Warcraft 2: Tides Of Darkness Remastered is apparently being released ahead of the RTS series’ 30th anniversary next week

We’re still a week away from Blizzard’s Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct next Wednesday, November 13th, but art from what appears to be a remaster of the 1995 real-time strategy game Warcraft II: Tides Of Darkness has been leaked via Xibbly user Stiven . As far as leaks go, it’s just a sketchy image, but it shows what looks like a cover, a logo, and a Battle.net icon. Thanks for the spot, Percy Coswald Gamer.

If you have memories of Warcraft 2 as fondly as I do, you may have managed to spot a darting, kopium-infused omen in Blizzard’s announcement of the event, which mentioned the first Warcraft game, Orcs And Humans. Still, this is a pleasant surprise when you remember how they handled the series in the recent past with Warcraft 3: Reforged, which removed many features like offline multiplayer lobbies that players were expecting. It remains to be seen whether they will repeat the same mistake, although I wouldn’t bet against them snatching defeat from the jaws of an easy victory.

If you missed Warcraft II the first time, the Tides Of Darkness subheading was a reference to the naval units being added. In practice this just means the units are clicked around some blue stuff instead of snow, but at the time it felt quite impressive, and the naval transport units added a new dimension to the maps. Even dragons!

Blizzard has promised that there will be “something for everyone” at the event, which will be broadcast at 6:00 p.m. GMT/1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT, as to what else to expect from the Anniversary Edition. This promise is of course a lie, because there will be no news from Rock n’ Roll Racing. Following the stream itself, there will be a musical event celebrating 20 years of music. If you’re in the mood for a real-time portal/reminder of how incredibly mind-blowing it was to watch games become more beautiful in real-time, I’ll leave you with this cutscene from the original Warcraft 2:

That was the pinnacle of film art back then. And it still is.