenario design. most chapters here are simple trods through spaces where if you have overwhelming forces you just generally win. not a single clever mission across all of the races and their respective campaigns. one of my favorite scenario types is the "defend the base for xx minutes" and even here it's boring and tedious because there's just no units or buildings strong enough to make a significant difference. nothing like siege tanks and bunkers around chokeholds. the pathing too can be so busted, particularly evident in a lot of the orc chapters. you'd try to move units but priority order would often just make ones in front stand still. even worse was the escorting the tauren mission where the caravan would just stop moving for whole periods at a time. in general, in combat somehow my melee units would always end up in the back of the group and my ranged on the frontlines and i could not understand why this was happening.

as for the online, life-changing stuff. the things people did with custom games was magic to me growing up with this game. except for dota.

The first ever RTS I played, reign of chaos is the one that got away for me. I was enjoying it a lot , a cerebral concept that you can play for hours, perfecting every aspect.
Unfortunately I lost the save file and the game was lost to time for me. Jumping in during the modern day is not as easy, the game is quite dated and can show its age.
Still what wont I give for a warcraft 3 remake or sequel. Take away all the world of warcraft expansions (to be fair MMORPG is my least favourite genre), give me the RTS back blizzard :'(