Starcraft: Brood War

"By far one of the greatest, if not the greatest, RTS game of all time!"

Blizzard Entertainment has released three different games: Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. Starcraft, in my opinion, is by far the greatest one of them all. Starcraft is a real-time strategy game (RTS), and in my opinion, is the best PC game! I'll include more below.

Gameplay - 10/10

This is where the game shines. The gameplay is just superb. Plain out superb. You can pick one of three races: Terran (Humans), Zerg (Bugs and Aliens), and Protoss (Mechanical beings). As one of these races, you get to fight up to 7 computer opponents if you are playing in offline mode, and up to 7 human opponents if you are playing on online mode! You can even ally with the human opponents on online mode if you want to form a team game. Each human opponent can pick any race they want, just as you can. A computer opponent, however, is a different story. You can pick their race for them. Also, something I forgot to mention, you can even play with computer opponents online, but it's a lot more fun to play with actual human opponents. I really have not gotten fully into the gameplay yet, but I'm about to. Basically, as one of the three races in the game, you build structures, which help produce troops, which eventually, will form an army, then you can attack your opponent and/or opponents with those troops to try and win. Some structures don't always produce men, mind you, only some. Structures that don't produce men usually have upgrades for your units (troops), unless you build a defensive structure, such as a Missile Turret, a Sunken Colony, or a Photon Cannon. Troops alone are not enough to win a game, though (On computer opponents, if you are 130-200 on troops, then you can easily beat them, but it's a different case when playing against real people). You have to strategize where to attack your opponents where they are vulnerable at. Also, controlling your units helps to win a game.

Basically, the gameplay is just what I mentioned above: You control one of the three races, which are Terran, Zerg, and Protoss, and try and amass an army to defeat your opponent and/or opponents. You have to use that army strategically, and you also have to upgrade your units to make them a lot more powerful. One last thing: As Protoss, you can use a unit called a Dark Archon to gain control of another race (You can't control Protoss) if there is a Terran or Zerg in the match. Not each map is the same, either; there are tons of maps that you can play on, and new ones are usually coming out every few months, so the fun never ends! If you play in Use Map Settings, you will enjoy RPG-like maps, and mass attack maps, where the units are tweaked beyond their limit and stuff like that. There are several game types beside Melee and One on One(Use Map Settings that I just mentioned is one of the several game types in the game), so there's lots of fun and replay value in this game! Finally, one more thing I forgot to mention, is that you mine minerals (money) and Vespene Gas (another type of money) to build the structures/units, as that is the only way you can the money to build the structures and the units.

Graphics 9/10

The graphics are also quite superb, but there have been a few games with better graphics (FFX and Xenosaga, to name two), but overall, Starcraft: Brood War has some very decent graphics, and it makes the game even more fun! Basically, there is almost no flaws with the graphics, and even the special abilities with your units look cool!

Sound/Audio - 7/10

Eh, nothing special here. The sounds are better than the music by far, and the reason why I gave this section a 7 out of 10 was because of the music, as it's not too good. Anyway, the sound of the buildings (Yes, some of the buildings make sounds) are ok, but they aren't the greatest. The sound of the fighting, however, is quite good, at least to me. The sounds during the times of war just give you that adrenaline and makes it actually feel like an RTS game. The sounds of the units when you click on them aren't that good, either, just like the buildings, as I mentioned above. Other than a few annoying and flawed sounds of the buildings/units, the sound is pretty good (Keep in mind note ALL of the sounds of the buildings and units are bad). Now, as far as the music comes, it is not anything superb in any way, form, or shape. The music with the three races is just annoying, and even if you turn Radio Free Zerg on (Only works in offline mode), it still isn't enjoyable, though it's better than the other bit of music that you get normally, as this actually has some weird singing in it. Despite that, the music is still just terrible, which is why I gave this section a 7.

Difficulty - 10/10

This game definitely features a challenge, because of the online play. Offline is rather easy, but online isn't. The human players are extreme challenges if they are good players. While some people online are newbs (Meaning they aren't that good at the game at all, because they are new), most aren't, as this is a very old game and people have been playing it for years and years, so most are pretty good. Sure, there are still some newbs to the game every now and then, but most people are average to good, both on money maps, and non money maps. The difficulty of the game is especially present with good players and gosu players (The korean word for expert) on money or non money. The challenge of the game is what makes Starcraft good. It adds replay value.

Story - 5/10

Meh, the story is by all means pretty terrible. The story is only apparent in offline mode, and there is a different story for each race. I haven't played offline mode in a long while (Who needs to when you have online mode?), but I'll try and recall as much as I can of the story. As Protoss, you basically are trying to save your homeworld "Aiur" from the Zerg. With Terran, you basically battle against the Protoss and the Zerg race to give peace to the Terrans (This may not be entirely accurate, but I tried my best). Finally, with Zerg, you are basically just fighting the Terrans and taking advantage of them. Overall, the story is by all means nothing special.

Replay Value - 10/10

This game has perfect replay value, because of the online play. If it were not for the fact that you can play online with different people from around the world, the game would offer no replay value after you beat the missions in offline mode. If you play some decent to good people, and people that don't use hacks (Programs that give them a lot of advantages), you'll find the the game is very enjoyable online, which is why this game has some awesome replay value.

Overall - 10/10

This game is just awe-inspiring, plain and simple, just awe-inspiring. The gameplay was excessively great and fun, the sound was actually pretty good, in my opinion, but the music was just bad. The difficulty of the game is very apparent, especially if you are playing against non-hacking players, and players that are good. The graphics were very good to me, and some of the best graphics I've seen in an RTS game. Overall, Starcraft: Brood War is a must have for anyone, so please give this game a try! The overall score is easily a 10 out of 10.

Buy or Rent

You can't rent this game, so just buy it. You can find it in Wal-Mart, and other retailers, as well as video game stores. Just buy it, I'm sure most people like this game. The Starcraft Battle Chest comes with the original Starcraft, with Brood War, and with an instruction manual for both games, and it only costs in the range of about $20-$25, so that's a cheap price for so much stuff being included.

And that's the end of the review. I hope you enjoyed the review, and I hope it gave anyone who was wanting to try it an opinion on whether or not they should get it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/06