Signs of Life Emerge From “The Galaxy Far Far Away”
Pen & Paper, Pez's CPU No Comments »Most of the people believe that life does not exist outside of the planet we are living in.
No life outside of the Earth? Nonsense! It’s already here.
Proudly presented by Blizzard Entertainment, one of the most popular entertainment corporations in the world, Starcraft was released in April, 1998. 
Before anything more, what is Starcraft? What KIND OF game is it?
Starcraft belongs to the genre of RTS, which stands for Real Time Strategy. Literally, it is a game where you organize, and initiate strategies of your race and lead to victory. However, as ‘real time’ part is self explanatory, your enemy develops at the same pace as you develop, meaning that you might have to change your strategies constantly in order to combat the strategies your opponent has.
Is it one of those ‘classic’ RTS games that’s based on WW I or WWII?
Well, it is an RTS, and it does include vast amount of army and war content (if it doesn’t it’ll be more like a tycoon game. Yuk). However, the reason why this game was so ground-shaking was because it was based completely outside of the Earth and for the most part, the human history.
The story tells me that human race needs other inhabitable planets that humans can live in, due to the worsened condition of the blue planet that continued for centuries. Then, they encounter a race, Protoss, the prevailing aliens of the particular galaxy the humans were exploring in. Of course, since humans were just completely new aliens for them, Protoss concluded that they are trespassing, and are threats to their race. A war starts between the races, and it gets bigger and bigger day by day. Meanwhile, a new race, the Zerg, is created by the scientists from Protoss. Unfortunately, they’re power was beyond their expectation, and set loose out of their reach. Thanks to the Protoss race, now it is a war between three races: the Terran, humans from the Earth; the Protoss, the ancient keepers of the galaxy; the Zerg, the monsters born from science.
The day this game was out on public, it blew such number of people’s minds that this game spread through the U.S at an incredible speed, and even to Asia. Now, it is THE most popular game in South Korea. People from all sorts age group plays this game – even a job called ‘professional gamers’ or ‘pro-gamers’ emerged as a popular job in Korea.
A decade passed after this game was released. Considering the fact that the game market is developing at a ridiculously fast rate, a decade makes any kind of game just ‘too old to play’ and forgotten. Starcraft on the other hand, managed to survive that stereotypical behaviors of gamers and got popular everyday.
Now, let’s enter the Matrix once more to see what this game’s made of.
Interface
Interface is the first thing that the gamers put into their consideration. The reason for this matter is because interface is the first thing the player sees and sees every single time they play the game. It can attract more users like ants on a candy, or it might as well get buried to the bottom of the Earth as if it never existed. Harsh stuff, but it’s part of the competition.
As for Starcraft, I’d like to say that it is by far the most successful interface that RTS games ever developed. Some anti-fans (those mean people on Youtube who leaves mean comments) criticized that it was too dull, but it was soon proved that it is set as the idol for RTS interface, and frequently used by other RTS game developers.
It is incredibly compact, but it contains everything you need to play the game; it’s never too many nor too little.
First, you have a map on the bottom left corner, which can track the units’ location, movement and action. With this map, you can constantly monitor different locations to react for any emergencies, or the opponents’ unexpected strategies.
Secondly, the middle bar shows you the specific details of the buildings and units you click on, and an image of them.
Thirdly, the right hand corner is where there are 9 little squares for any ‘actions’ you can perform. Normally, half of them are empty, and even if it is full, most of the movements can be performed with your mouse and keyboards.
Balance between the race
One of the scenarios that happens to the ‘stinky’ or ‘sucky’ RTS games is this: people play the game for the first time, and enjoys it pretty much; then they challenge their friends with their own favorite races, and yet they like the game; eventually, the players reach out to the online network to challenge more people around the world, and realizes that everyone uses the same race, just because they are superior; soon the player gets bored of the race and tries other races out, and finds out they are way too weak, and quit the game.
Starcraft is far away from that matter. However, this matter is hard to describe for me, and hard to understand for you, unless you actually play it – so first things first, here are the races of Starcraft.
Terran
Terran are the humans from a planet called the Earth (duh). Since Starcraft’s saga starts at the year 2229, humans had all the technology we can possibly imagine, and also all the worries such as pollution, population boom became the reality. The population reached 260000000000 people, about 4.5 times bigger than the current population (in 2008). The planet had no room, and the level of pollution has reached its max.
So, with all the fancy technologies humans had, they had reached their hands out for inhabitable planets outside their solar systems, and the grand war between the galaxy starts.
In the game, Terran is loved by many players in the world, because they stand neutral to any abilities. The units are relatively cheap, and they’re at a medium strength – possibly stronger compared to the price. Also, their pace of development is maneuverable by the user, so Terran users have the biggest range in their level of playing. The gap between the good Terran player and a starter with Terran is huge that the game ends so quickly.
If you want to experience what ‘the stable’ is like, try out with Terran. It will definitely be a great guide for you to approach Starcraft.
Protoss
Protoss is one of the noblest races in the entire universe, and they have amazing and unknown technologies that are completely new to humans. They are proud and cautious and doesn’t like any conflicts; which is why they wanted to extinguish the flame of the Terrans as soon as they appeared in their visions.
Unfortunately, due to the characteristic settings of this race, the game-play is a little bit tougher than Terran, the race I introduced before.
They are first of all, expensive. Generally, the buildings and the units you control in the game are the most expensive out of all 3 races in Starcraft.
It’s surely not expensive without a reason though. They have the double-layered defense system called the cybernetics shield; units are never harmed unless the shield wears out. Also, the damages the units can give is very high compared to the other same-level units from other 2 races.
Most of all, due to their high expenses in buildings, the development rate is the slowest out of the 3 races. Don’t worry though, because Blizzard entertainment has balanced this game out so well, that Protoss’ basic units can have equal amount of effects with the high-tech units from other races.
Zerg
Zerg is the unfortunately-born race, and was created by the accident in a Protoss laboratory. Protoss might have thought that these little ‘bugs’ are harmless, but now they became the fastest evolving race of all.
As a benefit, Zerg units are the cheapest out of the other races. Often there are 2 units created at once at a very small price; and because of this, Zerg’s strategies are usually initiated with hundreds of units. It can be a split attack from different directions, or just simply outnumbering them.
Just the opposite of the Protoss, Zerg are the cheapest AND the weakest at the same time. It wouldn’t be fair to have hundreds of units with outstanding power would it?
Also, in addition to the cheap price, its pace of development is unbelievable. When other races are mining in preparation for the spurt, Zerg can already be producing warriors that are ready to strike.
If you want quick and fast style of game play, Zerg is the right race for you.
By having 3 races with interesting backgrounds sorted into 2 extremes and 1 medium, the balance is ultimate, and had no conflicts or frustrations whatsoever.
Psyched already? Or just still pending?
Unlike RPG, RTS allows you to play one round and leave. Meaning that even if you are busy, you can just play one round as a way of ‘chilling’
So come one and take a chance to ‘chill’ with this awesome game from Blizzard entertainment.
Feel the ‘legend’ that was carried on for 10 years straight yourself.
Sound – OOOO
A little repetitive, but the scale of the music is incredible. Great song to listen to.
Graphics – OOOOO
Not 5 points as in fancy, but its compatibility. It’s not too fancy nor stinky. It can be played in basically any graphic cards in computers nowadays, and it’s never insufficient to simulate the required details.
Gameplay – OOOOO
Blizzard’s magic and RTS has met its peak. Unlimited possibilities of strategies, balance as firm as ever, fascinating storyline.
Variety – OOOOO
Single play with CPU is available, the story mission mode, with special goals are available, multiplayer games via internet connection is available, and even map creating is available. What do you need more.
OVER ALL OOOOO a must have game.
Image credits to fiveinchpixie, EilSel, Mil, Vrogy, Pablo Noel @ Flickr
ols and commands for the game, they had added more ‘fun elements’, meaning that players have access to more entertainment. Such as vehicles, which is the most common thing you encounter in this game (since this game’s called the Grand Theft ‘AUTO’).
