Starcraft: Brood War

"A great add-on to a must have game, but most were looking for a sequel..."

Blizzard added another chapter to the game of the year! Starcraft: Broodwar is the expansion for Starcraft. But how would an expansion compare to a sequel?

Game Play

The game play is the same, however, new units for each race spice it up! The protoss can now control dark templar, which are permanently cloaked ground units that do crap loads of damage! They also get dark archons, which can mind control any unit. One person can control three races if they mind control a drone and an scv! Terrans get valkyries which dish out air damage to multiple targets, and also medics which can heal all ground units that are alive (sorry, can't heal robotic units). They make those worthless marines and firebats an amazing rushing unit. Zerg unleash the lurkers, a hydralisk strain, that are burrowed so you can’t see them without detection. They launch a row of spines along the ground which rip though ground units. They also get devourerers, which attack air targets with acid spores. Acid spores act as hit multipliers and also reveal cloaked units. Not to mention some new maps, which come out all the time at blizzard.com. There are also new missions for each race, which you can use to train yourself to use the new units. These also go into more of the story of the game. It just adds to the variety of the original.

Story

The expansion comes out with all new missions, nine for protoss and terran, and 11 for zerg, because the expansion is shaped around the Zerg. The old story line is added on to
as well as new things popping up. There is also a Zerg secret mission that possibly goes into the future of Starcraft. It hints at the possibility of a second Starcraft game. In this expansion the Zerg become somewhat more powerful and begin to take over more. A former Terran hero is kid-napped and becomes a powerful queen to the zerg. Although at the end it appears the Terrans make a comeback somewhat.

Audio/Video

There really isn’t that much to add to this section because this is only an expantion to Starcraft. However, with the new units and stories you get lots more animations and sound effects. There are also a few great new movies along with the new missions.

Replay

It still has damn good replay except that I think it went down a little from the original because multi-player remains pretty much the same, except for a few new strategies with the new units. Most think Blizzard should have come out with a second Starcraft instead of an expansion. But you should definitely get this expansion if you have Starcraft. Right now I think we should just all keep our fingers crossed they do come out with another Starcraft game!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/00, Updated 12/28/00