Blizzard’s first real-time strategy games had a profound impact on me as a young immigrant to Canada in 1994 and ’95. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness helped me learn how to read and write in English, and formed the basis for some of my oldest friendships in a brand-new country. Suffice to say, I have a lot of love for these old RTS games — maybe more than Blizzard itself.
So you can imagine my excitement at remaster rumors for Warcraft II and its expansion, Beyond the Dark Portal. When Blizzard aired its Warcraft Direct last week, not only were those rumors confirmed, but it announced that the original Warcraft would receive the same treatment, and both would be sold alongside Warcraft III: Reforged (itself a remaster) as part of a new battle chest. Of course, I immediately booted up Battle.net and bought the bundle.
I was just as quickly disappointed. Where to start? The most obvious place is the new hand-drawn graphics. Some fans have accused Blizzard of using AI to upscale the art in Warcraft and Warcraft II. I don’t think that’s what happened here, but what is clear is that the new assets don’t live up to the company’s usual quality.
The unit sprites are completely missing the charm of their original counterparts. They also don’t look properly proportioned, and many of them have new stilted animations. Additionally, the extensive use of black outlining makes everything look a bit too stark. At best, the remasters resemble poorly made mobile games.
Both games feature a toggle to switch between their original and remastered graphics seamlessly, but here again, Blizzard missed the mark. There’s a great YouTube video explaining the issue, but the short of it is the company didn’t accurately represent the “tall pixels” that the original graphics were designed around, so every asset appear stretched horizontally.
Like every game from that era, Warcraft was designed to be played on a 4:3 CRT monitor. However, the original art assets were made to scale within a 320 x 200 frame, which is a 16:10 resolution. As a result, UI elements and units look taller in the 1994 release than in the remaster. GOG correctly accounted for this when it rereleased Warcraft and Warcraft II in 2019, and there’s no reason Blizzard couldn’t do the same in 2024. Without these nods to the game’s original visuals, Warcraft: Remastered just doesn’t look right.
What gameplay enhancements the remasters include are minimal, and while they’re all appreciated, Blizzard could and should have done more. In Warcraft, for instance, it’s now possible to select up to 12 units simultaneously, up from four, and bind buildings to hotkeys for more efficient macro play. Oh, and you can finally issue attack move commands, something you couldn’t do in the original release.
However, any features you might find in a modern RTS are notably missing. For example, neither game allows you to queue commands or tab between different types of units in a control group. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Blizzard took the same approach with StarCraft: Remastered. StarCraft: Brood War still had a sizable professional scene when Blizzard released its remaster. Had Blizzard touched the balance or mechanics of that game, it would have caused an outcry. By contrast, Warcraft II is essentially moribund, and would have greatly benefited from modernization. At the very least, Blizzard could have done a balance pass and added a ladder mode to give the game a chance to attract a new multiplayer fanbase.
Coming back from the dead is achievable for an old RTS. Age of Empires II managed to pull this trick off with flying colors: Since the release of its Definitive Edition in 2019, Microsoft’s genre-defining RTS has never been in a better place. A constant stream of support, including a substantial new expansion that was released just last week, has managed to grow the AoE2 community. At any time, there are as many a 30,000 people playing the Definitive Edition on Steam. If you ask me, that’s pretty great for a game that was originally released in 1999, and it shows what’s possible when a company cares and nurtures a beloved franchise. The fact Microsoft now owns Blizzard makes its treatment of Warcraft feel particularly unfair.
Most disappointing is the lack of bonus content. Contrast this with Half-Life 2’s free anniversary update, which Valve released just days after the Warcraft remasters. It includes three and a half hours of new commentary from Gabe Newell and the dev team. Valve also uploaded a two-hour documentary and announced a second edition of Raising the Bar, a behind-the-scenes look at Half-Life 2’s turbulent development. If Newell could take time away from his yachts to talk about Valve’s most important game, surely Chris Metzen could have done the same for Warcraft. The people who were vital to Warcraft and Warcraft II’s development aren’t getting any younger — Blizzard should preserve their stories.
If there’s one thing I’m hopeful for, it’s that Blizzard will eventually do the right thing. As I mentioned, the bundle I bought also came with Warcraft III: Reforged. Last week it received a free patch that does a lot to fix the disastrous issues with that remaster, albeit four years late. With more work, I can see the Warcraft and Warcraft II remasters becoming essential. But as things stand, the studio has done the bare minimum to honor its own legacy.