Warcraft III: Reforged Gets Its First New Campaign in Over 20 Years: Forsaken Kingdom Is Out Now at $29.99, and the Definitive Edition Graphics Update Is Free

Blizzard has not shipped a new Warcraft III campaign since The Frozen Throne in 2003, so we did not expect the BlizzCon opening ceremony to end with one we could download the same afternoon. That is what happened. Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom went live on the Battle.net shop on September 12 as a $29.99 add-on for Warcraft III: Reforged, and it arrived alongside Patch 3.0, a free update that finally gives Reforged the graphics overhaul many players wanted back in 2020.

The campaign covers the gap between Arthas killing his father and the founding of the Undercity, which makes it the direct prequel to World of Warcraft: Forever, the vanilla era WoW that launches November 4. Blizzard is clearly treating the two as one story, and it is selling them together in a limited time bundle. PC only, Battle.net only, and you need the base Reforged to play it.

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What is in the campaign

Forsaken Kingdom opens with a four mission prologue called Last Days of Lordaeron, which Blizzard describes as a traditional, linear Warcraft III experience. Then the structure changes. The three main chapters borrow from the Rexxar campaign in The Frozen Throne, so instead of building a base every mission you explore a soft open world with your heroes, collect gear for an expanded inventory with proper equipment slots, and spend points in a talent system as they level. Blizzard puts the whole thing at about 30 hours, with roughly an hour of in-game cinematics, which is longer than any of the original game's campaigns.

The cast is the reason Warcraft fans will care. Sylvanas Windrunner leads the Forsaken through Stratholme and the Undercity, with Putress, Varimathras, Sally Whitemane and Renault Mograine of the Scarlet Crusade, plus Kel'Thuzad, Ras Frostwhisper, Baron Rivendare and Arthas himself on the Scourge side. Two new characters join them: Garek Bandarion, a Forsaken warrior, and Dark Ranger Anya. Blizzard says the story connects the fall of Lordaeron to the first days of World of Warcraft, so if you have ever wondered how the Undercity went from a ruined throne room to a capital, this is that story. One caveat from the shop page: the new voiceover is in English only and is not localized into other supported languages.

The free part: Patch 3.0 and the Definitive Edition

Even if you never buy the campaign, Patch 3.0 is worth reinstalling for. The headline is a third graphics mode called Definitive Edition, which sits alongside the existing Classic and Reforged options. Blizzard says it rebuilt over 600 units and refreshed environments, lighting, effects and structures while keeping the readability and bold silhouettes of the 2002 original, and the developers at the What's Next panel framed it as moving the look closer to what Warcraft III was going for in the first place. You can play against people on any graphics mode, so it does not split the multiplayer pool.

The gameplay changes are the ones veterans will feel immediately. The unit selection cap goes from 12 to 24, a limit that has defined Warcraft III micro for more than two decades. The World Editor gains dynamic lighting, day and night transitions and reworked fog for custom map makers. And every owner gets the Forsaken Paladin, a neutral hero for multiplayer that Blizzard says is the first new hero added to Warcraft III in over 20 years, with a charge that slows, an area heal and damage ability called Consecration, a magic resistance aura, and a fire spell that heals, stuns and dispels. Asked at the panel whether the Forsaken Paladin is overpowered, project lead Brad Chan would neither confirm nor deny it, which we take as a yes for at least a few weeks.

Prices and our take

The Battle.net shop lists Warcraft III: Reforged at $29.99, Forsaken Kingdom at $29.99, the Forsaken Kingdom Combo with both at $49.99, and the Warcraft Forever Collection at $79.99. That last one adds the Skyborne Epic Pack for World of Warcraft: Forever, a housing decor figurine and 30 days of Game Time, and it is only sold through January 11, 2027. Note that Forever itself still needs a WoW subscription after those 30 days.

Reforged launched in 2020 as one of the most disliked releases in Blizzard's history, and the studio has spent years quietly patching it. A free graphics mode that honors the original, a higher selection cap and a 30 hour campaign with Sylvanas is a much bigger apology than we expected, and the fact that it is playable today rather than dated for 2027 is what made it the story of BlizzCon's first day for us. The English only voiceover will sting outside the US, and $29.99 is real money for a campaign in a 24 year old engine. But for the people who kept playing Warcraft III through all of it, this is the update they were waiting for.