“Has this ever happened to you,” we ask in our best infomercial voice: You revisit a game from ten or twenty years ago that you used to love, and despite the hours you put into it, it just hasn’t aged well? A lot of older titles are definitely playable, but especially with PC games, the graphics are a lot more pixelated than you remember. That’s a disenchanting experience, but the StarCraft franchise is keeping its flagship title alive with a remastered version that’s being released this summer (via Kotaku).
Blizzard announced on Monday that the original 1998 StarCraft game, as well as its Brood War expansion, are being rebooted with improved graphics as StarCraft: Remastered. The new version of the classic real-time strategy game has a number of enhancements: The graphics are now in 4K, the audio has been improved, and the game works on the Blizzard App, which will allow players to easily find online matches against players that meet their criteria. The Blizzard App is the client that the PC versions of Overwatch and Hearthstone are played on, so Blizzard devotees can integrate the game into their current ecosystem.
As for the gameplay, that’s staying the exact same, save for a few alterations that Blizzard president Mike Morhaime promised wouldn’t compromise “the original balance of the game,” says Kotaku. The single-player campaign will feature some new narrative interludes, and players will be able to zoom in and out of the field of play.
What do you think of StarCraft: Remastered? Will you embrace the updated graphics and gameplay enhancements, or are you an old school enthusiast that will accept nothing other than the original?
Images: Blizzard
