Back in 2002, the RTS world – and soon the MMORPG world – was completely shaken by the release of the third Warcraft game, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. This title (along with its widely-acclaimed expansion, The Frozen Throne) was one of the most defining titles of the relatively-sophomoric RTS scene. The game would blossom into one of the most popular titles in gaming even to this day, World of Warcraft, spreading the genre-defining nature of the Warcraft franchise across forms.
Eighteen years later, the game had aged rather well. The mechanics were all still there, it wasn’t too graphically deprived, and the campaign still had the same incredible story that everyone loved. Really, the only thing falling short was the player base, which was extremely low due to the age and lack of interest in the game. After all, someone born in the first half of 2002 would be able legally an adult by now, so it wasn’t exactly the center of pop culture anymore.
Blizzard announced the remake of Warcraft, titled Reforged, back at BlizzCon of 2018. Originally, it was slated for a 2019 release but was delayed until now for reasons that Blizzard decided not to share. The company was actually surprisingly silent about the title, with their Twitter remaining virtually silent and the game going practically unmentioned at BlizzCon 2019.
But the silence and delays can be forgiven now that we have it in our hands, right?
https://twitter.com/Warcraft3/status/1222293661037273088?s=20
Warcraft III: Reforged has delivered an excellent amount of quality. Graphically, the game is notably updated but still looks similar enough that fans won’t feel uncomfortable. Not only that, but players can even turn the graphics back to the original appearance in the video options if they decide they don’t like the new look.
The audio of the game has been improved as well, with the iconic sound effects and voice lines still in place (now-dated pop culture references included) but with a noticeable improvement in the production quality. Campaign-wise, the story has been untouched, and the mechanics of the game are identical to the way they functioned eighteen years ago.
It’s worth saying that there could be a few performance issues. Players on social media have been mentioning stuttering, frame drops, and lag in versus matches, including VS-AI games. This is even more noticeable the more players there are in a game, as you may expect. If you’re noticing these issues as well, consider lowering your graphic quality to allow the game to run a bit better.
We’ve had a long wait while we looked forward to Reforged. It certainly isn’t flawless, but now that it’s here, veterans have a wonderful trip down memory lane while new fans get to see where the Warcraft universe really took off.
