Starcraft is my favorite strategy game of all time, by far. This is a very hard game to rate, because of the fact that it is so great. I guess I will just start from the beginning:
About 6 years ago, I was introduced to a wonderful little demo called Starcraft. Over the next year, I was refrained to just the demo, because of lack of money, but to enhance the play, I installed such programs as EZ Loader (aww great stuff that). It let you play as Zerg on bnet, even though on the demo, you were only supposed to play as Terrran. Then my good brother, Chad, finally bought the fabulous game!!! Sometime later, I also bought Brood War. But then again, I ran into other problems, like my CD rom basically blew up, ruining several of my CD's, including Brood War. Not only was the expansion RUINED, but I couldn't play the original 'cuz my CD rom didn't work (that's what happens when they blow up...). This actually kind of turned into a good thing, as it forced me to look in other directions, say the 64!!! Just in time for my birthday, Starcraft 64 came out!!! This game is great, in fact I think I'll do a whole review for it. Well, a LONG time later, we got a new CD rom, meaning I could play STARCRAFT Starcraft starcraft.... So I did. And I still do to this day.
Now that you know my fabulous personal history of this game, I'll tell you fabulous things about THE GAME. First of all Blizzard is an EXPERT on strategies, as they made one of the first good ones: Warcraft I. You may think this games SUCKS, but it led to amazing things, namely Starcraft. Thus Starcraft was destined to be glorious before it even came out. And it was glorious.
Starcraft is one of the most balanced, yet flexible games ever made. For example: most games you play aren't too long or too short, but if you want, you can rush, making it a 5 minute game, or hold out (I think my longest game was almost 4 hours)
Next, it has the best, and may I reemphasize THE BEST races balance!!! I cannot imagine how they made the races so balanced. Whether you play as Terran Starcraft, or Zerg, each race has their own ups and downs, pros and cons, and each race has its own strategies against each other race. And Blizzard updates Starcraft every so often to make sure the balance remains. Yet, like I mentioned before, Starcraft has THE BEST variety amongest the races I've ever seen. Unlike most strategy games today (and yes even Warcraft has failed in this way), each race is COMPLETELY different. The only similarities are that there is one basic unit for each race, but they are so different, that that is hardly worth mentioning. This variety has got to be my favorite part about Starcraft.
Another great thing about this game is multiplayer. I love going on battlenet, or just on my own network at house to play against different peoples. So much can happen when you're playing against people instead of computers. And battlenet is one of the few internet gaming servers that is free!
One of the best parts about Starcraft is the campaign. If you haven't played the campaign yet, I HIGHLY suggest it, unless you don't like strategy games. It has the best story I've ever seen in a game, and I personally believe it could be made into a great movie.
A very flexible part about Starcraft: the map editor. I love how you can make anything you want, any story you want, and battle you want. This is a revolutionary map editor, being the easiest to use, and most flexible of its time. You can almost make them just like the campaign!
Though there is SO much cool stuff in this game, I have only one last thing to say. I love the endless possibilites in this game. No matter who you're going against you can never be sure what they're up to. Whether they will rush, yamato, nuke, EMP, plague, carrier, broodling, T-storm, or siege tank you to death, it's always a surprise. And a great thing about this is there's a counter for everything!
Thus, all in all, Starcraft was a extremely well made game. And what else could we expect from the pros at Blizzard? Thank you Blizzard for your great games, and please keep them great. |
