Starcraft Gameplay

Starcraft 2 Gameplay

Blizzard Entertainment's use of three distinct races in StarCraft is widely credited with revolutionizing the real-time strategy genre. All units are unique to their respective races and while rough comparisons can be drawn between certain types of units in the technology tree, every unit performs differently and requires different tactics for a player to succeed. The enigmatic Protoss have access to powerful units and machinery and advanced technologies such as energy shields and localised warp capabilities, powered by their psionic traits. However, their forces are slow and expensive to produce, encouraging players to follow a strategy of the quality of their units over the quantity. The insectoid Zerg possess entirely organic units and structures, which can be produced quickly and at a far cheaper cost to resources, but are accordingly weaker, relying on sheer numbers and speed to overwhelm enemies. The Zerg augment their forces through evolution, developing armoured carapaces and various types of claws, spines and acids as weapons. The Terrans provide a middle ground between the other two races, providing units that are versatile and flexible. The Terrans have access to a range of more ballistic military technologies and machinery, such as tanks and nuclear weapons. Although each race is unique in its composition, no race has an innate advantage over the other. The balance between the species has been the subject of numerous gameplay tweaks by Blizzard Entertainment, via infrequent patches.

StarCraft features artificial intelligence which scales in difficulty, although the player cannot change the difficulty level in the single-player campaigns. Each campaign starts with enemy factions running easy AI modes, scaling through the course of the campaign to the hardest AI modes. In the level editor provided with the game, a designer has access to four levels of AI difficulties: "easy", "medium", "hard" and "insane", each setting differing in the units and technologies allowed to an AI faction and the extent of the AI's tactical and strategic planning. The single-player campaign consists of thirty missions, split into ten for each race.

  Resource management

Each race relies on two resources to sustain their game economies and to build their forces: minerals and gas. Minerals are needed for all units and structures, and are obtained by using a worker unit to harvest the resource directly from mineral nodes dotted around a map. Players require gas to construct advanced units and buildings, and is acquired by building a refinery on top of a geyser and using worker units to extract the gas from it. In addition, players need to regulate the supplies for their forces to ensure that they can construct the number of units they need. Although the nature of the supply differs between the races—Terrans use physical supplies held in depots, Protoss use a psionic power nexus and Zerg are regulated by the amount of controlling overlord units present—the supply acts exactly the same for each race, preventing players from creating new units unless there are sufficient supplies to sustain them. The Protoss and Zerg are also limited in where they can build structures: Protoss buildings need to be linked up to a power grid to function, while Zerg structures must be placed on a carpet of biomass produced by certain structures. Terran buildings are far less limited, with certain primary base structures possessing the ability to take off and slowly fly to a new location. The battlefield environments themselves vary according to the planet a mission is taking place on, ranging from volcanic wastelands and lush jungles to space platforms.

  Multiplayer

Multiplayer in StarCraft is powered through Blizzard Entertainment's Battle.net Internet service. Through this, a maximum of eight

players can compete in a variety of game modes, from simply destroying all other players on a level, to king of the hill and capture

the flag objective-based games. In addition, the game incorporates a variety of specialised scenarios for different types of game, such as simulating a football game, using the Terran hoverbike unit to conduct a bike race, or hosting a Zerg hunting competition. StarCraft is also one of the few games that include a "spawn" installation, which allows for limited multiplayer. It must be installed from a disc, and requires a product key to work just as the full version does. However, one product key can support up to eight spawned installations with access to Battle.net. Limitations of a spawned installation include the inability to play single-player missions, create multiplayer games or use the campaign editor.