Warcraft III: Reforged has launched and player criticism has turned into negative ratings. Hardly any game has ever been rated so poorly.
Just almost a day ago, Warcraft III: Reforged started and was supposed to excite both old and new players, leading them back to a strategy classic that has lasted over 18 years. However, this plan has thoroughly failed. Players are rating the remake of Warcraft 3 devastatingly, the result can be seen on metacritic.com – a miserable 1.9 out of 10 points given by players. By comparison: The original version of the game received 9 points (Reign of Chaos) and 9.1 points (The Frozen Throne).
Players feel cheated: Especially angry are players who feel simply cheated by Blizzard. To this day, Blizzard advertises with trailers that show cutscenes that never made it into the final game.
Particularly prominent is the scene in the Stratholme map. This is one of the crucial moments in Arthas’ story. At BlizzCon and in trailers, this scene received an extensive redesign with gestures and better animations. In the final game, this overhaul is missing. While the new models and a new camera perspective are present, the characters appear quite wooden. There is no trace of good animations.
Many accuse Blizzard of “False Advertising” – that is, promoting something that the finished game does not deliver.
It’s about this trailer:
Another low point for Blizzard
The worst Blizzard game of all time? With a rating of 2/10 points on Metacritic, Warcraft 3: Reforged is likely to be the lowest-rated game by Blizzard ever released. Even the already much-hated Diablo: Immortal will have to struggle to break this new negative record.
Will the game turn around? It is clear that Blizzard’s developers need to step up quickly. It is obvious that Warcraft 3: Reforged, despite the one-month delay, is still not in a condition that can be called “finished for release”.
Many features still need to be added, and the functionality of some things that have worked flawlessly for 18 years must also be restored. Moreover, many players complain about performance issues, even when using the old graphics. The main problems include:
- Missing clan system
- Missing opponent assignment in multiplayer
- Missing support for tournament modes
But even the rest is not really running smoothly, so there are additional areas that urgently need to be addressed:
- Switching to “old” graphics leaves some units without sound
- Performance in the menu is poor, lagging for many players
- Especially large custom maps (over 256 MB) do not work
- Custom keybinds still have to be set via a text file and cannot be done in the menu
How could this disaster happen? There is no reasonable explanation for why Warcraft III: Reforged was released in this condition. Blizzard would have needed more time; not a few weeks, but several months. Even if a lot has changed visually in the last few weeks of development, it apparently was not enough to fix all the errors.
Players didn’t want changes – but did they? The criticism of the non-overhaul of the cutscenes is a bit exaggerated. Blizzard had already announced beforehand that they would not pursue some planned things anymore. It was stated at BlizzCon that they would embellish characters who would later become particularly important a bit more. This but was met with great criticism from players who did not want any changes to the game’s storyline.
However, that now nearly all in-game sequences were only lightly or not at all revised was likely something no one thought. It seems that Blizzard simply wanted to save time and costs to finish.
Should you buy the game? In its current state, even a hardcore Warcraft fan can only advise against buying Warcraft 3: Reforged. What Blizzard has delivered to the players here is nothing short of a disgrace for the game developers who once prided themselves on nearly perfect games, which, although they needed a long maturation period, launched solidly.
Tip: If you want to get more insights into the criticisms, we recommend you the following video by our colleagues at GameStar:
What is your opinion on Warcraft 3: Reforged? Did you buy it and instantly regret it? Or are you satisfied with it and have no noticeable issues?
