The original Warcraft 3 game was and still, one of the coolest games ever. Blizzard’s decision to revive the game and release its Remastered version this year was greeted with a great welcome by both old and new players. After all, we don’t get a luxurious upgrade every day to our old favorite games, right?
Warcraft 3: Reforged was an ideal opportunity to bring Blizzard one of the RTS’s most favorite games of 2020 fans, but in reality, it presented a game that failed to live up to aspirations. Reforged seems like a hasty attempt, and although there are definitely noticeable improvements to optics, it doesn’t look like the game that Blizzard has promised its fans.
For old Warcraft 3 players, there will be indescribable happiness when watching the rebuilt cinematic opening. The original opening was a masterpiece in its own right, but this copy paints a much more detailed picture, especially when the massive Infernal crawls out of a fiery pit to easily eliminate its weak enemies.
The menus also have a new look, and Reforged at first glance will be a real treat when playing with it. Unfortunately, this feeling will soon evaporate, as once you really start playing you will start to wonder why this game was re-released as a remastered version in the first place.
Blizzard said character models have been improved, and this is clearly evident. Where the graphics of the characters are much more smooth, and the models themselves are more expressive than the previous one. The only downside of this is that you rarely see these improved models up close, as the Warcraft 3 camera’s angle is far from them so you can see the entire battlefield, so you will miss most of the time how amazing the models are now. Trying to play with a close-up is going to be funny, so it is unfortunate that you cannot estimate the efforts and time that have been spent on making these models look so amazing.
It is strange that although the units and buildings come with new animations, they are still very slow when playing with them. Whether the units are running or attacking, the graphics seem a little slow, even when the game is running at extremely smooth frame speeds. Another frustrating thing is that in Blizzard’s initial videos, the game showed much more dynamic camera angles during cinematic scenes, giving weight to the game’s decisive moments as well as showing how impressive new character models are. But it doesn’t apply to the game now, which uses wide camera angles to tell story plots. The reason for this is still unknown, perhaps due to the long time that all the scenes in the game may take, but it is unfortunate whatever the reason.
While the cinematic opening scene was redeveloped from scratch, the rest of the movie scenes got a remastered improvement to better fit the screens. Although it still looks good, the effects like shadows, texture wrinkles, and more look a little old compared to this stunning cinematic opening. Blizzard said the team ultimately wanted to “preserve the true spirit of Warcraft 3” and that remaking all the movie scenes might hijack that spirit away.
And the problems continue with the fact that Warcraft 3: Reforged and the classic Warcraft 3 game are now combined together. You can switch between the two versions through the options menu, but the merger means that previous Warcraft 3 classic owners will have to endure Reforged problems, such as their lack of local multiplayer mode. Another sticking point is the new license agreement for custom maps. Warcraft 3 was released with an excellent map editor that brought out mini-games and amazing map challenges, but this time Blizzard explains that anything you design in Map Editor belongs to them. So in the event that you end up designing a great map or game development, Blizzard has every right to take it from you and take it as its own.
But despite all this, Reforged is still in essence Warcraft 3 in its full glory. The game is amazing, admired by fans, with an excellent story campaign spanning 4 completely different and playable races. For people who haven’t played the game in many years, Reforged is an excellent journey through memories that will reignite your excitement to once again live on the tracks of some of the game’s most famous characters. As for players who have not previously played Warcraft 3, they can experience a great RTS experience with hours of campaign missions.
The group mode is a journey back to the glory days of online matchmaking, and the many maps and game options will keep you occupied for a long time. Although some games were randomly stopped due to a communication problem, otherwise the experience was somewhat smooth in the face of other human or AI players.
Conclusion
Warcraft 3: Reforged by Blizzard disappointed, and it certainly will not appeal to the current Warcraft 3 players who will have to deal with all the negatives of Reforged. There are a lot of things that have changed since Reforged was first announced, and unfortunately, these changes have made it an imperfect game. While Blizzard has promised to provide future updates to fix the problems the game is experiencing, it will need much more to be satisfactory to the players. Although it will be a fun and great game for new players thanks to its great story, old players will feel frustrated with this substandard treatment of one of the most famous Blizzard games.
