Starcraft

"Your Base is Under Attack."

StarCraft and its expansion, Brood War, are Real Time Strategy games on the PC and Mac, and are widely considered to be among the best games in the last few years. Blizzard, the developer of lore that makes games for the computer platform, perfected the genre with these games, which came out in 1998, and they are considered classics. Not only does it contain fun and engaging gameplay, but its depth and sophistication of game making has yet to be duplicated.

The real time strategy genre is simple in the way that it works in concept, but StarCraft makes it even more complex without making it too hard. All sides of the battle take their turns at once, limited only by their resources and skills. This means that very large fights occur on a regular basis, and it's up to the commander to manage the units accordingly. A full tree of units and buildings map out the progression of technology as the game progresses, because these battles can last many, many hours if the players are equally skilled. That said, the gameplay here takes the genre fundamentals and turns it into an amazing experience.

But the game is still user friendly, even with all this depth. The user interface is clean and obviously labeled, and there's always a help function available in the single player game (no help in the middle of an online battle, sorry). The mouse is the primary button used, but the keyboard can have shortcuts to get you to your units faster, speeding up even the inexperienced. The tutorial walks through everything, but it's over before the veterans know it and the game is well into its roller coaster campaign.

The player picks from three species: the Terran (humans with a good range of units), the Zerg (bug-type things with many weak units), and the Protoss (a futuristic nomad group with few strong units). Each of the races has a campaign of their own, which introduce units and gameplay styles to the player. And somehow, Blizzard balanced these three sides perfectly, which is one of the feats in the game that makes it so stunning. There's a style in this game for everybody's way of playing, but no one way is “better.” There are advanced tactics that can overcome the computer, but for a human opponent there's no silver bullet unit that will destroy them to a pulp.

The expansion, Brood War, is simply the most substantial expansion set that has been released. Period. Not only does it double the length of the first game, but it adds six or seven units (depending on how you look at it) plus new music, plot, and movies. It makes playing online with the original useless: the new areas and units just make it a better multiplayer game.

Speaking of other people, the multiplayer is fantastic. Using Blizzard's own Battle.net that originated for Diablo and WarCraft II, the game allows you to see and join other games, make your own with or without a password, or just use the front lobby to chat. In this day and age the games run extremely smooth and your matches are usually lag free—most internet users can get a good game going, and if you find a good person to play with, there's no shortage of enjoyment this game can bring you.

But what if there is no social interaction at your computer? The computer's fine too. There are scalable settings for the AI beasts, and they can get viciously hard. Not only is the main campaign a nice challenge (but not too hard) but the skirmishes later can add a lot to the game. The AI is believable enough that nobody will really complain. Plus, there's a map editor if you want to make your own battlefields. There's no shortage of opponents to deck out your mad mouse-moving skills to.

And it has some stylized graphics to show these battles off. Although it may not stand up to modern offerings like Company of Heroes or Supreme Commander, the 2D graphics have an odd cartoon look to them, which only helps the overall feel of the game as well as the low system requirements. All of the units and structures are lovingly detailed and animated, although sometimes they can look very simple…almost too simple. Fires look like two-frame flipbooks, and the walking of the ground units looks sluggish and choppy.

But what are cool are the other effects. Blazing guns look very neat when there are thirty Marines blasting the Zerglings to bits, and the vehicle units look distinctly smooth in their movement. Large attacks like the Yamato cannon appear satisfyingly powerful, while any explosion will make the player feel like they accomplished something. The art style is as good as Blizzard is known for, and the game can be run on almost any computer these days. Only a minor slowdown might occur when the maximum units are flying at each other (200). Any gamer who doesn't mind having a little age in their graphics won't mind any of these qualms a bit, though.

What will blow almost any gamer away are the numerous cutscenes. While some are short and involve the main plotline at hand, there are some very well placed movies that just delve into the universe of StarCraft some more, and they always feel like a reward. Some of these are just simply great: although the 3D renders aren't the best, the pacing and genuine thrill that is portrayed makes the cutscenes a real treat. The first game has a cutscene every three missions, while the expansion leaves it at one per campaign, plus a new opening and ending movie. Brood War's opening cutscene is not only exhilarating, but it's emotional, too, and it's the best in the game. But all of the movies well done and they add a lot to the game.

The sound, however, has never been Blizzard's strong suite. While the voice-overs are of the best quality, the music is pretty deadpan, save a few exceptions. The Terran song set is a very neat mix of soft rock and an orchestrational soundtrack, and while it isn't inspiring like Total Annihilation's full symphonic music, it will suffice. Bugger the rest of the game can't follow, and it's usually pretty dull, if it doesn't fit the mood fairly well.

But as said, the voice-overs are great. A wide range of actors are behind every speech clip and they pull it off very well. Some of the humans have Russian accents, while the Zerg speak in low gravel with clacking in the background. Every unit has a special set of lines that it uses randomly, so while the dropship might say something when you click on it once, the second time it might be different. Sometimes these phrases get cheesy and possibly annoying, but the polish is worth it.

This game is huge. Equate buying the StarCraft bundle to buying an entire series of a TV show on DVD: the single player alone will net you twenty to fifty hours in one playthrough, depending on your skill. Then you have the limitless multiplayer over Battle.net. Then you have the scenario create for making new maps and single player mission to solve and trade with other people online. There's so much game here it's not even funny. As long as you enjoy the subject material, this game can last you forever.

There's one last thing about StarCraft that needs mention before this is wrapped up. The ESBR rating is border-line. Currently it's Teen for Animated Violence and Strong Language. Add in Animated Blood and Gore to that list. StarCraft is a very bloody game, and it's very violent. The language is basically "the Hoover" said extremely often, as well as a few other choice words. It never gets too out of hand, but know: this game is very close to Mature.

But all that aside, StarCraft is amazing. It's deep, long and just plain fun. If you are reading this, you have access to a computer, so you should own this game: go now and buy it. You will not be sorry.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/07