Warcraft III Reforged disappointed me a lot

Warcraft III is one of my beloved RTSs. That's why the idea for Reforged seemed sensational to me. The same game, the same mechanisms, but in a refreshed graphic design and with many flavors for fans of the series. I threw Kazimierz III Wielki on the monitor screen, and my body was already stressed before the next unhealthy night marathons. And what? And meatball.

I will not hide: I play the Warcraft III Reforged campaign and I have a smile from ear to ear. Returning to the story of the fallen Arthas is a great deal. A sentimental trip at which time flies like crazy, and I once again nod my head in appreciation for former Blizzard. Great characters, great dialogues, great twists and turns - amazing how cinematic, polished and universal the campaign in Warcraft III was. You can't have fun with her. I just can't.

Unfortunately, with each hour of Warcraft III Reforged I was burdened with more and more deficiencies.

I've prepared a list. I collected 18 smaller and larger flaws of the refreshed strategy, just in time for the 18th anniversary of the original Warcraft III. Contrary to appearances, finding such a number of trips and burns was trivial. I haven't played W3 in a decade. What to write RTS veterans playing with Warcraft III to this day. And I know that there are also such people. Therefore, if you are considering purchasing a refreshed version of Reforged, be sure to review my list of complaints and complaints:

1. There were supposed to be movie interludes between missions, but they were cut . During Blizzcon 2018, the publisher showed new cutscenes between story missions in Warcraft III Reforged. On them, the characters use advanced animation sets, while the dynamic camera shows events from a completely new, close and direct perspective. We saw all this two years ago during the official presentation.

However, in the final version of the game ... such scenes are missing. This is clearly seen on the example of the video materials below. The first one shows what we were supposed to get. Second - what we got. It hurts because for those who avoided online PvP clashes movie cutscenes were one of the biggest attractions in Warcraft III Reforged. However, for some reason the announced novelty was scraped out, the gods only know why.

2. Clans? What clans. I remember that clans were a very interesting social networking feature in Warcraft III. Groups of up to 100 players had their own hierarchy, with shamans and chiefs at the forefront. Presence in the clan guaranteed access to the prefix preceding the username, to internal chat and news of the day. In this way, a pack of friends, players from the same country or lovers of a specific conflict side could organize and build communities. It is worth noting that even after the release of the Frozen Throne expansion, even global clan rankings appeared.

In Warcraft III Reforged, the clans have only a trace in the form of an empty, grayed out menu item. It is true that in the era of Battle.net integrated contact list, the role of clans is smaller than before, but since these types of groups are still an important element of modern online games, they should also be in Reforged. Their absence is in no way explainable.

3. Where is my wide-screen mode. Probably no other video game genre uses the potential of wide-screen and ultra-video screens as well as strategies. I can't imagine playing Anno 1800, Total War: Warhammer II or Europa Universalis IV in traditional screen proportions. I thought that support for wide resolutions in strategies is already standard today. Warcraft III Reforged reminded me that not necessarily.

I am currently sitting in front of an MSI monitor with a native resolution of 3440x1440. This pixel ratio is hard to find in the Reforged settings. So I play with nasty black stripes because of the sides. I realize that Blizzard is allergic to wide-screen monitors, because according to him these show too much and give a real advantage during PvP clashes. However, given the growing popularity of this type of product, the company should allow to enjoy a wide picture at least during single-player campaigns and offline games.

4. Non-standard games fall. Just. I'm in the middle of a skirmish with three other players. I get a spanking, as is usually the case in the Warcraft arenas. However, I know that before the enemy forces destroy my town hall, there is a high probability that the whole game will be damned. During non-standard games, matches are notoriously interrupted and players are thrown into the menu.

Initially, I thought it was a matter of network stability of all gameplay participants or the host. So I conducted a quick test consisting of setting up my own game with places occupied only by AI. 10 minutes did not pass, and together with the bots we were thrown into the menu. For this without any translating screen. Zero error information. Just the end of the game. Just like that. You can get pissed off.

5. The main menu is a drama. Playing Warcraft III Reforged you can get the impression that the biggest challenge for computer components is not the online gameplay of eight players at once, but the two-dimensional menu of the game. Its liquidity is surprisingly low. His responsiveness is highly disputable. Turning on Reforged you will feel as if you are running an extremely resource-consuming AAA production, which will soon land on PS5 and Xbox Series X.

The main menu is not only poorly optimized. It's also simply sad in the world, scaring longtime fans with the lack of options and modes from the original Warcraft III. You can read more about it below.

6. Custom Campaigns? What's this. An interesting addition in Warcraft III was the opportunity to play authorial story campaigns created by the community centered around the title. Over the years, several really interesting stories have been created. Plus those with original audio voices, unique textures, new unit models and completely new maps. In a word: a great extension of Warcraft's life for those who avoid online PvP games.

Some of the original campaigns created by fans have gone down in history. For example, The Scourge of Lordareon Enhanced. The fan base favorite story has got a lot of improvements. Arthas has been equipped with new spells and can mount a mount. Infantry can convert swords to bows. Boss fights have become longer and more demanding. The maps were filled with new secrets. Some missions can be done in more than one way. An absolute revelation. We will not, however, experience such discoveries in Warcraft III Reforged. The creators have cut out the possibility of playing their own campaigns.

7. Animations of units in 30 frames. Warcraft III Reforged was created for games in 60+ frames per second (or playing in 4K and 60 fps). However, the characters' animations were made in 30 frames, just like the original. Thus, we come to a strange situation in which individuals move as if in isolation from a much more dynamic world and environment. Tragicomic situation: the more efficient your computer is, the more unnatural the gameplay seems to be due to the limitations of the three-dimensional models themselves.

I have my guess about why Blizzard decided on such a controversial move. It's very likely that Warcraft III Reforged mechanics are directly associated with animations. If they are the reference point for activities such as attacks, players must use the same frame to make the game fair. Similarly, it works, for example, in Dota - a game born directly in the third Warcraft editor.

8. Story changes were to be compatible with World of Warcraft. Fans will easily find several scenario inaccuracies between campaigns in Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. The premiere of Reforged was a great opportunity to unify the history of the universe. Blizzard himself announced smoothing the narrative line and sewing up the biggest feature debates debated for years.

Just as in Warcraft III Reforged we did not see new cutscenes, just as we did not see corrections to the story and the script. There were supposed to be actors casting voices from World of Warcraft, but they were missing. There were supposed to be story changes, but there is no trace of them. We got a campaign postponed almost one to one. As if Blizzard came to the conclusion that you do not have to try on the project. Even despite previously submitted declarations. A terrible thing.

9. Reforged ranking lists do not exist. Clans are not the only additional network aspect that has been cut into the new Warcraft. It is also difficult to look for ranking lists in it, which are one of the most important drivers of online skirmishes. After all, who did not want to increase their ratio of winnings and defeats, making one more attempt via Battle.net.

In Warcraft III Reforged we won't find a single ladder. Solo, random teams, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, FFA - it all just evaporated. The menu lacked a tab that allows you to view your experience points, wins, losses or numerical analyzes based on the preferred sides of the conflict. The feeling of being missing from the game 18 years ago is shocking in this area.

10. Lack of a scalable interface is a joke. Unlike World of Warcraft or StarCraft II, the interface displayed during the game in Warcraft III Reforged does not scale. This means that playing on the 3440 by 1440 pixels monitor, I am threatened by giant screens of units and buildings, with monstrous icons and gargantuan inscriptions. So much wasted space. So much unused workspace.

I cannot explain or understand the lack of such a basic option as the scale of the interface. This is not even an oversight. It's overt action contrary to the basic alphabet of any video game developer. Not to mention strategy games. The screens during the game in Reforged are scary by size, size and space occupied and I can not do anything about it.

11. Prettier maps, but uglier. I note that the eleventh point of my counting is highly subjective and probably not everyone will agree with me here. However, I think that the environment in Warcraft III Remaster is less atmospheric, and even more bland than in the basic W3 18 years ago. Grass, trees, forest paths - all this looks less like Warcraft, and more like a typical RTS what mass. On paper we are dealing with higher quality graphics, but in practice I like the original W3 palette much more.

Perhaps your nostalgia does. However, I can't resist the conviction that the magic of the cult game from years ago escapes new textures. Somewhere lost this fairy-tale atmosphere, expressed in very bright colors and high contrast. Exploring the locations in Warcraft III Reforged, everything seems more faded, natural and closer to reality. If it were any other game, I would probably consider it an advantage. Not with the magical Warcraft, however. It's a bit like applying an overlay to increase the realism of the environment in WoW. I feel in my bones that not everyone would be happy with it.

12. Everything belongs to Blizzard. The license agreement made when you download Reforged is significantly different from the one we agreed to when installing the original Warcraft III. Under the new document, EVERY manifestation of users' creative activity (map, character model, campaign) now belongs only to Blizzard. In this way, the company protects itself against the situation of years ago, when Valve first used W3 to create the Dota, and then defended its MOBA title in court and gained full rights to it.

This time, Blizzard doesn't want to lose even a dollar from the creative work of its fans. This is understandable and acceptable in its own way. After all, it's their game, their engine, their environment and their editor. On the other hand, by formulating the license agreement in this way, Blizzard inhibits the natural creativity of its fans. It is enough that something that the publisher doesn't like in the author's campaign created by enthusiasts for years to make it end up in the basket.

13. Joining online games is a nightmare. At the moment, the only thing that works in Warcraft III Reforged almost without a problem is the campaign. Everything else calls for vengeance to heaven. Joining the online game is almost a miracle. In addition, the process is a nightmare. The Join button works with a delay. We do not receive any message about an active attempt to join the game. In addition, general chat enters part of the screens, increasing the chaos.

Even if you manage to join a game (and the chance is very small), you can fly out of it at any time, as I wrote earlier. Without any warning. Without any message. You just land again on the menu, without any explanation. Amazing that Blizzard released the game in such a state on the market. It's embarrassing.

14. No LAN / offline games. Warcraft III Reforged only offers the option of organizing public or private online games. The title does not support LAN infrastructure in any way. I perfectly understand that in the modern world the importance of LAN Party is now radically smaller than before. However, it seems completely unnecessary to ground everything outside the campaign through Battle.net 2.0.

People wanting to practice solo, wanting to remember the mechanics or just wanting to look at new unit models anyway have to assume online gameplay. What's funniest is that solo players can fly out of their own game because the stability of online games in Warcraft III Reforged resembles a man walking on a rope between the roofs of two skyscrapers. One gust of wind in a Blizzard server room and a puff, you return to the menu.

15. Changing key settings? Certainly not from the game level. Given the huge list of missing elements and modes, I was not surprised to learn that Warcraft III Reforged does not allow you to change the functions assigned to specific keys. Do you have your own, preferred for years, mouse and keyboard buttons configuration? Well ...

Fortunately, you can get around the key assignment problem by manually editing the .txt file inside the game data folder. However, this process is neither quick nor pleasant. Fortunately, during this activity you have time to think about how it is possible that the modern strategy game does not allow you to change the function of the keys in the settings tab. It's surprising that the volume sliders are left - separate for music and sound effects.

16. Regions are gone. Against the background of other points, this may seem small and unimportant, but it gave the network game some additional flavors and intensified the sense of competition. In the original Warcraft III, you could create your own tournaments by placing specific regions opposite each other: Europe, Eastern and Western USA and Asia.

For example, in the evening hours of the Polish time zone there were fights between Americans and Europeans. By default, the system connected players from the same region, but additional network settings allowed for geographical skirmishes of the continents. In Reforged this is not possible, and the game automatically selects the region, allies and opponents.

17. Search engine and filters? Good At the moment, the player has absolutely no filtering options for online games. The only tool we got is the session name search engine. However, we can forget about advanced filters regarding players, maps, arena sizes, factions, content, filling the lobby, regions or ping. Anyway, on average they would be useful to us, since joining the online game borders on a miracle.

A good, powerful search engine is a basic tool for Custom Games - Warcraft's most important network mode. Its absence, combined with chaos in the lobby, means that Reforged can only offer a story campaign. At least now, in the premiere period. I do not doubt that it will be better in the future. Because it can't be worse.

18. Warcraft III Reforged kills the classic Warcraft III client. Even if we didn't buy Reforged, we still need to download an almost 30-gigabyte update for the original W3. A mandatory patch mixes the classic client with the client Reforged into one. This is to the great detriment of the classic version, which is also castrated from the content.

After the forced update of the original Warcraft III, the clans, ranking lists, regions and a whole bunch of additional network elements that I wrote above disappear from it. W3 owners are simply spoiled by the game. Blizzard does it on purpose, under the pretext of having fun together for owners of the old and new versions of RTS. A terrible practice that deserves criticism and stigmatization.

Warcraft III Reforged is in poor condition. I advise against buying.

I have the privilege that as an editor of Spider's Web I received a copy of Reforged from Polish representatives of Blizzard for review. I would like to take this opportunity to warn all fans of the cult version of the game 18 years ago before the new Warcraft. Warcraft III Reforged in its current form is more like a beta with a working story campaign than a final, refined and satisfying product.

Of course, new unit models look sensational. As usual, Polish issues raise a smile. The magic of the old W3 is still burning in Reforged. If someone wants to get to know the story of Arthas again, and PvP games will bypass the arc, they can take a chance. However, everyone else should be aware that the game is currently below acceptable levels. I have the impression, as if halfway through the work on Reforged Blizzard, he came to the conclusion that he would cut the subcontractor's production budget, giving up many declared goals and ideas.

I am convinced that Warcraft III Reforged will be better. Adding clans, ranking ladders, regions and a better search engine is probably a matter of (short) time. However, I evaluate what I have on my plate here and now. We're talking about a dish that doesn't deserve your hard-earned money. Not yet. Although the potential is obviously enormous.

Warcraft III Reforged disappointed me a lot