Part of the reason criticism of Warcraft 3: Reforged was so pointed was that the remaster didn’t just suck on its own terms. As Fraser Brown wrote at the time in his review, “Unfortunately, if these things are putting you off, you can’t simply return to Warcraft 3 Classic and forget about them. The original has been added to the new client, so the connection problems, lack of competitive ladders and other issues are now shared between them. This might be the first time a remaster has made its predecessor worse.”
While subsequent patches ameliorated some of the issues with Warcraft 3 Reforged, it still isn’t perfect. For starters, plenty of custom maps don’t work if you play Warcraft 3’s classic version from the Reforged launcher. Which is why it’s nice that, out of the blue, Blizzard has finally relented.
As the announcement says, “All players who own Warcraft 3 now have access to the original 1.29 client from the Battle.net App. To install it, click the Game Version dropdown on the bottom left corner of your Battle.net Warcraft III playscreen and select Warcraft III – Legacy TFT 1.29. Please note: The Legacy client supports offline and LAN play only.”
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While version 1.29 wasn’t the final released update, it was the last one you could easily play over LAN, and that seems to have been a priority given that online multiplayer isn’t supported. (My friends and I played it via LAN as a break from our ongoing game of Dungeon Siege, to give you a glimpse at the peak of early 2000s PC gaming.)
If you install Warcraft 3 Legacy and the cinematics aren’t playing for you, find the en-USMovies folder in your install directory and rename it to just Movies. You might have to do the same for the Maps directory as well.
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