Warcraft 2 Remaster, by Blizzard Entertainment - November 13th, 2024

[dannyldd]

Here are my thoughts about the War2 Remaster being announced (+ Released) by Blizzard Entertainment on November 13th, 2024.

Positive features:
- Remastered graphics with the same original War2 color palette. Upscaled & re-drawn for higher resolutions.
- Remastered UI in-game for widescreen support.
- Remastered background images for overall the whole game. Mission briefings, main menu.
- Selectable units up to 12, instead of 9.
- Allowed to select between war2 DOS soundtrack version, even though a bit different than DOSBox and what I used to remember from original old computers OR Warcraft 2 BattleNet Edition soundtrack version.
-Allowed spells for certain mission will remain with darker icon for that specific unit in case it has not been researched, such as the feature exists in Starcraft 1 or Warcraft 3
-You can select in options to always show health bar on a unit, either above or below.
-Smooth scrolling around the map. Even more smooth than current feature by Fois in War2Combat.

Negative features:
- Main logo cinematic was slow to load for me.
- Cinematics from main menu (introduction to war2) or Destruction from Great portal loaded overall with slow FPS, even though I have 13 years old processor.
- I pressed Garden of War map in Multiplayer > maps > classic options and game crashed.
- I could not load the main menu from war2 remaster from Warcraft II remaster.exe. It always pops out the message: "Not logged to Battle.net. Please login". So if this issue happens to anybody else, you cannot play this game without being connected to internet and so then, logged to Battle Net launcher.
- Multiplayer section ONLY has games being created OR allows to create a game. NO MAIN CHAT, like War2Combat or classic Warcraft 2. Chat is not in right side either.
- There's an option for UI in-game options which has a scrolling bar, which I dont know what is for. It says: " UI FIXED" with a scrolling bar which I dont know what it does. No changes if moving around.
- NO ENHANCEMENTS for AI at ALL.
- Game still has messy AI Unit Pathing.
- NO REBALANCE for units in-game. Single or multiplayer.
- Just guessing even though not tested up, but the game may still have SAVE-LOAD bug issues from original game, which were fixed up by Ed gorod for War2Combat.
- NO FIX for SPAMMING AUDIOS in-game. Aka: right clicking a unit will spam unit audios non-stop. Same as switching up between group control of units. This issue was fixed up within my mods, like Road of heroes: https://gamebanana.com/mods/433454 since years already. Right clicking audios spammed is a bug fixed up in Starcraft 1, and alternating control groups with the unit sounds is fixed up just in Starcraft 2.
-Peasants have a small mismatch on frames position. When chopping wood, they seem to move a bit off which does NOT happen with base game sprite.
- Main folder from War2remaster actually has a big sub-folder called Data, which works EXACTLY THE SAME as MY MODS or the ones from Ed gorod. Only a suspicion but Blizzard may have stolen work from Ed in mods since like 2019 and apparently some of the work from @fois in Widescreen program for War2Combat.
-3x the cost I used to have for buying Starcraft 1 remaster in 2017, which is fairly MORE COMPLEX than War2.

Make your own conclusions if this information ever was useful to you, or just buy the game and check that out for yourself if its worthy.

Maybe useful links:

>> features being exposed by Blizzard Entertainment

>> First playthrough in Warcraft 2 Remaster

We have been doing stuff alongside Ed gorod and some other Russian community members for free all of these years since 2019. Mainly thanks to Ed gorod that Warcraft 2 capabilities and limitations have been greatly expanded since then. If you like more my content or the one from Ed gorod, please support our content if you think the content being addressed by Blizzard Entertainment is not enough.

If you think my mods or the ones from Ed are not good enough, please then feel free to support the official release being launched by Blizzard Entertainment.

[Pandaprewmaster325]

Man this sucks I was hoping blizzard would fix the balance or make it interesting instead of the lame mirror factions we have that could have signaled the end of my mod before it even started , kek could have just cancelled the whole thing nope instead I still have to make actually new balance doing what blizzard SHOULD DO .

[tk[as]]

its another cash grab just like GoG i think

[Pandaprewmaster325]

What a shame I really hoped for better pathfinding.

What about warcraft 1? Is it any better?

I will just wait till these get pirated and then get them no money for blizz , ez

[Szwagier]

I dont belive they will fix any issue, its just warcraft 2 remaster tides of darkness instead remaster battle.net, I have no clue why they didnt do like SC

custom maps are dead atm, you cant download map

[~ToRa~]

Honestly the fact they give players the option to remove the fog of war really makes me not want to play on it again until that feature is removed.
Maybe in the future our war2 dev's can integrate the new graphics with our war2combat. A guy can dream right? lol.

[~ToRa~]

I dont belive they will fix any issue, its just warcraft 2 remaster tides of darkness instead remaster battle.net, I have no clue why they didnt do like SC

custom maps are dead atm, you cant download map

I guess it’s cause Blizzard doesn’t have any interest in improving war2 multiplayer.

[KingHillBilly]

If anyone encounters any other bugs besides what's noted here, please let me know.


1) No chat channels/lobby
2) Multiplayer maps aren't working/not available
--workaround by pasting maps in every folder seems to work
3) Settings are not saved when launching maps
4) No countdown to launch  - 5 4 3 2 1 (even bnet had this)
5) Can't set observers in game or lobbies
6) No ally/vision panel in game
7) Mouse slowness/weirdness
Right clicks in fog don't display X
9) No map preview in multiplayer
10) Users without maps don't download maps automatically
11) UI menu sliders don't work well, takes multiple clicks to move
12) Game speeds are not shown by their names - Fastest, Even Faster, Faster etc
13)No ability to put passwords on multiplayer lobbbies (this has been a thing for 25 years)
14) Host can't set teams
15) Host can't set observers
16) No Lag popup in multiplayer - game just freezes and players drop
17) No custom multiplayer modes - tvb, melee, use map settings etc
18) No lag indicator in Lobby
19) Black hasn't been replaced with another color - too hard to see
20) Skeletons don't despawn after a set amount of time - they should
21) Spellcasters show all of their spells even when not researched, many users dont like this
22) Mouse icon doesn't change to magnifying glass when selecting buildings/units like it should (video clip below of what it should do)

[~ToRa~]

Blizzard forum full of complaints…

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/blizzard/c/warcraft-ii/31

[{Lance}]

KHB,  add "Built in Maphack" to your list lmfao.  There's an option to disable fog and when you do, you can see enemies anywhere you've scouted.

[Shotgun]

When you disable fog of war does it do it for all players or just you? This option has always existed pregame

[{Lance}]

Just for you and it's never existed in multiplayer where you could see enemy units without needing to scout them     I paid 15 bux for a game with a builtin maphack heh.

There is one plus I guess.  If you turn off fog,  you will eventually drop as you reveal players.  The more players you reveal with a scout, the more likely you are to drop and when you drop, the players you reveal become CPUs.  It's weird.  I tried watching with Fog off and as soon as I reveal everyone, they all turn into CPUs and then eventually the game just lags out.  So this pretty much renders fog off as a maphack as ineffective.  All it will do is get you dropped

[O4L]

Lobby does look cool. Hopefully KHB's list gets used. He use to be a QA for Blizzard so maybe he's got the connections to actually get something done.

Starcrafts remaster has a 1vs1 ranked mode. Would be cool to get that as well.

[Pandaprewmaster325]

Didn't the original game also had an option with fog of war removed ? Is it bugged now? Lol

[Szwagier]

I dont belive they will fix any issue, its just warcraft 2 remaster tides of darkness instead remaster battle.net, I have no clue why they didnt do like SC

custom maps are dead atm, you cant download map

I guess it’s cause Blizzard doesn’t have any interest in improving war2 multiplayer.

Yes it will be awesome game for singleplayer