What you need to know
- Artwork for a possible Warcraft 2 Remastered edition has seemingly been leaked on Blizzard Entertainment's internal servers.
- These leaked images are likely indicating that Blizzard Entertainment plans to announce Warcraft 2: Remastered at the upcoming Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct livesteam event which is set go live on November 13, 2024.
- Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness is a critically real-time strategy game released in 1995 that revolutionized the series with new gameplay mechanics and expanded lore that would help set the stage for Blizzard Entertainment's iconic MMORPG, World of Warcraft.
Early morning on November 6, 2024, famed World of Warcraft fansite WoWhead spotted key artwork and a logo for a remaster of Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness which has been seemingly datamined from Blizzard Entertainment's Content Delivery Network.
The artwork has since spread throughout the internet by various X users like @Stiven_SRB for example, making people aware that Warcraft 2: Remastered could be real and officially announced very soon for Warcraft's upcoming 30th Anniversary Direct stream on November 13, 2024.
Warcraft II Remastered !!! :D pic.twitter.com/txO5VyL3nSNovember 5, 2024
For those unfamiliar, Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness was the 2nd Real-Time Strategy game in the Warcraft franchise back in the days before it transformed into the MMORPG juggernaut we know today as World of Warcraft.
This 1995 classic brought a ton of new innovative gameplay features to the franchise such as being able to control multiple units at once, the Fog of War mechanic (a cloud that prevented rival armies from seeing each other unless they were up close), new navel and aerial units to command, new buildings to construct, new resources to farm, and the series' first map editor.
In addition, Warcraft 2's story expanded the lore of the Warcraft universe with many new concepts, characters, and tropes that would become staples in the franchise for years to come such as the introduction of the Alliance and Horde (previously known as the 'Orcish Horde in Warcraft 1) factions, Deathwing, the Dark Portal, Medivh, and much more.
Aside from the obvious title logo, what makes the aforementioned leaked artwork related to Warcraft 2 is that it depicts a sea battle between the Alliance and Horde factions, which was one of the major selling points of the original game.
However, this leak should be taken with a grain of salt as this artwork could be related to a scrapped project that never materialized or be denied outright by Blizzard Entertainment. So far, Blizzard Entertainment has made no official comment about these supposed leaks for Warcraft 2: Remastered. We will need to wait until the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct next week if this leak turns out to be true.
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Will the Tides of Darkness indeed make a glorious return to celebrate Warcraft's 30th Anniversary?
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Many fans consider Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness (and its expansion Beyond the Dark Portal) to be one of the greatest Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games ever made and one of the best PC games released in 1990s. People loved it and wished for a modern-day remake so much that fans actually recreated Warcraft 2's Horde campaign using Warcraft 3: Reforged's game engine. So the possibility of seeing Warcraft 2 getting an official remaster by Blizzard will no doubt have most fans filled with excitement ... and some with dread.
Blizzard Entertainment's previous remaster endeavor, Warcraft 3: Reforged, was panned by critics and fans for missing many features such as Custom Campaigns and multiplayer game modes among others, possessing tons of technical issues at launch, and preventing people from playing and purchasing the original version of Warcraft 3 on Battle.Net as it was forced to update into Warcraft 3: Reforged. Better times might be ahead for Blizzard's RTS properties, though.
Microsoft, who now owns Warcraft, has shown a ton of support for the RTS genre. The firm's World Edge studio has revitalized Age of Empires II and continues the charge with Age of Empires IV, both of which receive regular new content updates. The team also recently shipped Age of Empires Mythology Retold, which remasters the original title in far better fashion than Warcraft 3 Reforged was able to do previously. Microsoft has also recently put StarCraft I and II into PC Game Pass.
If Warcraft 2: Remastered does turn out to be real and gets announced at the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct, will it suffer the same fate as Warcraft 3: Reforged or will Blizzard Entertainment have learned their lesson and take their time to give Warcraft 2 the proper modern-day reimagining it deserves?
We will have to tune in next week and watch Warcraft's 30th Anniversary Direct to find out.
