Blizzard released the Forsaken Kingdom campaign for Warcraft III Reforged with 30 hours of gameplay

Blizzard released Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom without any prior announcement, marking the first new campaign for Warcraft III: Reforged in 23 years.

The launch happened right during the BlizzCon 2026 opening ceremony, and the expansion is already available on Battle.net for $30 as a standalone purchase or as part of bundles. Before this, The Frozen Throne from 2003 held the title of the last story content the strategy game received.

The campaign fills a four-year gap between the events of Warcraft III and the start of World of Warcraft. The story splits into two parts, both answering what happened in Lordaeron after Arthas returned. All together, it adds up to roughly 30 hours of gameplay and nearly an hour of in-game cutscenes.

Cinematic:

The prologue, "Last Days of Lordaeron," spans four missions. Players see the kingdom fall through the eyes of the capital guard, including the very soldiers standing watch in the throne room during one of the series most quoted moments. The prologue takes players through the Lordaeron capital, the sewers that will eventually become the Undercity, Andorhal, and Stratholme in the aftermath of its purge.

The main campaign moves beneath the ruins of Lordaeron and shifts the genre approach entirely. The structure is open-ended, closer to a single-player RPG, with the Rexxar campaign from The Frozen Throne serving as the reference point. Rather than simply repeating that formula, Blizzard expanded on its ideas around items, world exploration, and hero progression through a deeper inventory system and talent trees.

Two new characters drive the story. Garek Bandarion, a recently risen Forsaken warrior, and Anya, a dark ranger, operate alongside Sylvanas Windrunner, Putress, Varimathras, Sally Whitemane, Renault Mograine, Arthas, Kel'Thuzad, Rasha Frostwhisper, and Baron Rivendare.

The story promises solid answers to long-standing lore questions. Players will learn how the Undercity was founded, how the Forsaken built their own culture, why the Scourge never retook Lordaeron, and where the plague-green water came from.

Gameplay trailer:

Alongside the campaign, Blizzard released free patch 3.0 for all Warcraft III: Reforged owners:

• A Definitive Edition graphics mode with higher detail while keeping the original silhouettes and readability

• More than 600 reworked units, plus updated environments, lighting, effects, and buildings

• The ability to switch between classic graphics and the new mode

• Preserved match compatibility between players using different graphics modes

• Map editor improvements and various function fixes

Blizzard also added a Forsaken paladin to the tavern, the first new hero Warcraft III has seen in over twenty years. The roster last grew back in September 2004, when the game got the fire lord, goblin tinker, and alchemist. The new hero is free in multiplayer and works across all three graphics modes.

The new campaign reveals exactly where the Forsaken paladin comes from. Brad Chan, senior manager for the strategy and RPG group and development lead, was asked whether the hero is overpowered and said he can neither confirm nor deny it. The character storylines carry forward into World of Warcraft: Forever, which picks up shortly after the events of Forsaken Kingdom.

The history of Warcraft III: Reforged itself remains a cautionary tale. The remaster launched in 2020 missing promised features, full of bugs, and with cutscenes stripped down, which pushed Blizzard to expand its refund policy. In 2024, for the franchise 30th anniversary, patch 2.0 addressed some of the complaints, though most assumed support would end there.

There are three ways to buy the campaign. Beyond a standalone purchase, there is a bundle with the base game, and the limited $80 Warcraft Forever Collection throws in the Skyborne Epic Pack for World of Warcraft: Forever along with housing decor items for current WoW.