Description

Real-time strategy goes to new levels as three intergalactic species fight for survival. Control the vagabond Terrans, enigmatic Protoss, or the bloodthirsty Zerg as they wage war on the edge of the galaxy. Includes support for Internet play over Battle.net, Blizzard's on-line gaming service.

Amazon.com Review

The full versions of StarCraft and the acclaimed expansion pack Brood War, as well as complete strategy guides for each, make StarCraft: Battle Chest a treasure chest for real-time strategy fans.

Instead of two similarly powered enemies facing off, the three distinct races in StarCraft have unique capabilities and strategies. Everyone still competes in the RTS genre's typical race for resources, but that's the only shared trait. Terrans can move their bulky mechanized bases as necessary, while the reptilian Zerg grow their colonies and warriors from mutating larvae. Meanwhile, the noble Protoss warp in equipment from their home world using psionic powers.

Not only does game maker Blizzard juggle the races' playability and match it with superb art and sound effects, it also weaves together an engrossing three-act plot. Early on, as a Terran magistrate, you spend a breathtaking 30 minutes defending against a Zerg onslaught. As the story unfolds around you, you'll experience the Zerg's hive mentality and decipher the mysterious Protoss by the game's dramatic conclusion.

Missions vary in scope and are effectively framed with dialogue, chapter screens, and in-mission exposition. Multiplayer games are also very well represented by Blizzard's own free Battle.net service. If you'd rather play over a local area network, StarCraft will generously "spawn" up to seven copies so your friends can join in.

In keeping with StarCraft's groundbreaking design, Brood War presents you with three sides of a galactic conflict. Scheming humans, insidious Zerg, and proud Protoss collide again, with stunning new cinematics setting the stage. Old friends and foes and ominous new arrivals give the story a breakneck pace, while a handful of additions to each race's arsenal makes for tense battles. Brood War also features stellar new environments and ambient art, as well as more than 100 additional multiplayer maps.

Some missions require a bit of finesse, breaking the resource-gathering routine while making good use of the new units. Humans now have Valkyrie missile frigates as well as medics who automatically try to heal your grunts. New for the Zerg air force is the acid-spewing Devourer; the new Lurker unit provides heavy-duty (under)ground support. Along with the Corsair fighter, the Protoss reenter the fray with Dark Templar, which can merge to form the devastating Dark Archon. Unfortunately, units old and new still suffer from weak artificial intelligence in path finding.

Real-time strategy games don't get any more epic or any more satisfying. --Jack GardinerThis package includes both Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood Wars plus Prima Publishing's Official Strategy Guides, which offer you strategies, statistics, and details about new worlds to give you the upper hand in gaining control over the galaxy's resources.

Customer Reviews

 Classic Game!!! - Sep 01, 2010

This is one of the best games I've ever played. Starcraft & BroodWar rules!!! I enjoyed it more than 10 years ago and I enjoy it now that I could get it again thanks to amazon.

 Best strategy game series EVER - Aug 31, 2010

I have been Starcraft ever since it first came out in the 90s when I was only about 7 years old and it has yet to lose my interest and admiration. Great game, I recommend it to anyone and I also recommend buying Starcraft 2. GET IT!

 Great Game - Aug 26, 2010

StarCraft was originally acclaimed as "WarCraft in space". Not so. StarCraft offers its own individual flavor, and is very much necessary for understanding most of its sequel's plot. Still, multiplayer can be extremely lag filled, especially over slow school wifi. [...] can also be annoying at times, with bugs, glitches and adverts, but that is to be expected of any over-the-net play. Overall, StarCraft is not to be dwarfed by its older brother.

 Great game, but read this if you have Windows 7 - Aug 26, 2010

I don't need to say how great of a game Starcraft is, you know it is.

But, if you have Windows 7 be careful with this purchase. Windows 7, since the task bar can only be removed through disabling explorer, screws up the colors.
You may want to invest in the power needed to play Starcraft 2 if you're using 7.

 Great as the first time I play it years ago. - Aug 25, 2010

Protos Terran and Zergs back in to my life. There is no disappointment or feelings of obsolete game. At the first moment I start to play all the good memories came back. After all these years this game still is one of the best. No matter if you are a first time player or an old one like me. Really recommended.

 Great game but Mac users look out... - Aug 19, 2010

I'm not going to try to write an actual review for this game. I'm sure it's been done hundreds, if not thousands of times. But I will say this. Amazon says this game will work on a Mac or a PC, which is true, but only to an extent. On a Mac, you can play the full campaign and the multiplayer, but you can't use the map editor. This is because while the game can run in OS X, the map editor was never updated from the Classic environment. The only fix I've heard about for this is just playing Starcraft on Windows on your Mac, by means of a virtual machine. Great game though.

 Starcraft Battlechest - Aug 17, 2010

I am not much on long reviews but this a great product for a great price that cannot be beat. You get the first SC and the expansion on the set. The grapjics maybe a little dated yet remember this game is almost 10 years old. I hihghly recoomend it.

 A noob's opinion - Aug 06, 2010

I'm relatively new to RTS games. The only ones I played before I got Starcraft and Brood War were the Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth games (which were both pretty fun too). So, my opinion on Starcraft doesn't really have the added validity that comes with having experience with other RTS games. That said, I had a blast with both Starcraft games. By the end of Brood War my mind had literally changed in the way it thinks about situations. That might sound ridiculous, but not only have I improved tremendously at Starcraft and RTS games in general after beating the first two, I've actually gotten better at Call of Duty and chess. It's true! Anyways, here's my breakdown:

Story: Excellent. It's amazing what blizzard has done with talking portraits and a few pre-rendered cutscenes.

Graphics: Very dated. The nice side of this is that the game will run on just about any computer that can still turn on.

Art Design: Even with terrible graphics, this game is still enjoyable to look at due to the great art design. Each race has a very distinctive look, which can send people like me into nerdgasms of delight without warning.

Music: What's there is good--too bad there are only about three songs for each race, so the music can get pretty repetitive.

Voice Acting: Decent. The game gets cheesy at times, but it's the summer action movie-type of cheesy.

Sounds: Unit sounds are very cool. Even the Terran (human) race's units have interesting things to say and sounds to make, largely due to their ridiculous southern accents (the Terran's main government is called the Confederacy).

Gameplay: The most important part, and this game doesn't falter in this department either. While pathfinding is often an issue (especially with the larger ground units), this is to be expected from an RTS, and is indeed better than many games I've played since beating the first two Starcrafts. Everything else is rock-solid, and the diversity between the races (while maintaining perfect balance for Multiplayer) is remarkable.

Conclusion: Starcraft, combined with its excellent expansion Brood War, is one of only three games that gets a perfect score from Cameron Winrow (the other two being Legend of Zelda: Windwaker and MGS4). While the included guides are laughably bad, it's nice to have the game case and a hard copy of the instruction manual (which is huge). If you don't care about those things, however, then I'd recommend buying the Starcraft Anthology on Blizzard's website, as it's cheaper and you won't have to deal with packaging (and you can find pdf versions of the manual on the internet). As to the actual game, I'd be willing to spend $100 on Starcraft and Brood War, as the campaigns are extremely fun and the multiplayer is endless fun with friends (I wouldn't try to play against random people, however, as you'll be terrible at first and there's no tiered skill brackets to keep you from entering a game with some ridiculous Korean that learned how to play Starcraft before he could read). Very highly recommended.

 Everything is OK, except... - Aug 06, 2010

Everything is fine with this game, except from the battle.net thing.

I had to look on the web for a patch to be able to play in the multiplayer mode on battle.net, otherwise when I tried, an error message appeared.

This took me a while and shouln't happen, the game should come with everything you need to work as it was meant to be.

That's it.

 There's a reason that it's one of the most celebrated RTS games of all time - Aug 04, 2010

I've enjoyed StarCraft ever since it came out. I loved it, and even to this day, I enjoy playing it. StarCraft is just one of those games that I've continued playing over the years. It has everything a great game needs: good graphics and sounds, compelling story, well-developed characters, and balanced, interesting units. If you're interested in getting StarCraft 2, but have never played this, do yourself a favor: skip out on StarCraft 2 and buy this instead.

For the most part, I play StarCraft for the single player campaign. Not only is it fun, but the characters actually make you care about them. For me, the characters are the most compelling aspect of the single player campaign.

Gameplay-wise, I can't really say that StarCraft is much of an innovator. Nevertheless, the three races are well balanced and packed with interesting units. There are only two resources, but the resources themselves actually managed to be fairly interesting to me for a while. The single player campaign has well over 40 missions (with StarCraft and BroodWar combined). There are also a few cutscenes for each race.

The voice acting is fantastic. The characters end up being well developed, and like I said before, they make you care about them. The voice actors really made their characters come to life. The unit sounds are also very well done, and are fairly distinct.

As far as video game plots go, StarCraft's is pretty good. There's nothing really amazing in there, but it still manages to be interesting.

The graphics are pretty good; they bring the dark, gritty universe of StarCraft to life.

Good as it is, StarCraft still has its share of problems. For starters, you can only select 12 units at a time. This ends up being fairly irritating, as more often then not, the player will have a large force but will be unable to select all his or her units, which can be a pain if you're in the middle of a large battle. The unit pathing isn't that great, either. The units in StarCraft can't take care of themselves very well. Total Annihilation's pathing is quite a lot better, and you can select more then 12 units at a time.

Those two problems are my only real gripes with StarCraft. The units are interesting, the characters (and voice-acting) are fantastic, and the three races are very well-balanced. There's a reason that StarCraft is one of the most celebrated RTS games of all time; essentially everything about it is almost pure excellence aside from a few issues.

 A strategy CLASIC! - Aug 03, 2010

Well, there isn't much left to say about this game except that if you like even a little bit the strategy games, you will become a HUGE fan after playing Star Craft. There are lots of decent titles out there, but this game is one of the most well balanced and entertaining strategy games that will provide hours and hours of fun. I wouldn't recommend using the cheats before finishing the game (it takes all the fun and excitement out of it).

Although Star Craft 2 is out, I still bought a new copy of this one just to play both of them and have lots and lots of fun...

 Still great after all these years... - Aug 03, 2010

If you have never played Starcraft and are hyped over Starcraft 2 but do not have the gpu specs on your computer to run it, you can do wrong with these. This game is cheap and will run on anything. The online interface is very dated in this day in age but the campaign is still a lot of fun, and if you can manage to find online players of similiar skill (good luck) you will get a lot out of that as well. The SC2 gameplay is still very similiar to this so don't be afraid to give this a chance if you have never before. It's still great, even with its loud brother new on the scene.

 Not meeting the hype for me. - Aug 02, 2010

I do not understand why everyone thinks it is such a great game. Gameplay is terrible, which is the most important thing. I just feel that it is extremely boring all the time. Company of Heroes should have much more hype than this. The controls alone could use some work. I cannot complain about graphics because it is an old game.

 Has aged very well. - Aug 01, 2010

It's amazing to see a PC game out live popular console games and captivate an entire country at the same time. Stating the obvious: This game has been around since PS1 and N64 were at their peaks, since before Sega Dreamcast. The fact that this game still has a strong user base today and outlived 2 generations of consoles is a testament to this games longevity.

 you can actual "own" this blizzard product. - Jul 31, 2010

Fantastic game. i bought the down loadable version from blizzard. in fact i think i have bought star craft at least 3 times. Its one of those rare games that i still play 10 years after release. i am always proud when i still see it on the walmart store shelves so many years after its relase.
wonderful

 Real shame - Jul 30, 2010

I bought this game thinking it was great. But then the graffics sucked they were all negative colors the only way to fix is to hack but then the game crashes every single time you beet the level. It is a very old game if you have a wide screen moniter or labtop do not get!!!! I like blizzard but they still dont have patch. Its a real shame I recomend starcraft 2 wings of liberty it works just fine.

 If your already a nerd... - Jul 08, 2010

Best Strategy game ever! This game took away 2 years of my life when I was in my early teens. Because of this game, I am absolutely terrified to play video games and refuse to buy or touch one, its that addictive! If your life revolves around playing games, you might as well play this one, there is no shortage of games/strategies if you play online. People have made a real science of the types of games/campaigns you can play online. This is just as addictive if not more addictive than World of Warcraft but for this game you can at least win instead of wandering aimlessly in some fantasy world.

Note: Maybe only 1 in 1000 customers post a review of a product or service they use. Why post a review? What is in it for reviewer 1,385? By voicing your opinion you may help other customers who think similar to you find or avoid a product. Both positive and negative reviews can help people decide if a product might be for them, especially if they don't associate themselves with a positive or negative reviewer. I write reviews because I have saved a lot of time and money by reading other people's reviews. Do your civic duty and help other customers; write a review.

 Classic... - Jun 11, 2010

This game is a classic. It got me through middle school. However at this date and time I would recommend just preordering Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. :)

Blue skies,
Billy

 Classic Real Time Strategy at its very best! - Jun 02, 2010

Starcraft, while pretty dated since its release, has aged very well. It's still my absolute favorite RTS of all time, including Warcraft 3. Blizzard has set up an amazingly rich universe that, while borrowing from several other places, manages to provide a truly unique experience. Gameplay is well balanced between the three playable races, allowing players to experiment. The campaign mode offers good-sized storylines for each race, although the later missions in each campaign can get tedious and/or extremely difficult. The Brood War expansion pack presents new campaign missions for each race, continuing the story, as well as adding new units for each race. And if you like to play online, [...] is completely free, and will provide patches from Blizzard Entertainment automatically. The Battle Chest is an amazing value, and anyone thinking about getting Starcraft shouldn't think of getting anything but this combo pack. It comes with the standard game, the expansion pack, and strategy guides for both of them. The discs are Win/Mac, so they will run on either Windows machines or Macintosh without needing extra discs. The version of the Battle Chest being released these days also works on Vista or Mac OS X, so you don't need to worry about compatability issues. Plus, once you install the games, you don't need to use the discs to play, but make sure to hold on to your CD keys, in case you need to re-install on a different computer! If you like sci-fi Real-Time-Strategy, make sure you get this package! You won't regret it.

 Pure RTS - May 18, 2010

I like this game a lot.
Is RTS in its most pure state.
Build your economy, set your army, go to seek & destroy!
No crappy heroes to level up!

It runs ok in my old video card a nvidia 7600,
but show some graphics issues in my new nvidia GTX275
in the menu screens but in the gameplay the graphics issues are gone.
So I have to deal with the graphics issues only in the menu screens.

After playing the StarCraft 2 beta, I can assure that Starcraft 1
is better than StarCraft 2. Not just for the LAN support that
Blizzard remove in SC2, the gameplay in SC1 is awesome.

Yeah, SC2 has better graphics than SC1 right; but a game
is about gameplay and not graphics.

Me and my friends still play SC1 in LAN-fests.
This is something we're going to miss in SC2.

 Fun - May 15, 2010

Fun game. It's great to play an action, heart pounding game and be done in 10 minutes. And other times, take over a half hour. Multiplayer is interesting with all the speedy maps people like to play. Plenty of players on there still. Unlike diablo ii, I don't see piles of spam messages, so of the two, I prefer this one on battle net.

My friend was able to install this on Vista no problem (fully updated and within the last week or so). Trouble was connecting to battle net with a Sprint 3G mobile card on a laptop. After a bunch of trial and error and searching, gave up. If you're on a mobile card and it works, awesome. It didn't work for my friend's Sprint 3G card. Digging through Blizzard forums, another person was having trouble with a mobile card. A blizzard tech wrote back to that user on the forum that they don't support wireless connections. I wonder if any mobile cards work with this game.

There are piles of videos on youtube about getting this game to work in windows 7, vista, etc. My friend didn't have to change any settings to get it to run properly in vista. It just installed and was good to go. Battle net even updated but my friend couldn't join or create any games with the mobile card issue. Windows 7, don't know.

You get three different armies and it's just fun. Very balanced. Takes strategy and modification of strategy. Lots of different strategies to try and ways to play the game. You're not stuck always having to use one particular approach.

You could get both games with starcraft II when that's available if you plan on getting them all. Check starcraft ii in amazon (or on blizzard's site) for more on how that works.

 Is there a reason this game is still popular despite a decade's passing? Yes. - May 09, 2010

Starcraft is a marvelous piece of work. Blizzard must have puts lots of thought into this one...

This game is incomparable to Warcraft or Diablo. The realtime strategy is action-pumping and thought-provoking. The units are all balanced and counter-balanced, and there is absolutely no flaw to the gameplay. To defeat others, you must incorporate strategy and control. It is not a game where you can just shoot and kill people. You have to use your brain.

Bravo, SC. You have done well.

 Amazing, even a decade later - May 09, 2010

Starcraft was released in 1998, and I doubt that anyone at Blizzard realized just how important this game would become. This game is the game to which all real time strategy games are compared. More than a decade later, starcraft is still one of the most popular computer games. Thousands of people are playing online at any one time, and there are even professional starcraft leagues in South Korea. So why is this game so great? Let me count the ways.

1. The balance. With most rts games, almost all races are nearly identical. Units may look different or have different names, but they are usually the same. Each race may have it's melee units, ranged units, artillery, etc. and they will all be roughly the same. The genius of starcraft is that there are 3 distinct races, each with completely different and buildings. Even the basic resource collecting unit (probe/drone/SVC for the respective races) is radically different in the way they function. Yet despite all the differences, the game remains balance. Each race can defeat another in any matchup.

2. The strategy. With starcraft, (and unlike some other rts games) there is no single dominant strategy. Each unit has weaknesses that can be exploited, and each strategy has multiple counters. Even today, professional players are coming up with innovative strategies that have never before been tried

3. The story: Most rts games will have a relatively storyline to their campaign modes. Not so with starcraft. It's campaigns have some of the most interesting characters and memorable moments in video game history.

4. The multiplayer: Even though the AI in Starcraft is by no means bad (it is, in fact, better than the AIs for most RTS games), it is still easy to beat once you figure out what strategies it will always go for. Being able to play another person online is what makes starcraft so entertaining after you've already beaten the campaign a few times. Online play in Starcraft is extremely easy and fun to use. It will keep you busy for hours.

 Not anything like Diablo or Diablo 2! - May 03, 2010

I bought this game while waiting for the next Diablo 3 to be released. I bought it because it was released by the same company Blizzard. However, this game is nothing like Diablo or Diablo 2. It is complicated, I felt like I needed to read a book just to understand the premise of the game. It was not easy to understand. Usually after playing a game for awhile you can understand it, NOT THIS GAME! This game is more like playing chess with stratedgy than having fun immersing yourself in a fantasy land killing bad guys and finishing tasks or quests to move forward to the next level.

In conclusion, if you are buying this game because you LOVE Diablo or Diablo 2, DO NOT PURCHASE IT! This game will not satisfy you.

 no longer need to keep cd in computer - Apr 11, 2010

Hello,

In regards to full disclosure I own stock in activision/blizzard (atvi).
I owned starcraft but not broodwar. I couldn't find my starcraft disc. When the battle chest was placed in the gold box deals for $10.00 I decided to order it. The main improvement is you no longer need the cd to play. It "apparently" works in windows 7. It's also "apparently" been updated since I was able to play infree for all mode.