StarCraft: Brood War

You've heard all the improvements; we didn't even touch the area of upgrades. That just goes to show how much work was put into this game. They didn't just do what was needed and went a step further. The character lines are excellent; the new units are cool. The Graphics have a new feel to them. But most importantly, the Story is the best I've experienced this year. Finally, the Multiplayer game has been improved as well.

For the legions of hardcore Starcraft fans out there, this is a must-have. Hell, even casual Starcraft fans should pick up a copy of Brood War. It’s a typical Blizzard game—classy, highly polished, and an unbelievable amount of fun.

Co do dżwięku to dołożono dwa nowe kawałki muzyczne. Jako że jest to dodatek, to nie ma tu już więcej o czym napisać. Jeżeli ulegliście starcraftomani to nie pozostaje wam nic innego jak trwać w letargu szaleństwa. Gra jest naprawdę godna polecenia. Jak to mówią niedaleko pada jabłko od jabłoni.

Brood War is het ideale tijdverdrijf om de enkele maanden die ons nog resten door te brengen, alvorens we ons massaal op Command & Conquerer 2 storten. En voor de Starcraft spelers: verplicht!

Expectations tend not to run high for add-ons and expansion packs; they're poor-man's sequels, usually thrown together in the wake of the original game's success. But you figure that so long as the expansion offers up more of what you liked about the original, it's good enough. Besides, at half the cost, you can't really ask for much more, can you? According to Blizzard, you can indeed: Brood War, the official expansion to the year's best real-time strategy game, contains all the care, detail, and ingenuity of a true sequel, in spite of its unlikely guise as your typical supplement. While that's not to suggest Brood War is a complete overhaul of the original, by continuing and enriching Starcraft's story, and adding excellent new units and terrain, Brood War completely revitalizes Blizzard's everlasting real-time strategy game.

»Was, nur sieben neue Einheiten? Beim Addon von X sind es 58!« mag sich derjenige denken, der die Feature-Liste von Brood War überfliegt. Doch bei StarCraft würde eine Inflation der Truppentypen meinen Spielspaß erheblich dämpfen. Denn kein anderes Echtzeit-Strategiespiel legt so viel Wert auf ausbalancierte Kräfteverhältnisse und ausgefeilte Spezialfähigkeiten. Und so fügen sich die neuen Kämpfer elegant in die drei Armeen ein. Allerdings hätten auch (wenige) frische Gebäude der Missions-CD gutgetan. Blizzard schafft noch ein zweites Kunststück: Die in den Einsätzen fortgesetzte Story zwingt mich förmlich zum Weiterspielen. Ich will unbedingt wissen, wie’s mit Schwertkönigin Kerrigan, Jim Raynor und den edlen Protoss-Templern weitergeht. Dabei werden die drei Völker in den Kampagnen geschickt vermischt, ich weiß nie, gegen wen und mit wem ich als nächstes antrete.Wer StarCraft hat, sollte sich das Addon unbedingt zulegen.

If you love StarCraft or real-time strategy games in general, you'll love StarCraft Expansion Set: Brood War. If you only play 3D games, don't bother with this one!

If you enjoyed the mission structure and storyline of StarCraft, you'll likely enjoy Brood War a great deal - I certainly did. The three new campaigns continue where that game left off, and feature many of the characters that you've come to know. If you crave more StarCraft, you would be hard pressed to find a better package than this. Bottom Line: An excellent continuation of the StarCraft storyline. Three new campaigns feature new units and three new campaigns full of interesting and challenging missions that add onto the tale begun in the original game.

Brood War is an incredible expansion set that every fan of StarCraft for Mac should rush out and buy. The combination of the additions and changes to the units and continuation of the story is almost perfect. Brood War is a great StarCraft experience.

Visserligen har StarCraft åldrats något, men det har än idag inte kommit någon egentlig ersättare. Det finns dock gott om kandidater. Jag tänker främst på Tiberian Sun, men eftersom det är långt kvar tills konkurenterna tar över finns det all anledning till att skaffa Brood War.

Starcraft était déjà un chef-d'oeuvre, et avec Brood War on s'approche de la perfection. Les nouvelles unités apportent un souffle nouveau au jeu, et prolongent son intérêt. Un add-on indispensable pour les possesseurs de Starcraft!

Von dem haarsträubend hohen Schwierigkeitsgrad und der eher lauen Präsentation mal abgesehen, überzeugt Brood War mit seinen altbewährten Trümpfen: eine höchst abwechslungsreiche Missionsstruktur, Waffengleichheit zwischen drei sehr originellen Rassen, eine ebenso einfache wie problemlose Bedienung, nicht zu vergessen die geniale Mehrspieler-Fähigkeit. Nur die überaus krude (fast hätte ich gesagt grenzdebile) und mäßig visualisierte Hintergrundgeschichte strafe ich genauso wie die des Basisprogramms mit Nichtbeachtung.

If Brood War wasn't an expansion pack, it would still be a good game to pick up. It's a well-designed package for both single and multiple players, and that's enough to recommend it over the weaker Age of Empires. As an expansion pack, though, it's a no-brainer to pick up if you already bought StarCraft, since it improves upon the original. If you think you've got $45 in you pocket and the cojones to take down three alien empires, then don't miss it.

Gra się więc bardzo przyjemnie, czasu tracąc przy tym co niemiara, ale, jak to się mówi, nie ma róży bez kolców. Owszem, Brood Wars jest super-stabilne, cieszy oczy porządną grafiką (choć praktycznie od roku niezmienioną), uszom dostarcza paru nowych tematów do delektowania się, a najpoważniejszym ograniczeniem w smakowaniu uroków tego tytułu jest doba mająca tylko 24 godziny, ale...

Outside of this, though, there is very little to complain about. Fresh music adds to the atmosphere. New tilesets are introduced and add a nice variation to the old scenery. More than one hundred new multiplayer maps are provided. All of this is smoothly integrated into the base product. Brood War has a great plot and solid playability, making it a worthy addition to Starcraft.

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...

With Brood War, Blizzard has unleashed the massively popular (on the PC side) add-on pack to the best-selling StarCraft. Brood War has reset the standard for mission packs on both platforms, showing the gaming industry (for at least the third time) how things should be done.

All in all, StarCraft: Brood War is a mixed bag. If you loved the original StarCraft and spend hours every day on BattleNet, you'll probably love this as well. Brood War is a fun expansion, but, for many people, not enough to warrant the extra money.