Warcraft 3: Reforged has seen a significant update with the surprise launch of a new campaign, The Forsaken Kingdom, alongside new graphics and quality-of-life improvements. This release aims to rekindle interest in the 2020 real-time strategy revival, which faced criticism upon its initial launch.
The Forsaken Kingdom campaign adds over 30 hours of gameplay, focusing on the sacking of Lordaeron and the early days of the Undercity, bridging the narrative gap between Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft. For fans of Blizzard's older RTS titles, this release offers a chance to re-engage with the genre.
However, the new campaign presents a puzzling inconsistency: the "Definitive" graphics are exclusive to The Forsaken Kingdom and do not extend to the classic campaigns. Conversely, the option to revert to the original graphics, available in the classic campaigns, is absent for The Forsaken Kingdom, preventing players from experiencing the entire game in a single graphical style.
Senior manager Brad Chan stated that plans are in motion for a definitive version of the classic campaign, expected in the "near future" and accessible to all players for free. The possibility of a classic-look version for The Forsaken Kingdom remains unconfirmed.
Another point of contention for players is the voiceover localization. While the original Warcraft 3: Reforged included voiceovers in multiple languages, some of which were rerecorded, The Forsaken Kingdom campaign features text localization but only English voiceovers. Chan indicated that the team is exploring adding dubbed languages for different regions in the future, though specific regions have not yet been identified.
Game director Ion Hazzikostas explained that the decision to launch The Forsaken Kingdom with these incomplete features was primarily driven by time constraints and the desire to coincide with BlizzCon. "We opted to make the immediate splash and start getting feedback, start getting a sense of what players felt about this experience," Hazzikostas said. He acknowledged the importance of a full experience in players' chosen languages for a global audience but emphasized the priority of getting the content into players' hands for immediate feedback.
When pressed on the urgency of a BlizzCon release, Hazzikostas cited the excitement surrounding the event. He conceded that an announcement followed by a later release with all features ready was an option, but the team prioritized the ability to offer the campaign immediately. "Making the trade-offs of the ability to say, 'This is here, you can play it today' versus 'we need to work through a localization pipeline,'" Hazzikostas explained. The goal was to capitalize on BlizzCon's visibility to generate feedback and potentially revitalize interest in Warcraft 3 and the RTS genre, as such opportunities "don't come along very often."