Frequently Bought Together
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Free Standard Shipping (3-5 days) on this item from Amazon.com. Simply select Standard Shipping during checkout (no code required). Valid on qualifying items only. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Product Description
Amazon.com
Product Description
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
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.
I've recently discovered and fallen in love with real time strategy games and having recently begun playing Age of the Empires II and Empire Earth, I found the basic concepts similar and could figure you out in general what I was supposed to do. But I found myself struggling to understand the specifics of the game and how to best use the units to win the missions, with such incomplete information. Fortunately at battlenet.com, the official StarCraft website, I discovered extensive documentation. Still it's hardly as convenient as having a manual to refer to while playing.
Armed with a link to the battlenet documentation, I have played through half of the Terran Missions and have found them to be very entertaining. The missions are varied and gradually introduce you to new units and concepts. Hints are offered along the way. So far that are quite easy (once you actually understand what the units do) but for completely mastery of the game there is a huge amount of information to learn. Even though the graphics are not as snazzy as newer releases the attention to detail is outstanding. The cut scenes are excellent and the storyline is far more involved then other similar games. There is an amazing amount of strategic possibilities in this game.
In addition to the missions there are a bunches of ready made scenarios and maps in the Custom Scenario section ready to play. I suspect these were not in the original version, but since I don't have any documentation, I can't say for sure.
So if you have played more recent titles and are wondering if this will seem dated, rest assured that on the fun factor scale it compares very favorably to newer titles. But if you have never played this type of game, you may want to consider another title first unless you have a friend to help you out or are willing to invest the time needed to figure it out on your own.
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Video Games > Mac > Games > Strategy > Real-Time
- Video Games > PC > Games > Strategy > Real-Time
