Blizzard Had A Surprising Response To The Warcraft 3 Backlash
Warcraft 3: Reforged, the "enhanced" remaster of the classic real-time strategy game, was released last week to a less than enthusiastic response. To put it lightly, fans were not happy with this return to the world of Azeroth.
Some of these fans have taken to Reddit to let fellow burned customers know that Blizzard is offering full refunds of the game. These are apparently offered regardless of how much time one has spent playing. The original poster reported that they received a full refund after playing around 15 hours of the beta and five hours of the final product.
This is a pretty big deal. Offering these refunds would seem to intimate that Blizzard understands where Reforged went wrong. After all, Reforged currently holds the lowest user score on Metacritic with a staggering 0.5. This stands in stark contrast to its professional critic average score of 61. In other words, the game is already rather underwhelming from an objective standpoint. However, if this kind of review-bombing is any indication, hardcore fans seem to be the ones who are finding themselves the most displeased.
According to recent comments from Blizzard, though, the company's point of view is rather at odds with that of the majority of the Warcraft fanbase.
Blizzard doubles down on Warcraft 3: Reforged
In a post to the Blizzard forums, the company attempted to address some of the issues that have plagued users since Reforged's launch. In a surprising move, Blizzard defended the game's underwhelming visuals, particularly during cutscenes, which has been a point of contention for many fans.
As Blizzard explains, "We did not want the in-game cutscenes to steer too far from the original game ... we want to preserve the true spirit of Warcraft III and allow players to relive these unforgettable moments as they were."
Though a patch will fix some of the color and texture issues present throughout the game, it appears that the cutscenes will remain mostly untouched. The graphical overhaul fans were promised when the game was first announced doesn't quite come through in the finished product. Defending this as an attempt to stay true to the original seems to go against the very idea of a remaster.
The game also saw a significant downgrade from the original in other ways, such as the baffling removal of the original's competitive clan gameplay. According to Blizzard's post, there are no current plans to add those features back in.
In other words, if you're not wild about the content currently available in Reforged, you may want to mosey on over to that refund page.