What seems like eons ago now, I used to invite myself over to my best friend's house at least twice a week just to play WarCraft. I was completely taken by the whole bird's-eye-view-real-time-war-strategy thing. I soon became a master of defensive formations. Then came Command & Conquer. It was ok, but somehow lacked the addictiveness for me (it also didn't help that it was nearly impossible to cheat!). After that, WarCraft 2, which seemed a little more cartoony than its predecessor, but was no less addictive, and the numerous new characters, including the one-of-a-kind heroes, were a very welcome change. What made it even better was the built-in map editor feature, and, more than the icing on the cake -something more like an entire new layer to the cake- the fact that it was the most fun, most addictive multiplayer game ever.
Then came StarCraft.
Where WarCraft 2 had two races to choose from, StarCraft has three. Where every WarCraft 2 character had its equivalent character in the other race, StarCraft's three races are so distinct and so painstakingly designed that it's practically impossible to draw any parallels whatsoever. Where WarCraft 2's storyline was excessively simple, and the Orc and Human campaigns were concurrent (that is, they're just two different perspectives on the same story, happening at the same time), StarCraft's storyline is as rich and detailed as a sci-fi novel, full of dissention, assassination, and alliances made and broken. Further, in StarCraft, the campaigns are meant to be played in a specific order, because they are not concurrent, but rather entirely different chapters in this wonderful complex story.
The multiplayer aspect of StarCraft is the best part of all. StarCraft, like WarCraft 2, has a built-in map editor, although it is more difficult to use, simply because the game is more complex. Unlike WarCraft 2, StarCraft includes everything you need (except an internet connection) to join the exciting world of on-line StarCraft gaming on 'battle.net'.
I first played StarCraft at another friend's house, from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. in the morning. Suffice to say I was too tired to figure out what was going on, and was baffled by all the complexities of the game. A week later I said 'Give me your copy of StarCraft so we can play online'. And the rest is history. Once again, just like with WarCraft and WarCraft 2, I'm not much good at strategic attack, but I've become an expert at defensive formations. Once again, I prefer to use humans - I suppose I understand their technology better than aliens or Orcs. Blizzard scored another winner with StarCraft, and as technology gets better and people's hard drives get bigger, many aspects of computer games improve accordingly: StarCraft has better sound, more in-game sounds, a longer storyline, better between-level graphics, more between-level videos, more characters, more races, more buildings to construct, more upgrades to make, etc.
In closing: buy this game. (And the Brood War expansion ... I don't know where I would be without my medics and my nukes!)
