Hey there.
It’s been more than two weeks since I made “A List of Issues & Suggestions For Warcraft 1: Remastered” topic where I listed many issues I managed to spot in War1R from indirect observation. Now that I managed to spare some time after the release of Patch 1.0.1, I want to use this opportunity to shine the light on some other problems I was able to observe from Warcraft 2: Remastered’s gameplay videos. This is a perfect opportunity to try and shine the light on remaining War2R issues alongside suggestions for additional ideas that might serve as great additions to this release.
If there’s anything that you can add or elaborate on as a War2R, that would be greatly appreciated. All of the issues & suggestions are listed down below:
Cinematics, Briefings, Victory/Defeat Screens and Endings.
- All upscaled cinematics appear slightly darker in comparison to Battle.net Edition. → Slightly brighten them up to bring cinematics more in line with their original versions.
Note: I wasn’t exactly sure of this initially, but cinematics from across multiple playthroughs appear to be slightly darker than they should. I think the first Horde cinematic from its Tides of Darkness campaign is a good example of this issue.
- Mouse cursor is still visible when cinematics play. → Hide the cursor.
- Suggestion: Add all six exclusive Beyond the Dark Portal cinematics from Warcraft 2: The Dark Saga and properly upscale them.
Note: Unlike the Macintosh port of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft 2 was ported to original PlayStation and Sega Saturn by Electronic Saga. If EA is still holding all the rights to this version of War2, this might be an impossible taste if talks over it won’t go well.
- Orgrim Doomhammer holding severed head of Blackhand is shown in the briefings of Act I in Orc’s campaigns instead of a Footman striking a Grunt. → Change it back.
- Gul’dan surrendering to Orgrim is depicted in the briefings of Act II in Horde’s campaigns instead of a group of orcs → Change it back.
- A group of orcs is depicted in the briefings of Act III in Horde’s campaigns instead of a Mage attacking a few goblins. → Change it back.
- Death Knight with Skeletons attacking a Footmen are shown in the briefings of Act IV in Horde’s campaigns instead of a Gryphon Rider attacking Horde’s Oil Tanker. → Change it back.
- A unique artwork depicting the shadowy army of the Horde standing before the burning walls of Lordaeron is missing from the ending of Horde’s campaigns, replaced by the current Act IV art in War2R. → Bring it back.
- Mage attacking a few goblin is depicted in the briefings of Act II in Alliance’s campaigns instead of a Paladin fighting Ogre. → Change it back.
- Paladin is depicted in the briefings of Act III in Alliance’s campaigns instead of a Death Knight with Skeletons attacking a Footmen. → Change it back.
- Gryphon Rider attacking Horde’s Oil Tanker is depicted in the briefings Act IV in Alliance’s campaigns instead of a Dragon fighting against Gryphon Rider. → Change it back.
- A unique artwork depicting Khadgar overlooking the crater after the destruction of the Dark Portal is missing from the ending of Alliance’s campaigns, replaced by the current Act IV art in War2R.
Note: Sadly I can’t put links in the post, so all I can do is ask to compare the briefings from the original War2 versions and Remastered on your own. The game has a nice artwork, but its placement in the Remastered doesn’t match with original versions and that’s not a good thing. With missing art from the endings being the worst part of it.
- Footmen’s helmets in Alliance’s victory screen are missing eye spots. → Redraw helmets properly.
- One of the flags in Alliance’s defeat screen are colored incorrectly. → Recolor the flag properly.
Note: Likely as a result of initial(?) upscale and no proper comparison with older renderers and Alliance’s Tides of Darkness ending, these flaws was overlooked and Footmen there look stupid.
You can take a closer look at the Remastered version of victory/defeat screens in War2R’s page in Blizzard’s Media Center for closer examination. Original versions would require mild searching unless you simply launch the original versions of War2.
- Only Remastered versions of briefings, act transitions, victory/defeat screens and endings are currently present. → Add in their original versions for Classic mode.
- No Credits in endings like in original versions of War2. → Bring them back in.
Single Player.
- No option for Remastered mode to have a small frame in upper, right and lower parts of the screen from the original game. → Add this option in settings that you can turn on/off.
- No widescreen support for Classic graphics within Classic UI Scale. → Add an option that allows players to choose between default 4:3 view of Classic graphics with original Scale and the widescreen one.
- When using Fixed UI Scale with Classic graphics, game shows blue screen outside of small map borders instead of a black in Remastered graphics. → Adjust them in line with the Remastered graphics.
Note: I’ve been told that Classic graphics can actually be displayed in widescreen resolutions, but that appears to work only when you select one of the Fixed UI Scale options and not the Classic one.
I think it’s reasonable to say that there should be an option that allows players to select how it’s going to work when playing with Classic graphics and Scale: either 4:3 or widescreen.
- Suggestion: Add additional visual “Dark Saga” mode based on console port of Warcraft 2 in pixelated and filtered forms that can be enabled in Options.
Note: As I’ve mention in a note for The Dark Saga cinematics suggestion, it being developed by EA potentially makes not to easy to repurpose fragments of these console ports in the remasters. I think it’s still worth a try though, as (again) it would be a fun novelty thing.
- No Classic unit selection option. → Add it back in.
Note: While the increased unit selection in War2R (9→12) as drastic as in War1R (4→12), allowing players to get closer to the original gameplay experience is always a good thing. Not fully confident that this option should work in multiplayer, but if someone wants to settle themselves with this small disadvantage… Maybe you should just let them?
- Current Options are extremely barebones. → Add more options to in-game settings like hotkey customization and expanding on existing ones such as screen resolution.
- Missing “Save Game” option on “Congratulations! You’re Victorious!” Screen → Bring it back.
- Suggestion: Add QoL option to go to the main menu from “You are victorious!” screen.
Multiplayer.
- Missing Local Area Network option. → Bring it back.
- Battle.net menu with “Channel”, “Create”, “Join” and “Ladder” options and global in-game menu with channels have been replaced with basic map browser. → Bring Remastered’s Multiplayer to the level of Battle.net Edition with everything it had/has to offer.
Note: This point is rather short because, obviously, I didn’t had any experience with Warcraft 2’s multiplayer in any form. So I can’t offer a detailed explanation as to what each option was offering, even though they sound fairly self-explanatory. I don’t currently own a copy of Battle.net Edition either, so I can’t look everything up on my own.
Main Menu.
- Lack of “Replay Introduction” option. → Bring it back.
- Lack of “Show Credits” option. → Bring it back.
- Suggestion: Add an option to let the game automatically replay Introduction cinematic and four recorded battles from original versions of Warcraft 2 when you’re idle on Main Menu for a set amount of time.