Can I actually put anything in this tagline that hasn't been said 10,000 times already about Starcraft?
Starcraft is probably the best RTS game ever made, despite the fact that there's a lot less strategy or balance involved. That doesn't seem to matter though, because Starcraft's charm, its masterful campaigns and its insane multiplayer make the small flaws seem minuscule when looking at the big picture.
Graphics: 9/10
Starcraft looked good when it came out, real good! Sure, it wasn't fully 3D like Total Annihilation, you couldn't change resolutions and there were some key animations missing (the water) but it still looked good and it had style.
When talking style, we really need to mention Starcraft as far as RTSes go. The direction in which the developers went with the 3 races is unique, to say the least. Even the Terran, the obligatory humans, have something new and refreshing about them. The Protoss and the Zerg, on the other hand, are wholly new and seemingly interesting twists on pop-culture favorites or on our own subconscious imaginations of what alien races might look like.
Units and terrain are well detailed in Starcraft. Each unit looks great, has a ton of animation, and supports fairly advanced lighting and smoke effects while moving gracefully across sky or land. The terrain suffers from a severe lack of tile sets but what it has looks phenomenal. Everything looks authentic and you might find yourself just exploring the terrain to see what other kind of inside jokes or animation queues the guys at Blizzard thought of next.
Needless to say the game has hardly any framerate problems and works perfectly on the minimum system requirements. The CG in Starcraft is also among the best ever created in a PC game and is in the vein of other Blizzard games that’ve used GC before it. You won't mistake the style for something foreign, trust me, but you will begin to love the particularities soon enough.
Sound: 10/10
Starcraft is a sound revolution in terms of RTSes. Not only because it is one of the first (if not, the first) to have a fully voiced campaign but because it does so with style and with REAL actors. Everyone who speaks in Starcraft puts a genuine effort in delivering their lines appropriately and all the actors are perfectly matched to their digital counterparts avoiding clumsy or embarrassing situations.
The sound effects and music are just as good. The screeching of the Zerglings or the Hydraliks, the high-powered whoosh of lasers and even the death screams of the marines are all implemented with professional precision and sound appropriately rich, terrifying or destructive. The sound effects never drown out the music (or vice versa); they are the highest quality around and are among some of the best in an RTS game ever.
The music fares just as well. The quick, heavy-metal riffs are very tasteful, unlike most other music of this sort used in games. They help get the action pumping, they're recorded at a high rate and they just sound good. Very good, not unlike the rest of the sound component!
Gameplay: 7/10
Let’s get a few things straightened out here: Starcraft is far from perfect in terms of gameplay. There are game exploits, huge nation imbalances, groups are limited to 12 troops, there’s more button mashing than there is actual strategy, etc. While this is certainly not all that encouraging it doesn't wreck the fun of Starcraft and it doesn't undermine its formidable multiplayer.
What makes Starcraft such a standout RTS is its campaign. Composed of a series of interconnected missions, tied together with a beautifully narrated story, Starcraft stands in a league of its own as far as campaigns go. The flawless implementation of the game’s story was revolutionary for its time not only because it wasn't just an excuse to explain why the three sides butchered each other but because it actually had characters that you would care for, whose personal lives you gave a damn about and who were more than just units on the battlefield. Oh, and let's not forget the amazing plot twists in Blizzard's classic, starting from Kerrigan's story to the Protoss power struggles. All of this flowed together and fused beautifully in such a way that you were emerged in the game and could go on playing for hours without feeling time slip away.
Starcraft has 3 races: The Zerg, the Protoss and the Terran. One human and 2 alien (I’ll let you guys figure out who’s who). Each of these races has its own strengths and weaknesses, for example Protoss troops are very expensive but they're also very strong while Zerg troops are the exact opposite. The myriad of units available for each side is astounding; each of the three races has their own particular units and these aren't just different skins of the same unit but they actually function as different entities in the game. The Terran Battleship is not a simple counterpart to the Zerg Mutalisk or the Protoss Carrier. This gives each side a huge amount of particular flair, along with making the game an original masterpiece of both design and diversity. If there is one real problem with the actual unit design in itself, it’s the spell casters. Due to the fast paced and frantic battles of Starcraft spell casters become useless as you simply CANNOT control them well enough in a heated situation. Now, real problems start arising when units don't act like they're supposed to. See, Starcraft assumes that "more and cheap" can combat "less but expensive", the system really begins to fail though as soon as you get half-way through a game. In the original release the Zerg were heavily underpowered and, despite the fact that they had 2 Mutalisks for every carrier they were useless unless they caught the opponent off guard. So much of Starcraft is based on simple things like "who attacks first" or "rushing rules" that it becomes impossible for some armies to win against one another when facing each other in middle to late game. Sure, the subsequent patches fixed things but then we reached one point were the Zerg were TOO powerful, and then off we went to wait for another patch. In addition, the unbalances in the original release have no way of correction. There are no paper-rock-scissors rules nor are the population limits different for the races therefore, the only way to win is to be either the first attacking or to be the one who can pump out units faster, depending on who you play as.
The buildings in Starcraft share an equally as distinctive of a trait as the units. Each and every race has their own ways of construction or supplying their troops. The Protoss build Pylons around which they can warp new buildings, while the Zerg can only build within their "creep" which can be expanded by either waiting or by building Spore Colonies. Even building the actual structures is distinct for each race, as the Terrans must have a worker dedicated to constructing a building while the Zerg have to sacrifice a Drone to build structures and, finally, the Protoss can just initiate a building and then move on as the structure will build itself. And, amazingly, this actually DOESN'T unbalance the game, as a Protoss building takes longer to build than either a Terran or a Zerg building and might even cost more. Finally, using your buildings to spawn units also takes an individual approach for each race. Zerg can only build units from their Hive, but as long as they have enough larvae they can build as many simultaneous units at one time as they want while the other two races are stuck to the regular “pump out the troop from the factory”-initiative.
If Starcraft lacks in something, than it definitely would have to be the terrain tile sets. Starcraft has very few actual tile sets and, generally speaking, the mutliplayer/idividual maps are very poorly designed as you either never have enough resources or enough space for ground battles or just simply easily blockable bottlenecks that make for one helluva' defense (especially since defensive buildings in Starcraft are very powerful). Ahh and speaking of resources, there are two types that you can collect: Crystal and gas. Both are used in building units or buildings.
The AI in Starcraft is actually VERY good. I was caught off guard many times as the AI rushed me before I even had a change to get some decent defense up. The AI really doesn't shy away from any dirt tricks or human tactics it can use against you. I'd just wish you could actually choose a difficulty, since adapting to the AI's draconic practices takes quite a long while.
Starcraft also had quite a few bugs when it was released including the ability to speed up SCV or Drone production by using certain game exploits or even to take the Terran Command Center and move it closer to the resource patches giving you a huge bonus. Unfortunately, it took quite a long time before these were fixed.
Now, what must be discussed is whether or not Starcraft is really strategic. Well, yes and no. Of course, as I've mentioned, you cannot group more than 12 troops together, there are no paper-rock-scissors mechanics which pretty much forces you to spend a great deal of time babying your army. Click here, click there, and click wherever you want them to attack because the most essential thing is to keep up with the focus fire. Don't and you'll be toast. Despite this however, what makes Starcraft so unique is the fact that all types of players are represented equally well in this game: If you prefer rushes and are always first on the pitch for an intense battle, go with the Zerg. If you like to take your time and do a massive build up of troops before attacking go with the Protoss. Whatever your play style might be, Starcraft can accommodate it. Yes, one must be honest and say that there are unit imbalances and that there is a severe lack of tile sets but it still doesn't detract as much from this game as one might think mostly because of...
Multiplayer: 10/10
I know I shouldn’t say this but, I must: If I could I'd give this game an 11/10 for multiplayer I would give it a 12! Everything would be for naught if it wouldn't be for Starcraft’s divine multiplayer which engulfs you in a world far away from yours, completely absorbing your problems for a few hours.
Multiplayer games can be played by either LAN or Internet through the Battle.net service and can host a maximum of 8 players. Obviously enough, play through Battle.net is flawless. There are tens of thousands of people still burning the midnight oil playing Starcraft to this very day and I don't see that number ever dwindling. With a myriad of multiplayer modes, maps and strategies for all to use.
Ahh... and let's talk maps, because what Blizzard can't do Battle.net users EXCELL at… and that's map building. There are so many maps available for Starcraft now-a-days that you can live out any fantasy or replay any game through a User Settings Map for Starcraft. Topics are as broad as you can imagine, perhaps even broader, ranging from DBZ to Nude Kerrigan, to name just two of the thousands of maps out there. That's not even the tip of the iceberg however, as besides the user created maps, a wealth of other tournament or quick-game maps are also available which rid the game of its pesky problems such as limited resources and impassable bottlenecks.
And then there's the range of games you can pick from. Try out your wits and strategy muscle at anything from a huge CPU crush, where 7 players mutilate a poor AI or even n00b sessions in a game that has been out on the market for almost 8 whole years! That's the kind of community you can only find in a few other games.
None of this would matter though if multiplayer Starcraft wouldn't be a blast, yet, side imbalances and all, Starcraft manages to carry itself through masterfully during multiplayer sessions. The exhilarating pace of this game keeps you on your toes but it always allows you enough repose to build units, or draft new strategies with your buddies in either massive team vs. team combat or just try to survive in a brutal 8 man free-for-all. The experience is like no other.
Overall: 9/10
Starcraft is the best RTS to ever come out. It doesn't matter if it has problems, bugs or if it's not perfectly symmetrical because it has one thing: Soul. Without soul there is no fun, and without fun you can have the best, most balanced sides ever but it won't make any difference.
If you don't yet own this game, do yourself a favor and go get the Battle Chest as you can simply NOT have any more fun than this with a PC RTS.