Warcraft II: Remastered gets leaked, Blizzard is bringing back the iconic RTS game

Blizzard is hosting a special Warcraft Anniversary Direct next week on November 13 (10:00 am PT, 1:00 pm ET) to celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary. The broadcast will be streamed live on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok and will feature several Warcraft developers "reflecting on the last 30 years" of the iconic franchise and a look at what's in store for the future.

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Warcraft II: Remastered could be announced next week during Blizzard's Warcraft Anniversary Direct.

Per Blizzard's announcement, the focus will be on current games - World of Warcraft, Classic, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble. However, a new data leak from Blizzard's internal servers has revealed that the studio is currently testing 'Warcraft II: Remastered Internal Alpha.' With employees playing the game, the odds are that it will be announced and possibly released during next week's Warcraft Anniversary stream.

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and its expansion Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal were released for MS-DOS in 1995 and 1996, respectively. Both games presented the finest real-time strategy (RTS) gameplay of the early PC gaming era.

From the story to the art direction, sound effects, music, and multiplayer, it helped cement Blizzard as one of the most respected and beloved PC game developers ever. Warcraft II's success ultimately led to the birth of StarCraft, Warcraft III's early MOBA mechanics, and World of Warcraft. Now, as a remastered release, odds are it will be similar in look and feel to StarCraft Remastered, another game that used 2D art and assets for its presentation.

Warcraft 2, with 4K assets and support for modern 16:9 aspect ratios, would be awesome to see. It'd be great if Warcraft II: Remastered also launched into Xbox Game Pass to give more players the option to revisit the classic.

The icing on the cake would be new or enhanced cinematics. Even though Blizzard's cinematics team has always been at the forefront of creating truly impressive cutscenes, Warcraft 2's intro now looks like a relic from 30 years ago.