totally agree - I expected to see the actual love for details they gave for D2 Resurrected, but nope, same greedy Blizz bosses saying "Oh come on, just upscale the graphics and all the models with some AI and set our regular price tag - those old boys still would buy everything under Blizzard label" pity. That could've been SO much more. And paying for a mediocre update this price - come on...
Also additional note: The fact that there are "any" downgrades in terms of graphics in the remaster makes me realize there is no appreciation for the original. I cant believe nobody said something when these new sprites or the new briefing room has been shown. How did somebody wave that briefing room through with no animation? There was so much potential for actually putting some "soul" into this remaster but instead it is the bare minimum and sometimes even less.
the remastered graphics in general, particularly for wc1, look awful. It makes a solid piece of art for its time into an cheap looking artstyle. Wc2 fares a little better because there is more to work with, but their general approach of simply taking the low res sprites and redrawing them in high res simply does not work..
The good: 12 unit selection, more resolution/zoom options, better group hotkeys, and basic standard functionality with right-click for War 1. The mid: Graphics are meh (but can always use the old sprites), no balance changes (for better or worse). The bad: New campaign load screens feel soulless compared to the originals; Still no online play for War 1, and War 2 online play and editor is super bare-bones. Hmm... I own War 1+2 on GoG and never bought Reforged (owned the OG on disk) so these would be full price for me. At that price I'm gonna have to pass. Thanks for the review though! I haven't been paying any attention to Blizzard's recent news so I totally missed this even being a thing.
I don't think increasing unit selection is good. It doesn't feel the soul of WC and is not true to the original. The improvement should have been through the use of hotkeys (though I think they should remove unit limit for the original Starcraft, that's a whole different concept of gameplay, and there shouldn't be a unit select limit in Starcraft 1, but in WC it's completely different, different type of gameplay design. A player selects a small unit group and controls it as a small squad separately)...
NOTE: the price mentioned is for the BATTLECHEST rather than individual games. I would get Warcraft 1 for $9.99 (£6) and leave War 2 as the original is still really good. Such a shame about the original campaign story and map screens.
Warcraf 1 is squashed by 20%! It makes the graphics look off. They They did Warcraft 1 dirty. They did not compensate for the tall pixel effect. Games were strached by 20% on the monitors in the past. The GOG versions has the correction.
People are digging to find any fault they imagine. WC1 looks much better in the remake imo, and you could argue the in the stretch in the past was unintentional to begin with. People just can't appreciate anything these days.
@SFuruli A visual difference like this is a difference that you notice. The tall pixel effect was very well known in the past, and pixel artist did compensate for it. For me it is an important game. I still remember how I had to remove a lot of games and software to even get this huge game installed. They did not account for the tall pixel and did not bother to add the animation. For the C&C remake they did account for it. I appreciate the effort of Blizzard, but not the slop they deliver.
"If a modder could do this why couldn't a titan like blizzard" -- Unfortunately we've been asking this question for a very long time across multiple IP's. Great video as always, looking forward to the next challenge run.
I'm no shill for Blizzard or any bigger budget devs/company here, especially when a lot of them broke my heart but like there are kinda more restrictions placed on bigger guys like Blizzard than a modder. A modder doesn't need to go thru company bureaucracy to start anything, they don't need to worry about time and money costs as much as the bigger guys, they don't need to be restricted or influenced in what they can do with what they have on their hands by leadership or whoever's funding them, they don't need to worry much about legal stuff unless the territory they're encroaching on belongs to those crazy about it like Disney or Nintendo, they don't have to keep up with formal things, they can just up and leave if they want most of the time, etc. Of course this doesn't really defend anything, just adding some nuance here...
@@CommissarChaotic Your not wrong - I have a friend that does work in setting up frameworks for digital IP's and stuff (I have no idea what this is actually called) and he's said similar things in the past. Creating something new is a hell of a lot harder than altering what already exists, I won't deny that. But it's disappointing to see that when they (meaning a large company) are altering an existing product it's mediocre at best for what it could have been. You'd think shareholders would want a better product for far better returns both long and short term.
It's not you, the sprites are suffering from the lack of knowledge and talent of the people making them. What they don't understand is that 'readability' isn't achieved by outlining every object in the game in black and giving them exaggerated heads. You do it with colour choice and model design so it stands out in a more natural and pleasing way. This was made by mobile game fans.
funny you should mention the outlines because that stood out to me as well. The ogres in the og didnt have a big black drawn outline which maybe made them fit into the world more than kind of plopped on top.
@@Admiral_Iddy They also made the buildings with a brighter color palette then the ground which is why they don't blend. Buildings, especially medieval need earthy muted tones, like the original did. Have a good day.
These remasters are like the result ot asking ChatGPT "upscale these sprites as if they were made in 2024" and that's what you get, more pixels, generic mobile game style. If you asked an artist "look at the original concept art, lore and sprites. Imagine what the original artists would have envisioned and wanted to deliver but were hindered by technology. Now make that happen today". That's what we got with the Age of Empires remasters.
The sprites are generally suffering from "remastering the end product instead of the idea". If you draw the new sprites based on what is the result of the technology at the time, instead of taking into account the original vision, you end up with goofy, cheap looking sprites. This is why the d2 remaster is beautiful, they looked at the original idea behind the various designs and added extra detail and updated proportions based on the original intention instead of the result.
The issue with the sprites and their janky movement is that they're not aligned properly on the units axis They may have used a feature that aligns sprites based on their pixel width/height - what that means is it will adjust the position of the sprite based on how wide it is So if one sprite has the shoulders in, the feet will be where they're supposed to be If the next sprite has the shoulders out, the feet will move to one side - offsetting the sprite and causing jank We may have come a long way but polish is polish...
Fortunately, it has been managed by Petroglyph Games (former Westwood employes). EA just provide them source code and asks "I need a remastered version", Petroglyph and Lemon Sky studios perform a great job.
Its always a thing to consider they do this to mostly maintain IP rights and less to release a product that makes the original products better and share the experience with new audiences. I think in reality its always gonna be the modders that will make it better. This will probably just help bridge the gap by giving modders more tools.
@Infernal_Puppet If true I hope it does get further patches down the line and not a one and done release. As admiral mentioned hope they add more graphical unique stuff like the upgraded units having different graphics. Improving the AI,etc.
Brother that makes no sense wow and hearthstone constantly get new content, you don't lose the right to parts of the IP if you don't use them you just need to be using it to keep it
As the other guy said, your take is way too cynical, lol. I for one thought this as new-management Blizz, under MS, trying to revitalize interest on their games. Maybe even trying to be on the good side of the players. My focus was more on HotS (stil not given hope that MS might do something about it), but taking a step back, OW classic also comes into picture (heard it's lackluster, but that is besides the point, regarding Blizz's or MS' intention).
Not expecting this much traction. Lol. Nothing I said was all that cynical, its more or less a fact of the industry and how copyright law is best reinforced (for those thinking that's not necessary), its not even unique to the games industry. Nor do I think they are being sincere at all with the Warcraft remasters - its pretty obvious, they feel like they were outsourced heavily and simply were meant to meet a baseline of requirements. They weren't doing something new or difficult. The best example here is what Iddy said, point at Creative Assembly and their absolute amazing rebuild of not just AOE DE, but steadily the whole AOE franchise - and doing work to support the competitive scene, releasing new content, balancing the game, and actively engaging with the community. Blizzard often makes it clear they dislike their fans in the same Way Nintendo does. That's not being hyperbolic, its an action thing - but going to bat for a company famous for being half-assed ever since they released the most successful MMO of all time is super cringe lol.
@Admiral_Iddy For the "Age of" remakes, Microsoft recruited a team who had already created an impressive expansion-sized fan mod for AoE2 called Forgotten Empires, and then basically gave them funding and let them cook. It was a perfect confluence of talent and actually good management decisions that I wish was more common in the games industry.
@BenSmith-qw4kd well microsoft owns blizzard now dont they? Mayhaps they will give some love? Ahha doubtful but hey 2 days ago i didnt know war1&2 remastered would exist and here we are lets hope!
I second AoM Retold. The WC remasters are not worth it considering you can get the originals for half the prince on GOG when not on sale and there's already a fan-made program that enables right-click to move and marquee selection in WC1. Yeah, you can't select more than 4 units, but it doesn't matter as much as people make it out to, especially with the lack of multiplayer. These remasters are the lowest effort AI slop Blizzard could've excreted out of their behind.
@@Admiral_Iddy I get a feeling only reason why we got these remasters was becouse of Microsoft > they have good experience with age of empires series and this was them testing waters. Personaly I bought them, only had 15 € to pay 😂 cuz I was one of shmucks who bought deforged spoils of war.
Wargus Warcraft II (v3.3.2) mod differences for comparison: Pros: -Better pathfinding overall - units won't stop when there's a large forest(s) in the way -Larger control groups (9->18, the GUI still shows 9 at most per group though) -Rally points (including rallying peons to gold or wood from the town halls) -Training queues - queue up 6 units to train at a production building (can't do it with upgrades however) -Can queue up multiple buildings for a peon to build in sequence with shift+click (can also queue up spells) -Can cast spells with a group of spellcasters of the same type and it doesn't waste more MP than necessary if you for example use 8 paladins to heal 1 paladin (can also click on the portraits in a control group to cast spells on those units) -New enemy AI options and the normal difficulty AI is smarter - you can set the difficulty per mission in SP too -Shows your idle worker count in the top right -Shows your damaged buildings as red on the mini-map -Higher res options -Workers accumulate wood immediately when starting to chop it, which also solves the issue of two workers chopping the same tree tile (1-2 trees) and one worker's work being wasted when the tree tile disappears -Can now sort all players into up to 4 teams in MP before starting a match, including computer players -Option to show the map layout completely or the terrain under fog of war during skirmish games -Other gameplay options that I'm not sure what they do Cons: -Transporter pathfinding seems a bit worse -Crashes fairly often when going to the next mission in SP, forcing the use of cheats to get to the next one (I played on Windows 11) -Sometimes no icon indicating invisibility on units -A bit easier final Tides of Darkness level as Humans on Normal (no dragons are sent to harass, instead you have to fight a bunch of them later on) -If griffons attack a unit and it runs away far enough, they'll just forget about its existence. I don't think this happened in the original -I was not able to play a LAN MP game, or via the wargus client with a friend going online via the same network. Maybe there's an easy fix though, I don't know
Does the port still have issues where it plays soundtrack mode by default and even includes the briefing room music in the stages? This was one of the things I could not get around with Wargus and War1gus last I tried.
The thing about Wargus is that it can get away with doing radical changes, because at the end of the day it's not canon, but just an option that doesn't officially replace the original experience. If Blizzard made radical changes, they'd receive criticism from players who felt the original experience was altered too much. I think Blizzard did a goob job of preserving WC1 as-is, made it pleasant to look at, and only added right-click move and higher unit selection, something I believe otherwise would be a huge turn-off for new (and even experienced) players if it was missing.
My dreams have come true. WC2 was the first RTS I ever played and the soundtrack is still etched into my brain decades later. I have a tremendous fondness for it, even if it has aged. Never played WC1, so looking forward to that too. My joy is boundless!
100% agreed I much preferred the tone to the originals like remember those manual concept arts? people getting beheaded and naked maidens being kidnapped by dragons,those books were metal as hell!
Warcraft > Starcraft in aesthetics and worldbuilding for me. I always loved the aesthetics of wc2 over the other two, though i can acknowledge that wc3 maybe struck the perfect balance between a cartoonish style for an action oriented hero focused narrative RTS and the broodish, unsettling stlye of the older games.
I felt shocked after seeing an archer being killed and the high-RES sprite showed blood and bones - you don't see that in WoW. In that regard, 3D has been a step back - in Wc3 you still had the skeleton, I guess, but less gore.
I'm just happy they actually did something. I was also a fan of WC3 reforged, but I only played it with the quenching mod to improve the gfx/colors. Hopefully it can only get better with time. Now we need remaster of DIABLO. and maybe rock n roll racing?
Part of me wonders if they still got PTSD from the Reforged trailer where people were annoyed at the changes so the byword for the Remasters is "Change as little as possible" Still, NGL having WC1 be playable at all is nice.
I think you hit the nail on the head. These remasters are absolutely worth the money and I am surprised they did them at all, but if they were going to do remasters I don't see why these couldn't have had more features. Even barring that, why are a bunch of things that used to be animated just static pngs now? I'm super excited because I love these games and Blizzard giving them any attention is more than I was expecting, but you're right, it could have been a game changer, and instead it's just good.
absolutely agree I can only imagine the potential if they gave a little more effort. Yet we still have this and its the best way to experience both games now so maybe they will add more at some point! I shall remain positive haha thanks for watching!
Dude, have you even seen Starcraft Remastered? As far as I know, there were no innovations there either. Just shitty textures for 15 bucks, and nothing more. No fixed bugs, no fixed pathfinding, nothing. So I was not really surprised to learn that there is nothing fundamentally new in these remasters. On the plus side, I can note that now you can play these two games WITHOUT A FUCKING DOSBOX.
They are killing rts by making these remasters so bad. Such wasted potential to redeem themselves as a company. What a shit gaming world to live in nowadays. Bring back the soul
The huge arms are a result of the limited pixels they had to work with. If you wanted to communicate arms with any kind of clarity they had to be huge. Its a classic example redoing the end product instead of the intention.
I havent played in a while but it was SUPER easy to get runnin you go to war1gus .com? or google war1gus and it has a couple steps and boom off you go! Its really cool
As a person who played Warcraft in 1994 - 1995 to my 386 and Warcraft II in 2002 - 2004 for first time and never finished them, until 2017 - 2018, because I loved more C&C series (not Generals), I will love to play the remastered versions. I started Warcraft III from it's release but I only played in 2018 - 2019 when reforged patch ruined my saves and never start a new playthrough. I also played Diablo at late 1990s, but Nox took my attention.
For me, Warcraft 2 was my first introduction to the series. I bought the remaster almost instantly. It's great, but...I JUST WANT IS THE OPTION TO PICK YOUR COLOR FOR CUSTOM GAMES. LET ME BE ALTERAC ORANGE DAMMIT
Man I'm in disbelief at how ddooggsshhiitt the remastered graphics are. It's really tempting to think they used AI, or at the very least some beginners in pixel art from some obscure forums. There is no way an actual artist sat down and produced those, mangling the actual style of the originals, with that new grotesque black hard pixel contour coming out of nowhere. And if you look particularly at the new tree sprites it looks exactly like AI hallucinating random patterns not understanding those should depict trees.
Sir, why do you even doubt that AI was incorporated into this project? Watch the Warcraft 1 intro and it's clear. If that's not enough for you, look at all the little logic errors as a result of the AI trying to interpret low resolution art. This is low-effort trash and Warcraft 2 in particular deserved much better. But it's Blizzard, what does one expect besides lies and greed at this point?
These hames did not need a visual overhaul. They only needed updated display, ballance, controls, ui, ai, pathfinding and quality of life improvements. Well, we got display and some qoa but overal this is one lazy remaster.
These were the games that got me into gaming. I'm excited to play the remasters, and I was on the fence about it until I saw your reviews. I think you covered everything really really well, and I'll be tuning into the channel more often!
@@williamb3792 thanks so much! Appreciate the support I think ill be making more reviews in the future because of the success of this vid. Glad to have you on the crew!
re: possible AI art The WC2 art in the trailer set off tons of AI upscaled alarm bells in my head, but I'm not getting any of the same feeling in videos I've watched of the release. Maybe they had an artist give it another pass between recording footage for the trailer and releasing the game Maybe it was some funky artifacts happening as part of video compression, I doubt we'll find out for sure, but I'm relieved the art isn't as bad as I feared. Do wish the buildings in the new WC1 art didn't look like stickers though. that's probably the worst part.
stickers! thats a good way to describe it. I agree with you though I dont like saying its AI this or AI that because maybe it was just a particular artists rendition but war1 especially just seemed off, maybe they will patch the choppy chopping animations. War2 overall looks good though. Heres hoping they continue to monitor this project and not just abandon it
If you owned the OG you get a copy of reforged with the original graphics. It's not the same game but it may as well be. I replayed the campaign when my copy got replaced and it felt the same as the original besides the reforged menus
Here is my thing if you don't own warcraft 1 or 2 it's diffenly worth. since you get the original one + remastered if you took the battlechest. that said if you do own the original then it's gets a tough question. Like you can mod it but in the end blizzard owns the source code, so by saying it all depends how they do their work to improve the bad points of what people in the comment said. Since microsoft got activision it really depends if they change to be more customer friendly but we will still have to see it. It's the right direction, because remember before they did said it was a waste of money to do remasterd on war1 / war2. So you gotta keep that in mind aswell. now for the next is even though no multiplayer on such a game. I'm guessing they need to refigure the network problably still way to outdated. I guess they told themselves not worth the time if i was on their feet. But hey that's just my opinion. You agree or disagree to this opinion, it's all fine.
I'm sure someone else has already said this, but the great majority of players who still enjoy these old games don't want their game changed all that much. It is entirely possible they will update units and fix online later. Age of Empires and Starcraft had massive communities with clearly outlined changes, so their remasters were far superior but not symmetrical with one another because the communities wanted different things for their respective games. WC2 and even 1's community is smaller and more splintered I imagine. From my understanding Blizzard was working with popular and knowledgeable members of the WC3 community to make changes to that game. But that community is larger and more defined. Easier to get a fair metric for wanted changes.
I figured because the fanbase is so small for war 1 and 2 that we wouldnt mind changes, I know war3 and starcraft they asked the pros what they wanted changed and of course they said nothing because their precious games would be different but its too bad I would be VERY open to new balance or units!
Finally , thanks for making this review i was looking to see how the game is and i couldnt find many reviews that were honest entertaining and actually made with heart
I agree: Age of Empires 1+2 got so crazy good remasters with everything you can dream for. Features, Content and the visuals looked like a modern recreation of the old classic art. Blizzard has not done any of this for WC2. Low effort at its best. Fair review.
I'm fairly certain the reason why the buildings don't look attached to the ground is a problem of perspective. The buildings look more flat in the old games, these ones look like they're more tilted towards the viewer at their front, meaning their backs are sinking into the floor.
Another issue is the weird perspective on buildings. The original graphics have the same issue, but it looks to be way worse with the remastered art. The ground and roads look like we're observing from above straight down, yet the buildings look like we're looking at them at an angle. It looks like they belong to completely different games and were crudely photoshopped together
@@SFuruli Yes, let's lower our standards and eat the slop our corporate overlords graciously poured on our plates! And people wonder why gaming in the state it's in.
8:27 Reforged models weren't really that much of a problem, most people did not mind them since apparently they were only outsourced part of Reforged so they somehow came out decent Problem was everything else, we lost clans, 90% of all custom maps were nuked, stability on launch was such disaster that they had to go back to classic during DreamHack, some people reported that map editor BLUESCREENS THEM, and many, MANY more problems Incidentally, 2.0 update brought some of that issues back so yay for modern blizzard
GAWD I wish more people realized this. So many sheep on the Internet started parroting that the graphics were bad in reforged, when that was the main (and basically only) good thing about it. It was all those other features that people were originally mad about, and then somehow that morphed into "DeRp 20 YeAr oLd gRaPhIcS aRe bEtTeR!"
I been there during initial patches and transition to reforged, and main stuff that people were complaining back then were 2 things 1) After every patch, server stability dropped on a head and game was completely unplayable for 2-3 weeks 2) Mapmakers were losing their god damn minds cuz EVERY patch broke SOMETHING in their maps, and they had somehow find the cause and fix it, it was so bad that after reforged dropped we never recovered because a lot of them decided to just quit altogether And all of this shit then been followed by Reforged, that outright got rid of features, we lost access to gproxy so we can no longer reconnect to on-going matches (so even now, if your net as much as blips dead and comes back it kicks you back to main screen), we lost A LOT of maps and mapmakers, all for slight balance changes for now no longer existing ladder, decent models, servers that were so bad that mutli was outright unplayable for month, and many, MANY issues
I got reforged and was basically infuriated because of all those standard things, but I have to say, I have never seen anyone on twitch or youtube use updated graphics. I did use them because I saw zero downsides and I wanted to get at least something out of the product with so many negatives and downright removals. But, it doesn't seem to me that the updated graphics were an overblown complaint. I quite literally never seen them anywhere except on my own computer.
@@doolioart3314 Ah that, there's kind of reasons for that For one, majority of us veterans owned warcraft before reforged, and thus can't switch to reforged graphics without buying this overglorified graphics pack for 30-40 euro, you can buy any other AAA slop for that much Secondly, we discovered early on that if you have 2 groups of players in lobby, one with SD and other with HD graphics on, one group will sooner or later inevitably drop from lobby after it starts, usually during loading, to prevent this, we as a community implemented 2 solutions 1) Lock custom maps to one graphic mode, it doesn't matter what setting you got on cuz it WILL be forcefully set to that mode once lobby starts, and people without Reforged can't even join lobby for HD maps 2) Just stay on SD mode, most of experienced people are using it any way so its less of a chance that lobby gonna drop if everyone is just using SD And both of this solutions kinda stayed, Blizzard MIGHT have fixed it but we got used to operating like this
I completed Warcraft 1 Remastered, and it's fantastic. As you mentioned, just the updated controls, right click, double click to select all units of the same type, 12 units in a group, control droups, it's all makes the game so smooth.
'Why modders can make these extra things like the huge rich company can't?' Easy answer. Modders make things because they love it. Game devs don't, its just a paycheck. Great video, waiting for the no no death remaster run later.
Yeah, people often say "[Insert Big Company] has enough money... they should have been able to do a better job." But the whole point is that the budgets for big studios don't work that way. They aren't just sitting on 20 years of WoW profits at this point and deciding to be charitable and release Warcraft remasters at a loss for the love of the game. They want to spend the minimum amount possible while still having something to release. This is especially true the BIGGER a company is, because they are comparing the cost per employee hour they can make on a small project like the remaster vs whatever else they have in the pipe. Fans and modders have no such restrictions and are functionally always working at a "loss".
They 100% used AI for the Art (Texture upscaling/Icons/Intros/cinematics etc) which I guess was the only reason why they decided to do these remasters in the first place, because it's cheap enough this way. TBH, I never played Wc1, but I would prefer the old style over the new mobile-scam-game like art style. I think the trees and buildings are okay, but some of the units look so cheap, it's hilarious. As a Wc3 player, I think there is also a lot AI art being used which looks in some examples generic and don't fit the other, classic art style at all. Also there are many other things that are problematic, so my bet is, everyone will still play with the classic classic graphic settings. The classic HD and the new reforged background was a nice try, but in the end they are not good enough (makes the game unresponsive, laggy, huge FPS problems even on good PCs etc). What I do like though, is the introduction of many quality of life features and the introductions of funny skins, even in the classic classic version of wc3 At least I am thankful that they didn't forget about the Warcraft RTS games, bringing new, optional, content. I hope they can fix all the bugs, instabilities, incompatibilities and performance issues in wc3. But tbh, I'm not optimistic with Blizzard anymore
Yeah your review is fair. Its mid. No matter how much it I want to love it, there is substance missing. My hope Is that they listen to it and fix it. Let's be honest the anniversary was probably the thing that pushed it out. You can see a level of love for certain things and high effort and then rapidly low effort. That or mod tools are released.
You nailed it on the graphics of the first game, the original was less cartoony, the buildings mixed better with the terrains, and the animations looked smoother. Kind of a letdown, but I played the original back in the day so maybe I had unreasonable expectations. Thank you for the review, answered all the questions I had!
Blizzard isn't Blizzard anymore, they haven't been for a very long time. All the folks that made Blizzard great, have moved on. Perhaps the fans should too.
Ok, as for the sprites in War 1 they just look like Higher res versions of the OG sprites if you look at the old sprites closely. The archers always had huge arms. But ya they DEFENITLY removed the smoking wizard and female water elementals among other things thanks to a smaller amount of leeway in games nowdays compared to the old days. As for the lack of balance changes and other such things they got paranoid about making changes after all the anger from the War 3 remaster. They likely just decided to go minimal like people demanded about the war 3 remaster and just update graphics and a few minor QoL changes. A slight rebalancing WOULD be nice yes, but a light touch would be best.
Yet another Remaster that basically comes down to "They were so close...." WC1: Lack of multiplayer. Like come on....its not like the original didnt have it. The graphics are total ass but at least the pixelart still looks good and you can switch to it. WC2: Lack of models for upgraded units or heroes like you said. Most of the new art looks good though. Mapeditor not having ANY improvements also sucks...i mean the big thing that make SC take off was the ability to make scenarios of your own. We dont need the WC3 level of "i write script to make a map" but even simple stat tweaking and basic triggers for making scenarios would have been wonderful. Both: Lack of AI improvements. Were talking about some of the earliest AI controlled RTS games not being improved at all. As a kid i remember the only reason i beat the computer was because i figured out how to cheese them.
100% agreed this stopped JUST short of the finish line. If AGE 2 can add coop, campaigns, entire games to their engine why not give a hood to the archers like the mod for the original they just painted the elves hair the same color as the player to make it look like a hood! I wonder if modding will be easier with the remaster?
I dunno but this feels like a slap in the face of every wc1+2 fan. Blizzard put in minimal effort, as usually, just so they can cash in. Also no more water elemental tiddies? Pass.
Exactly. The point of remastering a game is that it follows the exact same original essence as the OG game it's self, the only difference is that it's reprogrammed and/or optimized to natively work on current existing modern hardware with maybe some upscaled or reworked art and other visuals thrown into it. A remaster is simply not a remake.
That's a joke! I awaited a video game with a true remake, with well done cinematics, but instead it's just War 1 and 2 with slighly better graphics! A joke!!!
Thanks for saving me the time to review it - I guess my play through for the first time in forever of Warcraft 2 will be what I expected... basically the same thing with some designs. How the hell did I not notice the Griffin Rider with no pants haha.
i wasn't really sure what you meant by the graphics looking fake and phoned in until you zoomed in at 6:40 and i almost threw up lmao i own both on gog, blizzard can go to hell i'm not giving them another cent
I agree with most of the things you mentioned in the video about graphics, gameplay and expectations overall. It is a little unfair to compare this remaster with Age of Empires 2 though. It seems more fitting to compare it to Age 1 remastered. It also has the same 'I expected more' vibe. Now the question would be: where to go from here, and it that case Age 2 really made a really good impression with Age 2 Definitive Edition. I really love the classic strategy and it appears a good time to bring them back with Age 2, AOM retold, heck even Civilization and Heroes of Might and Magic are getting a new installment. I don't wanna get hyped over nothing and only hope things get better from here. Amazing video btw.
5:25 - I'm sorry, what? They didn't have the Sourcecode of StarCraft so SC:R *is* a different game. Oh sure it's, _mostly_ the same, but something about that game throws me off every time I play it. 8:22 - If you can play Wc1R with og graphics, that seems like the better choice. Otherwise I'd personally, stay with the og game overall. 10:40 - Not worth it. 11:00 - I had no idea! 13:25 - Yeah, I remember a bit of it. 16:00 - But then, it's not a _Remaster_, it's a *Reimagining* . Good video
Small tip - can you also mention very briefly what each point was about ? Having the exact timestamp is good, but it's also time consuming. I click on it and it plays but also scrolls me back to the video, and then I have to scroll back to the comment and doing that multiple times starts to feel like doing chores.
My guess on the WC1 animations is that they just kept the old rigging to make it easier to swap between graphics settings, and the animations look rougher on the newer models as a result.
I am a bit optimistic regarding the new graphics of these games; I imagine that the newly introduced Warcraft RTS team monitors the feedback from all the Warcraft games (1-3) closely. Warcraft 1 and 2 may appear a bit barebones as of now, and there might be imperfections of the art in general as well. The remasters if those games might as well just be a foundation, with QoL features being made later on based on the feedback of the community. Maybe the Warcraft 1 remaster doesn't have multiplayer as of now due to time contraints because of the deadline of this recent Blizzard event? It might as well be that the Warcraft RTS team imagine that 95-99% of the community of Warcraft 1 & 2 would rather play the Warcraft 2 remaster multiplayer.
@@GAG091186 true war1 multiplayer would be a gimmick more than anything, having said that it would still be neat! I for one hope they dont abandon these and continue updates and maybe fixing some of the missing features like modes or private games in war2 but we will have to see
Just checked it and it's totally possible to be the video itself. As in either the encoder used by OBS or whatever was used to capture and/or TH-cam artifacting. The way the lumber mill starts to appear totally makes me think that it's the video encoding and not the game itself, fortunately.
All I wanted was for Paladins to be able to cast healing as efficiently as Ogre-Magi can cast bloodlust. That alone would make Warcraft 2 Remastered worth the $20 price tag.
just noticing the details: the skulls look very very odd, and that chain on the right? Well atleast it should be a chain, but the AI didn't see it that way.
My god, this review man. I'm an old WC guy, used to love WC2, but after going back to it; I find it more frustrating than chill these days. This is a complete flip flop to how I feel about WC1 where I felt that was slow and boring. Got back to that first time in years, earlier this year and I fell in love with it again. I can't agree more with that this feels like a missed oportuinity. If they would have made a little expansion for WC1, some nice custom maps, new units and shit I would have lost it. I love WC1, even though it plays like ass xD I'm glad the remaster will fix some of that with group selections and left clicking =) Anyway, you didn't ask for my life story, but I really liked this review. Great stuff!
Honestly if they had just bumped the graphics a little I’d have gushed over WC1 remaster but the added UI functions are fantastic. Will definitely be getting ultimate revenge in my childhood friends who always fucked up my demon summons I worked so hard to build up. Revenge will be had. I definitely agree somewhat with everyone desiring a d2 remaster treatment but dude I still play the shit out of these games so getting a little love thrown their way is plenty enough for me
I have been saying, and have been wanting, for literal decades, a remaster of Warcraft 1 where all that was updated was just adding right clicking, and the stuff you already mentioned. If I buy these, I'll almost certainly play with the old graphics because I don't think those really NEEDED updating. It just needed to be way less clunky to actually play, and it seems like they achieved that.
If I recall properly. The way to win in Warcraft one was to build a wall with an opening at a far end and line it with towers and archers. The enemy would just walk along the wall to the opening getting pelted by arrows instead of breaking through.
Thanks, I’ll probably grab it. I played WC 1-2 as a kid before moving onto SC circa early 2000’s/late 90’s. Have been eyeing the GOG listing for a while to consider jumping back in.
One thing I can't find any info on: in the remaster is there an option to use the original soundtrack? One of my biggest turn-offs with these remasters is when they force the arranged OST on you with no option to use the original, and 9 times out of 10 I prefer the original music.
I played them all as they came out. War 3 I played the most. But War 2 was my obsession. I loved that game. It lived inside my mind. When my brother took the computer away to college, I made a tabletop version.
Honestly I'm just happy to have a version that works on modern computers. I know people do get older games to work on new machines but you have to jump through so many hoops and problem solving that I just don't touch or buy most older games.
Thanks for the review and the lengthy stream on release day. Good to get some details early…and i agree, these are fine but the gameplay upgrades make them worth the price.
This is the first video I've seen on your channel, but I'm wondering if you've ever played the StarCraft II mods that remake Warcraft 1, 2, and 3 (as well as SC1) and their expansions in the SC2 engine. I've heard of Chronicles of Azeroth, Azeroth Reborn, and one other whose name I forget.
As someone who never played Warcraft 1 or 2, this remake does not motivate me to start now. I think the thing that gets me is the doofy helmets that human units have in the first game. They look stupid on their own, but we have unit portraits to show what they're supposed to look like. The fact that they're so wildly different means whoever did the art direction for this remake genuinely did not care. Which means whoever managed the art director also didn't care. So if Blizzard doesn't care, why should I?
Age of Mythology Retold also knocked out of the park considering the work they put in: new and good VA and returning VA for Arkantos, new units, new mechanics (Egyptian monuments, new game mode (arena of the gods) and the game released in September, has over 10k Steam reviews 89% positive, over 6k concurrent players today at Steam and more content is coming and has modding support including old VA for campaing
Seems are are kindred souls, Admiral. Grew up with WC1 and WC2 as well. You even think that it looks like a mobile game, just like I did... you truly are a friend of my soul.
People were torching me online for saying this, but i absolutely agree. the art seems off, too cartoony and maybe too saturated with color, the reason why the buildings look like they float is because they don't have shadows holding them down.
The first strategy game I ever played was WC2 on PS1, cause we were too poor to have a PC. But then one time I went to my classmate's house and he had PC with WC2, I was so shocked. The graphics felt like comparing 144p to 4k. Never played WC1 and only picked it up during the quarantine, just to add it to my list of epic games I've completed. The remaster seems awesome, I might get it to finish the game once more.
@@puffin20 oh man how was controlling warcraft on the ps1? I remember starcraft 64 was just horrific ahha the remaster of war 1 is the best way to play now apart from imbalance its the funnest its ever been
its a simple terrain swap mod by a feller named Dannyidd who mods war2 super hard with dwarf race, terrain swaps and unit skins check out his mods here gamebanana.com/members/submissions/mods/1738346?
Completed Warcraft 1 both human and orc campaign back in the day, when you get wizards I just used the elementals and demons to beat the game, sure the controls were horrible, but the story and atmosphere more than made up for it. But being able to control 12 instead of four and right click, man will buy this. Just wish they also added autocast option like WC3. Best improvement in WC3 imo. Agree about the art, will replay WC1 with original graphics, WC2 new graphics looks good though imo. Thanks for upload, time to reinstall battlenet :) *Btw most memorable mission IMO was going to rescue a orc warchief daughter who had run off with ogres lol
30 years and I've never noticed the Dwarf is butt naked on the Gryphon...
Not quite butt-naked, but according to the existing concept arts, yea, the pants they wore definitely didn't cover the legs.
...Oh God, I can't unsee it
same.
The game does call the gryphon riders Feral Dwarves for a reason I assume...
The concept art shows them fairly scantily clad, but not completely naked. But, definitely no long pants.
I don't want to give Blizzard more money unless the product is really high quality, thanks for this informative review.
@@morfy42 glad I could help!
I don't give them more money. Period.
More should do the same.
totally agree - I expected to see the actual love for details they gave for D2 Resurrected, but nope, same greedy Blizz bosses saying "Oh come on, just upscale the graphics and all the models with some AI and set our regular price tag - those old boys still would buy everything under Blizzard label"
pity. That could've been SO much more. And paying for a mediocre update this price - come on...
but thanks for the review, it's really informative!🙏
Don't ever give Blizzard money. They don't deserve it ever.
These were totally made by 1 old Blizzard employee in his evenings over a week or tewo
im pretty sure they must've outsourced it, like they did with reforged
@@KingLich451 Either theory is believable.
Maybe both. 1 outsourced dude running GIMP with an AI upscaler.
outsourced to a chinese company ofc
@@KingLich451Whenever I read your comments I imagine it in Kel'Thuzad's voice.
Also additional note: The fact that there are "any" downgrades in terms of graphics in the remaster makes me realize there is no appreciation for the original. I cant believe nobody said something when these new sprites or the new briefing room has been shown. How did somebody wave that briefing room through with no animation? There was so much potential for actually putting some "soul" into this remaster but instead it is the bare minimum and sometimes even less.
How hard can it be to make animations for the portraits? Or for the heros?
the remastered graphics in general, particularly for wc1, look awful. It makes a solid piece of art for its time into an cheap looking artstyle. Wc2 fares a little better because there is more to work with, but their general approach of simply taking the low res sprites and redrawing them in high res simply does not work..
For me the thing that I miss the most in Warcraft 2 are the victory screens with the scores slowly ticking and "rank: slave" etc.
I forgot to mention the score screen not having the tktktktk tktktktk tktktk Super sad
Totally was disappointed when I bought it. Just booted it up again today though and it looks like they've added it!
The good: 12 unit selection, more resolution/zoom options, better group hotkeys, and basic standard functionality with right-click for War 1.
The mid: Graphics are meh (but can always use the old sprites), no balance changes (for better or worse).
The bad: New campaign load screens feel soulless compared to the originals; Still no online play for War 1, and War 2 online play and editor is super bare-bones.
Hmm... I own War 1+2 on GoG and never bought Reforged (owned the OG on disk) so these would be full price for me. At that price I'm gonna have to pass. Thanks for the review though! I haven't been paying any attention to Blizzard's recent news so I totally missed this even being a thing.
I think if you still have OG Warcraft 3 CD or CD-key you can claim Reforged for free on BattleNet
I don't think increasing unit selection is good. It doesn't feel the soul of WC and is not true to the original. The improvement should have been through the use of hotkeys (though I think they should remove unit limit for the original Starcraft, that's a whole different concept of gameplay, and there shouldn't be a unit select limit in Starcraft 1, but in WC it's completely different, different type of gameplay design. A player selects a small unit group and controls it as a small squad separately)...
@@korana6308This
Basically, the good things are something that exists with mods already. Alltogether with animated campaign screens...
NOTE: the price mentioned is for the BATTLECHEST rather than individual games. I would get Warcraft 1 for $9.99 (£6) and leave War 2 as the original is still really good.
Such a shame about the original campaign story and map screens.
Warcraf 1 is squashed by 20%! It makes the graphics look off. They They did Warcraft 1 dirty. They did not compensate for the tall pixel effect. Games were strached by 20% on the monitors in the past. The GOG versions has the correction.
I feel smarter reading this, thanks for explaining why it looks so weird !
wow you are right! Would it be possible to fix?
Let's hope someone makes a mod. I am afraid Bilzzard will not care.
People are digging to find any fault they imagine. WC1 looks much better in the remake imo, and you could argue the in the stretch in the past was unintentional to begin with.
People just can't appreciate anything these days.
@SFuruli A visual difference like this is a difference that you notice. The tall pixel effect was very well known in the past, and pixel artist did compensate for it. For me it is an important game. I still remember how I had to remove a lot of games and software to even get this huge game installed. They did not account for the tall pixel and did not bother to add the animation. For the C&C remake they did account for it. I appreciate the effort of Blizzard, but not the slop they deliver.
"If a modder could do this why couldn't a titan like blizzard" -- Unfortunately we've been asking this question for a very long time across multiple IP's.
Great video as always, looking forward to the next challenge run.
It's been a long time since blizzard was a titan, drop your nostalgia glasses.
I'm no shill for Blizzard or any bigger budget devs/company here, especially when a lot of them broke my heart but like there are kinda more restrictions placed on bigger guys like Blizzard than a modder. A modder doesn't need to go thru company bureaucracy to start anything, they don't need to worry about time and money costs as much as the bigger guys, they don't need to be restricted or influenced in what they can do with what they have on their hands by leadership or whoever's funding them, they don't need to worry much about legal stuff unless the territory they're encroaching on belongs to those crazy about it like Disney or Nintendo, they don't have to keep up with formal things, they can just up and leave if they want most of the time, etc. Of course this doesn't really defend anything, just adding some nuance here...
@@CommissarChaotic Your not wrong - I have a friend that does work in setting up frameworks for digital IP's and stuff (I have no idea what this is actually called) and he's said similar things in the past.
Creating something new is a hell of a lot harder than altering what already exists, I won't deny that. But it's disappointing to see that when they (meaning a large company) are altering an existing product it's mediocre at best for what it could have been.
You'd think shareholders would want a better product for far better returns both long and short term.
Because modern Blizzard is essentially just some bought out soulless corpo brand, the actual people that made the games good are no longer there.
It's not you, the sprites are suffering from the lack of knowledge and talent of the people making them. What they don't understand is that 'readability' isn't achieved by outlining every object in the game in black and giving them exaggerated heads. You do it with colour choice and model design so it stands out in a more natural and pleasing way. This was made by mobile game fans.
funny you should mention the outlines because that stood out to me as well. The ogres in the og didnt have a big black drawn outline which maybe made them fit into the world more than kind of plopped on top.
@@Admiral_Iddy They also made the buildings with a brighter color palette then the ground which is why they don't blend. Buildings, especially medieval need earthy muted tones, like the original did. Have a good day.
These remasters are like the result ot asking ChatGPT "upscale these sprites as if they were made in 2024" and that's what you get, more pixels, generic mobile game style.
If you asked an artist "look at the original concept art, lore and sprites. Imagine what the original artists would have envisioned and wanted to deliver but were hindered by technology. Now make that happen today". That's what we got with the Age of Empires remasters.
its probably an AI upscale
The sprites are generally suffering from "remastering the end product instead of the idea". If you draw the new sprites based on what is the result of the technology at the time, instead of taking into account the original vision, you end up with goofy, cheap looking sprites.
This is why the d2 remaster is beautiful, they looked at the original idea behind the various designs and added extra detail and updated proportions based on the original intention instead of the result.
As a fan of all 3 original games I'm really glad to see a review from someone who truly knows the source material. Thanks!
I appreciate that bro! Thanks for watching
The issue with the sprites and their janky movement is that they're not aligned properly on the units axis
They may have used a feature that aligns sprites based on their pixel width/height - what that means is it will adjust the position of the sprite based on how wide it is
So if one sprite has the shoulders in, the feet will be where they're supposed to be
If the next sprite has the shoulders out, the feet will move to one side - offsetting the sprite and causing jank
We may have come a long way but polish is polish...
Is giving blizzard any money worth it? No. I was getting robbed for almost 13 years now.
That feeling when EA made a better remaster (Command & Conquer Remastered Collection)
Fortunately, it has been managed by Petroglyph Games (former Westwood employes). EA just provide them source code and asks "I need a remastered version", Petroglyph and Lemon Sky studios perform a great job.
Still waiting on Remastered Collection 2 though.
@@CathrineMacNiel For which games?
@@bobby45825 Red Alert 2 + Tiberian Sun. (Renegade would be a nice to have)
@@CathrineMacNiel I'd think the art style for both games still flies by today's standards. RA2 especially.
Its always a thing to consider they do this to mostly maintain IP rights and less to release a product that makes the original products better and share the experience with new audiences.
I think in reality its always gonna be the modders that will make it better. This will probably just help bridge the gap by giving modders more tools.
@Infernal_Puppet If true I hope it does get further patches down the line and not a one and done release. As admiral mentioned hope they add more graphical unique stuff like the upgraded units having different graphics. Improving the AI,etc.
Brother that makes no sense wow and hearthstone constantly get new content, you don't lose the right to parts of the IP if you don't use them you just need to be using it to keep it
As the other guy said, your take is way too cynical, lol. I for one thought this as new-management Blizz, under MS, trying to revitalize interest on their games. Maybe even trying to be on the good side of the players.
My focus was more on HotS (stil not given hope that MS might do something about it), but taking a step back, OW classic also comes into picture (heard it's lackluster, but that is besides the point, regarding Blizz's or MS' intention).
To maintain IP rights, you just have to update the rights. No need for releasing stuff.
Not expecting this much traction.
Lol. Nothing I said was all that cynical, its more or less a fact of the industry and how copyright law is best reinforced (for those thinking that's not necessary), its not even unique to the games industry. Nor do I think they are being sincere at all with the Warcraft remasters - its pretty obvious, they feel like they were outsourced heavily and simply were meant to meet a baseline of requirements. They weren't doing something new or difficult.
The best example here is what Iddy said, point at Creative Assembly and their absolute amazing rebuild of not just AOE DE, but steadily the whole AOE franchise - and doing work to support the competitive scene, releasing new content, balancing the game, and actively engaging with the community.
Blizzard often makes it clear they dislike their fans in the same Way Nintendo does. That's not being hyperbolic, its an action thing - but going to bat for a company famous for being half-assed ever since they released the most successful MMO of all time is super cringe lol.
It's not as disastrous as Warcraft 3 Reforged but if you want a great early 2000's RTS Remaster in 2024 just buy Age of Mythology Retold
@@vjbd2757 they definitely played it too safe and simple aom retold was amazing dam how come warcraft couldnt get the same love n care
@Admiral_Iddy For the "Age of" remakes, Microsoft recruited a team who had already created an impressive expansion-sized fan mod for AoE2 called Forgotten Empires, and then basically gave them funding and let them cook. It was a perfect confluence of talent and actually good management decisions that I wish was more common in the games industry.
@BenSmith-qw4kd well microsoft owns blizzard now dont they? Mayhaps they will give some love? Ahha doubtful but hey 2 days ago i didnt know war1&2 remastered would exist and here we are lets hope!
I second AoM Retold. The WC remasters are not worth it considering you can get the originals for half the prince on GOG when not on sale and there's already a fan-made program that enables right-click to move and marquee selection in WC1. Yeah, you can't select more than 4 units, but it doesn't matter as much as people make it out to, especially with the lack of multiplayer. These remasters are the lowest effort AI slop Blizzard could've excreted out of their behind.
@@Admiral_Iddy I get a feeling only reason why we got these remasters was becouse of Microsoft > they have good experience with age of empires series and this was them testing waters.
Personaly I bought them, only had 15 € to pay 😂 cuz I was one of shmucks who bought deforged spoils of war.
You did really, really well on your review, good sir!
Here's hoping you do more and more! Great content!
Wargus Warcraft II (v3.3.2) mod differences for comparison:
Pros:
-Better pathfinding overall - units won't stop when there's a large forest(s) in the way
-Larger control groups (9->18, the GUI still shows 9 at most per group though)
-Rally points (including rallying peons to gold or wood from the town halls)
-Training queues - queue up 6 units to train at a production building (can't do it with upgrades however)
-Can queue up multiple buildings for a peon to build in sequence with shift+click (can also queue up spells)
-Can cast spells with a group of spellcasters of the same type and it doesn't waste more MP than necessary if you for example use 8 paladins to heal 1 paladin (can also click on the portraits in a control group to cast spells on those units)
-New enemy AI options and the normal difficulty AI is smarter - you can set the difficulty per mission in SP too
-Shows your idle worker count in the top right
-Shows your damaged buildings as red on the mini-map
-Higher res options
-Workers accumulate wood immediately when starting to chop it, which also solves the issue of two workers chopping the same tree tile (1-2 trees) and one worker's work being wasted when the tree tile disappears
-Can now sort all players into up to 4 teams in MP before starting a match, including computer players
-Option to show the map layout completely or the terrain under fog of war during skirmish games
-Other gameplay options that I'm not sure what they do
Cons:
-Transporter pathfinding seems a bit worse
-Crashes fairly often when going to the next mission in SP, forcing the use of cheats to get to the next one (I played on Windows 11)
-Sometimes no icon indicating invisibility on units
-A bit easier final Tides of Darkness level as Humans on Normal (no dragons are sent to harass, instead you have to fight a bunch of them later on)
-If griffons attack a unit and it runs away far enough, they'll just forget about its existence. I don't think this happened in the original
-I was not able to play a LAN MP game, or via the wargus client with a friend going online via the same network. Maybe there's an easy fix though, I don't know
Does the port still have issues where it plays soundtrack mode by default and even includes the briefing room music in the stages? This was one of the things I could not get around with Wargus and War1gus last I tried.
@@Wolfwood2057 No I didn't notice that being an issue when playing a couple of missions just now
The thing about Wargus is that it can get away with doing radical changes, because at the end of the day it's not canon, but just an option that doesn't officially replace the original experience. If Blizzard made radical changes, they'd receive criticism from players who felt the original experience was altered too much.
I think Blizzard did a goob job of preserving WC1 as-is, made it pleasant to look at, and only added right-click move and higher unit selection, something I believe otherwise would be a huge turn-off for new (and even experienced) players if it was missing.
My dreams have come true. WC2 was the first RTS I ever played and the soundtrack is still etched into my brain decades later. I have a tremendous fondness for it, even if it has aged. Never played WC1, so looking forward to that too. My joy is boundless!
Starcraft gets all the love and its sad because I love warcraft so much more. Though I dont like how cartoony it got after WC3.
100% agreed I much preferred the tone to the originals like remember those manual concept arts? people getting beheaded and naked maidens being kidnapped by dragons,those books were metal as hell!
Warcraft > Starcraft in aesthetics and worldbuilding for me.
I always loved the aesthetics of wc2 over the other two, though i can acknowledge that wc3 maybe struck the perfect balance between a cartoonish style for an action oriented hero focused narrative RTS and the broodish, unsettling stlye of the older games.
Warcraft 1 and StarCraft 1 had the perfect aesthetics for their respective settings imo.
I felt shocked after seeing an archer being killed and the high-RES sprite showed blood and bones - you don't see that in WoW. In that regard, 3D has been a step back - in Wc3 you still had the skeleton, I guess, but less gore.
Sadly SC2 is also cartoony.
I think they mistyped "Necrolyte".
oh definitely although Necroylte has a ring to it, maybe a metal band name haha
@@Admiral_Iddy Neck-Royalty. A band full of vampires.
I'm just happy they actually did something. I was also a fan of WC3 reforged, but I only played it with the quenching mod to improve the gfx/colors. Hopefully it can only get better with time.
Now we need remaster of DIABLO. and maybe rock n roll racing?
who else remembers hearing blood lust being casted outside your base and you knew it was about to go down
@@sk8hillzz rulalugugugaaa
Part of me wonders if they still got PTSD from the Reforged trailer where people were annoyed at the changes so the byword for the Remasters is "Change as little as possible"
Still, NGL having WC1 be playable at all is nice.
I think you hit the nail on the head. These remasters are absolutely worth the money and I am surprised they did them at all, but if they were going to do remasters I don't see why these couldn't have had more features. Even barring that, why are a bunch of things that used to be animated just static pngs now? I'm super excited because I love these games and Blizzard giving them any attention is more than I was expecting, but you're right, it could have been a game changer, and instead it's just good.
absolutely agree I can only imagine the potential if they gave a little more effort. Yet we still have this and its the best way to experience both games now so maybe they will add more at some point! I shall remain positive haha thanks for watching!
Dude, have you even seen Starcraft Remastered? As far as I know, there were no innovations there either. Just shitty textures for 15 bucks, and nothing more. No fixed bugs, no fixed pathfinding, nothing. So I was not really surprised to learn that there is nothing fundamentally new in these remasters. On the plus side, I can note that now you can play these two games WITHOUT A FUCKING DOSBOX.
They are killing rts by making these remasters so bad. Such wasted potential to redeem themselves as a company. What a shit gaming world to live in nowadays. Bring back the soul
The crossbowmen of WarCraft 1 always looked like they had huge arms. Of all the human units being redid I found them the least jarring.
I mean, so did everyone.
The huge arms are a result of the limited pixels they had to work with. If you wanted to communicate arms with any kind of clarity they had to be huge. Its a classic example redoing the end product instead of the intention.
9:30 does wargus support wc1? Would you please make a guide on running that? Asking since i have not encountered any. Thanks in advance.
I havent played in a while but it was SUPER easy to get runnin you go to war1gus .com? or google war1gus and it has a couple steps and boom off you go! Its really cool
Pixel art graphics always age SO WELL
As a person who played Warcraft in 1994 - 1995 to my 386 and Warcraft II in 2002 - 2004 for first time and never finished them, until 2017 - 2018, because I loved more C&C series (not Generals), I will love to play the remastered versions. I started Warcraft III from it's release but I only played in 2018 - 2019 when reforged patch ruined my saves and never start a new playthrough. I also played Diablo at late 1990s, but Nox took my attention.
For me, Warcraft 2 was my first introduction to the series. I bought the remaster almost instantly. It's great, but...I JUST WANT IS THE OPTION TO PICK YOUR COLOR FOR CUSTOM GAMES. LET ME BE ALTERAC ORANGE DAMMIT
Man I'm in disbelief at how ddooggsshhiitt the remastered graphics are. It's really tempting to think they used AI, or at the very least some beginners in pixel art from some obscure forums. There is no way an actual artist sat down and produced those, mangling the actual style of the originals, with that new grotesque black hard pixel contour coming out of nowhere. And if you look particularly at the new tree sprites it looks exactly like AI hallucinating random patterns not understanding those should depict trees.
Sir, why do you even doubt that AI was incorporated into this project? Watch the Warcraft 1 intro and it's clear. If that's not enough for you, look at all the little logic errors as a result of the AI trying to interpret low resolution art. This is low-effort trash and Warcraft 2 in particular deserved much better. But it's Blizzard, what does one expect besides lies and greed at this point?
@@DaedalusDM Yeah you're right, it's really sad, it's zero effort AI trash.
These hames did not need a visual overhaul. They only needed updated display, ballance, controls, ui, ai, pathfinding and quality of life improvements. Well, we got display and some qoa but overal this is one lazy remaster.
These were the games that got me into gaming.
I'm excited to play the remasters, and I was on the fence about it until I saw your reviews. I think you covered everything really really well, and I'll be tuning into the channel more often!
@@williamb3792 thanks so much! Appreciate the support I think ill be making more reviews in the future because of the success of this vid. Glad to have you on the crew!
re: possible AI art
The WC2 art in the trailer set off tons of AI upscaled alarm bells in my head, but I'm not getting any of the same feeling in videos I've watched of the release.
Maybe they had an artist give it another pass between recording footage for the trailer and releasing the game
Maybe it was some funky artifacts happening as part of video compression, I doubt we'll find out for sure, but I'm relieved the art isn't as bad as I feared.
Do wish the buildings in the new WC1 art didn't look like stickers though. that's probably the worst part.
stickers! thats a good way to describe it. I agree with you though I dont like saying its AI this or AI that because maybe it was just a particular artists rendition but war1 especially just seemed off, maybe they will patch the choppy chopping animations. War2 overall looks good though. Heres hoping they continue to monitor this project and not just abandon it
Those outlines are rough, I don't like that for the WC1 structures 1 iota.
The shadows under the building transformed into some weird moss
12 units selection is a HUGE balance change, especially against AI.
im a W3 baby im still burned by refunded and the fact that my OG game that i paid its unable unless i pirate it
If you owned the OG you get a copy of reforged with the original graphics. It's not the same game but it may as well be. I replayed the campaign when my copy got replaced and it felt the same as the original besides the reforged menus
Just play reforged. It looks far better than the original and there's no reason not to play it that way.
I bought my OG warcraft games at GOG
Works like charm
Here is my thing if you don't own warcraft 1 or 2 it's diffenly worth. since you get the original one + remastered if you took the battlechest. that said if you do own the original then it's gets a tough question. Like you can mod it but in the end blizzard owns the source code, so by saying it all depends how they do their work to improve the bad points of what people in the comment said. Since microsoft got activision it really depends if they change to be more customer friendly but we will still have to see it. It's the right direction, because remember before they did said it was a waste of money to do remasterd on war1 / war2. So you gotta keep that in mind aswell. now for the next is even though no multiplayer on such a game. I'm guessing they need to refigure the network problably still way to outdated. I guess they told themselves not worth the time if i was on their feet. But hey that's just my opinion. You agree or disagree to this opinion, it's all fine.
I'm sure someone else has already said this, but the great majority of players who still enjoy these old games don't want their game changed all that much. It is entirely possible they will update units and fix online later. Age of Empires and Starcraft had massive communities with clearly outlined changes, so their remasters were far superior but not symmetrical with one another because the communities wanted different things for their respective games.
WC2 and even 1's community is smaller and more splintered I imagine. From my understanding Blizzard was working with popular and knowledgeable members of the WC3 community to make changes to that game. But that community is larger and more defined. Easier to get a fair metric for wanted changes.
I figured because the fanbase is so small for war 1 and 2 that we wouldnt mind changes, I know war3 and starcraft they asked the pros what they wanted changed and of course they said nothing because their precious games would be different but its too bad I would be VERY open to new balance or units!
Finally , thanks for making this review i was looking to see how the game is and i couldnt find many reviews that were honest entertaining and actually made with heart
@@HerreraAlonso thanks so much! Ill have to make some more reviews now methinks! Glad you enjoyed it
@Admiral_Iddy Im seeing your videos man, they remind of good old comfy 2000 videogame times, good videos
I agree: Age of Empires 1+2 got so crazy good remasters with everything you can dream for. Features, Content and the visuals looked like a modern recreation of the old classic art. Blizzard has not done any of this for WC2. Low effort at its best. Fair review.
weird how he says it's worth it to buy in the end..
@@weaver4907 Oh it is definitely worth it - for blizzard.
I'm fairly certain the reason why the buildings don't look attached to the ground is a problem of perspective.
The buildings look more flat in the old games, these ones look like they're more tilted towards the viewer at their front, meaning their backs are sinking into the floor.
Another issue is the weird perspective on buildings. The original graphics have the same issue, but it looks to be way worse with the remastered art. The ground and roads look like we're observing from above straight down, yet the buildings look like we're looking at them at an angle. It looks like they belong to completely different games and were crudely photoshopped together
Yes, but who cares. Let's stop trying to look for errors in any possible tiny design we can think of.
@@SFuruli Yes, let's lower our standards and eat the slop our corporate overlords graciously poured on our plates!
And people wonder why gaming in the state it's in.
@@SFuruli They are asking a significant amount of money for this fairly low effort product. Of course we should be pointing out the issues
@@MaMastoast 9.99€ for WC1 is not a significant amount of money.
My first experience was Warcraft 2 The Dark Saga on PS1. Crazy to think that PS1 had a RTS.
I have the Sega Saturn version. Insane they were on those. And then N64 got Starcraft haha.
Good work on the video. It was informative and it was fun seeing these again (havent had seen these games in decades)
8:27 Reforged models weren't really that much of a problem, most people did not mind them since apparently they were only outsourced part of Reforged so they somehow came out decent
Problem was everything else, we lost clans, 90% of all custom maps were nuked, stability on launch was such disaster that they had to go back to classic during DreamHack, some people reported that map editor BLUESCREENS THEM, and many, MANY more problems
Incidentally, 2.0 update brought some of that issues back so yay for modern blizzard
GAWD I wish more people realized this. So many sheep on the Internet started parroting that the graphics were bad in reforged, when that was the main (and basically only) good thing about it. It was all those other features that people were originally mad about, and then somehow that morphed into "DeRp 20 YeAr oLd gRaPhIcS aRe bEtTeR!"
I been there during initial patches and transition to reforged, and main stuff that people were complaining back then were 2 things
1) After every patch, server stability dropped on a head and game was completely unplayable for 2-3 weeks
2) Mapmakers were losing their god damn minds cuz EVERY patch broke SOMETHING in their maps, and they had somehow find the cause and fix it, it was so bad that after reforged dropped we never recovered because a lot of them decided to just quit altogether
And all of this shit then been followed by Reforged, that outright got rid of features, we lost access to gproxy so we can no longer reconnect to on-going matches (so even now, if your net as much as blips dead and comes back it kicks you back to main screen), we lost A LOT of maps and mapmakers, all for slight balance changes for now no longer existing ladder, decent models, servers that were so bad that mutli was outright unplayable for month, and many, MANY issues
I got reforged and was basically infuriated because of all those standard things, but I have to say, I have never seen anyone on twitch or youtube use updated graphics. I did use them because I saw zero downsides and I wanted to get at least something out of the product with so many negatives and downright removals. But, it doesn't seem to me that the updated graphics were an overblown complaint. I quite literally never seen them anywhere except on my own computer.
@@doolioart3314 Ah that, there's kind of reasons for that
For one, majority of us veterans owned warcraft before reforged, and thus can't switch to reforged graphics without buying this overglorified graphics pack for 30-40 euro, you can buy any other AAA slop for that much
Secondly, we discovered early on that if you have 2 groups of players in lobby, one with SD and other with HD graphics on, one group will sooner or later inevitably drop from lobby after it starts, usually during loading, to prevent this, we as a community implemented 2 solutions
1) Lock custom maps to one graphic mode, it doesn't matter what setting you got on cuz it WILL be forcefully set to that mode once lobby starts, and people without Reforged can't even join lobby for HD maps
2) Just stay on SD mode, most of experienced people are using it any way so its less of a chance that lobby gonna drop if everyone is just using SD
And both of this solutions kinda stayed, Blizzard MIGHT have fixed it but we got used to operating like this
I completed Warcraft 1 Remastered, and it's fantastic. As you mentioned, just the updated controls, right click, double click to select all units of the same type, 12 units in a group, control droups, it's all makes the game so smooth.
@@TheAleosha ive been having SO much more fun replaying it because of the controls! It is easier but way more smooth
I loved wc1 units
"looks like a crappy mobile game" was my very first thought when I have seen the trailer (and wrote it off as another neoBlizz moneygrab).
I could recognize those Sierra seagulls sounds from the begining anywhere. Heard them first in KQ6.
Good video, btw. Cheers!
@@oberstul1941 another keen ear for nostalgia! Thats exactly where i found em. I loved those games thanks for watching
'Why modders can make these extra things like the huge rich company can't?'
Easy answer. Modders make things because they love it. Game devs don't, its just a paycheck.
Great video, waiting for the no no death remaster run later.
Yeah, people often say "[Insert Big Company] has enough money... they should have been able to do a better job." But the whole point is that the budgets for big studios don't work that way. They aren't just sitting on 20 years of WoW profits at this point and deciding to be charitable and release Warcraft remasters at a loss for the love of the game. They want to spend the minimum amount possible while still having something to release. This is especially true the BIGGER a company is, because they are comparing the cost per employee hour they can make on a small project like the remaster vs whatever else they have in the pipe. Fans and modders have no such restrictions and are functionally always working at a "loss".
They 100% used AI for the Art (Texture upscaling/Icons/Intros/cinematics etc) which I guess was the only reason why they decided to do these remasters in the first place, because it's cheap enough this way.
TBH, I never played Wc1, but I would prefer the old style over the new mobile-scam-game like art style. I think the trees and buildings are okay, but some of the units look so cheap, it's hilarious.
As a Wc3 player, I think there is also a lot AI art being used which looks in some examples generic and don't fit the other, classic art style at all. Also there are many other things that are problematic, so my bet is, everyone will still play with the classic classic graphic settings. The classic HD and the new reforged background was a nice try, but in the end they are not good enough (makes the game unresponsive, laggy, huge FPS problems even on good PCs etc).
What I do like though, is the introduction of many quality of life features and the introductions of funny skins, even in the classic classic version of wc3
At least I am thankful that they didn't forget about the Warcraft RTS games, bringing new, optional, content. I hope they can fix all the bugs, instabilities, incompatibilities and performance issues in wc3. But tbh, I'm not optimistic with Blizzard anymore
Excellent review. It was real fun to watch. I really enjoyed when our nostalgia would sync and you would say just what I thought. Thanks!
@@mattbirnie thanks bro! Glad you liked the video
Watertas being removed is a crime. Blizzard doesnt know whats breast for their games.
Butt butt, at least they put pants on that flying dwarf!
So gryphons and dragons in remaster are still the same pain to control?
oooh yes lots of deer in headlights moments
Yeah your review is fair. Its mid. No matter how much it I want to love it, there is substance missing. My hope Is that they listen to it and fix it. Let's be honest the anniversary was probably the thing that pushed it out. You can see a level of love for certain things and high effort and then rapidly low effort. That or mod tools are released.
mod tools would be a perfect solution, Bethesda realized that the fans will fix their games for them so if Blizz is feeling lazy let us do it!
@@Admiral_Iddy well they both got the same parent company now so hopefully that trickles around
Keep dreaming and hope for that, we did the same thing for wc3 for 4 years 💀
You nailed it on the graphics of the first game, the original was less cartoony, the buildings mixed better with the terrains, and the animations looked smoother. Kind of a letdown, but I played the original back in the day so maybe I had unreasonable expectations. Thank you for the review, answered all the questions I had!
Blizzard isn't Blizzard anymore, they haven't been for a very long time.
All the folks that made Blizzard great, have moved on. Perhaps the fans should too.
Ok, as for the sprites in War 1 they just look like Higher res versions of the OG sprites if you look at the old sprites closely. The archers always had huge arms. But ya they DEFENITLY removed the smoking wizard and female water elementals among other things thanks to a smaller amount of leeway in games nowdays compared to the old days.
As for the lack of balance changes and other such things they got paranoid about making changes after all the anger from the War 3 remaster. They likely just decided to go minimal like people demanded about the war 3 remaster and just update graphics and a few minor QoL changes. A slight rebalancing WOULD be nice yes, but a light touch would be best.
Yet another Remaster that basically comes down to "They were so close...."
WC1: Lack of multiplayer. Like come on....its not like the original didnt have it. The graphics are total ass but at least the pixelart still looks good and you can switch to it.
WC2: Lack of models for upgraded units or heroes like you said. Most of the new art looks good though. Mapeditor not having ANY improvements also sucks...i mean the big thing that make SC take off was the ability to make scenarios of your own. We dont need the WC3 level of "i write script to make a map" but even simple stat tweaking and basic triggers for making scenarios would have been wonderful.
Both: Lack of AI improvements. Were talking about some of the earliest AI controlled RTS games not being improved at all. As a kid i remember the only reason i beat the computer was because i figured out how to cheese them.
100% agreed this stopped JUST short of the finish line. If AGE 2 can add coop, campaigns, entire games to their engine why not give a hood to the archers like the mod for the original they just painted the elves hair the same color as the player to make it look like a hood! I wonder if modding will be easier with the remaster?
I remember playing Warcraft 1 on a Mac with a mouse with a single button.
I know right...one button.
Great game, great memories.
I dunno but this feels like a slap in the face of every wc1+2 fan. Blizzard put in minimal effort, as usually, just so they can cash in. Also no more water elemental tiddies? Pass.
First time I found your channel. Your video was recommended on my feed. Great video!
These were just remasters, not remakes. Idk what people expectes.
Exactly.
The point of remastering a game is that it follows the exact same original essence as the OG game it's self, the only difference is that it's reprogrammed and/or optimized to natively work on current existing modern hardware with maybe some upscaled or reworked art and other visuals thrown into it. A remaster is simply not a remake.
C&C Remastered showed us how a proper remaster is done.
Blizzard just never get it right.
That's a joke! I awaited a video game with a true remake, with well done cinematics, but instead it's just War 1 and 2 with slighly better graphics! A joke!!!
Actually, worse graphics. Only added feature is adding right click. Everything else is a downgrade.
Thanks for saving me the time to review it - I guess my play through for the first time in forever of Warcraft 2 will be what I expected... basically the same thing with some designs. How the hell did I not notice the Griffin Rider with no pants haha.
i wasn't really sure what you meant by the graphics looking fake and phoned in until you zoomed in at 6:40 and i almost threw up lmao
i own both on gog, blizzard can go to hell i'm not giving them another cent
I agree with most of the things you mentioned in the video about graphics, gameplay and expectations overall. It is a little unfair to compare this remaster with Age of Empires 2 though. It seems more fitting to compare it to Age 1 remastered. It also has the same 'I expected more' vibe. Now the question would be: where to go from here, and it that case Age 2 really made a really good impression with Age 2 Definitive Edition. I really love the classic strategy and it appears a good time to bring them back with Age 2, AOM retold, heck even Civilization and Heroes of Might and Magic are getting a new installment. I don't wanna get hyped over nothing and only hope things get better from here. Amazing video btw.
5:25 - I'm sorry, what? They didn't have the Sourcecode of StarCraft so SC:R *is* a different game. Oh sure it's, _mostly_ the same, but something about that game throws me off every time I play it.
8:22 - If you can play Wc1R with og graphics, that seems like the better choice.
Otherwise I'd personally, stay with the og game overall.
10:40 - Not worth it.
11:00 - I had no idea!
13:25 - Yeah, I remember a bit of it.
16:00 - But then, it's not a _Remaster_, it's a *Reimagining* .
Good video
Small tip - can you also mention very briefly what each point was about ? Having the exact timestamp is good, but it's also time consuming. I click on it and it plays but also scrolls me back to the video, and then I have to scroll back to the comment and doing that multiple times starts to feel like doing chores.
My guess on the WC1 animations is that they just kept the old rigging to make it easier to swap between graphics settings, and the animations look rougher on the newer models as a result.
Y'all got scammed over there, in the U.S. it was only 15 dollars (yes ik about conversion rates but it still costs much more)
haha our canadian money aint doing too hot over here but I at least got it at a discount ;)
I am a bit optimistic regarding the new graphics of these games; I imagine that the newly introduced Warcraft RTS team monitors the feedback from all the Warcraft games (1-3) closely.
Warcraft 1 and 2 may appear a bit barebones as of now, and there might be imperfections of the art in general as well. The remasters if those games might as well just be a foundation, with QoL features being made later on based on the feedback of the community.
Maybe the Warcraft 1 remaster doesn't have multiplayer as of now due to time contraints because of the deadline of this recent Blizzard event? It might as well be that the Warcraft RTS team imagine that 95-99% of the community of Warcraft 1 & 2 would rather play the Warcraft 2 remaster multiplayer.
@@GAG091186 true war1 multiplayer would be a gimmick more than anything, having said that it would still be neat! I for one hope they dont abandon these and continue updates and maybe fixing some of the missing features like modes or private games in war2 but we will have to see
What the heck is with the terrain shifting at 13:37? Wow. Go through that frame by frame; it's a mess.
not just shifted, terrain details also changed O.o?
@@CathrineMacNiel I think this might be one of these GPU AI frame interpolation thing, actually. just shows how bad these are.
Just checked it and it's totally possible to be the video itself. As in either the encoder used by OBS or whatever was used to capture and/or TH-cam artifacting. The way the lumber mill starts to appear totally makes me think that it's the video encoding and not the game itself, fortunately.
All I wanted was for Paladins to be able to cast healing as efficiently as Ogre-Magi can cast bloodlust. That alone would make Warcraft 2 Remastered worth the $20 price tag.
This whole thing is just cheap ai enhanced garbage. For all the titles.
The art was never designed for this.
Fantastic review and spot on. Worth buying even though they left so much possibility on the table.
First. Great vid.
Great review of both games. I can't wait to lose hours this weekend on both games. Thank you.
Where is your stream of the games at?
they literally ran warcraft one cinematic through an AI upscaler. that's fucking hilarious
just noticing the details: the skulls look very very odd, and that chain on the right? Well atleast it should be a chain, but the AI didn't see it that way.
My god, this review man. I'm an old WC guy, used to love WC2, but after going back to it; I find it more frustrating than chill these days. This is a complete flip flop to how I feel about WC1 where I felt that was slow and boring. Got back to that first time in years, earlier this year and I fell in love with it again.
I can't agree more with that this feels like a missed oportuinity. If they would have made a little expansion for WC1, some nice custom maps, new units and shit I would have lost it. I love WC1, even though it plays like ass xD
I'm glad the remaster will fix some of that with group selections and left clicking =)
Anyway, you didn't ask for my life story, but I really liked this review. Great stuff!
Interesting with the amount of gamers of War1 & 2 who never connected with Warcraft 3 or WoW - I thought I was unique lol
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Honestly if they had just bumped the graphics a little I’d have gushed over WC1 remaster but the added UI functions are fantastic. Will definitely be getting ultimate revenge in my childhood friends who always fucked up my demon summons I worked so hard to build up. Revenge will be had.
I definitely agree somewhat with everyone desiring a d2 remaster treatment but dude I still play the shit out of these games so getting a little love thrown their way is plenty enough for me
I have been saying, and have been wanting, for literal decades, a remaster of Warcraft 1 where all that was updated was just adding right clicking, and the stuff you already mentioned. If I buy these, I'll almost certainly play with the old graphics because I don't think those really NEEDED updating. It just needed to be way less clunky to actually play, and it seems like they achieved that.
If I recall properly. The way to win in Warcraft one was to build a wall with an opening at a far end and line it with towers and archers. The enemy would just walk along the wall to the opening getting pelted by arrows instead of breaking through.
Thanks, I’ll probably grab it.
I played WC 1-2 as a kid before moving onto SC circa early 2000’s/late 90’s.
Have been eyeing the GOG listing for a while to consider jumping back in.
How does upgrading my Axe upgrade the damage of Spiders?
Not only the axe was sharpened, but also the Spiders mandibles... something like that.
One thing I can't find any info on: in the remaster is there an option to use the original soundtrack? One of my biggest turn-offs with these remasters is when they force the arranged OST on you with no option to use the original, and 9 times out of 10 I prefer the original music.
I played them all as they came out. War 3 I played the most. But War 2 was my obsession. I loved that game. It lived inside my mind. When my brother took the computer away to college, I made a tabletop version.
Honestly I'm just happy to have a version that works on modern computers. I know people do get older games to work on new machines but you have to jump through so many hoops and problem solving that I just don't touch or buy most older games.
@@mitchmcnair4222 it really is the best way to get into the game if you have been away or never played it!
Great review. Very informative. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for the review and the lengthy stream on release day. Good to get some details early…and i agree, these are fine but the gameplay upgrades make them worth the price.
This is the first video I've seen on your channel, but I'm wondering if you've ever played the StarCraft II mods that remake Warcraft 1, 2, and 3 (as well as SC1) and their expansions in the SC2 engine. I've heard of Chronicles of Azeroth, Azeroth Reborn, and one other whose name I forget.
Awesome review)
I have not played these games in nearly 30 years, so I am so happy to have them back, but you raise really great points!
As someone who never played Warcraft 1 or 2, this remake does not motivate me to start now. I think the thing that gets me is the doofy helmets that human units have in the first game. They look stupid on their own, but we have unit portraits to show what they're supposed to look like. The fact that they're so wildly different means whoever did the art direction for this remake genuinely did not care. Which means whoever managed the art director also didn't care.
So if Blizzard doesn't care, why should I?
Age of Mythology Retold also knocked out of the park considering the work they put in: new and good VA and returning VA for Arkantos, new units, new mechanics (Egyptian monuments, new game mode (arena of the gods) and the game released in September, has over 10k Steam reviews 89% positive, over 6k concurrent players today at Steam and more content is coming and has modding support including old VA for campaing
Seems are are kindred souls, Admiral. Grew up with WC1 and WC2 as well. You even think that it looks like a mobile game, just like I did... you truly are a friend of my soul.
thanks bro! I appreciate the comment :)
First time on your channel. Loved the rewiew.
@@ziuber18 thanks so much! Welcome 😁
People were torching me online for saying this, but i absolutely agree. the art seems off, too cartoony and maybe too saturated with color, the reason why the buildings look like they float is because they don't have shadows holding them down.
The first strategy game I ever played was WC2 on PS1, cause we were too poor to have a PC. But then one time I went to my classmate's house and he had PC with WC2, I was so shocked. The graphics felt like comparing 144p to 4k. Never played WC1 and only picked it up during the quarantine, just to add it to my list of epic games I've completed. The remaster seems awesome, I might get it to finish the game once more.
@@puffin20 oh man how was controlling warcraft on the ps1? I remember starcraft 64 was just horrific ahha the remaster of war 1 is the best way to play now apart from imbalance its the funnest its ever been
what is the sand map in the last minutes from? I would love to play that!
its a simple terrain swap mod by a feller named Dannyidd who mods war2 super hard with dwarf race, terrain swaps and unit skins check out his mods here gamebanana.com/members/submissions/mods/1738346?
Completed Warcraft 1 both human and orc campaign back in the day, when you get wizards I just used the elementals and demons to beat the game, sure the controls were horrible, but the story and atmosphere more than made up for it. But being able to control 12 instead of four and right click, man will buy this. Just wish they also added autocast option like WC3. Best improvement in WC3 imo. Agree about the art, will replay WC1 with original graphics, WC2 new graphics looks good though imo. Thanks for upload, time to reinstall battlenet :)
*Btw most memorable mission IMO was going to rescue a orc warchief daughter who had run off with ogres lol