Video Games

Blizzard stealth launched Warcraft Remastered and Warcraft 2 Remastered on PC

A little shadow-drop from Blizzard

Marco Wutz, Josh Broadwell, Josh Broadwell

Blizzard

It’s a good day for fans of classic real-time strategy, as Blizzard Entertainment just announced and then released Warcraft Remastered and Warcraft 2 Remastered for PC during the Warcraft 30th anniversary livestream. That's right, you can grab enhanced versions of two of the most influential strategy games now.

Blizzard is releasing them individually on Battlenet and didn't say if they plan to launch either or both on Steam and other platforms. Warcraft 1 Remastered costs $9.99, while Warcraft 2 Remastered is going for $14.99. You can also get both of them with Warcraft 3: Reforged - for which Blizzard just pushed a big 2.0 update live - in a Battle Chest Bundle for $39.99.

“These remasters have brand new hand-drawn visuals that capture the original art style from each game, and you’ll be able to swap between the original graphics and the remastered versions in real time,” Brad Chan, Warcraft RTS senior manager, said during the stream.

Warcraft 1 Remastered also features "modern controls," and both games have interface improvements as well.

Early signs of Warcraft 2: Remastered were discovered a week ago, when Battle.net received assets related to the game on the backend, though these were ostensibly connected to a test rather than a full release.

Originally published in 1995, Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness paved the way for the success of StarCraft in the following years and really marked Blizzard as masters of the RTS genre. The game featured a single-player campaign, multiplayer mode, and map editor to create custom games – and all of these functions are available in Warcraft 2: Remastered.

Fans getting traumatic flashbacks to the release of Warcraft 3: Reforged can calm down – the surprise release is a remaster in the vein of 2017’s StarCraft: Remastered, which was a very faithful and well-received adaptation of the original game.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

Josh Broadwell
JOSH BROADWELL

Josh is a freelance writer and reporter who specializes in guides, reviews, and whatever else he can convince someone to commission. You may have seen him on NPR, IGN, Polygon, or Rolling Stone shouting about RPGs. When he isn’t working, you’ll likely find him outside with his Belgian Malinois and Australian Shepherd or leveling yet another job in FFXIV.

Josh Broadwell
JOSH BROADWELL

Josh is a freelance writer and reporter who specializes in guides, reviews, and whatever else he can convince someone to commission. You may have seen him on NPR, IGN, Polygon, or Rolling Stone shouting about RPGs. When he isn’t working, you’ll likely find him outside with his Belgian Malinois and Australian Shepherd or leveling yet another job in FFXIV.

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