With the release of Reforged, I just can't fathom the nostalgia of playing old school RTS game, it’s just awesome to see classics like this game being released. I feel like both the film/tv industry and game is remastering and remaking games and it’s quite a satisfying experience to see it again. Now, the game’s vast improvements since the original is lacking in quality, with its huge emphasis of its graphical change to comment its date.
While there isn’t really any huge improvements in Reforged much less being a remastered game and all. The graphics changes looks impressive for a game in 2020, while some looks odd like the terrain and all the details for buildings being constructed looks nice. All from the units and structures being built, it might now be impressive for a 2020 game but it’s up there. It’s kinda like they primarily focus on the graphical fidelity but forget the cherry on top, or rather it looks like they should of made this game, five years ago and it would be acceptable. Also it looks even more nicer to be in 4k, very sharp looking in the texture. Furthermore, you can switch from original to remaster, which is cool touch although you can’t do it in game rather beforehand and that’s disappointing.
However I found that the unit animations to be questionable, some of the units like the footman’s walking animation look weird looking, almost like they didn’t do much with that. It really just looks like some sort of T-pose whenever they move or some half finished model that someone forgot to complete as a mod. Other than that the animations for everything else looks great especially for spellcasters. It's a shame that the graphics aren't really a huge face lift and whats more disappointing is that even Starcraft 2 looks more prettier and that was ten years ago!
Another disappointing factor, I guess just like Starcraft Remastered is that they didn’t redub the voice acting in the game, while there isn’t a problem much less I would think they would have the new voiceover for all the characters in the game. It’s kinda disappointing but it is still rather nice to hear it in a nostalgic kind of way. Since its original game, there are many moments in the cutscenes that the acting is terrible. It seems they added some more new music but I always mute the music in game due to getting boring while dreading out throughout the campaign.
With the release of Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition last year, it feels like another game such as Reforged to be a complete nostalgia trip. While the graphical fidelity of this 4K game is the highlight of this game, the low lights being the weird looking animations for the units and sometimes ugly portraits, it’s still a decent game to play, if you like the multiplayer aspect to it. There is also some little features that they transfer from Starcraft 2 such as the matchmaking with Battlenet online, getting in real quick. Also some other features such as stacking items on your hero units and including both Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne campaigns, totaling up to 60+ missions spanning from four racial factions (The Alliance, The Horde and the Undead Scourge and many more). I would give this game a pass though with a hefty $40 for this remaster.