Guild Wars developer ArenaNet has announced Guild Wars Reforged, a new initiative that aims to make the original Guild Wars accessible to new players through a series of revamps and overhauls.
As revealed via the official Guild Wars website, Reforged will be launching on December 3rd. All of its enhancements will be completely free for existing players, including improved visual and audio effects, a new UI, and Steam Deck compatibility.
The new Guild Wars Reforged package will collect the three standalone campaigns, namely Prophecies (the base game’s campaign), Factions, and Nightfall, together in a single bundle. If you’ve bought just one of these before, the others will be free, and ArenaNet isn’t introducing any subscription fees either.
You can also look forward to Steam Deck verification for Guild Wars, as well as additional support for modern controllers and a redesigned UI that supports higher-DPI displays and larger text.
That UI is joined by a new quest tracking system that should make it easier to find your objectives, plus a new “on-screen control guide” that will presumably show you what kind of things your character can do at any given time.
A range of visual and audio improvements will also be implemented across Guild Wars, including new dynamic sky bloom effects, ambient occlusion, and lighting updates, as well as “other visual touch-ups” and positional audio support.
ArenaNet says this won’t be a one-time update, either. The studio has partnered with developer 2weeks in order to work on continued updates to Guild Wars Reforged, so this won’t be the last you hear of the project.
All of this is, of course, in conjunction with continuing support for sequel Guild Wars 2, which continues the free-to-play journey it started back in 2015.
Guild Wars Reforged launches for PC on December 3rd, and it’ll be a free update for anyone who already owns the game. Stay tuned for more.
