Warcraft 3: Reforged houses a fantastic RTS, but Blizzard has fluffed the remake

With Reforged I've enjoyed dipping back into the world of Warcraft 3, its real-time strategy gameplay eternally rewarding. But I can't help but feel Blizzard has completely fluffed its release - and, worse of all, taken away what people already owned in a bid to funnel players towards this disappointing remake.

At its core Warcraft 3 Reforged offers pretty much the exact same experience as the 2002 RTS classic, save some balance changes, cutscene tweaks and mission re-jigging only the hardcore will notice. It's funny how even 18-year-old habits come back to you. Gryphon Riders are effective but squishy, so throw in a few Flying Machines to back them up, preferably with Flying Machine Bombs researched so they can attack ground units. Oh yeah! Night Elf Wisps don't cut down trees like the environmentally unfriendly humans and orcs do. Instead they sort of sap lumber from trees, and they don't need to traipse back to a Lumber Mill to drop lumber off, either. There's an initial thrill to playing Reforged, a joy in the rekindling of teenage memories. So much of Reforged is so similar to the original Warcraft 3 that it's easy to forget you're playing a remaster at all. Perhaps this is the biggest problem with the game.

Blizzard has upgraded Warcraft 3's visuals for Reforged. There are new and more detailed units. As you'd expect, the most work has been done for the hero characters, such as the doomed Prince Arthas and Horde leader Thrall. Reforged uses the faces of these new models as the new hero portraits (this was one of the first things I noticed was different, so seared into my memory are the original portraits). The ground, buildings and environments are more detailed, too. But this visual upgrade washes over you after a while. Warcraft 3 lets you zoom in for a closer look, but it's almost impossible to play the game effectively this way. Instead it's best to play with the camera zoomed out as far as possible, letting you take in as much of the battlefield as you can. But the farther away the camera, the less Warcraft 3's lick of paint matters. It doesn't take long before you forget Blizzard has upgraded the graphics at all.

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