TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews Review of StarCraft

StarCraft (1998 Video Game)

Excellent game... must-play for any fan of real-time strategy gaming

[8/10 · 1 February 2005]

I've honestly never been much of a fan of RTS(Real Time Strategy) games... I generally find them to be uneventful and unimaginative, most of the time. The better part of them are essentially the same, when you break them down to basic elements: Build up a base, collect credits through some kind of natural(or unnatural) mineral, build an army and defeat the opponent who has more or less the same type(s) of army/units/buildings as you. Well, this one is something else... here, you have three species... each unique. That's different technologies, units, strengths and weaknesses. There's a larger-than-usual single player part that has 10 missions per race. Most of them are fun, and they grow more challenging, so you won't tire of it before you're done, either. Music is fitting(and it's even differentiated for the three, as is the color scheme and HUD design). The game-play is among the best that the RTS genre has to offer; it's quite open-ended, allowing you to experiment to find out what works best for you. There are an awful lot of drastically different units and abilities for the three races. I have to admit, I've experienced several RTS games which unfortunately have one inferior army, which can only defeat the other army through means of drastically superior numbers. The model this utilizes has been used other times(since), recently in the Generals game in the C&C series. The graphics are excellent, and still hold up well today. The animations are smooth and positively bursting with detail. For better or for worse, compared to, say, the Command & Conquer franchise, this allows more for a higher number of bases... as soon as you can build, you can pretty much build yourself a new base. Also, I would say that this is a game where you have to expect that you may need to spend time finding yourself more minerals... or making what you get last a while. Take note, those used to there being credits aplenty throughout the RTS titles they play, as I can't off-hand think of another game that isn't pretty much like that. There is a limitation on how many units any player(human or computer-controlled) can control(clearly shown, in any given level), which rules out the often applied strategy(for other RTS titles) of just attacking the enemy with a swarm of powerful units, and necessitates proper strategy. The game also has a magnificent story(and well-told(partially through rather marvelous voice-acting, and some through beautifully animated video sequences), complete with three perspectives, and well-written characters). Usually, when playing single player in a RTS game, you have to lead the army you've chosen to victory... the campaigns contradict each other, or simply don't relate to one another. In this game, you lead each of the three races through the three parts. This way, you feel like a much bigger part; you're the one fighting the hardest battles of the war, and making the biggest difference in the plot. Each race has a final mission where they have to destroy an enormously important, heavily defended building, making for an awesome ending to that part of the game. Of course, once you've beaten the single player portion of the game, you'll want something else to entertain you... so there's multi-player, which can be played both over the Internet and over LAN. There are several different modes of multi-player, allowing for many hours spent without it getting boring. The multi-player is also reliable, with no errors during play. And if you tire of that, there's even a level editor. No, in fact it's a *campaign* editor. You can make entire series with this tool, and it's about as easy to use and packed with features as such editors get. Believe me, I've been making levels(well, trying to) for several years, and this is one of the best, most compact, and most easy-to-figure-out editor I've tried(others include the ones for Max Payne(which allows for much greater freedom, but doesn't allow much easy tweaking, and the interface of which more or less immediately weeds out all but the most well-versed in computers) and Heroes of Might and Magic III). You can make extensively programmed levels and completely redefine the game-play. Even if you don't fancy yourself a creative type, this is to your advantage if you get this; there are tons of websites with new levels, custom-made, for more or less any purpose(single-player, multi-player, various separate ones, etc.), and all you need to do is download and put the file in the map folder. It does not get much easier. Heck, you can even download more tools to customize, if you want to do something that the regular editor, that comes with the game, won't let you(though there is precious little that fits into that category... it's incredibly open and, as stated earlier, jam-packed with features). The interface is better than that of contemporary titles. This is undoubtedly one the best RTS games out there... but there are a few minor complaints. Some of the programming does leave a little to be desired... at times units go the long way around obstacles, sometimes they don't go exactly where you tell them to, just somewhere in close proximity, and finally, there are examples of units 'acting up' as a side-effect of certain magic/special abilities. Also, though the games does have a number of in-game tips, it can be fiendishly hard, and there's only one instructional tutorial, and it doesn't cover much. Finally, the three races don't have equally interesting story-lines, and they have to be beaten in the preset order, so if you're stuck on a dull and/or hard mission with an uninspired one, there's really nothing to do, except to just do your best to get through it and hope for the next one to be more interesting. Of course, that is a minor complaint. All in all, the game is an accomplishment. I recommend this to any fan of RTS games, and most gamers and sci-fi fans in general. 8/10