I was in middle school when I was first introduced to Blizzard Entertainment’s creative world through Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion pack Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. As more of a casual gamer up until that point in time, these served as my first experiences with real-time strategy games. From the moment I first booted it up, it consumed many months of my life as I moved through the different campaigns and ultimately dived into the well-resourced online modes. Heck, I remember even writing a short story “fanfiction” continuing the narrative for one of my English classes (Which I only got a C for, thank you, Mr. A). Even though I am not a big player of RTS games nowadays, I would still list Warcraft III as one of the more memorable gaming fads I followed in my youth.
But in 2020, you may think the game is showing its age. Blizzard Entertainment has today released Warcraft III: Reforged exclusively for the PC. Featuring both the original “Reign of Chaos” campaign and “The Frozen Throne” expansion, this is a complete collection of the classic game featuring a “top-to-bottom overhaul of its graphics and sound, up-to-date social and matchmaking features via Blizzard’s Battle.net online-gaming service, and a revamped World Editor to power the community’s creations”. Without impacting the original experience’s charm, this is essentially Warcraft III for 2020.
At its core, players will be able to revisit the over 60 missions from the perspective of four factions – Humans, Night Elves, Undead and Orcs. For those who started their Warcraft experience with World of Warcraft, you will witness some of the key experiences in Azeroth’s history from the Burning Legion’s invasion to the ascension of the Lich King. You will also learn the origins of iconic Warcraft characters like Thrall, Jaina Proudmoore, Sylvanas Windrunner, Illidan Stormrage, and others.
Even if you are not interested in picking up the Reforged Edition but own the original collection, there is still much to game from this release. Multiplayer functionality is interoperable, meaning that there will be a lot more activity on online multiplayer modes that you will not be locked out from.
Warcraft III Reforged is now available for purchase via the Blizzard Online Store. Digitally, players can either pick up a standard edition for $44.95 AUD or the Spoils of War Edition for $59.95 AUD. The extra fifteen dollars will net you hero skins for Arthas, Cenarius, Jaina, and Thrall; in addition to content for other Blizzard games.
