StarCraft: Remastered Review

The engineering brief was narrow and it was met exactly: keep the simulation bit for bit identical so that twenty years of replays, maps and muscle memory still work, and replace only what is drawn on top. The widescreen art is handsome, the cinematics were re rendered, and the twelve unit selection cap, the pathing clumsiness and the dragoon that gets stuck on a ramp all survive because the professional community would have revolted if they had not.

For anyone who wants to see why this game held a nation's television schedule for a decade, the campaigns and Brood War are here in the shape they were played. The catch is the value proposition. Blizzard patched the original game to be free weeks before this went on sale, so what is being charged for is a texture pack and matchmaking. There is no new content, no campaign additions and no attempt to make the interface less punishing for a newcomer. Preservation done properly, priced optimistically.