Starcraft: A Retrospective

“Power Overwhelming.” No two words were as important to my life as a gamer than these. I vividly remember traveling to my friend Brandon’s house in the eighth grade, 1998 (yes, I’m that old) and hearing those words come from his computer screen. I was enthralled as I saw him take control of a Protoss army for the first time and attack a Terran outpost. The game was Starcraft (SC). It blew my mind that a game centered around strategy could be so much fun.

But let me back up a bit. I’ve played many, many games in my time, from all of the Ultima series, to Half-Life, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, even Duke Nukem. But all of these games were owned by my father, who graciously allowed me time on his Pentium 120 PC to play them. I’d never played a strategy game before this, and I’d never played a multiplayer game. Starcraft was my catalyst, the first game I saved up for and bought, the first game I installed on the first PC I ever built. SC popped my gaming cherry. It is my Alpha, and my Omega. I’ve installed the software so many times, I know the CD key by heart (3314-09054-XXXX). I realize there is a younger crowd out there now who doesn’t quite understand the fervor with which older gamers like myself relish this work of genius, but I’ll explain why.

Starcraft has a unique science fiction premise that I’ve never seen before, and probably never will again. The story was so good, and the characters so well fleshed out, that I can remember almost every line of dialogue. It truly immersed you in the story in ways I’d never imagined before. And there wasn’t just one story, there were three! Playing as the Terran, a futuristic human race, you see familiar technology such as rifles and tanks and missiles and such. Very defense minded, this was the best race for “turtling,” a concept of building up massive defenses and waiting for the enemy to run out of resources before pushing for a final attack. Turtling was likely pioneered by this game. When playing as the vastly different Zerg, you experienced a completely organic race, who’s buildings were grown, not built. They could also claw their way through any obstacle. Accompanied by squishy noises and sharp sounding claws, the Zerg were the best race for the quick decisive attack, and were the keepers of the famous Zerg rush, which has ended many a player’s game quickly. Finally, there were the Protoss, a futuristic alien race who’s psionic capacities and warping abilities lent them unique powers on the battlefield. The most futuristic of the three, The Protoss were tough, with shield-based defenses and  robust single units. However, the crystals that powered all their buildings were  fragile, and could be taken out with ease. Going through the single-player campaigns, you sampled highly different characters that found commonalities with each other, betrayed or allied with one another, and caused untold pain and heartbreak. The characters actually talked to you, as if you were their last great hope for victory, as if the story could not and would not progress without you, because truly: it really couldn’t.

Thinking back on the interface for the game, it even now is still one of the simplest I’ve used for a strategy game. No zooming. No panning. Just hotkeys and left and right-clicks. Certainly, the game had its limits, such as unit selection restraints and so on, but ultimately, SC was very intuitive and easy to pick up. Give two people who have never played a PC game before a copy of Supreme Commander and a copy of Starcraft and see which one they learn to use faster. And, if you’re avoiding this classic due to some unusable CDs, the newly released Battle.net allows you to store product keys and download all the content digitally- a godsend to those whose disks are too scratched to use. Sign up for free, enter your CD keys, and download the games. It’s that simple.

Finally, the multiplayer aspect is what really made me fall in love with Starcraft. It added replayability to the game which I hadn’t experienced before. It was also one of the first truly multiplayer games I ever played. The matches themselves were balanced, and quite fair (unless I lost). The Battle.net interface was revolutionary for the time; a free matchmaking service that let you find all your buddies online to get a game going. Sure, we didn’t have Ventrilo, but we could still swear at each other over SC’s in-game chat. I have fond memories of playing with two of my buddies who were trying valiantly to fend off five difficult NPCs; I recall giggling with glee as my guardians blew through my best friend’s precious defenses, my hydralisks swarming in and destroying his base. Oh, and I also parked 30 lurkers inside his stronghold while he wasn’t paying attention, switching him from “ally” to “enemy” and watching as his entire base exploded. Being a dick had never been so fun.