"Please exuse me for sounding like a fanboy, but Brood War is worth a 10."

I am being totally fair when I say that 10 is a fitting grade for Brood War. Although it is technically an expansion pack/sequel, it works well as a stand-alone game. This intergalactic military strategy game is comprised of good elements.

The gameplay is wonderfully refreshing. You can choose from three different races: the militaristic Humans, the sleek, smart, psychic Protoss, and the revolting insect-like Zerg. Playing with each race is a completely different experience. With your chosen race, you start to harvest Minerals and Vespene Gas. These act as a monetary source to build your units and structures. You must build up your base, progressing through a build tree. As you progress, many different units will become available. You must also purchase upgrades for your units.

As your base builds up, more options and units become available. These things add to the fun and strategy of the game. There are infinitely many strategies that you can use. Your basic strategy depends on your race. Each race is incredibly different, as are the units. You can build infantry units, heavy ground units, shuttles, fighters, and shuttles with every race. Each unit has a different look, speed, air attack and ground attack value. Many units also have different abilities. There are various abilities that consume energy that units can do. There is an incredible variety among these things. There are about 40 different special abilities, and each one offers many different new strategies. There is a nice mix of things. There are powerful energy cannons and psionic storms, and things like that for one purpose only: kill. On the more subtle side, there are cloaking fields, parasites, mind control, blinding bolts, and things like that. Also, there are many wide area things, like dark storm, disruption web, lockdown, stasis field, EMP missile, irradiate, and fun things like that. There are many different defensive structures to build, and there are 40 different units.

This game has many different modes. The campaign mode is a wonderful way to have fun. It is a series of missions where you must achieve certain objectives. There are standard eradicate everything objectives, but there are also more strategic ones. In some objectives, there is a specific target. In others, you must survive or protect something for a certain amount of time. There are some missions where you must find something, or bring something somewhere. These missions are highly plot-driven and they are a continuation of the original Starcraft campaign. In these missions, everything you must do has to do with the plot. You are treated with voice-acted dialogue before and during every mission between hero characters. The plot for Brood war is both unpredictable and strong. In between missions, you may unlock a stunning cinematic ''movie'' that further advances the plot. These movies vary in 20 seconds to a minute and a half in length. There are 27 different missions, and one secret one.

Another mode is the single player customizable one. You can choose a map, and play a free-style battle against 1-7 computer controlled characters. The computer is both able and capable of beating you. This is an excellent mode for honing your skills for the online multiplayer mode, hosted by Battle.net. In this mode, you play against friends or complete strangers in a wonderful, fun battle. You are capable of forming alliances, open or closed chat, and breaking the alliance whenever you feel like it. You must use diplomacy and subtlety to win.

Another feature of Brood War is the campaign editor. In this, you can create your own maps. If you get skilled enough, you can create your own campaigns. You have so many options in the campaign editor. You can edit the stats for any unit, use hero units, program dialogue and key events, and tons of other things. It is challenging to use, but fun and rewarding. I recommend this to up-and-coming game programmers. You need limited knowledge of programming to use this to it's full potential, but if you aspire to create games, than this is for you.

Brood War is visually stunning. There are different terrains to see. Each unit is colorful and detailed. There is no major slowdown. Scattered throughout the map are dozens of doodads and creatures. The movies look great.

The music in Brood War is incredible too. It is creepy, and it sets the scene very well. The music fits well with the races, too. Each race has about 5 four-and-a-half minute songs, and they loop in a random order. The music for the Terrans is this grungy-blood pumping stuff with a cool beat. The Zerg music is this odd, creepy, noise type thing that I like very much (sorry, it is hard to describe). The Protoss music is this epic, techno sounding stuff. I like the music in Brood War so much that I put it into my music library. As a side note, there is also a code you can input while playing as the Zerg, and you are treated to a few minutes of a humorous song where the evil hero characters are jamming to a hip-hop song.

The sound in Brood War is almost as good as the music. The voice acting is incredible- from hero characters down to lowly SCVs There are sound effects galore. Everything sounds like it should. The roll of the marine's machine guns sounds real. All of the voices are put through synthesizers, so they sound like what they are. Even the speech-incapable Zerg's slime sound effects are real. The sound is incredible.

If you find Brood War too hard, you can take it down a notch. There are many cheat codes that are very helpful. You can choose which ones to use. There are a few that only give you a slight advantage, and there are a few that are power overwhelming.

I highly recommend this game. If you already have the original, and you like it, do not hold off. This game is for you. There are many additional units and upgrades, aside from the new campaign missions.

If you do not own the original Starcraft, then this will not work. Fortunately, there is a box set available for purchase that includes Starcraft, Brood War, and the Prima strategy guides for both of the games. It is cheap too. I got the box set for 30 dollars and that was over a year and a half ago. So? How about it? It is a fun, cheap game that gives hours of play and replay. Even if you do not like games like this, it may very likely grow on you.

I cannot think of many flaws in this game at all. Sometimes, it looses fun and appeal to me when I reach a particularly hard part, but hey, what game does not? So, although it is rarely not as fun as it should be, it is still a remarkable gaming experience and a milestone in the military strategy genre. Brood War is the winner of the best strategy game of the year, and was in the top 3 in the game of the year contest. It is the sequel to the game of the year. It is a noteworthy game.

As I said, I do not want to sound like a fanboy, but Brood War is deserving of my praise.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/01/03, Updated 06/01/03