I meant "Frozen Throne" not Two Thrones.*** Got Prince of Persia on the mind :P While this video details the graphical improvements that have been made - it's important to understand that WarCraft 3 Reforged has suffered a significant Downgrade since it was revealed in 2018. I've mentioned this at the end of the video, but because Blizzard only showed cinematics, i feel it didn't warrant an entire video to cover it. Point is - Blizzard did not deliver the "reforged" experience that we were all expecting. Sure, it looks nicer - but the reversal of Blizzard's policy regarding the ownership of custom games and the requirement to install the extra 30gb of data even if you don't own the Reforged edition seems like a poor choice by the developer. I personally am enjoying playing through it with the nice visuals - but hardcore fans of Warcraft 3 will likely be disappointed by a number of the changes. What do you guys think? You enjoying Reforged? Or are you refunding it already?

blizzard finally updated to 2010 graphics

Worth $10, maybe. They didn't do enough to warrant the $30 price tag.

Reforged looks like what I remember it looking like 15 years ago.

Basically older Warcraft 3 is more vibrant and rich in color compared to reforged.

Water effects are a major down grade in the so called "remaster"

The golden age of Blizzard is finished.

I would have appreciated a Warcraft 4 so much more...

Warcraft: Refunded

5:17 - how is this a graphic improvement. The new environment textures and the softer lighting just make everything blurred and bland. The original was obviously going for a high contrast, cartoon feel. The old textures somehow manage to pop out more and convey more detail, even though they are much lower resolution. Just compare the dirt floor and gravel in 1:02. Even the trees are better in the old version. Forget the high-res foliage for a second and consider the tree trunk in 2:32. In the original, the trunk is low resolution, but they sneak in some light/shadow contrast to make it interesting. Now look at the reforged version. It is just a softly lighted, soft shadowed, brown stick, with some extra polygons that do absolutely nothing for it. It is just bland.

Reforged could've came out in 2008

I love how Warcraft III Reforged has a user score of 0.5 on metacritic

The terrain, trees, and water do not look that great in the remaster. Especially when viewed through normal gameplay not zoomed in. Particularly the water actually look worse in some ways. I also hear that animations were downgraded as units have less animation variety than before.

They downgraded the classic with latest update

If by modern and excellent look you mean cheap mobile game look done by a different studio you are spot on. They also paywalled some of the existing graphic settings for the classic version. Reforged is horrid.

I feel like it doesn’t look as good as it could. Looks like fable 2 or even fable 1

2:31 the more detailed character models look ridiculous next to the very cartoonish tower. The overall visual was more consistent in the original W3.

3:23 "the world feels more natural!" As the grass is sticking through a solid wood bridge.

there are many texture bugs in wc3remarster, and to be honest the new art style makes the game look bland, shot in 8:30 imo the old version is far more eye pleasing

Amazing how they actually made the water look worse

I think WC3 didn't really need a remaster, its distinctive art style and undisputed charm have always been enough to carry it through time

I personally preferred the aesthetics of the original. They should have kept it looking cartoony rather than go for realism with a cartoony colour pallet. The new one has higher detailed textures but lacks all of the original's charm. It's a shame Blizzard have lost their touch. I hope they keep the hell away from Diablo 2.

This was a wonderful review that stuck to facts! I enjoyed the pace of the video and your quality and video edit. This was very satisfying and answered my questions about the Remaster. Thank you!

I heard that Warcraft 3 Classic had certain graphical features blocked behind the Reforged toggle to give the new version an artificial edge in the visual department- notably, the option for shadows (that's been a thing for 15 years) now can only be turned on by buying Reforged. If you're comparing between the two versions of Warcraft 3 from the client, I'd be curious to see a comparison to an original pre-patch copy to see if this is true.

Newer graphics is not always a better graphics, while the textures and models have improved in resolution and details they do not look better and mostly they do not feel like they belong/fit to this game. For RTS games high end graphics and very high texture detail does not necessarily improve the gameplay as some might think. Whole view is displayed from considerable height and you don't need super graphics for game to look good.

The colors are so terrible in Reforged. It lacks color saturation. Everything looks so faint.

3:46 So, how many peasants do you wanna collect gold from this mine? Nick930: Yes

I don't know why, but I like the look of old characters more than of modern ones.

I still think original is cooler. All of their games look wierd now. Wonder if it's cuz of Activision butting in.

Warcraft and age of empire were my childhoold , now im 22 but im nostalgic af

had this remaster been from 2010 i might have been impressed

Sure the reworked game looks a lot more realistic, but Blizzard was never going for realism when they created Warcraft 3. It's nice of them to have gone into the files and swapped them with new hyper-realistic models but whats the point when 95% of the game is viewed from an aerial angle - I feel like the new models lost that "Warcraft" charm, they're very generic... look at the night elf wisp or the dryad for example. The UI is literally the same, gameplay elements like only being able to select 12 units maximum still stuck in 2002. If they wanted to keep the game as close to the original so both classic and reforged players could compete in multiplayer why did they remove so many multiplayer elements (ladder, clans, profiles)? Sad to say but the whole thing looks rushed and a cash grab, which is unfortunate as this was probably the highlight of Blizzcon 2018 announcements for a lot of people. They had one chance to improve the game and they blew it.

Terrain looks flat/bland, walking animation looks strange ....... only the characters models are better than the original ....

From what I can tell. the 'classic' mode from reforged is NOT the same as the real 2002 classic, has something to do with the engine. I was hoping to see the comparison between the real old and new. E.g. the unit shadows ARE supposed to be there, and they can clearly be seen in the old classic, but they are gone in reforged classic. The problem with all those new details is that they can only be seen in cut-scenes, the 'realistic' grass looks like crap from the basic gameplay angle (view from the top). The detailed units also look less distinct, which is a death crime for a RTS

Imagine a Blizzard without its artists-- they are basicly the only people at Blizzard who deliver, those artists who create the music and characters.

guess i'll have to wait for Wacraft 3: Re-reforged

Everything about the classic looked better. The cartoony, blocky and starkness was stylish. The new stuff is overkill, generic and lacks the laid back, humorous signature of the original. and don't even get me started to what they did to the core elements of the game.

Man they really messed up the “Bob’s Guns” sign...

Look at those ugly and flat neon green grass from Reforged compared to classic.

5:17 Classic ALL DAY

This entire company must be purged.

You mean Warcraft 3 Refund?

I was happy to see an update at all. Im not a WoW fan so it was awesome to see some love shown to this game I loved. They could have done better, but I am happy to play Story Mode again

_"They're the same picture."_ -Amy

Why would one need an "excuse" to revisit WC3? The old one was available up until reforged.

Fallout 76: Has lowest score on Metacritic Warcraft 3 Reforged: Hold my beer!

Will you do AoE2DE with the two graphic option qualitys?

Something I don't like about modern RTS games is how the sprites seem to flow or glide over the ground, whereas older RTS's had a more believable walk or run. Really puts me off playing these things as pretty much all new games do that.... Could have used some hit detection to make it more fun too like Diablo 2

It actually looks worse. Less depth. Less magic. How is that possible.

A prime example of bad product-/project management. Sad that it came to this.

I think the sound is a little disappointing but I'll be buying it for sure. Will we be getting the Frozen Throne at some point too? That would be awesome.

Good job with the graphics comparison Nick

it does look better thats clear to see, not $30 better though, maybe $10-$15 ... so its over priced. I will wait for it to go on sale.

Just look at Divinity: Original Sin II (2017). That's the graphic Warcraft 3 remaster deserves.

Old version vs New version(Reforged) of WC3 Graphics: New Version(Reforged) Gameplay: Old Version(which is spells are still old from New Version.) Cinematics battle from Undead final scenes(Arthas vs Illidan): Old Version. Script speed: Old Version(New version mouth moves are perfectly great. But, some dialogues are just stopped with their speaking of mouth moves. And next scenes are kinda slow....) Game Characters: Reforged Music: Both Calling their names on chapter scripts: Old Version.(Ex: Old version - Grom, You've got to come with me. and Grom?) (New version changed into Hellscream as a last name instead of first name.) And that's my reviews.

It's weird, when you zoom in and examine the models, the Reforged ones are clearly much better and more detailed. But when you're zoomed out just normally playing the game, it doesn't feel any different.

The muted colors of Reforged make it look dull when compared to the original. The old game felt much more alive, it felt like it had more detail than the new edition where there's almost no contrast. OG wins this.

I prefer, and always will prefer classic

The sound mixing though "foul, KNAVE"

*It's not a bad game...* they put nice details on it, *BUT* that is useless if the connection fails frequently..., creative freedoms are restricted, and you have to meet many requirements to be able to play (to be able to play a game with common graphics for the times in which we are) *If we leave all that stuff out Reforged is a casual game that all wc3 fans would play normally.*

@5:17 you cant tell me that side by side makes reforged look better...

Looks amazing- cannot wait to play it again!

where can i get that Warcraft III ? Its still available these days right? i really want to play that game again

The individual visual elements are pretty good, but the overall style doesn't really age well... also, I don't think they redid the sounds at all, just adjusted the volume and cleaned it up a bit.

look like for the sound effect they copy and paste it from the old game. I guess the only good thing about this remake is the graphic, i dont know about the content from Reforge compare to the original Warcraft since im not gonna buy this remake

for the price of 29.99 and all this waiting. i expected more.

I read that you cannot play the original game from Battle.net anymore? Do you have to buy Reforged to play it or is it complete gone?

The main problem in envoriment detail is. They didnt give good lighting and shadow effect. Yes the terrain look detailed than clasic but only if you zoomed it. If it on normal window. It look bland and as if it dint have volume... Also i prefer the old UI when patched. The reforge one is just the copy paste from old one without border ui for widescreen resoluyion

They forget one thing, the footwork and movement of the units 😞. The classic is more realistic than reforged who's units is like sliding instead of running 👎.

uhm the expansion is called frozen throne.. not two thrones ✌️😅

It looks pretty damn nice.

‘More advanced animation work’ Shows classic character animating while Reforged doesn’t

8:28 well, to me the left one looks more natural

No mans sky (2016): Finally a worthy competitor, our battle will be legendary Warcraft III Reforged: *Laughs in Blizzard*

There is definitively a graphical improvement but I feel like they could do more. The last time I played WC3 I was 16 years ago (!) so I will probably buy it anyway.

Where do u find this game?

The point is that they simply remade the visual effect, instead of updating the whole landscape and the whole background is totally outdated. Hundreds of development, zero innovation.

8:29 WTF original looks better

Long time fan of vanilla wc3. Haven’t played for years but was part of a few major clans. NEt, SYN, LNR, never got into LuX. Miss this game in its prime heyday. Thank you Nick for this comparisons the nostalgia is awesome !

This is best WC3 comparison video I have seen on KZfaq! Thank you! Liked and subscribed!

1 detail in the first mission with the bandits. When you encounter them stealing the ledger you could surround the leader, prevent him from running and kill him quite easily. In reforged he is invulnerable and cannot be attacked until he reaches his camp. Really made speed runs a lot longer.

I am personally enjoying it Nick. I'll stand with you to the end. tbh, i feel like if you're a true fan, just in it for a nostalgia trip, it's an amazing piece of work. However, I also agree, that as far as remakes go, it's not doing much for itself. I'm hoping they add toggleables for the cinematics they showed at blizzcon, voice acting (cuz a lot of people are looking for the old va cast), and models. Straight up improve some animation issues and touch up some models they did make. As far as im concerned gameplay wise however. it's fun, and feels like im going on a trip down memory lane. And, examples of them being diligent here, shortly after people were reporting missing enemy textures, it was patched quickly (probably was an oversight), campaign runs smoothly for me on a laptop so i feel the people who complained about it not working got patched up. The "loser" glitch of losing right after a mission starts in the campaign i havent seen anyone complain about for a long while. so clearly, they are listening, even doing the refunds so you know they're not just in it for a quick buck (least higher up is forcing it if not them themselves) and im sure despite the controversy and refunding, they will continue to update it for the 200 people i always see in the chat when im playing. Blizzard screwed up, screwed themselves to a degree yes, but theyre not completely ignoring what's become/becoming of their public opinion, or of their old masterpiece's good name. Edit: posting again in the actual comments, so those with me can find this easier

That was a good demonstration, with many examples. Though I would like to have seen more of the special effects namely, a hero's other abilities or other game magical or special attacks/effects. Still, even having said that, this reforged version is not that much of an improvement after all. Judging from what u have shown, only the visuals were slightly refined. The sound seems much the same, as well as the movements of the characters. There is more detail in the image but thats about it. Frankly a disapointment considering this was 2 years ago and the number of games out there that are much more realistic. Like some have said, after 16 years of the original's release, this should have been a more significant upgrade, like a Warcraft 4.

Can someone explain to me why does when observing different segments individually, Reforged looks so much better, but when observed as a whole, it looks worse? How is that possible?

It's look like remake 2 years after game WC3

God i wish someone who's actually interesting in making/playing games would run blizzard.. Now its just a bunch of suits finding ways to juice money as much as possible and give as little as possible for the money.

Good video. (putting aside all the issues with the game, looking just at these graphic comparisons...) Most changes seem pretty good, though the old style has its own charms. I will say that the old water looked way, way better. The new looks like blue sludge with bad fluid effects. The old had transparency. You could see land through it. And the color was better. The voices seem a little too loud now. Something in the middle might have been better.

It would have been sick if Blizzard outsourced Reforged to Valve and used Source Dota graphics. Ooohh just imagine...now that's worth $30

Old warcraft makes the scenery look like a real war area.

The original looks way better specifically the character models. The new ones look just bad even if it has way better resolutions

the main problem of reforged was that . they promised allot more then they delivred .

Can I play old custom maps from the original in Reforged? Like Helms Deep, Ring Wars, Battle for Middle Earth, etc????????

Now i know why those unit in reforged looks floating when walking, those new animation has no tempo and way too slow. Blizzard seems like let someone has no experience in RTS design at all to monitor this project

2:52 oh those were supposed to be stairs

Let's put it this way. If the Chrono Trigger remake that got shut down had succeeded I'd have been happy with this quality of remake (graphically).

I just replayed classic (after updating to their "new and improved" useless 20gb patch) and i dont understand why they left so many things the same.... Things they could have improved with little to moderate effort: Unit pathing (imagine actually being able to use siege units!) larger control groups and actual icons for when those control groups are created gold mine saturation levels (i still have no idea how many workers go on a gold mine) more detailed tooltips (how big is this aura radius? how long is my Kodo beast gonna be turned into a sheep???) a select all units button make it so control grouped buildings don't all build the unit you select (which wouldn't be a big deal but upkeep exists, its super annoying to accidentally build to 41 supply) a hovering building progress bar for units being created the weird delay at shops for selecting what hero is gonna buy stuff UNIT EFFING PATHING! My hypothesis is that they hired like 30 3D modelers and ONE FKING SOFTWARE DEVELOPER. This poor guy spent all of his time working on the "instant graphics swap" feature, updating the engine for better resolution support, and updating a 2002 engine to be able to handle like 4GB worth of art assets without crashing. BlizAvision knows they screwed up, but show them by not buying this piece of trash. if it were 10 bucks and they didn't lie about the features literally everyone would have bought it and loved it. Please don't screw up Overwatch 2 or someone is gonna straight up bomb your buildings

Uhm. Guess I'm a Blizzard Fan Girl because I like it 🤔🤔

The new models and animations may be more "advanced", but the old ones looked just so much better.

Love the more detailed shapes, but would prefer the textures to be simpler / less detailed (wow style). Example: Look at the Footmen’s shields, they are more defined and easier on the eye from a distance. The environment is also a bit too cluttered / detailed, drawing attention away from the units (the important stuff during gameplay). I also dislike the more lifeless animations. Where are the funky running animations from the old game? They were full of character!

Thank you for this comparison. I just bought the remaster because of this video. It's on sale for $15 and it comes with both expansions. Seems like a no-brainer for anyone who wants to relive this gave for the nostalgia with better graphics.