StarCraft: Remastered

Last updated

StarCraft: Remastered
StarCraft Remastered.jpg
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Series StarCraft
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
MacOS
ReleaseAugust 14, 2017
Genre(s) Real-time strategy
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

StarCraft: Remastered is a remastered edition of the 1998 real-time strategy video game StarCraft and its expansion Brood War , which was released on August 14, 2017. It retains the gameplay of the original StarCraft, but features ultra-high-definition graphics (ultra HD), re-recorded audio, and Blizzard's modern online feature suite. The remaster was developed over the period of a year and included playtesting from professional StarCraft players.

Contents

StarCraft: Remastered was the first project released by the "Classic Games division", a team at Blizzard focused on updating and remastering some of their older titles, with an initially announced focus on StarCraft , Diablo II , and Warcraft III . [1] Prior to release, the original StarCraft and its expansion were both made free to download and play. [2] The remaster features redone visuals and sound assets while still using the same engine as the original, which allows for cross-play compatibility across both versions.

It received favorable reviews upon release, with many critics praising its success in updating the visuals while leaving the gameplay unchanged. [3]

Gameplay

StarCraft: Remastered retains the gameplay of the original, but updates its graphics and sound. [4] Its remastered graphics support up to 4K ultra-high-definition resolution, and its original soundtrack and sound effects are re-recorded. [5] Its online features are updated to support Blizzard's modern suite, including improved multiplayer matchmaking, social integration with other Blizzard games, and saved settings on Blizzard's cloud computers such that player campaign progress, replays, custom maps, and keybindings are synced wherever the player opens the game. [4] [5] Players can pair their online accounts from the original game with Blizzard's modern online accounts to continue their win/loss statistics into the remaster. [6] Additionally, players can switch between the original and new graphics [6] and view new zoomed perspectives for players to appreciate the remaster's new level of detail. It was localized into 13 languages. [5]

Development

Blizzard Entertainment developed the remaster over a year. The game's original artist returned to assist with development. Professional StarCraft players from South Korea, including Flash, Bisu, and Jaedong, gave the company feedback during several playtests. [6] Blizzard's president publicly announced the remaster in late March 2017 at a StarCraft event in Seoul, South Korea. [5] It was also announced that later that week, Blizzard would make the original games—the StarCraft Anthology—free to download and would include an update with some of the remaster's features, including the ability to run on modern computers. [7] The remaster was released on macOS and Windows on August 14, 2017. [8] The developer said that their "classic games team" plans to further support the community after the remaster's launch, and will look for feedback on ideas such as voice chat integration. [6] Players who purchased the title in advance of its release received alternative aesthetic options for in-game assets in both the remaster and StarCraft II . [9] Blizzard's Robert Bridenbecker and Pete Stilwell explained to Team Liquid that in almost every respect that Brood War fans care about, StarCraft: Remastered will be the same as Brood War, as it's the same client powering each version. [10] [11] Lemon Sky Studios partnered with Blizzard to provide most of the remastered art assets. [12] [13]

An essay by "Thieving Magpie" of Team Liquid explained the difference between the original and remastered versions, stating that the StarCraft engine generated such "classic" gameplay because of its awkward compromises between a flat 2D engine and the forced isometric perspective it presents to the player. [14] In StarCraft game programmer Patrick Wyatt’s own words: "Because the project was always two months from launch[,] it was inconceivable that there was enough time to re-engineer the terrain engine to make pathfinding easier, so the pathfinding code just had to be made to work. To handle all the tricky edge-cases, the path[find]ing code exploded into a gigantic state machine which encoded all sorts of specialized 'get me out of here' hacks."

Release

Pre-release launch event of StarCraft: Remastered at Gwangalli Beach in Busan GG Together.jpg
Pre-release launch event of StarCraft: Remastered at Gwangalli Beach in Busan

StarCraft: Remastered had a pre-release of the game in South Korea, where the game was available to play two weeks early in the country's PC bangs. [15] Blizzard also hosted a pre-release launch event at Gwangalli Beach in Busan which was attended live by thousands of spectators and viewed online by over 500,000 viewers. [16] At this celebration, the StarCraft: Remaster Pack was on sale. [17] And the event was played by Guillaume Patry, Hong Jin Ho, Lee Yoon Yeol, Park Jung-suk, and Lee Jae Dong and Kim Taek Yong, and Lee Young Ho. [18]

Following the pre-release in South Korea, a global release event was held on 14 and 15 August 2017, in the headquarters of video live streaming platform Twitch in San Francisco. The event featured retired professional StarCraft players from outside of South Korea taking part in an exhibition tournament over two days. It was hosted by popular StarCraft and StarCraft II personalities Sean "Day[9]" Plott, Nick "Tasteless" Plott, Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski, and Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson, the latter two of which also competed in the exhibition tournament. [19]

Post-release

Following the game's release, Blizzard announced plans for continued development, including improved matchmaking and support for the game's competitive scene. On June 15, 2018, they announced the launch of the Korea StarCraft League (KSL), a competitive league to run alongside the AfreecaTV StarCraft League (ASL) run by afreecaTV with two seasons planned for that year. [20] The league began airing regular matches starting on July 19, 2018. In February 2019, it was confirmed that the league would continue running beyond its initially announced two-season run for 2018, with 2019's first season running in the first half of that year. [21]

On June 19, 2018, Blizzard announced that a new ranking system would be implemented as part of patch 1.22. [22] This system ranked players from the F to S, the latter representing the top 1% of players. To accompany the new rankings, profiles were updated to include select statistics for players and have borders of their profile portraits corresponding to their ranking. Additional cosmetic rewards for ranked play were unique profile pictures for all players ranked B, A, or S. The update also featured general improvements to matchmaking, an updated map pool. [23]

The first post-release monetization came on April 30, 2019, with the introduction of purchasable announcers to the game which replaced the default announcers with popular community figures. Blizzard initially worked with three popular South Korean StarCraft casters, Yong "Jeon" Jun, Kim Jung Min, and Jae "Um" Kyung to create a total of four announcer packs, one each and one that featured all three of them. [24]

StarCraft: Cartooned

On June 8, 2019, as part of the grand finals of the third season of the KSL, Blizzard announced a graphics overhaul pack for the game by Carbot Animations, the producers of multiple Blizzard-related parody animations, including their first and longest-running one, the StarCrafts series. As a graphical overhaul, its effect applies to all game modes and menus in StarCraft: Remastered. [25] It was released on July 10, 2019, as StarCraft: Cartooned alongside an announcer pack featuring South Korean YouTuber and children's television host Hyejin "Hey Jini" Kang. [26]

Reception

Following resumed updates for the original StarCraft and its expansion, Brood War , gaming and tech outlets praised Blizzard's commitment to its older games. [32] [33] [34] The announcement of the original game becoming free and a remaster being in development was also met with speculation of potential other remasters coming from Blizzard. [35]

StarCraft: Remastered received favorable reviews upon release, with critics praising its visual improvements and commitment to the original's gameplay. On Metacritic, it currently has an average score of 85 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [3] PCGamer 's Tyler Wilde commended the game's successful modernization and stated that, despite minor grievances, "This is a project for StarCraft fans that serves them whether they spend $15 or not, and makes no compromises." [36] In a positive review, IGN 's TJ Hafer praised the game's faithfulness to the original and concluded, "StarCraft Remastered makes the original game play as well as you remember and look as good as you remember." [27]

Some reviewers took issue with the unchanged gameplay of StarCraft: Remastered and expressed concern that it would not be friendly to new players. In an overall positive review, Softpedia's Silviu Stahie wondered if the decision to leave the gameplay of the original untouched would hurt the title's appeal and stated, "[...] the new generation might not appreciate it." [28] Similar worries were shared by M3's Viktor Eriksson, who felt that the remaster was unnecessary, with no changes to the gameplay and too few changes overall. [37]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blizzard Entertainment</span> American video game publisher and developer

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded in February 1991 as Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduates of the University of California, Los Angeles: Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce and Allen Adham. The company originally concentrated on the creation of game ports for other studios' games before beginning development of their own software in 1993, with games like Rock n' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings. In 1993, the company became Chaos Studios, Inc., and then Blizzard Entertainment soon after being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates early in the following year. Shortly after, Blizzard released Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

<i>StarCraft</i> (video game) 1998 real-time strategy game

StarCraft is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. The first installment of the video game series of the same name, it was released in 1998. A Classic Mac OS version was released in 1999, and a Nintendo 64 port co-developed with Mass Media and published by Nintendo was released in 2000.

<i>StarCraft: Ghost</i> Cancelled video game

StarCraft: Ghost was a military science fiction stealth-action video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It was intended to be part of Blizzard's StarCraft series and was announced in September 20, 2002. It was to be developed by Nihilistic Software for the GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 video game consoles. Several delays in development caused Blizzard to move back the release date and the game has not materialized. Nihilistic Software ceded development to Swingin' Ape Studios in 2004 before Blizzard bought the company, and plans for the GameCube version were canceled in 2005.

<i>StarCraft: Brood War</i> Expansion pack for StarCraft

StarCraft: Brood War is the expansion pack for the military science fiction real-time strategy video game StarCraft. Released in December 1998 for Microsoft Windows and June 1999 for Mac OS, it was co-developed by Saffire and Blizzard Entertainment. The expansion pack introduces new campaigns, map tilesets, music, extra units for each race, and upgrade advancements. The campaigns continue the story from where the original StarCraft ended, with the sequel, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, continuing from the conclusion of Brood War. The expansion was released first in the United States on December 18, 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BlizzCon</span> Annual gaming convention by Blizzard Entertainment

BlizzCon is an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to promote its major franchises including Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch.

StarCraft is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance among four species—the adaptable and mobile Terrans, the ever-evolving insectoid Zerg, the powerful and enigmatic Protoss, and the godlike Xel'Naga creator race—in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector. The series debuted with the video game StarCraft in 1998. It has grown to include a number of other games as well as eight novelizations, two Amazing Stories articles, a board game, and other licensed merchandise such as collectible statues and toys.

<i>StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty</i> 2010 real-time strategy video game

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released worldwide in July 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. A sequel to the 1998 video game StarCraft and the Brood War expansion pack, the game is best known as the original installment of StarCraft II which was later followed by a number of expansion packs. Wings of Liberty has been free-to-play since November 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle.net</span> Online gaming platform by Blizzard Entertainment

Battle.net is an Internet-based online game, social networking service, digital distribution, and digital rights management platform developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The service was launched on December 31, 1996, followed a few days later with the release of Blizzard's action-role-playing video game Diablo on January 3, 1997. Battle.net was officially renamed to "Blizzard Battle.net" in August 2017, with the change being reverted in January 2021.

<i>StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm</i> 2013 video game

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is an expansion pack to the military science fiction real-time strategy game StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and the second part of the StarCraft II trilogy developed by Blizzard Entertainment, with the final part being Legacy of the Void. The game was released on March 12, 2013.

StarCraft II is a military science fiction video game created by Blizzard Entertainment as a sequel to the successful StarCraft video game released in 1998. Set in the future, the game centers on a galactic struggle for dominance among the various fictional races of StarCraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korea e-Sports Association</span> South Korean body

The Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) is a South Korean body established to manage esports in South Korea. It is a member of the Korean Olympic Committee and the International e-Sports Federation. As of June 2012, it was the managing body for 25 e-sports in the country, including Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. KeSPA also hosts the KeSPA Cup, a yearly tournament event for some of their games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D.Va</span> Fictional video game character

D.Va is a character developed by Blizzard Entertainment for their Overwatch franchise. She was introduced at launch in their 2016 first-person hero shooter video game Overwatch and returned in its 2022 sequel, Overwatch 2. She features in the franchise's related animations and literary media. Outside of Overwatch, D.Va also appears as a playable character in the crossover multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game Heroes of the Storm and as a gameplay announcer in StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. In English-language media, D.Va is voiced by Charlet Chung.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Plott</span> American esports commentator

Nicolas Plott, known by his alias Tasteless, is an American esports commentator. He moved to Seoul, Korea in 2007 to give commentary to esports competitions. He has provided commentary for multiple Starcraft and Starcraft 2 tournaments. Together with Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski, he currently provides commentary for Global StarCraft II League and AfreecaTV StarLeague games.

<i>Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered</i> 2016 first-person shooter video game

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered is a 2016 first-person shooter game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. It is a remastered version of the 2007 game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and was initially released as part of the special edition bundles of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in November 2016 for the PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. A standalone version was released for these platforms in mid-2017. The game's story follows the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and the Special Air Service (SAS), who take on missions to fight against a separatist group in the Middle East and an ultranationalist group in Russia.

Professional StarCraft II competition features professional gamers competing in Blizzard Entertainment's real-time strategy game StarCraft II. Professional play began following the game's initial release in 2010, as the game was the sequel to StarCraft, considered one of the first esports and the foundation of South Korea's interest and success in competitive gaming. Between 2016 and 2019, competition was centered around the Global StarCraft II League in Korea and the World Championship Series Circuit everywhere else, with all Blizzard-sanctioned events being under the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) banner. Since 2020, Blizzard changed the format of WCS by entering into a three-year partnership with esports organizers ESL and DreamHack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AfreecaTV StarCraft League</span> South Korean video game tournament

The AfreecaTV StarCraft League (ASL) is a StarCraft: Remastered tournament series hosted by afreecaTV in South Korea. It began its first season in June 2016 and used StarCraft: Brood War for its first three seasons prior to the release of StarCraft: Remastered. It is broadcast regularly in Korean on afreecaTV. Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski and Nicolas "Tasteless" Plott provide English rebroadcasts on AfreecaTV's YouTube channel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korea StarCraft League</span> Korean StarCraft: Remastered Tournament Series

The Korea StarCraft League (KSL) was a StarCraft: Remastered tournament series hosted by Blizzard Entertainment in South Korea. It was announced in June 2018 and began its first season the following month. It was broadcast regularly in Korean and English on Twitch. The main English language casters for the event were Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski and Nicolas "Tasteless" Plott. It ran alongside afreecaTV's AfreecaTV StarCraft League (ASL) as one of the two top level Korean leagues for StarCraft: Remastered. KSL was discontinued in March 2020 after 4 seasons.

<i>Warcraft III: Reforged</i> 2020 video game

Warcraft III: Reforged is a remastered edition of the 2002 real-time strategy video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion The Frozen Throne. Released on January 28, 2020, it adds revamped graphics, new campaign gameplay settings as well as modern online Battle.net features. The game received mixed reviews from critics and an overwhelmingly negative reception from players due to its changes from the original, the lack of many announced features, and technical issues.

<i>Diablo II: Resurrected</i> 2021 video game

Diablo II: Resurrected is an action role-playing video game co-developed by Blizzard Entertainment and Blizzard Albany and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It is a remaster of Diablo II (2000) and its expansion Lord of Destruction (2001). The game was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S on September 23, 2021.

References

  1. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (November 4, 2015). "Blizzard Looking to Revive These Classic Games". GameSpot . Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  2. ↑ Fenlon, Wes (April 18, 2017). "StarCraft and Brood War are now completely free, get first patch in 8 years". PC Gamer.
  3. 1 2 3 "Starcraft Remastered". Metacritic . Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Te, Zorine (March 26, 2017). "StarCraft: Remastered announced, releasing this summer". Yahoo Esports. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 McWhertor, Michael (March 26, 2017). "StarCraft: Remastered coming this summer". Polygon . Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Te, Zorine (March 26, 2017). "Blizzard's StarCraft: Remastered took one year to make, post-launch support confirmed". Yahoo Esports. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  7. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (March 26, 2017). "Blizzard is making the original StarCraft free". Polygon . Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  8. ↑ Peckham, Matt (June 30, 2017). "Here's When You Can Play 'StarCraft' With Glorious 4K Graphics". Time . Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  9. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (June 30, 2017). "StarCraft: Remastered coming Aug. 14". Polygon . Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  10. ↑ "'StarCraft: Remastered' Doesn't Fix the Broken Perfection of 'Brood War'". March 27, 2017.
  11. ↑ "StarCraft Remastered plays exactly the same as the original, but at a resolution that won't make your eyes bleed". March 27, 2017.
  12. ↑ "Behind the Scenes: Remastering StarCraft". Lemon Sky Studios. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Malaysia's Lemon Sky Studios part of project to remaster Command & Conquer | The Star Online". www.thestar.com.my. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Broodwar and Starcraft 2 - Pathing".
  15. ↑ "GG Together – StarCraft: Remastered Korea Launch Event". July 28, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  16. ↑ "'Starcraft: Remastered' prelaunches in Korea". July 31, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  17. ↑ "블리자드, '스타크래프트: 리마스터' 부산 광안리 런칭 행사 공개". 중앙일보 (in Korean). July 3, 2017. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
  18. ↑ "스타크래프트: 리마스터". starcraft.com (in Korean). Retrieved March 30, 2018.
  19. ↑ "StarCraft: Remastered Launch Event". Blizzard Entertainment. August 8, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  20. ↑ "Blizzard Launching Its First StarCraft: Remastered League". IGN. June 19, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  21. ↑ "Korea's StarCraft League is about to launch into third season!". February 22, 2019.
  22. ↑ "StarCraft Remastered Patch 1.22 Brings New Ranking System". June 19, 2018.
  23. ↑ "New StarCraft: Remastered ladder system is live!". June 19, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  24. ↑ "스타크래프트: 리마스터".
  25. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (June 20, 2019). "New StarCraft graphics pack turns the entire game into a cartoon". Polygon . Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  26. ↑ "StarCraft: Cartooned makes Remastered more animated for $10". July 9, 2019.
  27. 1 2 "StarCraft Remastered review". IGN. August 19, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  28. 1 2 Stahie, Silviu (August 28, 2017). "StarCraft: Remastered Review - Fueling Nostalgia for Old Gamers". Softpedia.
  29. ↑ "StarCraft: Remastered Review". AusGamers.com.
  30. ↑ "StarCraft - Test, Strategie - 4Players.de". August 17, 2017.
  31. ↑ Schütz, Felix (August 17, 2017). "Starcraft Remastered im Test: Grafikupdate für die Strategielegende". PC Games.
  32. ↑ "Blizzard is remastering StarCraft in 4K resolution this summer". March 26, 2017.
  33. ↑ "Blizzard reveals StarCraft: Remastered, set for release this summer". PC Gamer. March 26, 2017.
  34. ↑ "Blizzard is making the original StarCraft free". Polygon . March 26, 2017.
  35. ↑ "StarCraft Remastered brings 4K graphics, modern audio, and more to the legendary RTS". March 26, 2017.
  36. ↑ Wilde, Tyler (August 15, 2017). "StarCraft: Remastered is a success in just about every way". PC Gamer.
  37. ↑ "Starcraft: Remastered – efterlängtad nyversion gör allt rätt". August 22, 2017.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.