StarCraft Battle Chest

Instead of two similarly powered enemies facing off, the three distinct races in StarCraft have unique capabilities and strategies. Everyone still competes in the RTS genre's typical race for resources, but that's the only shared trait. Terrans can move their bulky mechanized bases as necessary, while the reptilian Zerg grow their colonies and warriors from mutating larvae. Meanwhile, the noble Protoss warp in equipment from their home world using psionic powers.

Not only does game maker Blizzard juggle the races' playability and match it with superb art and sound effects, it also weaves together an engrossing three-act plot. Early on, as a Terran magistrate, you spend a breathtaking 30 minutes defending against a Zerg onslaught. As the story unfolds around you, you'll experience the Zerg's hive mentality and decipher the mysterious Protoss by the game's dramatic conclusion.

Missions vary in scope and are effectively framed with dialogue, chapter screens, and in-mission exposition. Multiplayer games are also very well represented by Blizzard's own free Battle.net service. If you'd rather play over a local area network, StarCraft will generously "spawn" up to seven copies so your friends can join in.

In keeping with StarCraft's groundbreaking design, Brood War presents you with three sides of a galactic conflict. Scheming humans, insidious Zerg, and proud Protoss collide again, with stunning new cinematics setting the stage. Old friends and foes and ominous new arrivals give the story a breakneck pace, while a handful of additions to each race's arsenal makes for tense battles. Brood War also features stellar new environments and ambient art, as well as more than 100 additional multiplayer maps.

Some missions require a bit of finesse, breaking the resource-gathering routine while making good use of the new units. Humans now have Valkyrie missile frigates as well as medics who automatically try to heal your grunts. New for the Zerg air force is the acid-spewing Devourer; the new Lurker unit provides heavy-duty (under)ground support. Along with the Corsair fighter, the Protoss reenter the fray with Dark Templar, which can merge to form the devastating Dark Archon. Unfortunately, units old and new still suffer from weak artificial intelligence in path finding.

Real-time strategy games don't get any more epic or any more satisfying. --Jack Gardiner

Amazon.com Product Description
This package includes both Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood Wars plus Prima Publishing's Official Strategy Guides, which offer you strategies, statistics, and details about new worlds to give you the upper hand in gaining control over the galaxy's resources.

If you're thinking about buying it for someone else, go ahead and buy it: I've given three Battle Chests as gifts and it was a hit every time for both kids and adults, even to those who hadn't played this kind of game before.

The Battle Chest is definitely the way to go, as you'll save money over buying it and Brood War separately and get the strat guides for free (and, to be honest, I don't think the guides are worth having unless you're completely clueless about how to beat the game, and there is information in the strat guides that is blatantly wrong as well).

I've been playing RTS games since 1997, and in my opinion, this is the best one ever made. No one has made one that's as fun, has as gripping a storyline and artwork, or depth and replayability of gameplay. It's a work of genius. I've had it for two years and I still play it at least a couple of times a week. There's even one mission left that I haven't managed to conquer without cheating, so the challenge is definitely there.

What you have to understand about Starcraft is that it's not meant to be a cutting-edge feature-heavy supergame where you can customize the behavior of your units and give them complex orders. It's meant to be more of a strategy game like real-time chess, and in this it succeeds brilliantly. It shares the quality of chess in that there are a limited number of units with straightforward abilities, but there are an infinite number of things and strategies that you can do with them. To this day players are still inventing new strategies for these units and races.

The artificial intelligence and pathfinding of the game is the best I've ever seen. No RTS game has perfect AI or pathfinding (units getting lost or tangled up on each other or the terrain), but Starcraft's is by far better than any others out there. The computer will flatten you time and again unless you're playing competently.

Multiplayer is a complete blast, and more options are offered than any other RTS game. You can play team games where you and your allies are actually controlling the same units against the computer or others, in addition to a wide range of variations like Capture the Flag, etc.

Blizzard's Battle.net service is free and at any time of day there are literally thousands of people playing. Internet play is smooth. I've played friends both nationally and internationally with bad connections and low-end computers, and it runs solidly even with the additional traffic of voice chat like Roger Wilco over 56k!

Blizzard's continuing support for the game is also excellent. They release a new map for the game every Friday like clockwork, so there are over a hundred new, well-designed maps available for download and replay.

In summary, just a solid, solid, completely fun game. You can't possibly go wrong by picking up a copy.


MAC Fans rejoice ...   April 25, 2005
David Carswell (DC Metro Area)
78 out of 85 found this review helpful

I am not going to tell you how awesome this game is ... you can get that from the other reviews. What I want to tell you is this: I took the 'Starcraft Battlechest' home, expecting to play it under 'Classic'; there is no mention on the box of OSX, and the game was made well before OSX was. However, when I installed it, there was an OSX native version right on the disk! So, Mac fans, if you want a good RTS, here ya go.


I agree with Denny   June 23, 2004
Stephanie (California, GG USA)
47 out of 51 found this review helpful

StarCraft boasts award-winning advanced control features, such as waypoints and training queues, to provide enhanced gameplay. In addition to the intuitive interface, StarCraft has the superb graphics and outstanding sound and music that have come to be expected from Blizzard Entertainment.


THIS GAME ROCKS   November 29, 1999
23 out of 24 found this review helpful

This is definitely the best RTS game around. Unlike all other RTS', this game provides you with 3 different races-and i mean DIFFERENT. Most RTS' provide many races, but all the units are basically the same-ie) in Warcraft 2, the orcs had grunts and the humans and footmen-they are the same in concerns with stats. However, Starcraft provides 3 different races that specialize in different things. You can also play on a multiplayer network called battle.net, with up to 8 people at one game. There are countless strategies that can be employed because all the races are so diversed-this game is definitely the best in the market. I hope you enjoy it


Great Game   May 5, 2000
Vincent S. Yeung
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

Starcraft has caught me into the craze ever since its debut in 98...This game is simply amazing. It is the type of RTS that is "hard and fast," you build, build, build, fight, fight, fight, and either win or lose, sometimes having the chance to revive if you lost the first battle. It is different from other great RTS like AOE2 because the latter is more fun when you build a great army w/ diverse units and attack tactically, while Starcraft is more like building a giant swarm and either going straight thru or catching the opponent by surprise...(what I mean is: while AOE2 resembles real combat more, Starcraft is idealistic but fun).

Starcraft's campaigns makes it standout...the Kerrigan story was spectacular, especially if you buy this battle chest and go thru the whole story from the original to Broodwar. Blizzard hired some decent fiction writers for the plot...

Battle.net and multiplayer rules in Starcraft. In case you don't know, battle.net gives you free access to the Blizzard server (if you use the Internet, of course) to meet and play multiplayer w/ hundreds and even thousands of other people off the net (of course, it's only 8 people per game max). There is (was?) also a great ranking system and tournaments, but I don't know if they still do that anymore, having my Internet connection gone extremely slow for the last 6 months...

All in all, this battlechest is a mustbuy, and the guides help a lot in case you're stuck, but try to beat the game yourself (I did it) first...