If you're a bit stunned to hear that there's a new single-player story campaign for Warcraft 3 in 2026 – 23 years after its last expansion, The Frozen Throne – then you can imagine how I felt when Forsaken Kingdom fell into my hands ahead of its surprise announcement and immediate release today. It's honestly great to be back, considering Blizzard hasn't given single-player RTS fans anything new to chew on at all since 2016's Starcraft II: Nova Covert Ops. This expansion maintains the feel of classic Warcraft 3 while mixing in some new ideas, and that's something I might never run out of appetite for.

At the time of writing, I've only had the chance to play through maybe a quarter of the new story: the four-mission Last Days of Lordaeron prologue, which is quite juicy and ambitious on its own, as well as the first three or so hours of what Blizzard says is roughly 30 total in Forsaken Kingdom. The latter really leans into being an RPG so far, like a more ambitious version of Rexxar's Founding of Durotar bonus campaign in The Frozen Throne.

The Last Days of Lordaeron picks up on the day Arthas returned from Northrend to kill his father, perhaps one of the most pivotal moments in all of Warcraft lore, and follows the new hero, guard lieutenant Garek Bandarion, as he fights his way through a besieged Andorhal and a devastated Strathholme in a doomed attempt to save his homeland from the Scourge. This prologue culminates with a confrontation against none other than Baron Rivendare, and contains numerous clever little references to both Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft.

I enjoyed the design of these missions for the most part. The Siege of Andorhal, especially, puts a little bit of a MOBA-inspired twist on the typical Warcraft 3 routine by having you capture towers that spawn waves of AI-controlled friendly soldiers at regular intervals to help you push across the map. Another segment of the same mission required me to hold specific objectives to be able to recruit certain kinds of units, rather than simply needing their associated structure in my base.

Stratholme, post-purge at this point, is built like a winding dungeon crawl that requires you to coordinate one group led by Garek and a second led by the elven priest Ilastar Songbreeze – 500 bonus points if you recognize that deep cut, because I definitely had to look up who the heck he was and I practically eat, sleep, and breathe Warcraft. They remain separated for the first half of the mission, which created some interesting opportunities to use one group to complete an objective that helped the other progress. They then unite at the end for the final, dramatic push.

In an extremely heavily-telegraphed twist, Garek doesn't fare well in his confrontation with Rivendare, and ends up raised as one of the free-willed Forsaken in the main campaign. Taking his orders directly from Sylvanas and accompanied by her lieutenant, the Dark Ranger Anya, this free-roaming, quest-driven adventure revolves around establishing the Forsaken in the Undercity beneath the capital ruins. We also know Garek is destined to become the first Forsaken Paladin – an unorthodox combo that is soon to be playable in World of Warcraft – but I'm not sure how this transpires just yet.

Warcraft 3 is still probably my favorite Warcraft game of all time, and one of my favorite fantasy stories in any video game. The visual update Reforged brings to all its beloved and behated characters is all the reason I needed to want to experience it again. It’s not perfect, and it’s not everything we may have been promised, but it’s still Warcraft 3. If I were judging it purely based on how good of a remaster it is, there’s not much to write home about and plenty of room for improvement. But taken as a whole, it’s still a great game nearly two decades after its initial release. And the relatively minor shortcomings of this edition shouldn’t stop you from returning to this classic age of Azeroth or diving in for the first time. - Len Hafer, February 5, 2020

Read the full Warcraft 3: Reforged review.

Forsaken Kingdom also comes with a third, entirely new graphical style for Warcraft 3 called the "Definitive Edition" option. The idea was to address the complaints people had about 2020's divisive Reforged update, making Warcraft 3 look a bit more detailed and modern while preserving the feel of the original. At first, I wasn't super impressed with this direction. It doesn't look great zoomed in during cutscenes, to be honest. A lot of the textures are extremely flat, matte, and almost unfinished-looking. You can see visible pixels on some of the armor where it transitions from the faction blue to the metallic edging. And the lighting still comes off as pretty dated.

But when I loaded into a custom skirmish match against AI, I suddenly saw what they were going for. Playing zoomed out at a fast pace, I almost forgot I wasn't using the original 2003 graphics. It's like a magic trick. All the units and buildings look like how I remember them, just with higher fidelity. I suspect this will become the preferred way to play multiplayer and custom games for all but the most die-hard, low-polygon grognards.

It's a bit unfortunate to me, then, that these visual goodies are so unevenly distributed. The Forsaken Kingdom campaign can only be played with the Definitive Edition graphics. And, you know, that seems fair enough. Multiplayer and skirmish let you pick between Classic, Reforged, or Definitive Edition. But if you want to revisit the still frankly superb Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne campaigns – and you really should! – they only support Classic or Reforged, not Definitive.

The other significant addition, and the one with a big impact on multiplayer, is Warcraft 3's first new tavern hero since the Alchemist and Firelord were added in 2004. This is the Forsaken Paladin, based on Garek of course. He's in a bit of a strange thematic spot. After all, there's already the Human Paladin hero, and the Death Knight was originally designed as sort of a negative mirror image of that. So where does that leave the Forsaken Paladin?
Well, he is an undead neutral hero who can only heal the living, so he might be the least useful to Undead players, ironically. His Q ability is a dash that does more damage the more enemies it passes through, so he's quite mobile. As a strength hero, he is deadly in melee. His W is familiar to anyone who has played a WoW paladin with Consecration, which damages undead enemies and heals friendly living units in a small circle at his feet. He also has a passive aura that reduces magic damage taken and increases healing received. And his ult is an AoE purge/stun that heals nearby friendly units, with bonus healing and a short damage buff if the purge removed a debuff from them. This could definitely have some strong counterplay against certain builds, and I'm interested to see what pro players think of him.

I should also mention that the number of units in a control group has been doubled across all game modes. It's an ambitious change for a legacy game like this, and one I'm sure the old guard will groan about. But I think it's a positive one overall, from my spot down here in the tryhard seats.

Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for my final review of Forsaken Kingdom once I've gotten a chance to conquer the full campaign.

Blizzard has revealed three classes for Diablo 5, a first look at its UI, and even more as part of its Forging the Next Era panel at BlizzCon 2026.

The next Diablo game might be years away, but that didn't stop some members of the development team from confirming the first details. Highlights from the 45-minute panel include confirmation that the Demon Hunter and Monk are two returning classes, but a new class is coming too: the Plague Knight.

Concept art, gameplay details, and more were all revealed as part of the big panel presentation. Blizzard also talked about why it decided to make the announcement now, almost three years before launch. We gathered all of the highlights for newcomers and die-hard fans to comb through right here. You can see everything announced at the Diablo 5 BlizzCon panel below.

Multiple members from the Diablo team have taken the stage at BlizzCon 2026. After the surprise reveal for Diablo 5, it's clear the developers have a lot to talk about. Shely said the plan is for the panel to cover the story, world, gameplay, and even some information about itemization.

"We're a long way from the campfire, from its comfort and hope. These are the fires of Diablo. Sanctuary has been destroyed, and Diablo has won," Shely said.

Producer Matt Zitterman said, when deciding how to approach more Diablo, Blizzard first had to decide whether to do more DLC or another mainline entry. When looking at Diablo 4 and an opportunity to bring back the true Diablo, a proper sequel with Diablo 5 is the only thing that really made sense.

"Once we decided that this game was going to bring Diablo back, we knew we had to do it right," narrative director Jennifer Brandes Hpler said. "He couldn't just be a final boss. He needs to be a boss that's shaping this game from its opening moments. That's how we decided that, this time, you're not scrambling to shape Sanctuary before Diablo tries to take it over."

Shely added that Diablo "has a lot more to say" in this game. Don't expect Diablo to have some tragic backstory in Diablo 5, though.

Blizzard also confirmed terrain will change when players return to certain areas. Procedural worlds are also coming back with Diablo 5.

"That idea of not knowing what's around the corner creates a lot of tension," senior producer Tiffany Wat said. "So, in Diablo 5, we're bringing back the procedural world, both in the dungeons and the overworld. So, if you go back to a region that you've been before, all that information knew yesterday - that path that I found, that landmark that I was moving toward, how to fight those Elite monsters - none of that is information is going to help me today."

Diablo fans know Treasure Goblins to be "loot pinatas," but in Diablo 5, one character will change that. Wat teased Zarg, a new character and a Treasure Goblin that players will grow to know. His name's not final and neither are his character details, but he's yet another sign that Blizzard is shaking things up for its next big installment.

Shely teased some of the classes coming to Diablo 5. The Demon Hunter and Monk are two returning classes coming to the game. New classes are coming, too, including the heavily armored Plague Knight, which will see players spreading disease and consuming power. That's all he was willing to tease today, but he did say that Diablo 5 will launch with more classes than any other entry than ever before.

"I don't just mean just more classes than any Diablo game at ship," he elaborated. "I mean more classes total. The thing about Diablo classes is they're approachable - you can jump in and immediately have an exciting time playing them - but there's also deep ARPG mastery there and a multitude of builds to explore."

Diablo 5 is still very early in development, so how it handles itemization is still being put together. However, the team was willing to share a sneak peek at concept art for what things look like in this stage of work. Gear-based sets are coming back, with Shely also confirmed that there will be multi-slot items.

"I like to think of itemization kind of like a city," Shely said. "Think about New York City; It's an enormous metropolis, you can immediately go to Time Square and immediately find something cool. That's kind of how I think about our set up. Once you really start to dig in and master it, you learn where's the best deli, where's the best pizza, and you really get into that crunchy opportunity to define your own builds. That's what we want to do in D5."

This is more from Diablo 5 many likely expected to see, but Blizzard doesn't want fans to be overwhelmed by the image they see here. Shely teased that they've got some "really great solutions for any controller players who might be worried about manipulating those items."

All of the words shared by the Diablo team during the Forging the Next Era BlizzCon 2026 panel are all fine and good, but some fans may be worried that, with years to go until launch, there's no telling what the final product will look like. Zitterman promised that Diablo 5 is a game they hope to build alongside the community, which is why we're learning about it years before its planned launch.

"I think for us it's super important that Diablo 5 feels unmistakably Diablo, in particular for our longtime players," Zitterman said. "That starts with what I talked about at the beginning: Understanding who are Diablo players at their core? What do they want, what do they need, out of a Diablo game?"

He continued: "When you're building a game, you need other people to look at your work and give you that critical feedback. We want to get that feedback now. We want to get that feedback as early as possible. It's why we're announcing today. It's why we're excited to bring the community into the process of making the game along the way toward our launch date."

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Blizzard has shadow-dropped a brand new campaign for its real-time strategy game Warcraft 3.

Forsaken Kingdom is a two-part prologue for the 24-year-old RTS, which can be bought standalone. It goes live today, September 12, following the BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony.

The surprise announcement is part of the 3.0 update for Warcraft 3 Reforged, which is free for all players and includes World Editor updates.

Here's everything announced at BlizzCon 2026 for more.

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