Starcraft is a exceptional game with three well-balanced races, an exciting story and incredible multiplayer.
THE GOOD
-Thrilling story and characters
-Three unique and well balanced races
-Excellent multiplayer
-Outstanding visuals
-Exceptional audio and voice acting
-Challenging A.I.
-Powerful map editor
THE BAD
-Zergling rush
OVERVIEW
Starcraft is definitely one of the most intense and exciting real-time strategy games of all time. After Blizzard's huge success with Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the company decided to take the real-time strategy genre to the cosmos. There are three unique races in Starcraft: Terran, Zerg, and Protoss. Even though each race is completely different, like the way they gather resources, the game does an excellent job balancing everything out. Every unit has its advantages and disadvantages which is nice because you won't automatically win with a bunch of the strongest units in play and nothing else.
The game's story takes place in the early 21st century with the united Earth government colonizing other planets in the galaxy. Most of the Terrans (humans) that occupy these desolate places are either criminals or "undesirables" that were exiled from Earth. Because of this expansion, many smaller governments formed and started fighting with other Terran factions. The Confederacy of Man emerged as the supreme government and ruled with an iron fist. This corrupt regime forced a rebellious group, called the Sons of Korhal under the command of Arcturus Mengsk, to take action against the Confederacy of Man.
While the Terrans were too busy fighting themselves, they failed to realize that they're not alone in this part of the galaxy. A highly technological alien race called the Protoss is trying to suppress another bug like race called the Zerg. Humans make a sort of first contact with the Protoss and Zerg when a few Terrans were killed in a Protoss raid on a Zerg colony. You'll quickly find out that this small section of the universe, where all this is taking place, is not big enough for all of them and war is inevitable.
The story is extremely well done in Starcraft. The dialog between the characters is intense and the few tragic plot twists will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the entire game. Starcraft is filled with an exceptional cast of likeable characters like the freedom fighting marshal, with a "cowboy" like attitude, named Jim Raynor, the all-knowing Zerg Overmind, and the Intelligent and noble Protoss High Templar named Tassadar. These characters along with many others have stories that are constantly woven together.
GAMEPLAY
Starcraft works like many other real-time strategy games in that you have to manage resources in order to build up your city and army. There are two main resources in Starcraft: minerals and gas. Each race has a unique tech tree which yields very different abilities and units. One thing that Blizzard did very well, in Starcraft, was to balance out each race. The Terrans rely more on ranged attacks as opposed to hand-to-hand combat. Their strengths involve attacking in numbers while using special abilities like cloaking and nukes to win the game. The Zerg units by themselves are really weak but in massive swarms, the Zerg can almost prove to be unstoppable. The Protoss, being the supreme race in the game, can dish out massive amounts of damage from a small groups of units. However, their strength comes with a price; a slow and costly tech tree.
The controls for this game are extremely well done. The point, drag and click style of play requires a short learning curve. Also, with every aspect of the controls being customizable you'll be able to find the right style of play for you. Group management, whether big or small, has also been improved greatly since the days of Warcraft II. Now you'll be able to create parties of units that can easily be selected which make attacking from multiple points painless. For more advanced players, the hotkeys are in intuitive places which can make everything from using special abilities to creating units a breeze.
With the controls being top-notch this in turn creates a fun combat environment. There are many tactics to use on offence and defense, based on your situation, to make the game quite a challenge. You'll have to think about when to confront the enemy, which buildings to create and whether to expand to obtain other minerals on a minute-by-minute basis. There are many fun units to control like the explosive might of a Terran Siege Tank, the quick and deadly Zergling and the massive power of a Protoss Carrier. Plus, because the unit cap is extremely generous, you'll be able to control massive armies giving each game of Starcraft the potential to having epic like wars. Now there is one thing about Starcraft's combat system that is easy to exploit making games end way to quick without giving you the chance to defend yourself. This involves the rush technique which means to build up a small group of fighting units very early in the game and attack. The zergling rush is one of my pet-peeves in this game because if you're playing a small enough map it's almost impossible to stop because the Zerg and spawn these units rather quickly. But don't let this intimidate you from purchasing this game because it doesn't happen too often. Anyways, the combat system in Starcraft can almost seem overwhelming at first but you'll be surprise how fast you can pick everything up.
The Artificial Intelligence in Starcraft is much more stunning then a lot of the other games on the market. This means that, most of the time, your units won't get stuck by the terrain or perform idiotic acts of heroism (basically going in on solo missions and killing themselves). Also, with four different difficulty settings (easy, medium, hard and insane), you'll always have a challenging opponent when you're friends aren't around.
Now when your friends are around you have the option to partake in Starcraft's multiplayer mode. With the ability to support up to eight players, in either a team or free-for-all format, you're bound to have plenty of fun here. I've participated in many Starcraft matches that have taking a few hours to play out and they were all exciting. There is also the opportunity to play with other people from around the world in Blizzard's gaming community called the Battle Net. Here you'll be able to search for games that you want to play based on rank, map type, and a few other options. Battle Net will also keep track of your record and rank among all other players. The interface on the Battle Net is very easy to use and makes playing online very enjoyable.
Lastly, the map editor is surprisingly very powerful in this game. You'll be able to design your own maps with ease, create your own story with dialog and also trigger many things to occur while you're playing. For instance, you could change the names of the heroes in Starcraft to your friend's names, add some cheesy story and have the entire map blow up after 30 minutes if you wanted to. Can you tell that I've used this feature before? Blizzard really gives you free rein here to create almost anything you want.
GRAPHICS & SOUND
The visual presentation is simply amazing. The amount of detail in the units and environments are absolutely astonishing. The story mode offers plenty of great maps with fun level designs. Not only are the in-game graphics good but the cut scenes really stand out and make the story much more enjoyable.
Great music, sound effects and voice acting are a few other things that make playing Starcraft enjoyable. Just like Warcraft II, Starcraft offers an exciting musical score that is intense when it needs to be and dramatic for more of the heart-breaking moments. The voice acting fits each character well and this makes the dialog much more entertaining.
CONCLUSION
Starcraft is a one of the best real-time strategy games of all time. With an exciting story, incredible multiplayer and a fun combat system, Starcraft is a game that you won't want to miss. I would recommend this game to basically anyone that has a gaming computer. The galaxy in this remote part of the universe is vast but for the Terran, Zerg, and Protoss, it's not big enough for the three of them.