Review for StarCraft Remastered. Game for PC and Mac, the video game was released on 14/08/2017
Since the days of PlayStation 3, the concept of "remaster" has established itself: old games are "modernized" (resolution and texture) to be more enjoyable in the current generation. After a timid appearance on the market of the very first remastered editions, the software houses have noted with joy that this operation was able to bring great profits with minimal effort. However, this operation is questionable, especially in cases where a game released only a short time before is re-proposed (like most of the PlayStation 2 games proposed for the PlayStation 3, and those of the 3 landed on the 4).
Blizzard, on the other hand, goes against the grain, deciding that a remastered worthy of the name must actually also be useful for those who want to enjoy a game of the past with renewed graphics. So here is that StarCraft Remastered makes a legendary RTS dating back almost twenty years ago available even on the latest generation of PCs thanks to painstaking work that forced developers to rewrite the lost code of an entire game from scratch.
A masterpiece of the past
Blizzard Entertainment made history two decades ago thanks to the RTS masterpieces it was able to churn out. Warcraft and Warcraft 2 accompanied the youth of many gamers, with their incredible fantasy and excellent gameplay, which had only one flaw: choosing the faction of humans or orcs changed almost nothing, due to completely mirror units, with very few differences between the two breeds. This defect was overcome with the release of StarCraft, which it proposed to the user three completely different races: the Terrans, with their high mobility and balanced power, the Zerg with their low resource cost that favored mass attack, and the Protoss with their elite and high-powered units, however, needing Pylons to make operate their facilities. The game not only had an exciting and balanced gameplay, which brought RTS to the e-sports scene, but it also had a well-structured story, with great characters and full of twists.
StarCraft 2 has failed to completely distract fans from their true first love, to the point that Blizzard has granted the opportunity for a few months to download both Starcraft and the Brood War expansion for free in their primitive versions. The choice of proposing, at the modest price of € 15, the possibility of transforming this game into a more modern version graphically is the most congenial to bring new generations closer to the series and to bring a tear to all those who loved the saga at the time, regardless of the criticism leveled at Blizzard by those who fear a schism between the players of Starcraft 2 who will abandon the recent trilogy to return to the shores of the past. Although this possibility is concrete and "worrying", we can only be excited about this great return, especially after a gigantic opening tournament commented on the legendary Day9.
Redo your makeup and the wrinkles will disappear
StarCraft Remastered is not a remake of StarCraft. The base is and remains the original game, to the point that the remaster is practically reduced to a mod that can be activated or deactivated at will, even in-game, from the graphic options. Magically, with a single click, the old StarCraft is transformed into a title that can reach 4K resolution, with wide-screen support, and with redesigned sprites full of details.
All this without affecting the gameplay in the slightest, for better or for worse. StarCraft Remastered, in terms of playability and possibilities, is completely identical to the original, including the requirement for more complicated micromanagement due to the limit of 12 selectable units and a queue of 6 units trainable by the facilities. We are therefore faced with the real StarCraft, the one and only, which has simply redone its makeup a bit. The soundtrack has not aged at all and remains beautiful in all its forms, and as for the graphics sector, it is possible at any time to select original music and dubbing from twenty years ago.
Giving a vote to StarCraft Remastered is extremely complicated: we could evaluate the simple restyle or the whole package, with two games that have made history. We have decided to use a middle ground, giving credit to the incredible work of Blizzard, which had to rewrite the entire code from scratch, but also thinking about those who will finally play StarCraft for the first time. The original game is available for free and the Remastered mode is on sale for only € 15, a price that makes this package a must for anyone, between old generation and newbies.
► StarCraft Remastered is an RTS-type game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for PC and Mac, the video game was released on 14/08/2017
