StarCraft is an iconic real-time strategy game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment that pits three unique races against each other in a battle for galactic supremacy. Develop your own strategies and outwit your opponents as you compete in epic space battles. Experience the classic game that started it all and become the ultimate commander.

Plot

StarCraft's story takes place in a science fiction universe in the early 24th century. As the Earth is overpopulated, the international governing body decides to exile humans like criminals, genetic mutants, or cybernetically augmented persons to colonize the galaxy. The discoveries and conquests go on, but conflicts emerge between the different governments on new planets implying brutal methods to suppress dissidents to shift the balance of power. No matter where the human race goes, it spreads destruction and calumny.

But one day, an unknown race called the Protoss makes first contact with humanity and destroys a Confederate colony in cold blood and without warning. Later, the Terrans discover another alien race called the Zerg that has secretly infested several Terran colonies' surfaces. Meanwhile, Protoss units are trying to destroy the planets to prevent the Zerg from spreading.

Gameplay

Pick a side: Three distinct races are available in StarCraft, including the humanoid Terran, the insectoid Zerg, and the psionic Protoss. Each race features unique units, and structures, that perform differently and hence need to be used through different tactics. For example, the Protoss are really effective thanks to powerful and expensive pieces of machinery and units, the Zerg race can produce a massive number of units and perform quick moves to overwhelm its opponents, and the Terran is considered the in-between race as it can take advantage of both powerful machines and fast units in more moderate conditions.
Hone tactics: Throughout your different games, you will have to develop and improve your units, build new structures, and ensure you don't run out of resources. As each race features a unique playstyle, every game will be a new challenge to adapt to the map constraints, watch over your enemies' moves, and deploy your units to strike your foes. In addition, time optimization is a game changer in StarCraft, so you will progressively learn the different most effective tactics depending on your race and all the different keyboard shortcuts that will make you save lots of time.

Resource management: The three races rely on two resources which are Vespene gas and Minerals. If Minerals stand as an all-purpose resource to build units and structures, Vespene gas is needed to produce more advanced and powerful units and buildings. Also, it would be best to regulate your population depending on your resource supply to ensure your production remains reliable over time.
A.I.: When it was released, the StarCraft artificial intelligence was quite convincing and still offers interesting tactical challenges. As it scales in difficulty (easy, medium, hard, and insane), you will start your campaigns with enemy factions with easy A.I., and it will scale through the missions. Note that you can access the different difficulty levels in the level editor.
Level editor: The built-in level editor, also called StarEdit, allows you to design entire maps and campaigns. Indeed, you can create very diversified modes with your triggers, rules, and objectives and tweak A.I. levels to build and shape unique scenarios. Over the years, thousands of scenarios have been created, like Evolves, Golem Madness, Turret Defense, Sunken Defense, Nightmare RPG, and Tower Defense.

Graphics and sound

Both the graphics and sound were praised by critics and players when the game was released. There is no doubt that, for an RTS, it offered pretty immersive and coherent environments with an epic soundtrack. In addition, the StarCraft remastered version features ultra-high-definition graphics, re-recorded audio (for both sound effects and soundtrack), and modern online features.

Duration and game modes

Starcraft features two main game modes, including a single-player campaign mode and several multiplayer scenarios. Completing the main story will take you about 24 hours.

Campaign: You will experience 30 missions, split into 10 for each race. This is very useful to understand how each race works, its strengths and weakness, and how to adapt your tactics depending on your opponents.
Multiplayer: Up to 8 players can compete against each other (like destroying all other players, king of the hill, capture the flag, etc.).

What do the reviews say?

StarCraft has received a very high score of 88/100 on Metacritic and has been praised by the whole player community. StarCraft is a well-deserved successful game.

"The game has so much life in it - whether in the great, narrative-driven single-player campaign or the multitude of multiplayer options - you won't grow tired of it anytime soon." (GameSpot)