Starcraft

"Goes right up there with the other legends of PC gaming"

Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica are just some of the famous titles you will think of when you hear the word ''deep space battles''. But Blizzard Entertainment added a new title to out ever growing list. That title is StarCraft, a deep space strategy game similar to WarCraft 2. In fact, I've heard StarCraft be refered to as the future counterpart, even a sequal (but does not contain related events, like the Final Fantasy series). StarCraft has it all when it comes to the necessities of gaming, everything.

This game takes place in deep space sometime in the future. Expedition teams are set out to discover new lands, to colonize other planets. Then one day, as they are busy exploring, a protoss ship appears overhead and blows them all up. The story goes from there......

First off, the gameplay is absolutley perfect. There are three races to chose from. The Terran, Zerg and Protoss. Each of them with their own story, advantage, disadvantage and units. But although each race has their own story, their stories are intertwined and related with each other's. As well, each story deals with internal conflicts within the races, as well as conflicts with other races. There are two modes of play in the single player. Campaign (a full length 30 mission story), and a custom mode. In the custom mode, players can set up their own battles using one of the three race on one of the custom maps. They can set the number of opponents and their races. The campaign is often called the ''story mode''. Here, the player sets out on the main function of the game, to discover the story. The story is brought foward through the use of 30 missions (10 for each race). Each getting harder and harder. The first few missions teaches the basics of the game (so fear not, rookies). But for those of you who have already passed the campaign and got bored of the custom mode, there is a multiplayer mode. Here, the player can battle, or join forces with friends over a modem, or with up to seven other players over Battle Net (simply abbriviated to b.net). Here, the possibilities are endless. Many different types of game can be created. Also, messages can't be sent to other people to let them know of your battle plans, of just to let them know that you're out to get them and they better start beefing up their defenses.

The engine is similar to WarCraft 2. Players build their town, train militia, expand their town, attack their enemies and protect their allies (if any). The players could use the mouse to play, but that would be difficulty. That is where the keyboard comes in. Players utilize ''hot keys'' (key board short cuts) to make their building/attacking/moving easier. That is what makes the controlls so good. Everything can be done with a click of the mouse or a few buttons on the keyboard. The computer AI (artificial intelligence) is really high in this game, which makes the challenge extreme in the custom mode. However, in the campaign mode, there is a nice scaling dificulty, and a easy learning curve. Making this game great for beginners. The rookie can gentally learn the game (and basics of all real time strategy) and gradually improve his/her skills through the campaign mode.

The graphics in here are almost perfect, but has a major flaw. First, the FMVs (full motion videos), are well done. They all run very smoothly (assuming your computer is powerful enough to run the game). The detail and texture of every object in the FMVs (particularly the ships) are really good. You can just imagine how it would feel against your skin if you were to touch it. Also, everything in the videos look very realistic. There is a nice use of colors to create the fictional planets. I particulary like the facial expressions the characters get. You can really tell what they are feeling. Panic, relief, it's all there. The major flaw are the size of the units. They are extremely small. Some units are so small and blured that you cannot tell the direction they are facing. I much prefer the size of the units from WarCraft 2. But overall, the graphics are very impressive.

The audio, just like the graphics, are extremely well done, but have some flaws. First of all, I love the voice acting. The casting director (or whoever is responsible for casting), really did a great job to find the right cast for the voices. All of the voices sound like what you would imagine the character to sound like. The actors/actresses are really good at showing the proper emotion that the character is feeling. Also, they did a good job in matching the mouths of the characters. The downside to the audio is the attacks of the units. Some of them are not done very well, and can barely tell what the units are doing. On the other hand, most of the audio during gameplay was excellent. You can hear the growling of the Zerg clearly. It is nasty, just like their attacks. You can hear the units of the Terrans talk as you click on them. You can hear the nobility of the Protoss as you click on their units. Just like the graphics, the overall audio is very imrpessive.

The fun factor and replay value are both extremly high because they are inter dependant on each other. The fun factor is high because you can play this game over and over again. This game is particularly fun if you play with a full eight players over battle net. You can also make some life time friends on battle net. Or if you don't have access to the internet, but still have a modem, you can play this with one other friend over your modem. This is also extremely fun because you can team up to slaughter six other computer controlled oppoents, or just slaughter each other. Don't have a modem, no problem. Using a link cable, you can link your computer up with another computer through a direct connection. This is at it's funnest when playing a allied game. This way, you do not have to send mesages to each other to let the other person know what you are planning to do. Just open your mouth and talk.

StarCraft is without a doubt one of the biggest PC gaming events ever. It goes up there with all the other legends of PC gaming. I highly recomend you to buy this game without delay, or second thoughts. You'll be glad you did.

FINAL RANKINGS:
Gameplay:10
Challenge:10
Controlls:10
Graphics:9.5
Audio:9.75
Fun Factor:10
Replay Value:10
Overall:10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/21/00, Updated 07/21/00