{"id":14086,"date":"2026-09-13T00:05:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T21:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=14086"},"modified":"2026-09-13T02:35:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T23:05:42","slug":"warcraft-3-reforged-forsaken-kingdom-review-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/09\/13\/warcraft-3-reforged-forsaken-kingdom-review-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Warcraft 3 Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom Review So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you’re a bit stunned to hear that there’s a new single-player story campaign for Warcraft 3 in 2026 \u2013 23 years after its last expansion, The Frozen Throne \u2013 then you can imagine how I felt when Forsaken Kingdom fell into my hands ahead of its surprise announcement and immediate release today. It’s honestly great to be back, considering Blizzard hasn’t given single-player RTS fans anything new to chew on at all since 2016’s Starcraft II: Nova Covert Ops. This expansion maintains the feel of classic Warcraft 3 while mixing in some new ideas, and that’s something I might never run out of appetite for.<\/p>\n

At the time of writing, I’ve only had the chance to play through maybe a quarter of the new story: the four-mission Last Days of Lordaeron prologue, which is quite juicy and ambitious on its own, as well as the first three or so hours of what Blizzard says is roughly 30 total in Forsaken Kingdom. The latter really leans into being an RPG so far, like a more ambitious version of Rexxar’s Founding of Durotar bonus campaign in The Frozen Throne.<\/p>\n

The Last Days of Lordaeron picks up on the day Arthas returned from Northrend to kill his father, perhaps one of the most pivotal moments in all of Warcraft lore, and follows the new hero, guard lieutenant Garek Bandarion, as he fights his way through a besieged Andorhal and a devastated Strathholme in a doomed attempt to save his homeland from the Scourge. This prologue culminates with a confrontation against none other than Baron Rivendare, and contains numerous clever little references to both Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed the design of these missions for the most part. The Siege of Andorhal, especially, puts a little bit of a MOBA-inspired twist on the typical Warcraft 3 routine by having you capture towers that spawn waves of AI-controlled friendly soldiers at regular intervals to help you push across the map. Another segment of the same mission required me to hold specific objectives to be able to recruit certain kinds of units, rather than simply needing their associated structure in my base.<\/p>\n

Stratholme, post-purge at this point, is built like a winding dungeon crawl.\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

Stratholme, post-purge at this point, is built like a winding dungeon crawl that requires you to coordinate one group led by Garek and a second led by the elven priest Ilastar Songbreeze \u2013 500 bonus points if you recognize that deep cut, because I definitely had to look up who the heck he was and I practically eat, sleep, and breathe Warcraft. They remain separated for the first half of the mission, which created some interesting opportunities to use one group to complete an objective that helped the other progress. They then unite at the end for the final, dramatic push.<\/p>\n

In an extremely heavily-telegraphed twist, Garek doesn’t fare well in his confrontation with Rivendare, and ends up raised as one of the free-willed Forsaken in the main campaign. Taking his orders directly from Sylvanas and accompanied by her lieutenant, the Dark Ranger Anya, this free-roaming, quest-driven adventure revolves around establishing the Forsaken in the Undercity beneath the capital ruins. We also know Garek is destined to become the first Forsaken Paladin \u2013 an unorthodox combo that is soon to be playable in World of Warcraft \u2013 but I’m not sure how this transpires just yet.<\/p>\n

Warcraft 3: Reforged review.<\/section>\n

Forsaken Kingdom also comes with a third, entirely new graphical style for Warcraft 3 called the “Definitive Edition” option. The idea was to address the complaints people had about 2020’s divisive Reforged update, making Warcraft 3 look a bit more detailed and modern while preserving the feel of the original. At first, I wasn’t super impressed with this direction. It doesn’t look great zoomed in during cutscenes, to be honest. A lot of the textures are extremely flat, matte, and almost unfinished-looking. You can see visible pixels on some of the armor where it transitions from the faction blue to the metallic edging. And the lighting still comes off as pretty dated.<\/p>\n

But when I loaded into a custom skirmish match against AI, I suddenly saw what they were going for. Playing zoomed out at a fast pace, I almost forgot I wasn’t using the original 2003 graphics. It’s like a magic trick. All the units and buildings look like how I remember them, just with higher fidelity. I suspect this will become the preferred way to play multiplayer and custom games for all but the most die-hard, low-polygon grognards.<\/p>\n

It’s a bit unfortunate to me, then, that these visual goodies are so unevenly distributed. The Forsaken Kingdom campaign can only be played with the Definitive Edition graphics. And, you know, that seems fair enough. Multiplayer and skirmish let you pick between Classic, Reforged, or Definitive Edition. But if you want to revisit the still frankly superb Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne campaigns \u2013 and you really should! \u2013 they only support Classic or Reforged, not Definitive.<\/p>\n

It’s unfortunate that the new visual goodies are so unevenly distributed.\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

The other significant addition, and the one with a big impact on multiplayer, is Warcraft 3’s first new tavern hero since the Alchemist and Firelord were added in 2004. This is the Forsaken Paladin, based on Garek of course. He’s in a bit of a strange thematic spot. After all, there’s already the Human Paladin hero, and the Death Knight was originally designed as sort of a negative mirror image of that. So where does that leave the Forsaken Paladin?
Well, he is an undead neutral hero who can only heal the living, so he might be the least useful to Undead players, ironically. His Q ability is a dash that does more damage the more enemies it passes through, so he’s quite mobile. As a strength hero, he is deadly in melee. His W is familiar to anyone who has played a WoW paladin with Consecration, which damages undead enemies and heals friendly living units in a small circle at his feet. He also has a passive aura that reduces magic damage taken and increases healing received. And his ult is an AoE purge\/stun that heals nearby friendly units, with bonus healing and a short damage buff if the purge removed a debuff from them. This could definitely have some strong counterplay against certain builds, and I’m interested to see what pro players think of him.<\/p>\n

I should also mention that the number of units in a control group has been doubled across all game modes. It’s an ambitious change for a legacy game like this, and one I’m sure the old guard will groan about. But I think it’s a positive one overall, from my spot down here in the tryhard seats.<\/p>\n

Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for my final review of Forsaken Kingdom once I’ve gotten a chance to conquer the full campaign.<\/p>\n

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