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Voyage into StarCraft
When it comes to gaming, I always find myself returning to one genre: strategy. I love games like Age of Empires, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and Total War. However, for all that, there is one series I never had a chance to play. That has recently changed as both StarCraft games are now available on Game Pass, so I have been killing Zurg for the last week to see what it is I have been missing.
Now, I want to say one thing, the graphics have been updated in the re-released StarCraft, but they’re still pretty terrible. I was surprised to see FMVs in the game, but the facial animations have that same Fallout effect that makes everyone look like they’re made of putty. With that aside, I started the Terran campaign and finally got to meet Jim Raynor, a cowboy… sheriff… look, it’s the old West in space.
While playing I quickly remembered that in these older RTS (real-time strategy) the campaigns were really more of a fancy tutorial, at least at first. They also tend to need to improve at explaining anything. Granted, this is more of an issue now as we no longer have manuals in the game to explain more of the nuanced stuff. Honestly, they could have added something to help with that.
This has led to my biggest issue: I tend to have absolutely no idea what anything does when I first encounter it. Half the time you’re introduced to a unit and its purpose is really poorly explained. For instance, what does a Science Ship actually do? I got one in a mission and was completely in the dark about what it was meant to do!
StarCraft really doesn’t hold your hand, and it expects you to try things out to see what can do what. That would be fine but for one problem: it is slow as hell. Age of Empires had the same issue really; you have to gather resources and that just takes time, and all of the building and recruiting takes ages. Frankly, StarCraft is calling out for some upgrades to recruiting time.
One thing I did notice is that, when playing the first game, you really see the evolution of gaming. For instance, the first StarCraft won’t let me set more than one SVC to build a single building, so there’s no way of speeding anything up. The limit on how many units you can recruit from building also pushes you to build up bases and as such you prioritise using single units to build a lot.
Also, if you hate repetition then be warned, there are not a lot of voice lines for units and you will hear the same damn line over and over again, although they can be pretty funny. If you have a choice, then play something else in the background, it doesn’t help that the music is pretty dated too.
However, with all that said, I have been having fun with the game. StarCraft lends itself to plotting out what you are going to do, working to build up small forces and then pushing them into the void to see what happens. I did three-stage attacks with dropships and ground units to clear out anti-air and then attacked with ships. It isn’t a quick game, everything takes time a long time to build, and enemy structures take a lot of punishment. Sadly, your units don’t share that same resilience (Sunken Colonies are evil). The plot is interesting, and I can’t wait to try out the other factions and DLC. I will have a full breakdown of the marine campaign when I finally finish it.
On that note, I am off to see someone about a new jet bike, if Jim has one then I want one too. I also don’t trust this Mengsk lad, seems a bit shifty to me.
COMMENTS
DragonSlayer - 04:02pm, 11th December 2024
This is the worst review I have ever read. The game is from 1998 and considered one of the best RTSs of all time. Your complaint is that it doesn't explain what a science "vessel" does? It has three abilities dummy. it doesn't take long to figure it out.