Warcraft III: Reforged - now with lowest user metacritic score of all time

[passerby]

^ looks like that second photo is either running on super low graphic settings or applied some sort of filter post screenshot.. Here's a few I just took from in game:

Spoiler

Looks fine to me, I'm mostly glad to be able to play in 4k and the hud scales appropriately etc..

Those ground textures look like shit too.

Yeep, the ground and trees look just as bad as on the comparisons screenshots. The UI and unit models seems fine at the first glance, so it could be salvaged with AI upscaled original terrain textures.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

This whole game was not needed at all. Warcraft 3 stands on its own and its old timey graphics are endearing.

 

[whydoibother]

This whole game was not needed at all. Warcraft 3 stands on its own and its old timey graphics are endearing.

From their point of view, it was needed to integrate Warcraft 3 into the new Battlenet. A cynical and corporate decision. But from a player perspective, it might provide more stability, hopefully a way to rejoin games that you dropped out of, hopefully runs better on multiple monitor setups, borderless window, higher resolution, etc. Hopefully more options for spectators and when watching replays. Its not just "Warcraft III, but blurry, and you pay again". There's some gain in it. Not preordering, or rushing to buy, but it has above zero utility for players. Its not useless.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

This whole game was not needed at all. Warcraft 3 stands on its own and its old timey graphics are endearing.

From their point of view, it was needed to integrate Warcraft 3 into the new Battlenet. A cynical and corporate decision. But from a player perspective, it might provide more stability, hopefully a way to rejoin games that you dropped out of, hopefully runs better on multiple monitor setups, borderless window, higher resolution, etc. Hopefully more options for spectators and when watching replays. Its not just "Warcraft III, but blurry, and you pay again". There's some gain in it. Not preordering, or rushing to buy, but it has above zero utility for players. Its not useless.

Eh, I'm quite pessimistic when it comes to it gaining too much traction. That being said, I loved playing custom maps back in the day (I fondly remember Angel Arena among other things such as TDs and what not), so maybe some good will come out of it if it leads to a renaissance of custom maps as it were.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I don't think that it'll happen, whydoibother. Just think that it would be nice were it so.

 

[whydoibother]

I don't think that it'll happen, whydoibother. Just think that it would be nice were it so.

The custom games revival bit? Its iffy, all the yesteryear's modders are today's indie devs, what with free engines and Steam publishing making it possible to go at it with a small team. But Age of Empires 2 HD had a strong re-launch on Steam, regularly several thousand players online, it revived the game. And with DOTA2 spawning that Autochess genre via a custom map, maybe more people will be giving it a go in the old World Editor. I imagine thats why they want to rush it out, capture the lightning.
Overall I think Warcraft III players will more be more than double what they are today, even a year from release. The playerbase will grow, with nostalgic people coming back and some staying, with Starcraft 2 refugees, and with new fans realizing RTS is actually a fun genre, despite being dead for a decade.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Hopefully, s1sede.

 

[Lyric Suite]

This whole game was not needed at all. Warcraft 3 stands on its own and its old timey graphics are endearing.

The only thing i would have liked is an improvement over the AI for single player and custom games. The AI is one of the things they actually did right in Stacraft 2. Instead of wasting time shoving wokeness nobody asked for they could do things like that since they already decided they are going to mess with the original instead of keeping it the same like they did with the Starcraft remaster.

I also read they are going to add more single player maps and "story". Prepare for even MORE Sylvanas.

 

[Grunker]

This whole game was not needed at all. Warcraft 3 stands on its own and its old timey graphics are endearing.

Its cartoony graphics were shit even when the game released and heralded an era of aesthetic deroute in Blizzard games which hasn't ended yet even if it seems D4 might finally bury it. Jury's out on the ladder

 

[Lyric Suite]

This whole game was not needed at all. Warcraft 3 stands on its own and its old timey graphics are endearing.

Its cartoony graphics were shit even when the game released and heralded an era of aesthetic deroute in Blizzard games which hasn't ended yet even if it seems D4 might finally bury it. Jury's out on the ladder

That's not a valid criticism. Warcraft 2 already had cartoony graphics, so Warcraft 3 didn't do anything it's predecessors wasn't already doing. And to see just how good the visuals of Warcraft 3 actually are you just have to compare it to a contemporary like Battle Realms. Warcraft 3 felt much less like "early 3D", if you get what i mean. There's more variations to the visuals, the animations are better etc, and this makes a massive difference in online play.

No, the issue with Warcraft 3 wasn't the visuals or the style, it was the sub-par writing. A lot of the derpiness of later Blizzard started with this game. Not that their previous games were narrative masterpieces or anything, but they didn't have cringy "anime" moments like the encounter between Arthas and Illidan.

 

[Jimmious]

Wait what? Are we saying that Warcraft 3 was not good now? Warcraft 3 was great.

 

[whydoibother]

Wait what? Are we saying that Warcraft 3 was not good now? Warcraft 3 was great.

Contrarian arms race going out of control.

 

[J_C]

Wait what? Are we saying that Warcraft 3 was not good now? Warcraft 3 was great.

Didn't you know? Every game is shit on the Codex.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Wait what? Are we saying that Warcraft 3 was not good now? Warcraft 3 was great.

Depends which part we are talking about.

Multiplayer was good. Presentation was good. The design of the campaign was good. Tone and writing however left much to be desired and i consider Warcraft 3 to be the beginning of nu-Blizzard in a way.

 

[Jimmious]

Wait what? Are we saying that Warcraft 3 was not good now? Warcraft 3 was great.

Depends which part we are talking about.

Multiplayer was good. Presentation was good. The design of the campaign was good. Tone and writing however left much to be desired and i consider Warcraft 3 to be the beginning of nu-Blizzard in a way.

OK yes, that I can go with. I'd say that the WC3 campaign was the last decent Blizzard campaign but you could notice sings of decline

 

[Grunker]

Wait what? Are we saying that Warcraft 3 was not good now? Warcraft 3 was great.

Who is saying it wasn’t

 

[Jimmious]

Wait what? Are we saying that Warcraft 3 was not good now? Warcraft 3 was great.

Who is saying it wasn’t

Got the feeling Lyric Suite was saying that but he clarified

 

[Lacrymas]

Those Warcraft 3 Reforged models are pretty shit, huh? They WoWified everything.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Eh, they look similar enough to the real deal when zoomed out, so I shan't complain about it.

 

[Lacrymas]

The night elf models are out. I don't know what's up with this remaster, but most of them (including other races) look like early alpha. Even if we discard the aesthetic shift, it still doesn't have that Blizzard polish, it looks indie at best.

 

[RRRrrr]

Even if we discard the aesthetic shift, it still doesn't have that Blizzard polish, it looks indie at best.

It looks like an unfinished fan mod. Outsourcing to a third world country studio to make a cheap cash grab is low, even for Blizzard.

 

[Lacrymas]

At least the release will focus people's attention on the RTS genre and other contenders might have a chance. I don't know any RTSes being developed now besides AoE4 and A Year of Rain, though, but both look shit.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Yeah I've refunded this... Just too many problems and the (questionable) upgrade isn't worth the cost.

My computer which can run most AAA games in 1440p ultra 60 fps was getting like 5 fps on the fucking menu screen. Also since apparently there's crossplay between the OG WC3 and this, if custom games actually do get revived I can still just play them in the OG game.

 

[catfood]

Will they make Warcraft 3 free to play as they did with Starcaft when they remastered it?

 

[Olinser]

Will they make Warcraft 3 free to play as they did with Starcaft when they remastered it?

With the current direction of Activision Blizzard they'll probably make it 'free to play' and charge you $5 for each individual campaign and another $5 to play custom games or ladder.