I bought WC2 like 4 times. back in the days in two seperate Bnet chests, one with D1 and D2 and one with WC3 and SC1, then again on GoG and now in Bnet. I just love this game (my first RTS game I played as a child)
Very helpful review. I came to WarCraft 2 a few years ago for the first time and have been loving it on GoG. I was hoping that the Remaster would be something along the lines of the Command and Conquer Remaster which I love but it doesn't seem like it's that worth it to me.
If anyone's up for it... I'd happily do a ground up remake of WC2! The issue is AI... Would people still want the original or a newer smarter/different version of it?
Both, original and smarter with option to pick one or another :P But honestly, if you are going to make a RTS game, please do something new. Don't waste your time remaking Warcraft, cause you won't be able to make any money on that. Make a new game, your own game and your own title. It still might be a RTS similar to WC2 :) That was a Blizzard job to make it right. Don't do that for them.
It just screams half-arsed. They didn’t even bother to re-do the animated loading screens from WC1 or the movies from WC2. I would have expected an in-game lore/grimore to replace the original paper manuals but nope. It’s bare bones. I wouldn’t be surprised if the new graphics were just the old sprites run through AI or a filter; de-pixilated they look dull and flat. The originals run just fine under emulation so I would stick with those. This was just a cash grab from a company that died long ago.
For the whole 5 people working on RTS in blizzard it's a great job. They did the best they could under the circurmstances considering how little the Execs care.
Brought the original Warcraft Battlechest that had WC1 and WC2 in 95. Somehow lost it during a move. Picked up the WC1 and WC2 games in a garage sale many years ago for $5. Problem is that the older classic don't seem to work in WinXP and higher. So would be forced to picking this Remastered to be able to play on newer PC. Will probably wait to see what Blizzard offer during their Black Friday Sale in a week or two to pick up the whole Remastered WC1-3.
it's only recently released so as you might have seen, it is not on discount at BF sales. I will wait for them to fix the problems and will buy it when it is on a discount.
It's fine the way it is. This was a nostalgia hit for OG players. Anyone who wants 4k sprites and graphics can go make their own war2 campaign on war3 reforged. The game doesn't need to be modernized. It never stopped being fun, players just became spoiled with time.
WC2 was the first game I ever bought myself! Great memories. From what I've played so far of the remaster it's basic but good. Basic QoL and improvements, it's nothing fancy but the fact you can just play it without problems on a modern PC and it doesn't handle like shit is good enough. There is no point in trying to remake this considering WC3 outshines it so much and in so many ways.
You could buy a pizza with 15 dollars or a hotdog. Nice to have tooltips I guess. But... How the hell do you counter Ogre-Magi with a Paladin? Did they think that Exorcism is some kind of Mana Burn?
You couldn't on Fastest speed (not humanly possible), but back in the day Ladder/Iron Man Ladder had a slower speed setting and you could counter with good micro. They probably just need to have them both auto-cast at this point. Edit: Oh, I'm talking about Heal here.
@@jond2697 I saw a video that shows that autocasting heal does not help much in Ogre-Magi vs Paladin combat. It would still be nice to have. I never played this game multiplayer myself.
A long time ago I actually made a spectator map where the humans and orcs have forts and are controlled by CPUs. Once both sides get paladins and ogre-magi, the orcs would always break through and win. Bloodlust is insane versus healing lol.
I playes WC 1 & 2 years ago when they were first released and played them many many times but later I lost the discs and couldn't find another one to buy at our local PC game shop. I was so hyped when I saw that they are remastered and was almost buying but then I thought "hey hold on a minute!. This is not the Blizzard of old who would release only a properly finished game. It is way too expensive for a remaster and it is probably full of glitches and bugs. Just wait until they fix those problems and buy them when they are on discount"
This is an acceptable remaster, purely because you can switch gfx modes seamlessly. Thats why D2 + SC have worked out because youre still inputting directly into the old engine. Everything "feels" the same. WC3 Reforged fails because it's using drastic and crude emulation layers to achieve new gfx. You cannot change gfx live, and it introduces input/perception lag and stuttering. WC3's source is magnitudes more complex than than WC2, SC1, D2, and frankly the longevity and impact (DOTA) is a reflection that it was fine tuned, complex specimen. Which means the relative work required to make a true on/off remaster is also magnitudes greater. What they did with D2R, which is the toggle + new pain-staking handmade gfx arent just Unity ezmode, and take years of community feedback to fine tune, and satsisfying the standards of the old playerbase is the goal. But i feel a better goal for WC1/2 for now, is to fine tune the "true to original" feel, look, and visual clarity. That should serve as the basis of standards/comparison when looking to a true remake.
For some reason i cant get my to be remastered i load the game with old screen setup and the same old menu screen even when i own the remastered version on battlenet. Any advise? Btw nice review.
Don't engine changes bother you? Like there is no cursor response if you click in a fog of war. Or how cursor doesn't change into lens if you are pointing at building. Or how score screen lacks animation and iconic sound.
I actually never noticed the lens not appearing when hovering over a building, but now that you mentioned it---it is jarring. Also I absolutely miss the score ticking!!! It made completing missions so much more satisfying.
@@ascendtranscend3812 I think Diablo 1 will get the same remaster at some anniversary of Diablo. Widescreen, AI upscaled sprites and no new features - all of that for 20$.
Blizzard could have done a far better job of this. Compare these to the Age of Empires/Age of mythology remakes, where clear love and care was shown. Surely these classics deserve better than this Blizzard!
That's more of a remake or reimagining than a remaster. (For some reason people still don't get the difference between Remaster and Remake...) (not saying that it's bad. It's actually quite good, i'm just saying because of the term.)
@@ivanlg9447 Forget about it dude, it's only WC3 campaigns. There is no WC2 gameplay in it and no multiplayer. Just mambo-jambo with heroes, items and 900Hp units punching each other until hero uses skill that kills all enemies in area.
I, for one, think they made the right decision to keep the enhanced graphics as close as possible to the original ones. That's what was done in StarCraft HD as well. War 3 Reforged, on the other hand, introduced some incredibly ugly new models for most units and buildings... though this was the least of its problems, of course :P BTW, you're nitpicking way too much. Many of the flaws you show in the video (like the wood chopping thing) are small, insignificant issues, which don't deserve to be mentioned.
Thanks for your feedback. I did enjoy this for what it's worth. It might be for the better that they kept it as close to the original as possible rather than try to go deeper with it because seems impossible to please everyone. As for the nitpicking, what can I say except I'm a nerd :p
Since there are no enhancements to the game except for graphics, and the graphics itself is a lazy ChatGPT upscale with some filters on top - no, this is not acceptable. Butchering the game of my childhood for a quick buck is a crime for me. I still remember Heroes 3 remaster, which no one asked for and no one plays today. And I have magnificent AoE2DE right in front of me, which is a prime example of devs caring about the game and its legacy. Blizzard disappoints to the point I just dont want to play their games and follow game news. It is that heartbreaking. And if you unsure if this is AI upscaled graphics - just look at the seams on terrain tiles. There was none before, and blizzard never even tasked a real human person to touch up on upscaled graphics and fix all the issues. You just add a black outline to hide the messy blurry edges and "the job is done".
It was a lazy cash grab AI remaster, but being the only thing that we are ever gonna get, I'll still take it over nothing. Just wish this stupid indie company would put some actual effort into stuff like this.
The ONLY thing the Remaster needed to do is update the graphics. It failed. The new graphics are ugly - dark outlines contrasted with extremely bright areas; washed out colors. It looks like a flash animation. They're also extremely hard to look at so I turn them off so my eyes don't bleed. How hard was it to make a remaster like Starcraft and just give us the same original sprites in higher resolution? Extremely disappointing.
@@RawiswarioI don’t really see the issue with using AI for a remaster, the problem here is blizzard being really lazy and not giving a lot for 15 bucks. Being the 20th anniversary of wow you’d think they might have put some effort around one of two franchises that have made billions for them in the long run, but there’s barely no one passionate and happy in blizzard nowadays, and it permeates to quality
Blizzard fans be like: I want W3 back, ok there you are:Reforged. Oh no mechanics are so different, it sucks: then they created the 2.0. They remaster W2: oh nah its the same sh*t but remastered, nothing new hahahah wtf!
I bought WC2 like 4 times. back in the days in two seperate Bnet chests, one with D1 and D2 and one with WC3 and SC1, then again on GoG and now in Bnet. I just love this game (my first RTS game I played as a child)
Laughed so hard with the "Perfect counter to Ogre-Magi" on Knight's tooltip :D
Well, Heal IS technically better...if you can micro it XD
Very helpful review. I came to WarCraft 2 a few years ago for the first time and have been loving it on GoG. I was hoping that the Remaster would be something along the lines of the Command and Conquer Remaster which I love but it doesn't seem like it's that worth it to me.
If anyone's up for it... I'd happily do a ground up remake of WC2! The issue is AI... Would people still want the original or a newer smarter/different version of it?
Both, original and smarter with option to pick one or another :P But honestly, if you are going to make a RTS game, please do something new. Don't waste your time remaking Warcraft, cause you won't be able to make any money on that. Make a new game, your own game and your own title. It still might be a RTS similar to WC2 :)
That was a Blizzard job to make it right. Don't do that for them.
It just screams half-arsed. They didn’t even bother to re-do the animated loading screens from WC1 or the movies from WC2.
I would have expected an in-game lore/grimore to replace the original paper manuals but nope. It’s bare bones.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the new graphics were just the old sprites run through AI or a filter; de-pixilated they look dull and flat.
The originals run just fine under emulation so I would stick with those.
This was just a cash grab from a company that died long ago.
Yeah I'm with you in the same boat. They could have done so much better. But there's seriously no QoL updates.
wargus for features like unit queuing or war2combat + widescreen patch - it feels like Blizzard didnt want to compete with them
For the whole 5 people working on RTS in blizzard it's a great job.
They did the best they could under the circurmstances considering how little the Execs care.
Brought the original Warcraft Battlechest that had WC1 and WC2 in 95. Somehow lost it during a move. Picked up the WC1 and WC2 games in a garage sale many years ago for $5. Problem is that the older classic don't seem to work in WinXP and higher. So would be forced to picking this Remastered to be able to play on newer PC.
Will probably wait to see what Blizzard offer during their Black Friday Sale in a week or two to pick up the whole Remastered WC1-3.
Dosbox.
You can use DosBox. It's not worth to support a company that makes most lazy remasters possible and asks money for it.
Gog has w2
it's only recently released so as you might have seen, it is not on discount at BF sales. I will wait for them to fix the problems and will buy it when it is on a discount.
I got the WC1 remake yesterday, it's good! Hard as hell because of the lunky control, but thats how it was
Death is a sick band
It's fine the way it is. This was a nostalgia hit for OG players. Anyone who wants 4k sprites and graphics can go make their own war2 campaign on war3 reforged. The game doesn't need to be modernized. It never stopped being fun, players just became spoiled with time.
Absolutely agree.
Great review!
Thanks so much!
Maybe with 5€ tag, not with 15.
WC2 was the first game I ever bought myself! Great memories. From what I've played so far of the remaster it's basic but good. Basic QoL and improvements, it's nothing fancy but the fact you can just play it without problems on a modern PC and it doesn't handle like shit is good enough. There is no point in trying to remake this considering WC3 outshines it so much and in so many ways.
You could buy a pizza with 15 dollars or a hotdog.
Nice to have tooltips I guess. But...
How the hell do you counter Ogre-Magi with a Paladin?
Did they think that Exorcism is some kind of Mana Burn?
You couldn't on Fastest speed (not humanly possible), but back in the day Ladder/Iron Man Ladder had a slower speed setting and you could counter with good micro.
They probably just need to have them both auto-cast at this point.
Edit: Oh, I'm talking about Heal here.
@@jond2697 I saw a video that shows that autocasting heal does not help much in Ogre-Magi vs Paladin combat.
It would still be nice to have.
I never played this game multiplayer myself.
@@karpai5427 Oh no shit? Well, damn!
I'd like to see that if you have the link by chance!
A long time ago I actually made a spectator map where the humans and orcs have forts and are controlled by CPUs. Once both sides get paladins and ogre-magi, the orcs would always break through and win. Bloodlust is insane versus healing lol.
We need warcraft 2 map editor.
Remaster doesn't have a map editor? Wow, it's getting worse and worse...
I playes WC 1 & 2 years ago when they were first released and played them many many times but later I lost the discs and couldn't find another one to buy at our local PC game shop. I was so hyped when I saw that they are remastered and was almost buying but then I thought "hey hold on a minute!. This is not the Blizzard of old who would release only a properly finished game. It is way too expensive for a remaster and it is probably full of glitches and bugs. Just wait until they fix those problems and buy them when they are on discount"
This is an acceptable remaster, purely because you can switch gfx modes seamlessly. Thats why D2 + SC have worked out because youre still inputting directly into the old engine. Everything "feels" the same.
WC3 Reforged fails because it's using drastic and crude emulation layers to achieve new gfx. You cannot change gfx live, and it introduces input/perception lag and stuttering.
WC3's source is magnitudes more complex than than WC2, SC1, D2, and frankly the longevity and impact (DOTA) is a reflection that it was fine tuned, complex specimen.
Which means the relative work required to make a true on/off remaster is also magnitudes greater. What they did with D2R, which is the toggle + new pain-staking handmade gfx arent just Unity ezmode, and take years of community feedback to fine tune, and satsisfying the standards of the old playerbase is the goal.
But i feel a better goal for WC1/2 for now, is to fine tune the "true to original" feel, look, and visual clarity. That should serve as the basis of standards/comparison when looking to a true remake.
For some reason i cant get my to be remastered i load the game with old screen setup and the same old menu screen even when i own the remastered version on battlenet. Any advise?
Btw nice review.
Wargus superior (besides the crashing)
I miss this Warcraft back when it was cool and not full of pixies, pink elves and furries
Same, but it’s so hard for me to go back to wow cause of this
@@kagekurasu3579 Just play Turtle WoW :)
@@illeagle666 what’s turtle wow
@@kagekurasu3579 Free-to-play Vanilla+ WoW :) Best private server out there! Before the lore went to shit.
@@kagekurasu3579it's trash..
Good video, thanks for sharing !
Thanks for the review
Do you have to be online with blizzard to use it? Like starcraft?
Wait how are you zooming in?
Is so criminal they dont remastered the cinematics and just they used ai for enhance the quality of it. 🗿
To get the REAL value from this video, watch it in 144p
Don't engine changes bother you? Like there is no cursor response if you click in a fog of war. Or how cursor doesn't change into lens if you are pointing at building. Or how score screen lacks animation and iconic sound.
I actually never noticed the lens not appearing when hovering over a building, but now that you mentioned it---it is jarring. Also I absolutely miss the score ticking!!! It made completing missions so much more satisfying.
As an OG WC1 and WCV2 player, the remasters are disappointing
at least Blizzard still has them, they stopped selling the original Diablo years ago haha
@@ascendtranscend3812 I think Diablo 1 will get the same remaster at some anniversary of Diablo. Widescreen, AI upscaled sprites and no new features - all of that for 20$.
And also it feels like "old graphic mode" looks worse than actual old graphic of WC2BNE
Same trick they did with Starcraft: Remastered. "Old graphic mode" is additionaly blurred to make you feel better with "remastered" version :D
Blizzard could have done a far better job of this. Compare these to the Age of Empires/Age of mythology remakes, where clear love and care was shown. Surely these classics deserve better than this Blizzard!
Great video
i paid 2$ on gog for the old version''lost my cd at some point during 25 years ago and now'' loll and i mostly look like the remastered loll
The answer is no.
we need resurrected not remastered.
There's always the Fan game Chronicles of the Second War by LoreCraft.
@@shawnwarrynn8609 No. It's not WC2. Why so many people can't see it's pure WC3 gameplay.
Play Chronicles of the Second War if you want a real Warcraft 2 remaster
This is absolutely awesome! Thank you for sharing this; I haven’t seen this until now….
And how to play it competitively in multiplayer. Bc I don't want just missions with reforged graphics, I want pvp which is the real deal with wc2
That's more of a remake or reimagining than a remaster. (For some reason people still don't get the difference between Remaster and Remake...) (not saying that it's bad. It's actually quite good, i'm just saying because of the term.)
No. Play Chronicles if you want a new Warcraft 3 campaigns. It has nothing to do with Warcraft 2.
@@ivanlg9447 Forget about it dude, it's only WC3 campaigns. There is no WC2 gameplay in it and no multiplayer. Just mambo-jambo with heroes, items and 900Hp units punching each other until hero uses skill that kills all enemies in area.
I, for one, think they made the right decision to keep the enhanced graphics as close as possible to the original ones. That's what was done in StarCraft HD as well. War 3 Reforged, on the other hand, introduced some incredibly ugly new models for most units and buildings... though this was the least of its problems, of course :P
BTW, you're nitpicking way too much. Many of the flaws you show in the video (like the wood chopping thing) are small, insignificant issues, which don't deserve to be mentioned.
Thanks for your feedback. I did enjoy this for what it's worth. It might be for the better that they kept it as close to the original as possible rather than try to go deeper with it because seems impossible to please everyone. As for the nitpicking, what can I say except I'm a nerd :p
Since there are no enhancements to the game except for graphics, and the graphics itself is a lazy ChatGPT upscale with some filters on top - no, this is not acceptable. Butchering the game of my childhood for a quick buck is a crime for me. I still remember Heroes 3 remaster, which no one asked for and no one plays today. And I have magnificent AoE2DE right in front of me, which is a prime example of devs caring about the game and its legacy. Blizzard disappoints to the point I just dont want to play their games and follow game news. It is that heartbreaking.
And if you unsure if this is AI upscaled graphics - just look at the seams on terrain tiles. There was none before, and blizzard never even tasked a real human person to touch up on upscaled graphics and fix all the issues. You just add a black outline to hide the messy blurry edges and "the job is done".
It was a lazy cash grab AI remaster, but being the only thing that we are ever gonna get, I'll still take it over nothing. Just wish this stupid indie company would put some actual effort into stuff like this.
The ONLY thing the Remaster needed to do is update the graphics. It failed. The new graphics are ugly - dark outlines contrasted with extremely bright areas; washed out colors. It looks like a flash animation. They're also extremely hard to look at so I turn them off so my eyes don't bleed. How hard was it to make a remaster like Starcraft and just give us the same original sprites in higher resolution? Extremely disappointing.
All model/icon remasters are just AI-resolution upscale slop.
The original announcement in the stream literally said "hand-drawn" lmao
@@krystaldragon17 thats what makes it even more suspicious tbh
@@krystaldragon17 Maybe they meant that "hand-drawn" in 90s :D
Tbh it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they used AI
@@RawiswarioI don’t really see the issue with using AI for a remaster, the problem here is blizzard being really lazy and not giving a lot for 15 bucks. Being the 20th anniversary of wow you’d think they might have put some effort around one of two franchises that have made billions for them in the long run, but there’s barely no one passionate and happy in blizzard nowadays, and it permeates to quality
Blizzard fans be like: I want W3 back, ok there you are:Reforged. Oh no mechanics are so different, it sucks: then they created the 2.0. They remaster W2: oh nah its the same sh*t but remastered, nothing new hahahah wtf!
You can't even multi-player wc1 what kind of thing is this
I'm sorry, but WC1 and WC2 are so old that they deserve remakes, not remasters.
One yes. But two no. It is still very much playable with art style better than Warcrafts after it.
You think you want a remake, but you really don't. Just look what happened to WC3 Reforged.