"Much bigger, better , and more fun than the original!"

When my friend bring his own Starcraft original & Starcraft: Brood War, I decided to play it and in fact it was difficult at first time. But after I played original Starcraft in few weeks, I really like this strategy game better than other titles. By the time my friend play Brood War, I watch him play and I see that they have better stuff than the original. And once I played, I feel much better and definitely one of my favorite games to play!
Anyways lets head on to my review.

Graphics(9)

As I can say that Blizzard has done very well with artwork and graphic work. The backgrounds during the gameplay, it is so beautiful. The animations of water and unit were looking good as I can see. The attack animations were great, I like the ones like Terran Marine's Gauss Rifle. Some terrains were popular. The popular terrains were Jungle and Space. Some unpopular terrains were snow, dessert, and ash world. I think these are it for Terrains.

Sounds(8)

The sounds were very good, as well as voice actors. The sounds in command menus were nice. I was impressed by Protoss units like Zealot's Psi blades and Dark Templar's Warp Blades. To voice actors, I like the voice of Protoss's Narrator(I don't know who he is). And a little bit annoying was Zerg's Narrator(again I don't know who he is). The soundtracks were great from the original game. The original themes I like the most is Zerg and Protoss theme. The new Brood War theme is that I feel little disappoint but not really so! I try Protoss's new Brood War theme but it has scratches, can't play well and causes to lock up the game. Zerg and Terran's Brood War theme were good anyways and I've enjoy it. The death sounds of the units(the one that any units died) were good and mostly the protoss's death sounds were very good like Zealot and Dragon dies.

Gameplay(10)

Now this is what were talking about. If you played original Starcraft before, you know what you been expect. The gameplay may be hard at first but once you know the rules and units to master, you're going to be good in this game. Brood War's gameplay is much better than the original! The gameplay will play the same way like original except it has new units, new campaigns, and new heroes. The new units were very good, I like Zerg Lurker and Devourer. Terran Medics can allow to heal the biological units like Marines basically. Besides that, one of the protoss units were originally dedicated as hero was Dark Templar. By the time of Brood War, Dark Templars are now allow to be build in the Gateway which is really fun to use. Besides Dark Templar, the new Archon can be build by selecting two Dark Templars and they transformed into an new powerful unit called "Dark Archon". Dark Archon's abilities were powerful but you need to research those abilities(except Feedback) first before using them. The most powerful spell I like is Mind Control! Mind Control can allow to take enemy's units! I like to take those Drones and SCVs. Besides taking enemy's units, it can allow to take your allies units in which you can do it in battle.net. But, when using mind control, be careful about Dark Archon's Shield in which will drain all of it! New upgrades for existing units in which only appears on Brood War. Goliath's new upgrade "Charon Boosters" in which will only work for air attack range(not ground attack range). This is a great time to take out their air units that easily. And the new upgrades for Zerg Ultralisk! Yet, I like Ultralisk's upgrade in which you research from the cavern and make them faster than their ordinary speed from the original game. Not only Ultralisk's Upgraded speed, there is a new upgrade that has improved armor in which can be research from the cavern. Ultralisk is probably the only ground unit that has heavy armor! The few game types you can play are Free for all, Melee, and Use Map Settings. In Free for all mode, you must destroy all your enemy's buildings to win this game. I prefer that my quote for this mode is "Who will be the best?". Free for all is mostly used for single player but it is good for practice. In melee mode, this is mostly used in battle.net. You can allied your players to fight against human or computer. Melee is mostly popular game on battle.net. In Use Map Settings mode, well I don't want to waste time to tell what is Use Map Settings mode is used for. You can find out anywhere like battle.net in which you can get the particular Map from anyone. As for Use Map Settings in Battle.net, you cannot earn a win or lose. Basically you may earn a draw from Use Map Settings game I think. I like to play Melee and Ladder games on battle.net.

Replay: For Single(7) For Battle.net(10)

This game never ends the replay. As for Single player game, you can practice whatever you can. In Battle.net, you can join or create your own game and let people play as they like. You can earn your own rank in which will keep Brood War's replay endless. Also there is a Campaign Editor in which you can make your own maps. I like to say that Free for All & Melee map is much easier than Use Map Settings Map.

Overall(9)

Blizzard has once again made a popular and famous strategy game of original and expansion game. RTS fans will like this game and also the characters. I enjoy the characters of Protoss and Zerg. After reading that review and you were going to decide to buy the Brood War Expansion, you will need to have a original Starcraft in order to install and play expansion game. This game will make you play hours of Starcraft: Brood War endlessly fun! I hope this review helps. See you later!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/04