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| Game: Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War |
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Starcraft and its expansion set, Brood War, are about a small group of human exiles that have been doomed to fight for survival on the edge of the galaxy. Through military strength, espionage and deceit, a unified Terran government has maintained an uneasy peace. As resources run short, however, these Confederate nations find themselves looking towards the rich worlds of their alien neighbors, the enigmatic Protoss. To further complicate matters, it seems that a previously unknown and deadly species known only as the Zerg has entered Protoss space and is destroying everything in its path.
Picture of a zerg rush on a terran outpost:
The gameplay graphics are nothing to brag about today, but for their time it was worthwhile, and even now they get the job done. Its not overly distracting, and nothing clashes with the theme of the game. There aren't any major graphical glitches either (on anything that's Blizzard standard, IE: in their StarEdit). The movies weren't great, especially in the original starcraft, people having lopsided heads and some of the animations were odd, but keep in mind its a game from the 90s. Its not Final Fantasy quality cinematics or anything, but they certainly get the job done (especially the brood war protoss/terran campaign endings).
Cinematic clip of a terran soldier preparing for battle:
Graphics: 7
There are plenty of sound effects, all of which match each character and unit in the game. The voice acting is good and sort-of matches the generic talking head portrait for each character.
The music is decent and the tone fits the theme of each race. The zerg have a creepy guitar/percussion mix that matches their alien race, while the protoss soundtrack is much calmer and reflects their sorrowful fate. The music is midi, but in the middle of an intense game, one doesn't tend to notice. There was an issue with music stopping after the first track, but it has been resolved in Blizzard's latest patch. Overall, I enjoyed the music.
Sound & Music: 8
The singleplayer replayability is somewhat moderate. There are different strategies that can be used each time the missions are played, so there is some replay value, but the content remains constant (this especially hurts on maps that don't have bases, like installation missions) and its easy to remember where everything is. There is a decent plot and character involvement, enough that many fans are still screaming for a Starcraft sequel to resolve issues introduced throughout the Broodwar campaigns. Many of the maps take between 20 and 80 minutes to play, depending on your skill level and the mission, and there are six campaigns including the expansion set for some 55 missions (plus a bonus one), so there is some length to the single player campaign. Where Starcraft's replayability really shines is both in its multiplayer capability and its custom map support.
StarEdit, the map editor that comes packaged with Starcraft and is fully supported by Blizzard, allows anybody to use a simple GUI interface to design a map however they'd like. There are a few restrictions which can be annoying (max upgrade level is 3) that some programs (like StarEdit Emerald) can bypass, but StarEdit still allows a lot of customization. From inserting sound clips and graphics to modifying unit and hero stats to simple tile placement to create the desired Terrain, StarEdit makes it easy for even a novice editor to make a map. The triggers allow further detail, offering the possibility for many in-game actions to be programmed in using a drop menu and a list of detailed values to specify which actions you want to be performed.
Starcraft, like many of Blizzard's games, also comes fully supported with Battle.net, Blizzard's free online gaming service. Between the tens of thousands of players online and the thousands of custom maps available, it should be easy to find new adventures to play on Starcraft, and its no wonder that this game from 1998 is still widely played today.
Replay: 9.5/10
The game is played from an overhead view, giving you from your mighty "floating throne", a chance to see all of the action your minions are engaging in. You control up to twelve units at a time and are able to give them basic instructions as well as use any special abilities they may have. Unfortunately, unlike Warcraft 3, if there is a unit-specific ability (such as tank siege mode) and you have a group of units containing that unit ability as well as units that can't perform that ability, you can't tell the units with that ability to perform their ability without unselecting all of the units that don't have that ability. For example, if you have a group of marines and tanks and you want your tanks to siege, as marines don't have a siege mode, you have to deselect all of your marines simply to get your tanks to go into siege mode, sometimes wasting crucial seconds.
The player also controls buildings where they can research upgrades to make their units stronger, or train new units to pump out a larger military. Up to five units can be queued at a time, and there are rally points which can be set that will send any newly completed units to a user-defined location. Upgrades cannot be queued.
Each of the three races has their own unique set of abilities, units, and upgrades. Each race also has their own way of building structures. Terrans are able to have their main worker unit (the SCV) build buildings, halt construction to perform other tasks, and resume work at any time. The Protoss "warp in" their structures. Their designated worker unit (a probe) begins 'warping in' a structure, and after a few seconds the rift is opened and the building begins teleporting in (teleporting a building in takes time, its not instantaneous...by default), the probe is able to move on to perform other tasks, allowing one probe to warp in many buildings at once. The zerg prefer to have their workers (drones) mutate into the buildings they are trying to create. To compensate, all of the buildings are cheaper than the other three races. Also, whereas the terrans and protoss have building queues that produce units one at a time, the zerg produce all of their units at larva, which spawn over time at their hatcheries (main building). As larva appear until used, and up to three larva are present at one time at a hatchery, a player with multiple hatcheries can quickly produce military units faster than the other races.
Starcraft also supports hotkeys. Groups of units and specific buildings (if you wanted to hotkey a major production center or a building with an ability you use a lot) can all be assigned a number from 0 to 9 via the control+desired number hotkey combination. Hotkeys allow you to quickly select the desired thing in intense situations. Starcraft also supports building shortcuts (ie, hitting "B" to build a barracks rather than having to click on the icon) for more experienced players to quickly be able to construct their bases.
The gameplay is mostly smooth and there are few, if any, bugs remaining. Blizzard will occasionally patch the game as new loopholes and errors arise. Sometimes, to keep strategies fresh, Blizzard does release minor balance changes to counter overused strategies or strengthen ineffective units.
Company: Blizzard
Contact: http://www.blizzard.com
Price: $10
Review Version: 1.11b
Specifications: OS X carbon - any computer with OS X will run it for sure (it originally required System 7.6, 16mb of ram, 256 color, etc)
Good news: Massively multiplayer, lots of customization, easy to learn.
Bad news: Cinematic quality dated, some annoying limitations in map editor, can't pick out specific unit abilities in mixed group.
Recommended:
- Graphics: 7/10
- Sound/music: 8/10
- Replayability: 9/10
- Gameplay: 9/10
- Interface: 8.25/10