Sure, a willingness to retcon or revise aspects of this narrative to better gel with the larger lore of the setting might have angered some fans but it would have given plenty more a great reason to revisit the fall of Arthas and the rise of Thrall. Reforged represented an opportunity to amend that, and it feels like Blizzard have let it pass by.

Even at its best, the writing in Warcraft 3 feels like it's cut from a different cloth than the rest of the modern Warcraft universe. As that’s happened, the foundation represented by Warcraft 3 has looked worse and worse for wear. In the time since, however, Blizzard have built on that foundation over countless novels, comics and fifteen years of World of Warcraft.

You had dozens across decades and centuries of lore to learn and lose yourself in. The story didn’t just follow one legendary hero. Although ultimately superfluous to the gameplay, these omissions come across as somewhat-disheartening and - if I’m being cynical - borderline-deceptive.īack when Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne were first released, Warcraft was one of the more-developed fantasy settings of the time. Credit: Blizzardīut the more cinematic cutscenes, refreshed UI and revised voice acting teased at Blizzcon 2018? They don’t appear to have made the cut and it’s not really clear why. The updated character models in Reforged have a genuinely staggering amount of detail in them compared to their 2002 counterparts. I mean, don’t get me wrong - it’s a nice coat of paint. Unfortunately, jumping into Warcraft 3: Reforged, it feels like Blizzard have given the classic RTS a new coat of paint and little else. Part of this was down to the extremely powerful custom map editor - which kept me coming back long after I had finished Warcraft 3’s manifold single player campaigns. Part of this was down to the rich storytelling and the introduction of RPG-influenced mechanics - which made for a more engrossing setting and more engaging gameplay loop. Part of this was down to the graphical upgrade the third installment in the series delivered - which bumped things up from sprite-based 2D to fully-featured 3D models and environments. In the years since, it’s long held the crown as the game I’d with me to a desert island. It was one of those games that hit me at just the right time in my life.Ī few years down the track, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos impressed me all over again. The original Warcraft took a style of game I was already acquainted with and paired it up with a richer, nerdy-as-hell setting that played right into my teenage appetite for trashy-as-hell genre fiction. Dark prophecies, grimdark character designs, gorey action and truckloads of fantasy flavor? Sign me the hell up.

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