Just at the end of January, Blizzard Entertainment released the Warcraft III: Reforged remaster of the iconic game. There’s only one question – Does DotA work in it?
The Reforged experience
Let’s start by saying that Blizzard has been on a streak of bad decisions in the last few years. Warcraft III: Reforged got fans hyped up only to let them down. The company failed to deliver on its initial promises and the launch of the game was a disaster, ridden with bugs. As you can probably imagine, it wasn’t received very well.
Blizzard took some more criticism because of their imperialistic take on custom games. This means that anyone trying to create custom maps will have no property over them. Valve stands as the absolute opposite of that as the modding community is still very active and some of the arcade maps receive regular updates.
To answer the question – DotA does indeed function in the Warcraft III: Reforged version, but you should be aware of a few things before jumping back in.
The good
If there’s one thing that Blizzard did right it’s the character models. Updated to give the title a more modern feel, pretty much every custom map on it will look a lot better. DotA is no exception to that as many heroes get a brand-new look, while others received a much-needed polish. There’s no arguing that some of the models put Dota 2 to shame when it comes to detail.
The bad
Since we’re on the topic of models, some of them are not properly scaled, like at all.
Take Centaur, for instance, who is as big as a building. This issue can probably be easily solved but so far, it hasn’t been. Other heroes face a similar problem like Weaver, who has always been a rather small arachnid type and is now massive. Seeing the character pop out of invisibility every few seconds can be terrifying.
The game’s stuck on version 6.83b, which is not necessarily a bad patch since it resolved the Sniper problem. Jumping from current Dota 2’s 7.24 back to 6.83b could prove challenging as heroes, items and even the map will differ greatly. Unfortunately, support for the Warcraft map was dropped some time ago and there’s no indication that it’ll be resumed now. Compared to the modern interface of Dota 2, the one in Warcraft III: Reforged feels way too cluttered and you might feel like it takes too much space and obstructs your vision.
Last but not least, Warcraft III: Reforged comes at a price of $29.99 for the standard edition.
Final thoughts
Dota started as a custom map and judging by Blizzard’s current policy they wouldn’t want to miss another opportunity like that. While there might be no active competitive scene on the original version of DotA, Blizzard has provided a much-needed visual update. In case you’re hit by nostalgia and want to experience the old map once again, simply go for it, just don’t set your expectations too high.
