Best of its genre (StarCraft (PC))

Member Name: defiler

Product:	StarCraft (PC)
Date:	15/03/01 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Different races offering different play styles, brilliant real-time strategy game, graphics are still good despite its age.

Disadvantages: Some people may be put off by its age, but you shouldn't be.

Before I bought this game all I knew about blizzard was that they had created my favourite game on the PC Diablo. I had never played warcraft and therefore had no expectations of how it would compare, however after now playing warcraft I feel I wouldn't have been disappointed.

A wonderful real-time strategy game that in my opinion is the best of its genre, replacing Red Alert as my favourite game of this type. For people who don't know about this type of game the basic idea is that you produce units and buildings and have to completely destroy the other teams (although objectives differ in missions). It sounds simple, but when you have to work out when to expand your base into a new area to ensure resources don't run rare, how to defend your base while ensuring you can attack others enough to stop them getting too powerful and various other factors are thrown in, you are using as much strategy as can be found in any other type of game.

The game features 3 species in a fight for survival, with vastly different objectives.
The Terrans are a small group of human exiles, a fairly unstable government is currently ensuring peace however as resources start to run short many people start to look towards the rich worlds of the Protoss.
The Protoss have lived in this part of the galaxy for much longer than the Terrans and are far more technologically advanced, a conservative people with psionic powers, long considered by themselves as the most powerful species in the known galaxy they are fairly scarce in number compared to other species, although this is made up for by the addition of robotic war machines. Unwilling to adapt change could be their downfall however, a split also exists in the empire which will not help in the upcoming struggle with some of the most powerful of the Protoss barred from their homeworld.
The Zerg are a new threat, and a deadly one. Controlled by a single Overmind they are crossing the gala
xy destroying everything in their path. A threat to both the protoss and the zerg, they naturally evolved to become efficient killers. Using no techonology as such their natural weaponry and armour is comparable to the most advanced technology. Large numbers ensure that they can often overwhelm other species quickly, they really are one of the most deadly threats to the games galaxy ever seen.

All of what I said above is stated in the intruction book in much more detail, the book contains a really interesting and in depth look at each of the species and contains a story in itself.

One of the greatest strengths of the game is it's single player campaigns, the storyline is extremely enthralling and you will want to play the game from start to finish just to find out what happens. Other than this, the missions are also interesting and fun to play, and certain characters from them will stick in the mind for a long time afterwards.

Unlike many other games where each race only has a few differences, the difference between each on starcraft is immense. Other than the obvious visual look (Terrans are mechanical, Protoss technological and Zerg organic), each race has completely different units and strategies that can be employed. Many things are different, from how unit limits are determined to how construction takes place. I will outline many of the differences below (though you'll probably want to look somewhere else to find out all of them).
Terran - A construction unit is used to produce buildings, this unit needs to be present during the entire building operation. Unit limits are determined by the number of supply depots you use. Building can take place anywhere. Unit production and toughness is medium, quicker but weaker than Protoss, but slower and more powerful than Zerg. Many major buildings can actually be moved, this is great if an area is likely to be completely destroyed as you can minimise loss. Overall this
is a balanced race that is good for the first time player (and is the race you will find in the demo, so download that and give it a try if you want to see what the game is like).
Protoss - A construction unit is used to produce buildings, however it only needs to be present at the start of production. Buildings and units are "warped in" from somewhere else and not actually produced where you are. Unit limits are detemined by the number of pylons you produce, pylons also determine the areas within which you can build. Unit production is slow, units tend to be fairly tough with a slightly large emphasis on "magical" type attacks. Overall this is a less plentiful, but more powerful race that is my personal favourite to play.
Zerg - A construction unit "evolves" into buildings (may sound strange, but it works) and therefore is lost during construction. Unit production is determined by the number of Overlords you have (these work in keeping control of units for the Overmind), because these are actual units it means you have an early opportunity for scouting, although with their slow movement you can easily lose your ability to produce more units quickly. Unit production is quick, so you can quickly rush the opponent, however units are often weak and you rely more on overwhelming the opponent with superior numbers than using powerful units tactfully. Production can only take place on creep which is produced by creep colonies, which can also be evolved into a kind of defence.

These fast differences in the races means that there is 3 very different playing experiences which really works to enchance the game as it adds to the length of time you can play it before getting bored.

However, the greatest strength of the game is it's multiplayer option. Playable over the internet, LAN and modem the game really is fun when player with/against other human beings. No matter how many times you play it the game r
emains fun, perhaps due to it's simplistic elements in parts which allow a huge amount of options and strategy. Although there not exist a number of hacks that ruin some peoples internet experience, if you only play against people you know and trust you will have no problems with this.

As well as this, Brood War is a great expansion to the game, although I won't mention this in this review as it is a seperate product that deserves its own review.

Support for the game is good, Blizzard originally produced a map of the week for the game where a different map was available to download each week. While this has been changed into map of the month all the previous maps (and there are quite a few of them now) are still available to download. A large fan base also ensures than independant campaigns, maps and other things are available to download.

There really are a huge range of maps to download due to the excellent map editor included within the game which allows a huge range of options to be set. While I have little experience in the map editor myself, it really is fairly simple to use compared to other types and allows vast ranges of maps to be produced, from normal to campaigns to RPG type games, something I'd never normally expect to see in this type of game.

Graphics are good, while not 3D or like you'd find in more recent released I personally think this is a good thing, I would much rather have a clear view of exactly what I am doing and be able to get on with playing the game than be unsure about exactly what I am viewing at the moment.

Sound is great and easily upto Blizzard's normal standards, units each have their own individual sounds and some funny comments can be produced by clicking on them multiple times (similar to what could be found in Warcraft 2). Music is also great, fitting the game perfectly in my opinion.

I would say that overall if you like this type of game you will
love starcraft. While some people have problems with it, saying tactically it is too simple I really do disagree with this, while each unit can be defeated easily by a certain tactic this relies on people only using 1 unit in an attack, something which you will rarely find happening in a real game.

Problems did exist originally with battle.net, however many of these problems have been fixed (and the few remaining ones should be fixed in a new patch). The fact that work is still continuning on a new patch despite the age of the game really shows to be how Blizzard take support seriously, although I must admit they are being quite slow in releasing this, much to the disgust of many fans (although I assume this is because they are more concerned about fixing problems in their far more recent release, Diablo 2).

Personally I have experienced next to no problems with this game and would recommend it to just about anyone. This game remains fun even now, years after its release. A game that can do that for me really does deserve to be called classic and due to its age this game can usually be picked up fairly cheaply from various places, so is well worth looking out for.

Summary: