Star Craft-perfect RTS game (StarCraft (PC))

Member Name: minhhon

Product:	StarCraft (PC)
Date:	07/08/07 (177 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: perfect

Disadvantages: of course not

Star Craft, the second son of Blizzard entertainment after War Craft in the Real Time Strategy-RPG game type.Released in 1997, through years, it has become the most successful RPG game in the world with millions of player in nearly 100 countries. Especialy in some Asian countries,like Korean or China where Star Craft is the most popular game, competitions are held every year and attract lots and lots of gamers.

-----Story-----

Years after the century, technology developed with unimaginable speed, even Third World's countries know about nuclear power and modern computer science. The world devided into factions, they stop science from developing, especialy evolution and robotics. In the begining of 23rd century, world's population reached number of 23 billions .With the need of resources, land and fuel, the world is full of terrorists, violence, and very unsafe. Therefore, world's leader decided to set up some colonies on others planet, out of the solar system....and the story begins.....

-----Game play------

Like most of other RPG games, Star Craft has its campaign section based on the story line which begins with one of three civilizations( called races in the game). They are Terran, Protoss and Zerg. Each of them usually has their Command Centre which can produce worker, build near the resources.

There are two kind of resources : Mineral and Gas. Mineral appear as crystal while Gas look just like some volcano with green smoke. Using those resources, workers can build building for getting army and upgrading them. Different kind of unit has different statistics and ability, not all of them is for fighting or shooting the enemy.

Normally, they can be devided as Air unit and Ground unit which is flying in the air or running on the ground. Moreover, they can be discriminated as long range and short range( for attack range) or big or small(for size) which is very important in the game when the ground is not always flat.When having enough amy, of course, they start attacking others as well as defend their base. You will lose if your race has no building left( not the army) whatever how much army has you got. As well as this, your army is limited in the begining and can only be increase by some building (Terran and Protoss)or unit(Zerg) and the most you can get is 200 species so try to use them properly.Now lets see what each race has:

*** Terran***

Is the way they call human in the Star Craft universe. Terran seems to have psychic ability but through many generations, they have lost it. Terran stuck in the middle of the battle between Zerg and Protoss, try to survive as well as to deal with the civilwar. Using Human's technology, Terran has to build the Supply Deport so they can have more civilian to join the army in oder to increase their unit's amount.

Their units include Marine-the shooter, Medic-the healer Firebat -the fire blower, and Ghost-who can cloak and fire nuke which come from the Barrack. The Workshop provide siege unit like Siege Tank, Vulture and Golliath. Tank can fight as normal or siege mode which increase their range and power but they can't move in this mode. Vulture can run very fast and can set land mine, Golliath can use machine gun on the ground and missle to fight air unit. Terran's air unit come out from Starport, with Wraith the invinsible fighter, Valkyrie-very strong in the air but is the air only unit.

Detector-Science Vessel and Dropship-transportation. Terran worker is SCV ,for each building on process, you need one SCV, they can also repair the building as well as siege unit. Terran building speed is a bit slow but their siege is very strong so it's exactly suitable for careful and well organized players.

***Protoss***

Is the first product of Xel'naga people(before Zerg).Protoss people are about 3 meters high has two glowing eyes. They walk on their toes, each hand has 4 fingers,there is no info about how they give birth but they live for quite long_300 to 1000 years.They have no nose, ear and mouth but has psychic ablity instead. Also, they receive energy from sun/ moonlight so don't need to eat. Like terran, they have Command Center, produce Probe-worker but their way to build is differrent.They just need worker to create small 'light bulb' and then just leave it there, automatically become a building. Futhermore, their building has to be built near the Pylon, otherwise they won't work.

People say that their army is far far away in other galaxy so all their building is just like some gateway and power generator to bring them to the battlefield like Stargate, Starport, other buildings are for upgrading them.their units include Zealot , Dragoon, high templar, dark templar...the special thing about them is Protoss has a rechargable shield go along with normal life point and their psychic ability is incredible, fighting using psisonic power , becoming invinsible or moving army for distance just for some seconds so it's about 'quality'.

***Zerg***

Is some kind of insect which can be born with large amount just in a short time.Their strength is quantity and speed. Zerg's building can only bebuilt on purple mess call Creep and one Drone-worker have to sacrifice for each building.All other building apart from the Hatchery(store resources) just for upgrading army, all units come from the Hatchery, mutating from a larva. Zerg can be born or evolved from a cocoon everywhere they want. Their dog-like Zergling is veryfast really good for rushing in the begining of the game.Zerg's Overlord is like a flying Supply Deport+ science vessel+ dropship of terran because can increase the population, detect and transport.

Each race has their own advantages as well as disadvantages so it's hard to say which one is the strongest. That makes Star Craft become the perfect strategy game. You can choose race just only because you like it , not because of its potential strength. In addition, resources is limited so strongest unit is not always suitable, you will run out of Mineral and Gas so fast.

After you finish the campaign ,or you feel a bit bored playing it or because of its difficulty, you can change to play some custom game with computer(skirmishes) or see replay of the match that you have played, I'm sure they will have you a lot to improve your skill. One more thing is that the maps you play can be downloadde from Internet(www.starcraft.org) or you can create it yourself.

In Multiplayer mode, you can play on Blizzard's Battle.net meeting other gamers from all around the world just through very few second of registration right inside the game.You can also play through your LAN or UDP, IPX,.... sure you'll have fun. You can be ranked on battle.net and challange Star Craft competitions.

------Graphic-------

For a game from 1997, Star Craft's Graphic is perfect,there's no doubt about it. With good graphic, the game speed is still very fast, making it more interesting. You can prove it after watching the cinematic films in the begining or after each campaign or just by plaing the game. Buildings and units are very detailed sharp and well-designed. Various kind of battle field appear in Star Craft: magmar, highland, forest, wasteland and of course space with different object like tree, mountain, spacecraft, giving the different view.

------Sound-------

Wonderful, the music is well played, suitble with differrent scene, when being attacked, when attacking, win, lose...Differrents voice between units, clear enough for us to distinguish what one is selected.They did even have a song with various voice from all of Star Craft unit and named '12 days of Star Craft' and you can see how good is it----http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0oHMfb7iDo-- ---

-------Longevity--------

Many different units of all three race any millions of maps,create lots of strategy and playing method make the difference between every matches so Starcraft will never be boring.

-------Conclusion--------

As you reach this far, I hope you have got some general idea about the game as well as some interested in it,so can give it a try(if possible^^). Therefore, may be some day, we can meet on battle.net and have a friendly match,ok?

-------Little addition-------

As I've known, game do work well and can be played smoothly on mostly all platform: Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X and even Nintendo 64

_WIndows 95 or higher, 90 MHz pentium, 16 MB RAM DirectX-compatible, 2x CD-ROM drive, 640x480 8-bit display.

_Mac: System 7.6 or better, power PC 601 or better, 16 MB RAM.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Good luck-have fun-GL HF

Thank you for reading

Summary: Very good game to play.