Just an Idea: "War2EE"

Warcraft 2 Dragon Render Promo. Taken from MobyGames.

A week earlier I shared my perspective on how I would've handled an "Enhanced Edition" of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. Despite not thinking it just wouldn't happen (or even necessary), there's still actually a few things that could be implied to the first game of the series via remaster or different kind of re-release, but I think I might've went a bit overboard in my scuffed pitch in spite of my initial intend. This series of posts is all ideas and not reality, so it's fine either way: I mean, I do enjoy this concept overall.

Now I would like to follow it up with my vision of "Enhanced Version" for Warcraft 2, but it's going to be more different in comparison to my prior material. Although, much like with War1, we pretty much have the second game in the great spot nowadays. Doesn't mean I can't throw in a few thoughts about what could've been, but this time it surely wouldn't be as lengnthy as previous "article" and you'll understand why.

Current Status.

Unlike Orcs & Humans, Warcraft 2: Battle.net Edition is actually in pretty good spot nowadays. Its re-release on GOG made it even more accessable to old school enthusiats such as myself in legal way as previously first two games were stuck in abandonware state, which is the era when I had my first expereince with both titles. Battle.net Edition on itself is a re-release of the original game for Windows with the main feature being support for multiplayer over Battle.net, which is still active to this day... or rather were resurrected thanks to aforementioned arrival on another platforms.

The main point of this is that Warcraft 2 still is in good shape. Its visuals are even better than the first time and as timeless as the art style of Warcraft 3. While some may argue that it could've received a treatment like Command & Conquer or Age of Empires 2, I don't think its really that necessary. Call me old-fashioned guy, but I really adore this game's pixelated look and would rather see a few more updates to Battle.net Edition that would lean much more into "enhanced re-release" territory.

While projects like Wargus has been a thing for many years, vast majority of a humble Warcraft 2 community prefers either previously mentioned client or its modified version called Combat Edition that's basically an improved iteration of Battle.net Edition. So again, they got it covered. Where can they go from here? Well, recent widescreen mod for the game shows a lot of promise. There's a source code for The Dark Saga out there, but I'm not sure how useful it can be for Windows or even DOS versions of the game. It doesn't seem like it received that much attention, which suggested that there's really nothing fans of PC version could do with it.

The Dark Parity.

Speaking of which, there're specific reasons why I bringing up console port of this game as that's actually an essential ingredient of this concept. Rather than suggesting some kind of remaster, my core idea is to bring over most of The Dark Saga's features to PC and maybe even other consoles with mobile platforms by official means or community efforts via reverse engineering and other "magic tricks".

However, it doesn't mean the lack of additional graphics options. As I've mentioned before, Warcraft 2 aged pretty well in terms of visuals and to me there's really no way to improve on it in a meaningful way. Instead I would've preferred to go on the way with the subtitle of "article's" segment and add a filter that would recreate the console look of the game with more chunky pixels. Why? Because it's actually pretty neat and I love pixels, so why not?

Warcraft 2: The Dark Saga Screenshot. Taken from TASVideos.

Obviously, I would also suggesting implementing controller support for the game: with and without usage of analog sticks. After all, if someone would like to play the game in the same way as they expereinced the original Playstation port, there's that one extra step that needs to be present. Which also suggests the addition of minimalistic HUD from The Dark Saga for everyone who decides to try it out. That, in terms, leads us to a larger subject.

Many changes were implemented in The Dark Saga in order to make gameplay experience more manageable for players on Playstation & Saturn with options for automation of unit production and learning upgrates. In terms of gameplay, I envision the option to have both standard PC experience without any alterations from "The Dark Parity" (besides graphics mode, maybe) with all the additions being tied to a separate game mode where everyone can do whatever they desire. This offers the best of both worlds with original gameplay remaining intact while also providing some crazy (and perhaps dumb) optional variation that wouldn't damage the original experience. Of all the gameplay changes from The Dark Saga, they only one I would refrain from adding is increased unit selection from 9 to 16.

Singleplayer Additions.

Since I don't really have much else to say it regards to multiplayer (similarly to original Warcraft), there's only a few features left to talk about and all of them are oriented towards singleplayer experience. Although Electronic Arts had to cut many corners to get Warcraft 2 onto previously mentioned consoles from fifth generation, all missions from Tides of Darkness & Beyond The Dark Portal remained the same. Saving functionality was present  as well, but Password system was still common in console titles of the game and was proven quite useful for The Dark Saga. Similarly to re-release of DOOM 64, I think that it would've been nice to reimplement such functionality despite its redundancy.

What would definitely be a nice blast of the past is a number of new cinematics for Beyond The Dark Portal that are exclussive to the console port of Warcraft 2. Although Battle.net Edition came out later, it didn't brought over those videos for expansion's campaigns. The Dark Saga also differently approached continent's maps that were shown only at the start of each Act in PC versions, focusing on specific region of Eastern Kingdoms and Draenor. Instead they came back to 3D versions of full continents with better indications of progress  like in original DOOM or Warcraft 3. It would be nice to not only carry that over, but also match it with 2D version of the map to better match visual aesthetic of the original game.

Now there's just one simple feature from The Dark Saga left to mention. Much like the originals, console port allowed players to face AI opponents on various maps outside of campaigns. To speed up this process, developers included a "quick-play" mode that selected a random map to play on without the need to deal with various options. As a skirmish enjoyer, I think it would've been nice to have this option added in case you don't know what map you should play on against virtual opponent this time around or just wanna have this small element of surprise after getting familiar with most of them.