The highly anticipated Warcraft 3 remake has hit the market and... Is being met with a reception colder than the spire of the Ice Throne. And frankly, I don't understand why Blizzard even decided to release the game in such a state.
Alright, let's get one thing straight - the fuss over Warcraft III: Reforged is a bit overblown, even if the cause of the whole situation is real problems. Despite all its flaws, it's still good old Warcraft III - a great RTS, complete with the equally successful The Frozen Throne expansion pack. Neither of these works certainly deserved the lowest ever player rating on Metacritic.
The storm surrounding Blizzard Entertainment's latest masterpiece is only partially related to the quality of the game itself. It's more an expression of frustration. Punishment for unfulfilled promises and the current state of the said development studio. For many years this company was trusted by the players, and now - through ill-considered moves and stupid mistakes - time and time again this trust fails. Players feel betrayed, and betrayal is always punished the hardest.
We're talking about the scandal connected with the protests in Hong Kong, the unfortunate announcement of Diablo Immortal, and recently also about the poor state of World of Warcraft. Let's face it, every company has the right to make some mistakes and those of Blizzard are not the worst in the history of the industry. Nevertheless, they were enough to undermine the trust of players.
Blizzard also gets a severe beating from fans for controversial changes to the user license, which de facto deprives modders of the rights to their creations. It is clear that the reason for these amendments is - let's not be afraid to say - greed. The company wants to avoid in the future such a scenario as in the case of Dota (Defense of the Ancients), a situation where the authors of mods create something with obvious sales potential, and then take it outside the game in the form of a commercial product. In this case, I think that the criticism is absolutely justified, and - frankly speaking - I hope that the developer will think over this matter.
I'd venture to say, however, that if the announcement at BlizzCon 2018 hadn't promised an ambitious remake, an improved interface, and remastered campaigns with brand new, much more detailed, and spectacular cutscenes, most of us would have gobbled up Warcraft III: Reforged without batting an eyelid. Some would probably shed a tear over the lost multiplayer features or complain about the "sluggish" menu, but in the end, they'd enjoy a game that doesn't really feel like the average remaster we've come to expect.
One of Reforged's main strengths is its improved visuals. - I don't understand why Blizzard released Warcraft 3 Reforged - Document - 2020-02-03
One of the main selling points of Reforged is the improved visuals.
In the official Blizzard store, Warcraft 3: Reforged costs 30 euros without a single cent, which is less than 130 gold. Let's add that in the store there is no option to buy Warcraft 3 Classic separately.
Because at the end of the day we just got a regular, typical remaster, not a remake in the style of Resident Evil 2 from 2019. A game that is not as good as it could be, and certainly does not meet the expectations placed in it, and also does not impress with its performance (for example, the outdated interface cries to hell).
This is simply Warcraft III "on mods". - The most important elements here are improved textures, models and support for higher resolutions. We also have additional missions in the campaign, which expand some parts of the story, such as adventures of Thrall in the prologue. They're pretty fun to play, as Blizzard still knows how to design good maps and quests, but in my opinion they don't add anything new to the scenario and might as well not exist.
And really, the same can be said about... Warcraft III: Reforged itself. The thought that most often accompanied me during my few hours back in Azeroth was: "I don't understand why they even released this".
There are new storylines in the campaign.
Releasing a remaster in its current form seems pointless. Sure, the game looks a bit better, but not enough to consider it a modern, graphically attractive product - especially since the nature of RTSs means that many improvements simply escape us during normal gameplay. Reforged is unlikely to attract new players (I don't think it's a title that has a chance of breaking sales records, even in the minds of its creators), and it only pisses off the old ones, because you either have to bury legends perfectly or not at all. So what was the point of all this, Blizzard?
THE CHANCES OF A "4"
The release of a refreshed version of "three" can be either preparing the audience for the information about the continuation, or a kind of test. If sales turn out to be great, Blizzard might consider creating another part of the game. The question is, whether after such a test the result can be positive?
