Within that narrative, StarCraft 2 maintained one narrative in its favour: it was the hardest game in esports, the complete package. And one of those trends has been the rise of MOBAs, games that have lower barriers to entry, easier mechanics, more gratification. There were often times when Street Fighter players would often point to SC2 as the sort of sanitised existence that the FGC should seek to avoid.īut times change, trends ebb and flow. On top of that, SC2 was blessed with – by esports’ standards, at least – a fairly warm and welcoming community. It was a fantastic game to watch: people wanted to learn, or appreciate a level a skill they either couldn’t, or didn’t have the time to, attain. The scene was filled with personality, whether it be the analytical humour of a Day, the brash shit-talking of an IdrA, or the endlessly likeable veterans like White-Ra, who gave everyone hope that they could still compete. When streaming started to take off, StarCraft 2 was at the tip of the iceberg for all the right reasons.

Brood War greats like Bisu, Flash, Jaedong transitioned over, forgoing their legacies to conquer a new frontier. StarCraft 2 was supposed to be the successor. The funny thing about StarCraft going free-to-play now is that it should died years ago. But I still remember that time, all those years ago. We didn’t play for very long only a minute or two at the very slowest speed. The other two were the Links LS series, F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter, and Virtua Pool.

Later that year, StarCraft became one of four video games I ever remember playing with my Dad as a kid. Dad discovered the disks and, not being thrilled about his youngest son’s new-found affinity to piracy and the potential viruses/nightmares that could ensue, proceeded to scream the living shit at me. I remember it was one of the first games I borrowed from a family friend – a friend who had copied a cracked version of the game onto 20 or so 3 1/2 inch floppy disks. I have plenty of fond memories with the original StarCraft. (You can’t actually buy the original StarCraft through Blizzard right now anyway the launcher says the game is “sold out”.) The expectation is that StarCraft will be made available through the launcher at some point, but for now you can download the game for free via a link Blizzard helpfully posted on the official forums. That includes the original and the Brood War expansion, although both games are playable through the same client (unlike WarCraft 3). But on the back of a whim, I ended up binging through the original StarCraft campaign instead.Īhead of the launch of StarCraft Remastered earlier this year, Blizzard announced they would be making StarCraft free to download with version 1.18.

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