To return to Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness in 2024 is to go back to some of the earliest building blocks of the real-time strategy genre. There were, of course, many great RTS games that preceded Blizzard’s high fantasy take on the genre – not least Westwood Studios’ seminal Dune 2: Battle for Arrakis. But the point remains: considering these games first appeared in the mid-90s, they are naturally going to feel just a tiny bit antiquated by modern genre standards. An obvious point to make, perhaps, but I think it’s important to state upfront that these Warcraft Remasters are very much the games as you (probably) remember them, as opposed to being big, sweeping remakes that have been updated with all the recent mod cons you’ve probably become accustomed to in the years since.
Warcraft 1 & 2 Remastered reviewDeveloper: Blizzard EntertainmentPublisher: Blizzard EntertainmentPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC (Battle.Net)
They’re certainly what I remember Warcraft being like at the time – though I should state for the record that by the time my family got their first PC in 1996-ish, Warcraft 2 had already arrived on the scene, so we immediately skipped over the original in favour of the one that looked like it had a cool pirate on the cover box. Still, Warcraft 2 quickly became one of about five PC games we owned that I played into the absolute ground at the time (probably very poorly, and only ever through the campaign), and coming back to Warcraft 2 Remastered now put me right back at my beige, boxy monitor again – for better and for worse.
I’m going to be talking about both Warcraft Remastered games together in this review, even though they’re available as standalone purchases. They won’t come as a pair unless you stump up for Blizzard’s Warcraft Battle Chest bundle, which also includes 2020’s Warcraft 3: Reforged. They’re also not to be confused with the existing (and still available) re-releases of both early Warcraft games, which are individually a little bit cheaper than these Remastered editions, though not by much.
Warcraft Remastered Battle Chest Launch Trailer Watch on YouTube
So what are you actually getting with these Remasters over what’s already out there? It mostly comes down to spruced up graphics, a lightly remastered soundtrack, and a handful of extra menu settings – which for purists may not be enough to warrant spending the extra £4 it gets you for either Remaster, especially if you’re not that keen on the new, cel-shaded artwork. Personally, I quite like the new cartoonish visuals. To me, they feel like a pretty good translation of what those older sprites would look like at higher resolutions, though there are still instances where some of the upscaling on certain map textures looks a little wonky – overly sharp, rocky bog edges were the worst offenders I clocked, but in truth, such tiny things rarely bother me enough to be overtly offensive on the eyes. Besides, you can instantly toggle back to the original graphics in both games (and aspect ratio) if you wish with a tap of F5 at any time.
Visually, Warcraft 1 has understandably had the most work done to it, and if there’s going to be any accusations of turning its orcs and humans into squeaky-clean smartphone-esque caricatures, it’s probably going to be here. Again, personally, I have no great aversion to them myself, mostly because the Remastered graphics are both infinitely clearer to see and understand on my 4K monitor than the literal soup of pixels I’m presented with when I switch back to the original graphics option. Likewise, I don’t know about you, but whenever I try to play the existing version of Warcraft 1 via DOSBox, all I get is a teeny tiny 480×480 window that gets parped out onto my desktop, with no option to even go fullscreen. This alone makes Warcraft 1: Remastered worth considering in my eyes, as the other versions I’ve tried simply aren’t anywhere near what I’d deem playable on a modern PC.