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At first glance, the remastering of 2002 Warcraft III seems to be a fairly simple task. Take the ugly bits and make them pretty. Review the cutscenes. Give all muddy terrains and building textures a transformation in 2018. Remake the strange face of Arthas. For the Blizzard classics team, this is just the beginning.
Warcraft III, after all, opened the door to World of Warcraft. In 2002, Blizzard had no idea what kind of monster would become his MMO then unpublished. The whole of the 2002 RTS World of Warcraft moving stories, from Arthas's defection to the dark side, to the increasingly complicated hero's journey to Illidan's crowning as king of the warlords. As a result, the Blizzard Classic team does not just want to give Warcraft III a visual redesign. They want to bring a classic online with what followed.
It starts with the locations. In an interview at BlizzCon, Executive Producer Chris Sigaty and Quality Assurance Manager Nicholas Louie showed me the map of the beloved "The Culling", where the hero else, Arthas , launched a heel turn that would turn him into World of Warcraft mega-villain. As in 2002, the player – like Arthas – is forced to purge a human city populated by undead citizens struck by the plague. However, this city, Stratholme, served as a backdrop to two dungeons of World of Warcraft, so its layout reforged has been changed to reflect his later Sensational incarnations.
"Even on Crusaders Square, over here," said Louie Kotaku, pointing to an emblematic place where Sensational the players have since discovered the Scarlet Hold and fought a boss named Timmy the Cruel. "There are also other treats that are also Sensational reminders. Or I guess the calls are ahead.
Indeed, while playing the BlizzCon demo, people noticed the apparitions of the bosses of the World of Warcraft: Anger of the Lich King Culling of Stratholme dungeon, in which the players go back in time and help Arthas to do his dirty work. The development team is still determining the exact locations Sensationalcertified, but Stratholme will certainly not be the only one.
Warcraft III also introduced characters who ended up becoming important players Warcraft The stories after the players, uh, killed everyone, but at the time, the characters and motivations of these heroes and villains were only very fine. This too will change in reforged.
"We're also trying to give body to characters who … we did not know they were going to explode," Louie said. "Characters like Sylvanas [Windrunner] and Jaina [Proudmoore]. In the events of Warcraft IIIthey are not these huge, essential characters. It's important for us to bring them on a par with their presence in Sensational in terms of importance. Their time of characterization, their moments of great character. "
Again, the team is still fine-tuning the details of how they are going to do this, but Louie said the dialogue and cinematic scene changes were definitely on the table.
Of course, the potential problem with all this is that these characters and locations were not important by nature. Warcraft III was not just a way of transporting players to World of Warcraftand peppering with winks, Easter eggs and direct rewrite – especially with material that was only designed years later – could turn it into something he never imagined being. The Blizzard classics team, however, includes several members of the original group. Warcraft III the development team, and Louie said they were doing their best to avoid knocking down this holy grail from the pedestal players erected in their memory.
"We always want to honor the original source material," he said. "It's of crucial importance. So, the big things we are looking for are important story beats. Does it take place in an important place of Sensational? Is it a place or event that players who have played through Sensational will you recognize? Are there characters who play a crucial role in the scenario?
Make no mistake: the essential of the reforgedDNA is still Warcraft III. Sigaty described the classics team as "lucky" to have access to all Warcraft IIIThe code and the assets of origin, Warcraft III This is the first time that Blizzard has made a concerted effort to preserve a game while creating it. It's not always the case.
"We did things with Warcraft II and the original StarCraft in the old days. There were times when we could not find the machine [with the information on it]. We have modernized now, "said Sigaty, describing the current, but not yet ubiquitous (but still in effect) automated system in which source code, versions and assets are all backed up and immediately preserved." Blizzard is a lot better about it now, but in its infancy, no one imagined we would talk about something 20 years later – or in this case, 16 years later. "
Blizzard looks back, but where does all this go? long time Warcraft The fans are hoping for more than the same thing they always do: a new real-time strategy game, Warcraft IV. And while Blizzard says there's nothing planned at the moment, Sigaty has given me the most encouraging response I've heard in all my years at the BlizzCon and asked the same question at the same time. letter, every time.
"Warcraft III: Reforged gives us the opportunity to see if the appetite is there, "he said when I asked him about a potential Warcraft IV. "And personally, I love the idea of reviewing the world in the form of RTS at a later date. But there are no specific plans.
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