StarCraft Remastered now available for pre-order

The game that started the craze nearly 20 years ago is finally available for pre-order. You can order it from Blizzard’s shop for $14.99 and if you pre-purchase you get exclusive in-game upgrades. It includes the original StarCraft as well as its expansion Brood War, diving into the beginning of this epic saga as the three races encounter each other for the first time.

The remaster was announced earlier this year, likely in anticipation for the upcoming 20th anniversary of the first StarCraft next March. The original game was released for free back in April, but is very dated. The remastered version has updated almost every aspect of the game without changing the fundamental aspects that made everyone fall in love with it. Blizzard has also adapted it to modern technology with adding newer features:

• Updated graphics at 4K Ultra High Definition with widescreen support
• Remastered dialogue and audio, including re-recorded voice lines
• LAN and online play
• Cloud-saved settings for campaign progress, replays, custom maps, and keybindings
• Matchmaking and Leaderboards
• More than 50 campaigns
• Comic book interludes to tell the story
• Team up or play against other players online after you’ve finished the campaign
• With pre-purchase you can unlock the Korhal Command Center, Aiur Nexus, and Char Hive upgrades
• Available in 13 languages

They’ve promised to keep the “timeless gameplay” intact, updating everything else to look and feel great on modern computers. The remastered game had been in development over the past year, with the original artist returning to help update the graphics. Professional players like Flash, Bisu, and Jaedong also tested the game during this time and gave feedback.

To play the game, you do need to have the StarCraft Anthology client, which includes the original 1998 game and can be downloaded for free on the Battle.net Client Management page. There’s no exact release date yet listed for StarCraft Remastered on the pre-purchase page, just that it’s set to release before the end of this August, but the StarCraft Facebook page shows August 14, 2017, in the promotional video. It will be available on both PC and Mac.