While some of that can be attributed to launch issues - and, in fact, some have been fixed already by Blizzard - others have literally been present since beta.įor a game that's meant to be a presence in the esports scene, it's also odd that Warcraft 3: Reforged doesn't have a competitive ladder yet. That's to say nothing of the game's major technical issue, which has been a number of online issues spanning authentication problems, inability to make games, and dropped connections. The real problems arise the more technical that concerns get. Issues like keybinding being basically impossible to do on the fly make it a frustrating experience for those looking for the perfect version of their game, and it's such a crucial feature from both an accessibility and competition perspective that it's baffling it's as difficult as it is. Cutscenes are likewise dated and feel out of place in a Blizzard game in 2020, though how much that matters to players will vary based on how close they wanted the game to look like it used to. Unit animations, though, are weirdly slow and look like they're being managed by wires attached to each character. The world itself looks vibrant and reminiscent of World of Warcraft's design, which flows well with the game and looks markedly better than it did before. Unfortunately, the visuals haven't scaled particularly well with the nearly two decades that have passed since they were cutting edge, and Blizzard's attempts to fix that are up-and-down. The core of Warcraft 3: Reforged's beating heart remains unsullied and it is still the best part of the game. Building up an army, using heroes to the best of their abilities, and getting lost in the staggering amount of variety offered by each race hasn't changed, and it shouldn't have. Build orders define the best openings for each race, and each race thrives on offering something different to players, whether that's the Undead's flexibility with its lower-level units or the raw power of the Humans of the Alliance. There's a lot of micro-managing involved rather than the macro that can come to dominate StarCraft 2 while it's being played at high levels, so it also offers a different flavor than the other remade RTS from Blizzard over the last couple of years. In that sense, Warcraft 3: Reforged has successfully returned to what fans loved. It's selfish, really - heroes always get all the glory, unlike the poor Orc peons laboring away to give them the resources they need - but it's what set the game apart in 2002 and created many of the characters that have come to define World of Warcraft, too.
Similarly, Blizzard has preserved Warcraft 3's RPG elements, where hero characters level up, upgrade their abilities, and generally dominate a battlefield to the point that they revolve around them. It's more reasonable to view the release as a tweaked version of the old classic, improving the extremely out-dated 2002-era graphics while preserving all of the traditional elements of RTS play that defined the game. Blizzard never indicated that the game would be receiving a total overhaul, and that's not what happened, either. Related: Blizzard Now Offering Instant Warcraft 3: Reforged Refundsįirst, it's important to establish what the expectations were for Warcraft 3: Reforged. It's a game that isn't quite sure what it's supposed to be or who it's supposed to be for and that, coupled with some disastrous bugs and features, make Warcraft 3: Reforged a game that should only be purchased by die-hard fans of the game's lore and gameplay. It's definitely a case of recency bias coloring expectations to a certain extent, since WoW Classic was such a sublimely remastered effort, but even absent that stellar example of raising the bar on remade classics, Warcraft 3: Reforged would still be decidedly mediocre. Unfortunately, the grim reality of Warcraft 3: Reforged is that it is, at its best, a disappointing and lackluster return to a game that deserve much better, and at worst a let down for the title's legion of fans. By all accounts, a similarly redone Warcraft 3 should have had the potential for even better things, as the game had inspired Dota 2 and other titles while maintaining a competitive scene of its own well past most games in the RTS genre's expiry dates. The developer was coming in hot off what seemed to be an impossible task - completely preserving and relaunching a classic version of World of Warcraft - executed to near-perfection, with World of Warcraft Classic enjoying a huge influx of players when it launched and maintaining steady and dedicated communities in the months afterward. Blizzard's Warcraft 3: Reforged was supposed to be another remake that took the gaming world by storm when it released.