Macintosh

StarCraft

In the last five years Blizzard has had a cascade of top grossing award winning games, the second last of which was Starcraft. This game was a phenomenon in and of itself, selling upwards of 1.5 million copies worldwide (according to Blizzard’s press release), and took real-time strategy/resource management gaming to new heights. This blockbuster game has now made its way to the smiley-faced screens of the Mac, complete with a one-button interface.

StarCraft is a fun and addictive game that I have enjoyed playing immensely. It expands upon the framework of WarCraft by adding more variety in the races and missions, and it does it extremely well. There are different music tracks for each of the three races, which adds to the ambiance and mood. The graphics and special effects are detailed and realistic. However, I think that the size of the units and buildings is too small. Although the units are more in proportion to the buildings and ships then in WarCraft, they lose some detail. In WarCraft the troops were big and detailed enough so that their faces were visible, yet in StarCraft the only way to see the characters' faces is in the close-up window.

The whole StarCraft experience, through the original and the Brood War Expansion set, is rich and visually entertaining. It's a strategy game that works like a sim game up close, and is engaging for both the alien bloodshed and the strategy required. Blizzard has proven conclusively with this and games like Diablo that they are a creative force to be reckoned with. In fact, had Blizzard had Mrs. Marble as their mythology teacher, I'm sure they would've received at least a B; or, in other icons...