The Terran and Protoss are utterly distracted by civil war and infighting while the Zerg is dead-set on total annihilation. The StarCraft and Brood War campaign stories are among the best in video games. After a few missions of steamrolling with a fleet of Carriers, StarCraft introduces a few dead-in-your-tracks counter measures that force you to consider alternatives. This is brilliant game design that subtly graduates the player to become a skilled strategist and multitasker. Ultimately, the Chapters close with more open-ended and missions that require a more layered approach. It’s not dissimilar to Link using a Hook Shot in a dungeon shortly after acquiring it for the first time. Starting with the basic base-building mechanics and how they are different per race, each mission progresses the player to focus on a particular strategy to achieve the mission’s objectives. In a gentle way, the Campaign is designed to teach the player how to use increasingly more powerful and advanced units.

The Protoss need three specialized units to do all that. Terran Supply Depots are similar to the traditional farms of old RTS games but Zerg’s Overlords are huge blimps capable of detecting cloaked units and upgradeable to shuttle batches of ground units for a sneaky drop. Even the way Supplies are handled by each race is unique and provides different opportunities. However, they are extremely resource hungry and can be quickly outnumbered by the Zerg swarms or outflanked by the versatility of the Terrans. For example, Protoss are protected by regenerating shields and are generally more powerful one-on-one. Each seems to have a few seemingly unstoppable units and set of strategies that are ultimately upended by either a crippling weakness or an ace-in-the-hole opposing unit. The Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss each have meticulously fine-tuned characteristics. Representing a complete departure from the WarCraft 2 formula where Humans and Orcs were ostensibly skin swaps (although Blizzard was already dipping its toes into differentiation with units like Ogre Magi and Paladins), StarCraft introduced three fundamentally different races.

This game is absolutely, undeniably, and timelessly a masterpiece. Now, what’s next…oh yeah! Siege Tanks and Battlecruisers! Oh right, I’ll want to upgrade their weapons and armor. Get to work on my Barracks and construct a few Supply Depots to spit out a few Marines and Firebats.

Let’s see, how does this work again? Right, build a few SCV units to collect minerals and vespene gas.

Starcraft remastered coop campaign