It’s been a long way wait to finally see the remake of Warcraft III. After being delayed from its original vague December 31st, 2019 release date, Warcraft III: Reforged has been released at last.
But maybe it should’ve been delayed a few more months.
At its baseline, the game is incredible. Visually, the improved graphics are stunning, with every last element of the game being reworked and updated to modern graphics. Characters have more flashy animations, spells have more visual impact, and every model has been gorgeously remade. In terms of audio, the game’s sound effects and music have all been remastered to provide a superior quality over the original.
Mechanically, the game is solid as well, with it remaining largely identical to the original 2002 release. Given that the mechanics haven’t changed much, this might not be a win that goes into Reforged’s credit. But since it wouldn’t have been the first remaster to ruin the mechanics of the original, keeping faith to the original was a great move.
"The ancient evil survives!"
Immortal, Undead Liches serve the iron will of Ner'zhul with frost magic and necromantic spells.
💀 https://t.co/klm4uyj0gs pic.twitter.com/NcGlK9ILNg
— Warcraft III: Reforged (@Warcraft3) January 28, 2020
So where does the game fall short? Unfortunately, there’s currently a good amount of lag in the game – like, unplayable levels of lag. This is especially prevalent in custom games, and given that this is the only way to play against the AI and the host of all of the custom game modes that millions have loved to play, that’s a bit of an issue.
There’s a few hotfixes for it but nothing resolute yet. For example, you can lower the lag by checking the option that turns the graphic settings back into the classic 2002 release’s visuals. That’s not a great fix considering the one of the main draws of the game is the remastered, improved graphics. You may also want to update your driver to see if that helps.
But once you turn the old graphics on, the issues get worse. Some units fail to even load on the old graphics, giving you an army of unselectable invisible units. What’s worse is that the lag still probably won’t be fixed.
Blizzard is aware of the issue and is working to fix it, but it’s enough to make fans wonder if maybe another month or two of development might’ve been needed. The development of Reforged was a bit secretive, given that the team gave virtually zero updates whatsoever on social media and failed to give much of a highlight to the game at BlizzCon save for a few models. While it’s fantastic to finally have the game out, Blizzard will need to make some quick updates to get Reforged fully playable.
