As a result of the fact that I don’t booze quite so much anymore - coupled with the fact that I’m also in the Arts faculty of Glasgow University – means I have far too much free time. Before the boozing, I spent my time playing on computer type things [I still do, but no one wants to hear about older boys playing video games].

There’s a common theme, especially in StarCraft, of a Rock-Paper-Scissors element to everything you do. What I mean by this is that no matter what units you build or which tactics you use, there is always a way to combat any situation. That’s the strategy bit abridged.

Each race - regardless of name - always has a central node to their base where minerals are gathered. They not only take in the two types of minerals: Crystals and Gas, but they produce units that both gather these resources and create other buildings. Building these buildings opens up more structures and thus more powerful units to employ.

The Zerg get the second campaign, they play slightly differently to the Terrans and are something else in style. Think along the lines of H.R. Giger’s “Alien” and if you’re even more of a geek, the “Borg” out of Star Trek. They’re like a predatory insectoid race of beings that want to assimilate every race of the universe into their fold. Instead of having a Command Centre, they have a Hatchery. A Hatchery is not only where the Zerg Drones will bring the minerals but also the Hatchery spawns up to three small beetle things called Larva. In the case of the Terrans, we need to build a Barracks in order to produce the machine gun wielding Marines. For the Zerg, they need to build a “Spawning Pool” so that these Larvae can “morph” into the dog-like Zerglings. The Zerg are a kind of organic bunch. Unlike the Terrans they don’t need to be repaired, they just regenerate slowly. Zerg cannot build anywhere they want. They must build on purplish mess called the “Creep”. Only a Hatchery can establish itself anywhere on the battlefield whereas every other building must be set on the creep. Playing through the start of each single player campaign prompts all this information to you during gameplay. This also means you impatient newcomers don’t have to sift through the equally useful booklet of info provided.

I mentioned before about strategy. Even from the first campaign, we learn to use different units to overcome certain obstacles. Lets take for example a Terran siege tank. It can attack a bunker outside the range of the bunkers line of sight. A Terran Wraith (think Tie Fighter out of Star Wars) is an airborne unit and can attack both air and ground units like the Siege tank. The Siege tank can’t attack the Wraith so it needs other units, like a Goliath that has missile launchers, to stop that Wraith from destroying the Siege tank. BUT the Wraith can cloak itself, so a detector like a Science Vessel has to be present for the Wraith to be visible so that the Goliath can shoot it down. The immensely powerful Protoss Archons are extremely tough due to their high amount of shielding. On the flip side, they have only ten points of health. A Terran science vessel cannot attack anything directly, but instead uses special abilities like EM Pulse. This pulse removes the shield energy, so the Archons shields can instantly be destroyed in seconds. Every race has a way of countering each other’s tactics. It’s only through a combination of units and attacking from different fronts that ensures success in this game. This scratches the surface of the capabilities of each race. They all have the same bog standard methods of play, but each unit is totally different.

Multiplayer mode is a different ball game. Should you want to, you can practice skirmishes against computer-controlled forces. Compared to the single player mode, these are very high paced affairs. You all have decent amounts of resources, but the computer works as viciously as possible to create a large force to swarm your base. The AI in this part of the game is very unforgiving, so be warned, but at the same time it’s a terrific challenge. It’s unlikely in this mode of play that you’ll end up creating the units at the far end of the cost spectrum, like Terran Battle Cruisers, Zerg Ultralisks or Protoss Arbiters as they cost so much.

Pictures of StarCraft (PC)

Protoss Carriers and Dragoons attack

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In terms of visuals, the game is totally dated by today’s standards. Not surprising as its only eight years young. The game is played on an isometric field, so you don’t need to rotate the view to see it from a different angle. This isn’t a problem as there’s usually nothing that will obstruct your view of units other than the units themselves. The units and buildings are just a bunch of well-animated bitmaps, but they do the job none-the-less. For retro shtick value, this game has it in droves.

I’ve found it hugely enjoyable to play even to this day. Missions can be replayed to try different tactics and methods and of course Multiplayer never gets old. I guess that’s everything you need to know about StarCraft, but if you want more, here’s a few links to copy and paste into your browser: