Warcraft 3 is a phenomenally popular strategy released in 2002. But Blizzard decided they can repeat this success and shot for the stars once again. And missed. Their Reforged remaster of classics has become the worst game on Metacritic.
News keeps spreading around. And even if you spent your weekend playing your favorite casino games online, you have probably heard of the Warcraft situation. February 2020 has just started, and the Warcraft 3 forums exploded with the question WHY? Tons of negative criticism from users ended up in the lowest ratings on Metacritic since the resource was established – 0.5!
Why We Love Warcraft 3
The original game, subtitled Reign of Chaos, was launched back in July 2002. After all this time, it remains a favorite real-time strategy for many loyal gamers. Then, the company shipped 4.4 million copies of Warcraft 3. As opposed to Reforged, it was named the best game of 2002, according to Metacritic and many other resources. On this site, it hit 9.2 out of 10. BTW, Reforged score is out of 10, too. Peculiarly, there were only 1,800+ reviews on the old version, compared to 28,000 reviews on Reforged. As it was noticed many times before, users share negative opinions more eagerly. But from Warcraft 3, people wanted more.
Fans’ Massive Disappointment with Reforged
Warcraft 3 remaster was finally released on Jan 28th, a month later than initially announced. Fans anticipated it, trying to stay calm because they knew it would be out soon, so they’ll be able to enjoy it.
And someone has enjoyed it! As of now, there are a little more than 1,500 positive user reviews on Metacritic, almost as many as the original has. But there are also more than 25,000 negative ones. Some users claim that they didn’t have a Metacritic account before and signed up to share their outrage.
New Warcraft 3 Version: What’s Happened?
Let’s get back to the question almost everyone asks Warcraft 3 Reforged. WHY did this happen? WHY is a remaster of ‘still a great game’ so disappointing to hardcore fans? WHY does it have so many bugs? Why its features are so poor? And, finally, WHY has it been released at all?
Blizzard Entertainment took several attempts to answer some of these questions. But soon, they understood that there is no point in confronting such a failure. So, they have decided to return money to buyers who were dissatisfied with this Warcraft 3 version. Those who have already used this opportunity admitted that a full refund was processed immediately. They were quite surprised by Blizzard’s reaction and service after it disabled the classic version of Warcraft 3 for everyone who purchased the new one. Right after that, Blizzard claims that they would address all the issues their game has as soon as possible.
Not all critics were as appalled as fans were. The Metascore based on Critic reviews is 60. This bearable, mixed assessment infuriated upset gamers even more.
There are two sides to this story, and both of them are negative in this case. The decision to disable the versions people played and loved, replacing them with 30 gigabytes of some new stuff, was bad enough for many. But if an original and a remaster could have been compared, fans would take it easier. What we have in reality today are no old version and a new failing one.
About the Author
Thomas Glare is a game reviewer with a great experience and a wide range of interests. His insights are revealing, and many gamers defer to his judgment. Thomas shares his opinions and tips in his blog that is gaining popularity these days and on many resources that are happy to collaborate with him.
