It’s sold millions of copies the world over. It’s the national pastime in South Korea. Fans clamored for a sequel for many years, which they finally received in July of 2010. Which gaming phenomenon am I referring to now? Starcraft, Blizzard’s best-selling real-time strategy game. It’s more than just a game; it’s an unstoppable phenomenon.
Starcraft, released in 1998, uses a modified “Warcraft II” engine, Warcraft II having been released in 1996. The first thing you’ll see in Starcraft is the incredible artwork in the background, the units, and especially the prerendered cutscenes. If the game weren’t so violent and dark, one could call it beautiful. It certainly is more striking than any Blizzard game before it. Fixed at a “640 by 480” screen resolution, Starcraft’s system requirements are very low. Almost any modern computer can run this game. Perhaps it’s no wonder that the game is so popular; just about anybody can play it.
And yet, despite the superb singleplayer campaign, what with its terrific voice-acting, unforgettable storyline, and challenging gameplay, it’s not the story-driven campaign mode that Starcraft fans remember most; it’s the custom games that are remembered most. All multiplayer games are custom, usually pitting one commander against another in a deathmatch to destroy one another. The player can play as one of three radically different races: the Terrans, a race of space-faring humans, the Protoss, an alien race with advanced technology and psychic powers, and the Zerg, a hive of insect-like creatures that live to hunt lesser prey. Unlike in many other real-time strategy games of the time, all three factions are radically different. For example, the Terrans have a unit called the Ghost, which can turn invisible and launch nuclear warheads at a designated target, provided no one can ‘detect’ the Ghost before he drops his payload. The Protoss, meanwhile, have plasma shields that effectively give all of their units and structures a second life bar, but should a Protoss’ shield run out, it will take normal life damage, and the normal life bar for a Protoss cannot be restored, but the shield life bar can. And the Zerg ‘trains’ all of its units at the hatchery, the main structure where resources are turned in. Should a Zerg base lose its structures but not the hatchery, a Zerg player will always be able to create Zerglings to fight back, but lose any and all hatcheries, and the player cannot ‘train’ anymore units, not even the ubiquitous Zerglings. I am just scratching the surface here.
Why Starcraft has endured, and why so many of its contemporaries have not, is because of the depth and complexity of the whole game. It is certainly complex, more so than Warcraft I and II, but not so much as to turn away casual gamers. The depth can make it seem like you’re playing more than one game; a Protoss versus Protoss matchup feels very different from a Terran versus Zerg matchup. Or maybe you don’t want to wipe out the enemy as the main objective? Starcraft offers countless maps and game modes all for free from the internet, everything from re-enactments of Starship Troopers to Capture the Flags with Hydralisks is available, all thanks to the game’s powerful Campaign and map editor. Why the PC version of Starcraft is remembered and not the N64 port is because of the custom maps. The Campaign editor is what allows Starcraft to remain popular a decade after its release.
Is Starcraft the best strategy game ever? Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. But is it one of the best? Most definitely. No one would deny its place in videogame history. It’s still played very extensively on Battle.net, a feat most other 12-year old games can't claim.
Now why on Earth would I be making an entry entitled, “Starcraft: A Love Story. Part One”? Stick around to find out more.
(At least now, I’ll be taking a break from gushing about cute girls with huge eyes.)
