Is Starcraft Remastered Worth It

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

1. Starcraft Remastered Review
2. Is Starcraft Remastered Worth Item

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Release Date: August 14, 2017

StarCraft: Remastered is here and ready to makes us regret the old days of gaming when things were much simpler. Games were good or bad, with pretty much nothing in between. Whether you want to revisit the glory days or see a piece of gaming history for the first time, StarCraft Remastered is a trip well worth taking. In This Article.

1. Whether you want to revisit the glory days or see a piece of gaming history for the first time, StarCraft Remastered is a trip well worth taking. In This Article. StarCraft Remastered.
2. StarCraft: Remastered could have greatly benefited from using Blizzard's modern match-making tools and services. And well worth revisiting.

Platforms: PC

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Let's see, how does this work again? Right, build a few SCV units to collect minerals and vespene gas. Get to work on my Barracks and construct a few Supply Depots to spit out a few Marines and Firebats. Oh right, I'll want to upgrade their weapons and armor. Now, what's next…oh yeah! Siege Tanks and Battlecruisers!

This game is absolutely, undeniably, and timelessly a masterpiece.

Orcs in Space

Representing a complete departure from the WarCraft 2 formula where Humans and Orcs were ostensibly skin swaps (although Blizzard was already dipping its toes into differentiation with units like Ogre Magi and Paladins), StarCraft introduced three fundamentally different races. The Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss each have meticulously fine-tuned characteristics. Each seems to have a few seemingly unstoppable units and set of strategies that are ultimately upended by either a crippling weakness or an ace-in-the-hole opposing unit. For example, Protoss are protected by regenerating shields and are generally more powerful one-on-one. However, they are extremely resource hungry and can be quickly outnumbered by the Zerg swarms or outflanked by the versatility of the Terrans. Even the way Supplies are handled by each race is unique and provides different opportunities. Terran Supply Depots are similar to the traditional farms of old RTS games but Zerg's Overlords are huge blimps capable of detecting cloaked units and upgradeable to shuttle batches of ground units for a sneaky drop. The Protoss need three specialized units to do all that.

In a gentle way, the Campaign is designed to teach the player how to use increasingly more powerful and advanced units. Starting with the basic base-building mechanics and how they are different per race, each mission progresses the player to focus on a particular strategy to achieve the mission's objectives. It's not dissimilar to Link using a Hook Shot in a dungeon shortly after acquiring it for the first time. Ultimately, the Chapters close with more open-ended and missions that require a more layered approach. This is brilliant game design that subtly graduates the player to become a skilled strategist and multitasker. After a few missions of steamrolling with a fleet of Carriers, StarCraft introduces a few dead-in-your-tracks counter measures that force you to consider alternatives.

Starcraft Remastered Review

The StarCraft and Brood War campaign stories are among the best in video games. The Terran and Protoss are utterly distracted by civil war and infighting while the Zerg is dead-set on total annihilation. These campaigns explore what it means to win at any cost and, appropriately, that means something completely different for each race. The Terrans seem almost enthusiastic to trade human lives for perceived gains in the war and the Zerg are more than happy to oblige with one of the franchise's hallmark moments and the most iconic set of dreadlocks in gaming.

The mechanisms by which these stories are delivered, however, are rudimentary and have not been updated whatsoever in the Remastered edition. Revisiting the Campaign allowed me to gain a new appreciation for the excellent voice acting and consider how ahead Blizzard was (although Praetor Fenix sounds a little too Orc-ish to go unnoticed). Movies with force in the title. I mean, I absolutely despise Arcturus Mengsk and am enthralled by Tassadar.

Mission briefings still feature Skype calls and brief cinematic sequences bring the player from the top-down view to the war-torn battleground. And don't expect any Halo Anniversary-esque treatment to these cinematics. The gameplay is undeniably timeless but, unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the very 90's short films that reward the player every few missions. A few explanatory illustrations (glorified powerpoint presentation) are new and stretch the 'enhanced narrative' bullet point on the box to the weakest limit of its meaning.

Brood War is also Remastered in this package and is such a substantial 'Expansion' that it quickly became the definitive version. More units were added to help further balance the three sides with all three races receiving some help to deal with air attacks – arguably the Protoss Corsairs being the most effective while the Zerg Devourers are slow and easily confused by more agile foes. Terrans get a Medic and while this can certainly turn the tides in Campaign, Medics seem to play a more impactful role while playing Custom Scenarios with players using other races. I thoroughly enjoy the perverse cooperation of my Medic healing a friend's Hydralisk.

Job's Done

There was almost no question that the gameplay would remain intact. After nearly 20 years, StarCraft is difficult to topple and may be as close to a perfect game as I've experienced in my years of gaming. Going back to the original two games reminded me of the simplicity, both good and bad, of the early days of the RTS genre and how bravely Blizzard bulldozed the prior expectations into smithereens. Some of those smithereens shot off to become the building blocks for WarCraft 3 or hero-based MOBAs – or, dare I say, hero-based shooters.

This is purely a visual and audio upgrade, however. Don't expect AI tweaks to help the Dragoons maneuver their way through tight corridors. They are still as clumsy as they were back in the 90's. Players still can't sequence building commands by holding shift like you can with movement way-points or like in StarCraft 2. There are plenty of innovations Blizzard has made since StarCraft that weren't included in this Remaster, all in the name of maintaining the core gameplay – mostly in the interest of eSports – and that's neither a pro nor a con of the game.

The sensory upgrade is gorgeous, the widescreen aspect ratio is more helpful than expected, and the ability to zoom in to the action and appreciate the new details, particularly the enhancements to smaller units like Zerglings or Zealots, is nice – even if only momentarily useful. Lighting effects on Dragoon blasts or even on some buildings like the Protoss' Nexus while training units is a nice touch. Other upgrades in include Cloud Saves. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this review and for the past few weeks since the game's release, Cloud Saves have not functioned reliably. Sometimes the save files appear, then quickly disappear never to be seen again so the accounts are linking and the data is being uploaded but I experienced a heck of a time syncing my experiences between my desktop and laptop. Surely this will be patched soon but players who plan to rely on Cloud Saves should check in before buying.

The in-game Actions Per Minute (APM) tracker is a great feature to remind me how disastrously slow and uncoordinated I am at StarCraft. Another way to learn this is to jump online to play competitively on Blizzard's Battle.net. Personally, I focused on Custom Scenarios and a couple cooperative matches – all of which felt and played exactly how I remember, with the added bonus of the enhanced visuals and audio. Though, it is nice to play with a reliable internet connection now in 2017.

Final Verdict

It's worth noting that StarCraft Remastered is $14.99. If all you play is the Single Player Campaigns across the original game and Brood War, this is an easy recommendation. Custom Scenarios and Multiplayer, of course, offer limitless replay ability.

Visually, StarCraft Remastered faithfully restores one of the greatest games ever created. Players looking for tweaks to AI or gameplay mechanics that have been employed since 1998 will likely be (unjustly) disappointed. Pubg review 2019. Combining the original StarCraft and Brood War expansion, this restoration is entirely worth the attention of old schoolers or anyone curious about the origins of MOBAs.

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Is Starcraft Remastered Worth Item

Higher and widescreen resolution. Redone character portraits. Real-time lighting. Less compressed audio. That's about the long and short of what's new in StarCraft: Remastered. For $15 you can bolt these nicer-looking and sounding features onto your existing copy of the 1998 classic. (Which, even if you somehow avoided buying a Battle Chest compilation for nearly 20 years, is now free in its unaltered form.)

I'll admit that this latest excuse to play the original StarCraft and its expansion, Brood War, appealed to me. Maybe it's because I was eight years old at the time, but the campaign's dark, sometimes comedic, sometimes horrific tale of space rednecks fighting giant bugs and psychic plant people has stuck with me like few games of the era. It certainly made more of an impression than the nonsensical science-fantasy soup that the series became across the StarCraft 2 trilogy.

Part of the StarCraft competitive scene is in the same boat, albeit for different reasons. 'Quality of life' improvements, like better hotkeys and user interface options, made SC2 a fundamentally different experience than the first game and its expansion. It's more accessible for casual fans (like me), but high-level players have long expressed frustration that the sequels automate too much of Brood War's hands-on design. There's resurging interest in the original game among pro players and casters as a result.

New Zerg blood, same engine

StarCraft: Remastered feels specifically catered to them. It runs in the same client as the original game. The F5 key switches between the flashy and not-so-flashy graphics on the fly. The two 'versions' of StarCraft interact with each other just fine in multiplayer. The only gameplay benefit that I can think of is that playing in widescreen might provide extra map awareness.

The rest of the remaster just gussies up the game that you've had two decades to make your mind up about. Longtime fans may appreciate the original gameplay's bump to a full screen, or the ability to stream a flashier version of the game on sites like Twitch.

It doesn't help me, however. Going back to Brood War, I sorely miss those same changes to SC2 that aggrieve top players. Control groups, capped at 12 units, feel tiny. Micromanaging my workers to start harvesting resources is painfully slow. I find myself constantly trying to queue building construction, only to remember I can't in this game. This completely upsets my rhythm.

I could readjust to the old, limited controls if I put the time in (they worked just fine for me in 1998), but other fundamental issues and design decisions drive my older self nuts. 'Pathing'—the moment-to-moment decisions units make when walking around obstacles and each other—is far worse than I remember. 15 minutes in, I saw Hydralisks split up and walk single-file around a Starport to their doom, rather than group together and gang up on the one Goliath I told them to target. Micro-managing control groups and flitting back to base is one thing. Actively and constantly babysitting your units, due to weak AI, is another.

Staying in control

Which isn't to say I don't see the appeal. StarCraft is as much a game of short-term skill as it is about long-term strategy. The remaster nods to that necessity with the addition of an in-game actions-per-minute counter. You can even set it to alert you if your movements drop below a certain frequency.

Watching that precision play out is impressive, and only more so with refreshed visuals. But try as I might, I couldn't really keep up with the few thousand weapons-grade players still searching for ranked matches after all these years. In my experience, matching into games took a little less than a minute. It takes me about that long to lose to a Zergling run, too.

That leaves players at my skill level with a consolation prize: a nostalgia trip through the single-player campaign. And, hey! That's still pretty good. User interface foibles aside, nothing has ever quite recaptured SC1's blend of backwoods sci-fi and high-concept horror. One minute your Vulture pilot is picking his nose and balking at orders. The next, a planet-killing warlord betrays you by throwing an all-devouring swarm at your favorite psychic commando. The game drips with personality, from the stilted claymation-y cutscenes to the annoyed responses of in-game units.

Said soldiers move and act just like they always have, frozen to the same animation cycles as in the original, but they look wonderful. In fact, the extra fidelity adds even more character to the already memorable game. Cracks in the terrain, foliage on withered trees, street signs in urban centers that you can actually read: they all place the faded character of the Milky Way's Koprulu Sector in sharper focus.

How do I look?

I'm less universally sold on the game's character portraits—the close-ups you see when selecting units, or when talking heads spout exposition at you between missions. They're undeniably more technically impressive than the 20-year-old models. Many of the human characters, however, look more like generic 'video game' characters than their old selves. Which is to say, they look more in line with StarCraft 2's art style.

Here, Jim Raynor isn't a soft-edged, small-town sheriff. He's another glowering, perfectly chiseled space marine. Kerrigan looks less like a TV fortune teller with space goggles and more like a high-tech super-soldier. Arcturus Mengsk looks at least 50 percent less like an older Kurt Russell.

Some players might like the idiosyncrasies born from the sloppier parts of StarCraft's controls. I, on the other hand, like the awkward, dirty look of its initial character models. These cleaned and straightened-out figures just don't quite mesh with the backwater future the rest of the game conveys.

They do spin that classic yarn about the Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss duking it out across the galaxy, though. I'm sorely tempted to replay each of the factions' campaigns for the umpteenth time in my life. Remastered graphics were enough to spark my nostalgia for the campaign. A lack of modern conveniences found in real-time strategy games—many of which even bear the StarCraft brand and characters—didn't exactly fan the flame, however.

I just hope those competitive players who have already dedicated themselves to Brood War get what they're looking for.

The good:

• Higher-resolution art looks great—especially in widescreen.
• The style and tone of the campaign retain all their darkly comedic weirdness.
• You can swap between old and new graphics with the press of a button.
• It should look great for watching pro competitors.

The bad:

• Some of the completely redone art is a little generic.
• It feels fussy to play after years of improved UI in RTS games.
• Unit pathfinding is all over the place.

The ugly:

• Getting this close to falling down the rabbit hole of caring about my APM again.

Verdict: Buy it if you're still on the Brood War bandwagon. Try the free, old-school version if you're just curious how deep your nostalgia is for the game.