Starcraft : Broodwar
Ultra Cool Game #1
Type of Game
An interactive sci-fi film, more stressful than Alien, more epic than Star Wars, more sensational than... Battlefield Earth?
Release Date on our Machines
March 1999 for the expansion, April 1998 for the base game. October 1997 for the birth of my little brother, but nothing to do with that.
Developer
Saffire Inc. with the assistance of Blizzard Entertainment INC. We'll leave it at that.
Publisher
Blizzard Entertainment INC, distributed in France by Cendant Software Europe S.A., which became Vivendi Games in 2001, and Activision Blizzard in 2008 following the merger with Blizzard Inc. Annnnd Let's leave it at that too, shall we?
Starcraft : available on... nothing else than Battle.net. Thank you, Blizzard's big cheapskates!
Already busy with other strategy games at the time, such as Total Annihilation and Dark Reign, I watched StarCraft fly over my head when it came out. And yet, as an absolute fan of WarCraft II, I should have pounced on it. I don't even have the excuse of ignorance, because I was hearing about it every five minutes, either from exalted mates or ultra-enthusiastic magazine reviews. A year or so later, I finally fell into it when its Brood War expansion showed the tip of its box. Not because I decided to buy it, but because I saw it running non-stop on PCs in a brand new place I was just discovering: the cyber-café. While I was just starting to make a few pseudo-pals there, having a blast playing Half-Life's multiplayer mode, one day everything changed.
Big Spatio-Temporal Delay
All the computers in this den, which smelt strongly of introverted teenagers, were displaying images of the latest must-have hit (StarCraft: Brood War, for those who are already asleep). I'd already spent dozens of hours in this slightly gloomy but terribly cool place, and I intended to spend hundreds more. So I had to get my hands dirty too. Even though I felt a little sorry for the good old Half-Life, it didn't take me long to get hooked on Blizzard's latest game.
Real Time Badassery
StarCraft succeeded WarCraft II as Blizzard's flagship RTS. At the time, this booming company hadn't let many people down. But this time around, they really needed to strike a blow to dazzle fans of the aforementioned title. And, er, mission accomplished. By far. StarCraft just does everything better, in every way. The number of playable races has been increased from two to three, multiplying the storylines and strategies to be adopted. Now, the camps each have their own well-defined identity and their own gameplay, whereas in WarCraft, you could only tell an orc from a human by the graphics.
Well, yeah, all the units had identical stats to their respective alter-egos; apart from the ogre mage buff being better than the paladin buff, thanks you inquisitors of the tenth art, I know all about that. Despite all these parameters to take into account, the balancing of the game verges on perfection. This or that combination of units can be terribly effective against certain enemies, but can be decimated by others (yes, I've talked for talk's sake, but be quiet). The level design and pathfinding have been given more attention than ever before in a video game. The A.I. has gained quite a few neurons, and uses various tactics to better challenge seasoned players. The mechanics are easy to pick up, but require a colossal investment to master.
It's no wonder that thousands of long-toothed gamers have set their sights on it, just to prove who's got the biggest (mastery). And, er, what about the campaign, the storyline and all that? Well, I didn't have time to get into it, there was already too much to do in multiplayer! But I've been told that it's really cool, with lots of charismatic characters, twists and cliffhangers, so I'll trust everyone on that. I'm not sure I want to find out what a 1999 blockbuster had to say by today's standards. In any case, after a few more or less disastrous attempts to test my affinity with the three camps, I finally decided to enlist in the "barely" fanatic Protoss army. The invisible Dark Templars... oh my, so stylish.
It's hard to talk about StarCraft without mentioning WarCraft at every turn, now transposed into a cruel and oppressive space opera. The dark side of science fiction overshadows the grandiloquence of high fantasy. The proud knights fighting for justice are replaced by disillusioned soldiers struggling to survive. This good-natured atmosphere is felt at every turn. On screen, in the music, in the sound effects and in the voices of the units... we fear for our beloved little Terrans: right in the middle of the human military cliché, rough guys smoking cigars inside their space suits, because they're too classy, or what? Hmm, not so much.
Lost in Space
Unless we learn a little more about the sadistic side of our personality, commanding an army of enraged Zergs who seek nothing more and nothing less than to enslave the galaxy. By eating people, and assimilating their genetic code to create new aberrations. Delicious! Personally, I preferred the Protoss and their slightly sectarian mystical delusions, or their mystical sectarian delusions, but they were way ahead of everyone else from a technological point of view. In short, everyone is nuts, there. Why were they all beating the crap out of each other again? I've no idea, I've already said I didn't play the campaign. Probably because they were out of their minds, precisely.
I'm Zerg, Da ba Dee Da Ba Da
The composers (among them Glenn Stafford, who had already penned the magnificent WarCraft II OST) have brought to life tracks very much in keeping with each of the playable races. Heavy and metallic for the gruff Terrans, gloomy and organic for the Xenomor... er, Zerg and their teeming hives, electronic and lunar for those enlightened Protoss bigots. What a tour de force! Despite the quality, I don't have any lasting memories of it. At the same time, in the cybercafé where I grinded this game, the music was turned off, leaving only the sound effects. Because in the speakers on the premises, Fun Radio was playing at full volume, non-stop, without interruption. Holy mother of Zeratul, how could I have put up with this torture for so long? For me, the StarCraft soundtrack can be summed up as ‘I'm Blue’ by Eiffel 65, or ‘Californication’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I hate those songs now, but they didn't spoil my fond memories of StarCraft. Well, I'm glad they didn't.
WHO switched off the phone again?
For a long time, StarCraft was the ultimate reference that you had to know by heart if you wanted to build a virtual street cred (at least, I used to hang out with people who really believed in it). With two or three mates, we aspired to nothing more than to become brutes at this game. The cybercafé was the best way to achieve this, a thousand times more practical than training at home, with my 30-hour monthly connection package that the whole family was pumping into, via a 56k modem that screamed like hell when you started it up (and made the landline phone unusable at the same time).
It's not easy to carve out a place for yourself on Battle.net in these conditions. Anyway, all my pocket money went into it, despite the many discounts offered by the manager! Fortunately for my current self, I never reached a very high level and quickly gave up the idea of making a place for myself among the world's best players. Mainstream e-sport was just beginning to blossom, and there wasn't much talk of it yet. But that didn't stop me having a great time, spending evenings at tournaments with the local regulars, shouting with rage and screaming with joy (I'd chosen Mega-Wicket as my nickname, and I was never mega well ranked). We didn't hang out with the most sociable people, but it suited us. We felt at home in this slightly unusual atmosphere... until we grew up a bit more, that is.