Late last night, Blizzard announced something very special over at the official Starcraft Website. They are releasing a remaster of the classic Starcraft and the expansion, Starcraft: Brood War, in 4K.
The Starcraft remaster has long been rumoured in forums, Reddit and game sites worldwide, yet Blizzard had let very little slip about the authenticity of these rumblings until now. This new edition of the classic RTS will improve everything that could be improved without changing the core gameplay, that people know and love to this day, 19 years after it was first launched.
“We’ve remastered our units, buildings, and environments, improved game audio, and broadened our supported resolutions. Illustrated interludes bring the struggles and victories of heroes like Artanis, Fenix, Tassadar, Raynor and Kerrigan to life like never before. Most importantly, the strategy gameplay that StarCraft perfected years ago remains unchanged.”
With this Starcraft Remastered Blizzard are rebuilding the game to work with the modern era of gaming. From the new comic book-style interludes for missions and storytelling, advanced matchmaking; full support for Blizzards new set of network features; cloud saving for campaign progress, remastered audio, custom maps, etc. It is clear this will be a labour of love for this classic franchise, and gives players new and old to the series a fresh way to play.
“StarCraft is a pure distillation of Blizzard’s DNA—its story, its balance, and all the little details reflect our long-running commitment to epic entertainment, and it’s been a staple in competitive gaming and esports for almost 20 years,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “With StarCraft: Remastered, we’re modernizing the original game’s visuals, audio, and online support to ensure that players can enjoy StarCraft for another 20 years and beyond.”
As an added bonus for fans, the original Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War will be getting an updating this week, version 1.18, that will add the ability to rebind keys, an observer mode, anti-cheat, and overall compatibility improvements for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. Once this update goes live, the game will become free to download and play. Starcraft Remaster will be launching this summer for PC and Mac, Blizzard has yet to announced a price for the package.
