30 months after release, Warcraft III: Reforged finally becomes “complete”

The strategy game Warcraft III: Reforged wants to know it again. New patches are supposed to tear it out – more than 30 months after the release.

For a long time there was radio silence around Warcraft III: Reforged – so long that many players had already forgotten that Blizzard had even published the strategy game. Now, after many months of silence, the developers are finally speaking again, promising many new updates in the coming months. This also includes features that should have been ready for the launch almost two and a half years ago.

What was the same again with Warcraft III: Reforged? At least until the release of Diablo Immortal, Warcraft III: Reforged was considered the worst game Blizzard had ever released. The reason was that in the course of development the team not only made many promises that were undone, such as a major 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 started – it was simply replaced.

Numerous bugs for the release, missing features and new terms of use, which, for example, hand over manually created maps directly to Blizzard, caused massive criticism and devastating ratings. Lots of memes circulated and numerous players even returned their game, leading to the game often being labeled just “Warcraft III: Refunded” in the community.

Worse still, Blizzard even pushed back the release and it was still in a disastrous state.

What is changing now? As Blizzard announced, Warcraft III: Reforged will receive a number of updates. The first will be patch 1.33.0, which mainly brings the following features:

• Players can now switch between ranked and unranked games.
• Seasons are now available.
  • When a season ends, the ladder is reset and players can view their game history in the profile.
• MMR rating is unique for each race, including random.
• Player profiles are available and can be viewed by right-clicking on your own profile picture or that of a fellow player.
• Many campaign maps are getting some balance changes.

With this, Reforged finally fulfills many wishes that players have had for years and should actually have been in the game for the release in January 2020.

Can Warcraft III: Reforged turn the corner again? That’s a good question. Even though Reforged was quickly dropped after launch by many new and returning players, there is a small but fine professional community that still loves the strategy game and plays tournaments.

However, it is doubtful whether Reforged will ever be able to return to the glory days of the original Warcraft III.

But at least Blizzard shows: You don’t just let the game disappear into obscurity, but try to save what can still be saved. Maybe in a few years Reforged will be what players deserved in January 2020.

Are you excited about more innovations coming to Warcraft III: Reforged? Or is it all trivial and too late?