ian_scho wrote:What IS IT with Starcraft that makes it so popular? I've never played it and it looks just like an RTS to me... :O
It's way more polished than most strategy games.
In every RTS I've played, there is always something that is below starcraft in terms of standard:
In starcraft:
- Controls are smooth. unit respond to orders immediatly and with exact precision (no imprecision in positioning relative to cursor e.g.)
- The game is fast. you have to manage your units all the time and be careful about enemies, checking your radar map all the time.
- There is tactics: the way you use local terrain, the mix of units in your army, the use you make of special abilities... is DECISIVE.
- There is strategy: unlike expectations, the overall turn of a game is not entirely due to small battles-of-clickfest (like in WarCraft3)
but much more by how you did manage your ressources, how many factory you build, how you spied on the enemy and responded to its own strategy.
I think the four reasons account to why it's much more suitable as a pro-game than C&C or other RTS, which have some interest but often lack precision and balance, or are too slow or have weird complicated mechanics than can't be used properly in multiplayer-fast-games.
The only RTS game which is more geared toward strategy and less toward tactics than Starcraft is Total Annihilation.
You can play remakes: TA3D or TA SPRING on recent machines. TA is one of the best games ever made, side to side with Starcraft.
