AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Tired of seeing videos where modders have "recreated" games in Unreal Engine 5, except it's just a three minute video of some horribly over-processed monstrosity? Me too. Fortunately, this is the real deal - the Turtle WoW developers have recreated their extension of the original WoW in UE5, and it's coming next year. This is not an advert, I don't belong to the Turtle development team, I've simply played there on-and-off for years and love the server and what they're about to pull off. A few layman Q+As before we get to the good stuff.
Scroll down if you just want to see the juicy video.
What is "turtle" WoW?
Put simply, Turtle is a private WoW server that took the 2006 version of the game and added a whole bunch of new stuff over time, without ever following the original expansion path Blizzard did. All content stays in Azeroth (the original "map") but adds new races such as High Elves, new zones, dungeons, raids, items, professions, modes, etc. The level cap remains the same and the point is that all content remains relevant, without a level jump that renders the old world moot.
Aren't private servers illegal / don't they get shut down?
The legality of running servers is certainly a grey area, especially depending on where you live in the world, but playing on one is not illegal. Turtle is hosted in the the EU, and Blizzard have never really tried to take it down. Turtle has been running for almost 6 years and there are plenty of private servers that have been running much longer - the myth that Blizzard will come and take out private servers at any second has been perpetuated wrongly for a long time. Servers are free to play and take donations, usually in exchange for varying rewards, to keep afloat. The question of recreating an old game in UE5 is certainly an interesting one, and I'm not a lawyer, but Turtle aren't the sort of team to just spend 18 months doing this without investigating that first.
Why not just play Blizzard's official legacy servers?
This is certainly what many, many people do - but I shouldn't have to tell GAF how incompetent modern Blizzard are. Their version of a "Classic Plus" is incredibly simplistic and barely adds anything to the base game considering how much funding they have. They only offer access to limited versions of the game at their discretion, whereas various private servers offer ways to play different expansions as they were at the time, or add new custom content.
So then, what is Turtle WoW 2.0?
To play Turtle, you need to use a modified version of the 2006 game client. This feels incredibly dated, not only from a graphics point of view, but the way it feels. The framerate can fly all over the place, it can feel stuttery and jarring, there's a lack of QoL that was added to newer versions of the client that's missing here. It's fine and it's worth putting up with to play a server as good as Turtle's, but it's not ideal.
Enter 2.0: the whole game recreated in Unreal Engine 5. For real this time - no clickbait trailer for something that doesn't exist, they've been working on this for 18+ month and it's due to release next year. Not only does it bring in a new graphics mode (and an option to switch to legacy graphics for those who want it to look the same way), recreating the client means things like proprietary anti-botting and cheating tech, widescreen support and FOV sliders, performances, support for DLSS and FidelityFX, action queing anti-latency, legacy addon support, Android mobile device support and more. It gives the team far greater control over their version of the game. But seriously - the graphics. This is the sort of recreation of old games we deserve, not just slapping an old database into a modern client and calling it a day.
So then, the good stuff - here's the trailer for 2.0.
A Q+A can be found in a forum post here:
forum.turtle-wow.org
Personally I'm already going to be invested in another private WoW project by the time this comes out, but I will absolutely be checking it out. This could be an incredibly transformative experience for anyone looking to recapture that old WoW magic, without having to tolerate old WoW burdens.
Scroll down if you just want to see the juicy video.
What is "turtle" WoW?
Put simply, Turtle is a private WoW server that took the 2006 version of the game and added a whole bunch of new stuff over time, without ever following the original expansion path Blizzard did. All content stays in Azeroth (the original "map") but adds new races such as High Elves, new zones, dungeons, raids, items, professions, modes, etc. The level cap remains the same and the point is that all content remains relevant, without a level jump that renders the old world moot.
Aren't private servers illegal / don't they get shut down?
The legality of running servers is certainly a grey area, especially depending on where you live in the world, but playing on one is not illegal. Turtle is hosted in the the EU, and Blizzard have never really tried to take it down. Turtle has been running for almost 6 years and there are plenty of private servers that have been running much longer - the myth that Blizzard will come and take out private servers at any second has been perpetuated wrongly for a long time. Servers are free to play and take donations, usually in exchange for varying rewards, to keep afloat. The question of recreating an old game in UE5 is certainly an interesting one, and I'm not a lawyer, but Turtle aren't the sort of team to just spend 18 months doing this without investigating that first.
Why not just play Blizzard's official legacy servers?
This is certainly what many, many people do - but I shouldn't have to tell GAF how incompetent modern Blizzard are. Their version of a "Classic Plus" is incredibly simplistic and barely adds anything to the base game considering how much funding they have. They only offer access to limited versions of the game at their discretion, whereas various private servers offer ways to play different expansions as they were at the time, or add new custom content.
So then, what is Turtle WoW 2.0?
To play Turtle, you need to use a modified version of the 2006 game client. This feels incredibly dated, not only from a graphics point of view, but the way it feels. The framerate can fly all over the place, it can feel stuttery and jarring, there's a lack of QoL that was added to newer versions of the client that's missing here. It's fine and it's worth putting up with to play a server as good as Turtle's, but it's not ideal.
Enter 2.0: the whole game recreated in Unreal Engine 5. For real this time - no clickbait trailer for something that doesn't exist, they've been working on this for 18+ month and it's due to release next year. Not only does it bring in a new graphics mode (and an option to switch to legacy graphics for those who want it to look the same way), recreating the client means things like proprietary anti-botting and cheating tech, widescreen support and FOV sliders, performances, support for DLSS and FidelityFX, action queing anti-latency, legacy addon support, Android mobile device support and more. It gives the team far greater control over their version of the game. But seriously - the graphics. This is the sort of recreation of old games we deserve, not just slapping an old database into a modern client and calling it a day.
So then, the good stuff - here's the trailer for 2.0.
A Q+A can be found in a forum post here:
Turtle WoW 2.0 — Powered by Unreal Engine 5
Greetings! Many players have expressed that Mysteries of Azeroth and Vanilla WoW are becoming difficult to play as the old 1.12 client can struggle on newer har
Personally I'm already going to be invested in another private WoW project by the time this comes out, but I will absolutely be checking it out. This could be an incredibly transformative experience for anyone looking to recapture that old WoW magic, without having to tolerate old WoW burdens.
