While the announcement of Diablo: Immortal has received significant backlash from fans, BlizzCon 2018 attendees did receive one oft-requested title. That’s Warcraft 3: Reforged, remaster of the classic real-time strategy title that features completely redone graphics. Of course, there’s a lot more changing this time around than you’d think.
PC Gamer spoke to QA test lead Nicholas Louie at BlizzCon, and he stated that some campaign maps have been pretty significantly modified. “When you get a chance to take a look at The Culling of Stratholme, you’ll see we’ve pretty heavily modified the map,” he said. “The map layout is entirely different from the way it originally looked in Warcraft 3.
“We thought it was important for this important story beat, for both the overall story as well as for Arthas, as he starts down his fall as a paladin and down the path of becoming a Lich King, that we bring parity to what people are familiar with, where Warcraft is today, World of Warcraft specifically. So when you get a chance to look at the map, you’ll notice that it looks like the Stratholm map in World of Warcraft.”
Various assets, like character models and environments, are being redone, but you can also expect cutscenes to receive a major revamp as well. Voice overs are all being re-recorded. It sounds like a dream come true, but what about multiplayer fans? According to designer Michael Scipione, the impetus to not “break the game” is there, but the development team would still “like to see some changes.”
If you’re wondering where the original Warcraft 3 fits in, especially since it’s received numerous updates, features, and balance changes over the past year, owners of that game can play against Warcraft 3: Reforged players. “Because they are based on the same engine, that allows people with the normal version of Warcraft 3, non-Reforged, to play with those who have the Reforged version,” Scipione said. “There is a lot of custom maps out there, so we’re going to have to respond to areas where, if something perhaps doesn’t work, we’ll look into responding to that. But the idea is that these two groups of players should be able to be friends, and play with each other.”
Warcraft 3: Reforged is out in 2019 for PC, and will include expansion packs Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne.