Blizzard’s classics team has been hard at work bringing the company’s older titles to modern platforms. Last year, Starcraft: Remastered brought back the eSports classic into the age of Battle.net. This year, the team announced that Warcraft would be getting the next upgrade. Dubbed Warcraft 3 Reforged, this upgraded RTS will be hitting modern PCs in 2019.
Attendees at Blizzcon will receive a demo of the game in the form of The Culling. This mission sees Prince Arthas slaughter his own people in an attempt to quell the Plague of Undeath. As the first step on his path to becoming the iconic Lich King, it’s a fitting first look at the game for fans.
Gameplay shown during the presentation reveals a colorful presentation. Units are still simplistic but clearly more detailed than they were in 2002. Whether it’s Orc warriors or Taurens wielding massive wooden bludgeons, you can tell that the classic gameplay of Warcraft 3 is here.
Warcraft 3 Reforged will feature completely remodeled characters and animations. The designs call back to how these characters have evolved in Heroes of the Storm and World of Warcraft. It’s great to see the classic game becoming more in line with the modern Blizzard style. The maps and environments will get the same overhaul, and the UI and World Editor are also getting more modern tweaks. Best of all, the entire graphics engine is being brought into the full 4K future.
If you load up Battle.net today, you’ll already see the Warcraft 3: Reforged logo taking its place in the sidebar. The game is on sale for pre-orders for $29.99. Or, you can spend $39.00 for the Spoils of War edition. This includes a Hearthstone card back, a Meat Wagon mount for World of Warcraft, and an unlock for four Warcraft 3 characters in Heroes of the Storm. More bonuses are coming for players of Diablo 3, StarCraft 2 and StarCraft: Remastered.
