The strategy game Warcraft III: Reforged wants to prove itself once again. A new patch is set to save it – more than 31 months after the release.
For a long time, there was silence around Warcraft III: Reforged – so long that many players had almost forgotten that Blizzard had even released the strategy game. Now, after many months of silence, the developers are finally speaking again and promise many new updates in the coming months. These include features that should have been ready for launch nearly two and a half years ago. The first patch of this kind is now live.
What was going on with Warcraft III: Reforged? At least until the release of “Diablo Immortal“, Warcraft III: Reforged was considered the worst game that Blizzard had ever released. The reason was that the team had not only reversed many promises during development, such as a comprehensive overhaul of the campaign or more story, but also committed further sins. With the launch of “Reforged”, the original Warcraft III could no longer be launched – it was simply replaced.
Numerous bugs at release, missing features, and new terms of use that transfer manually created maps directly into the ownership of Blizzard led to massive criticism and devastating reviews. Many memes circulated, and numerous players even returned their game, leading to the game being often dubbed “Warcraft III: Refunded” in the community.
Worse still: Blizzard even delayed the release and it was still in a catastrophic state.
What is changing now? As Blizzard announced some time ago, Warcraft III: Reforged will receive a series of updates. The first was patch 1.33.0, which, released on August 17, 2022, brought the following features:
- Players can now switch between ranked and unranked games.
- Seasons are now available.
- When a season ends, the ladder resets, and players can view their game history in their profile.
- The MMR rating is unique for each race, including “random”.
- Player profiles are available and can be viewed by right-clicking on one’s profile picture or that of a teammate.
- Many campaign maps receive some balance changes.
This finally fulfills many wishes that players have had for years and should have been in the game at the release in January 2020.
Can Warcraft III: Reforged turn things around again? That is a good question. Even though Reforged was quickly dropped by many new and returning players after launch, there is still a small but dedicated pro community that still loves the strategy game and holds tournaments.
However, whether Reforged can ever return to the glory days of the original Warcraft III is likely to be doubted.
But at least Blizzard shows: They are not just letting the game fade away, but are trying to salvage what can still be saved. Maybe Reforged will then be what players deserved in January 2020 in a few years.
Are you excited that there will still be new features in Warcraft III: Reforged? Or is it all trivial and too late?
