Warcraft I: Remastered – My liege? [Review]

I decided that I wanted to experience the canonical storyline of Warcraft up until World of Warcraft. Where else to start than the beginning with the first RTS game in this legendary franchise. Now, I’m not playing the original release, but a remaster simply called Warcraft I: Remastered—made by Blizzard themselves. While it left me with a disjointed feeling towards its presentation, it’s probably the best way to play the original campaign. Many mechanics have been made modern in terms of gameplay, like being able to select larger groups, and hot-key support. 

However, as mentioned, the presentation is questionable at best, with the “improved” graphics seemingly only getting a cheap AI upscaling instead of genuine care to keep the aesthetics and feel of the original game. So, is the remaster worth the trouble, or does it undermine its own legacy?

Orc invasion
Given that I’m going for the canonical experience, I played through the human campaign—it’s the one that set the story for the future games in the series. As things go in the harsh world and without much explanation, ferocious orcs suddenly attack Azeroth seemingly out of the blue. This naturally alarms the humans, as becoming a snack for the greenskins is not on top of the agenda. Yet they are not taken in complete shock, as the response is quick—meeting the orcs in full force, with no mercy shown (as it should be).

Addendum:
It has come to my attention that the canonical outcome of Warcraft I is actually the Orc campaign, not the human one. In official lore, Stormwind falls to the Horde, and its survivors flee north to Lordaeron—setting the stage for Warcraft II. While I chose to play the human campaign for my review, readers should know that the canon timeline follows the Orc victory. So keep that in mind while reading!

Warcraft I: Remastered doesn’t offer much in the story department, which isn’t too surprising, given that it’s the first game in the series and over thirty years old. But what it does is set up the foundation for all the epic stories that follow. Specifically Warcraft III, and the early chapters of World of Warcraft. 

I found the narrative a tad thin, but I enjoyed it still. Mostly thanks to nostalgia and all the references to “future” notable places and characters. For example, the first human mission has you setting up farms in Westfall to supply the army at the front with food. If you have played World of Warcraft on the Alliance side, this is a nostalgic treat. Westfall is essentially the breadbasket of the Alliance—producing essential wheat for the alliance, as the area is filled to the brim with farms! This made me a smile, and the game is filled with nods like this. If you don’t have a connection to the franchise prior, there isn’t too much deep knowledge to be gained here. But those of us who do, it’s very charming and rewarding.

The war
When it comes to gameplay, Warcraft I: Remastered is as basic as it comes. Once again, you can clearly see the foundation being laid down, like how certain units have magic, and skills that require activation by the player. A mechanic that became much more prominent in Warcraft III. I thought this was something invented much later, so I was surprised to see it this early. Setting up a base is actually very quick and easy—when I believed the supposed archaic controls would be a real pain in the behind. You don’t even need that many peasants to sustain a base, with a death-dealing military included!

However, goldmines run out fast, which means you need to find new ones to plunder often. And one of the quirks of Warcraft I is that you can’t build any drop-off sites for resources. This means all gold collecting after exhausting the initial goldmine will be a long trek for your peasants—often across dangerous, orc-infested lands. This went as well as expected, naturally. Many brave commoners were sacrificed to keep the human armed forces topped off in the best equipment. Rest in pieces!

The crossbow, the destroyer of worlds
What’s the use of plate armor and training knights for years, when a peasant can kill one within five minutes of picking up a crossbow? Fittingly, just like real life history, this happens in the game too. There aren’t that many units to pick from, with the heaviest and most expensive being the knight. Especially if you want him upgraded with the best equipment and the fastest horse. But as noted, a crossbowman will make short work of him, regardless of thickness of armor, and years of extensive training.

The crossbowman is extremely overpowered (OP) compared to any other unit, and to upgrade him is relatively easy and cheap—it only requires a lumber mill. Attack with six or more, and you will shadow the ground with bolts, as these crossbows function like an early medieval machine gun. Hilarious, but I guess also realistic in a way. Who knew it would be the peasant crossbowman that saved Azeroth from the orcs—instead of fine steel and bravery of men baptized in deadly close combat battle.

The only real enemy of all living things, and crossbowmen in particular, is the catapult. If you get rid of them, the maps are not hard to finish. Just order a bunch of crossbowmen, and it’s basically over for the orcs.

The Azeroth look
Ironically, the new graphics make the game look very cheap and plastic, while the old pixel-art visuals are incredibly charming and lively. Luckily, you can easily turn this off—and the same goes for the music. This means that you can play the game in widescreen with the old adorable graphics and music, but with gameplay improvements to make it control better. Where the remaster fails is that certain minor cutscenes for flair have been totally removed.

The intro has essentially been defiled, as it has been run through a very simple AI upscaling tool that did a shoddy job. Another oddity is that you can only watch the intro once—for whatever reason. If you want to see it again, you will have to go into the files and delete the file PREFS.WAR.

It can be found here: %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Warcraft2Remastered

It just comes off as low-effort to me, when instead of a partial remaster, we could have gotten a real one, with every aspect of the game improved. Alas, it was not to be, for whatever reason (probably money).

Conclusion
Despite these issues, Warcraft I: Remastered is probably the best way to experience the game that started it all. Story-wise, it’s not much more than a brief setup of the base plot, yet it’s a curious piece. Especially if you play it for the first time now—with knowledge from the later games. Many locations have existed for years before being made into leveling areas in World of Warcraft, which is a nice connection to the past that makes the franchise feel deliberate and real.

It’s just a shame that the game didn’t see more effort put into it, but then again, it’s not very expensive, going for about ten euros. Do I recommend it? Sure, if you already like the lore and love the genre, it’s a pleasant throwback to simpler mechanics and story. 

Thanks for reading.

– Thomas