Job’s not done: Warcraft 3 Reforged is apparently upsetting quite a lot of people

Fans have been airing their grievances over the remastered RTS, citing poorly implemented tweaks to the gameplay, multiple bugs and a disappointing custom maps system.

I’m at a point in my life where I was genuinely excited to play Warcraft 3: Reforged. I skipped the original, being a little too young to fully appreciate what many have hailed as a real-time strategy masterpiece. So I was ready to finally experience it and see what all the fuss was about. I was even going into it with a whole lot of improved features! What more could anyone ask for?

Well, apparently quite a bit more, as fans of Warcraft 3 are reportedly not at all pleased with Reforged as indicated by a user review score on Metacritic sitting at around 1.8. Bear in mind that score might not be entirely fair; User review scores reflect a small part of the audience fueled by cheap cheese and rage. Yet after playing it for a few hours…I can understand why fans are upset.

Glancing over the game’s official forums reveals a bevvy of complaints related to the game’s performance with many players experiencing several crashes, freezes and graphical and audio bugs. Beyond the performance, many users have voiced their irritation regarding the lack of promised features such as improved cutscenes that have seemingly received very little in the way of an actual remastering or a more dynamic camera that has not been implemented in places it definitely should have been. Yet the real stinker, the one thing that has irked players more than anything else, is the butchering of Warcraft 3’s incredibly broad custom game tools.

Reading through the conditions of fair use has clarified that Blizzard doesn’t want anyone but them benefitting from the creation of custom maps and modes. Blizzard has made it clear that they will retain the rights to all custom modes which includes any potential copyrighting as well as royalty-free licensing if Blizzard decides you’ve stumbled upon the next big MOBA.

The most noteworthy thing mentioned within the terms and conditions is that Blizzard has the right to shut down any and all standalone games originally designed in Warcraft 3, meaning we’ll never see the next Dota grow out of Reforged. Basically, if you create a custom game mode in Warcraft 3: Reforged you don’t own your creation and give permission to Blizzard to do whatever they want with it. It’s not an uncommon thing to use in games nowadays but fans of the original were no doubt burned when they discovered what many are calling a greedy and restrictive move by Blizzard.

I’ve only played a few hours of Reforged thus far and I’ve stumbled upon a fair few issues but this isn’t the place for those. Keep your eyes open for our review early next week.

Last Updated: January 30, 2020