• This includes the hit StarCraft, the incredible StarCraft - Brood War, and two official strategy guides, for hours & hours of space-based action and combat

• Play through 56 mission in 6 unique campaigns, to decide the fate of the galaxy

• Over 175 player maps over a wide variety of battlefields

• Play multiplayer battles over battle.net

• Battle for control of the galaxy with the StarCraft Battle Chest!

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.

If you're thinking about buying it for someone else, go ahead and buy it: I've given three Battle Chests as gifts and it was a hit every time for both kids and adults, even to those who hadn't played this kind of game before.

The Battle Chest is definitely the way to go, as you'll save money over buying it and Brood War separately and get the strat guides for free (and, to be honest, I don't think the guides are worth having unless you're completely clueless about how to beat the game, and there is information in the strat guides that is blatantly wrong as well).

I've been playing RTS games since 1997, and in my opinion, this is the best one ever made. No one has made one that's as fun, has as gripping a storyline and artwork, or depth and replayability of gameplay. It's a work of genius. I've had it for two years and I still play it at least a couple of times a week. There's even one mission left that I haven't managed to conquer without cheating, so the challenge is definitely there.

What you have to understand about Starcraft is that it's not meant to be a cutting-edge feature-heavy supergame where you can customize the behavior of your units and give them complex orders. It's meant to be more of a strategy game like real-time chess, and in this it succeeds brilliantly. It shares the quality of chess in that there are a limited number of units with straightforward abilities, but there are an infinite number of things and strategies that you can do with them. To this day players are still inventing new strategies for these units and races.

The artificial intelligence and pathfinding of the game is the best I've ever seen. No RTS game has perfect AI or pathfinding (units getting lost or tangled up on each other or the terrain), but Starcraft's is by far better than any others out there. The computer will flatten you time and again unless you're playing competently.

Multiplayer is a complete blast, and more options are offered than any other RTS game. You can play team games where you and your allies are actually controlling the same units against the computer or others, in addition to a wide range of variations like Capture the Flag, etc.

Blizzard's Battle.net service is free and at any time of day there are literally thousands of people playing. Internet play is smooth. I've played friends both nationally and internationally with bad connections and low-end computers, and it runs solidly even with the additional traffic of voice chat like Roger Wilco over 56k!

Blizzard's continuing support for the game is also excellent. They release a new map for the game every Friday like clockwork, so there are over a hundred new, well-designed maps available for download and replay.

In summary, just a solid, solid, completely fun game. You can't possibly go wrong by picking up a copy.

97 of 105 found the following review helpful:


MAC Fans rejoice ...  Apr 25, 2005 By David Carswell
I am not going to tell you how awesome this game is ... you can get that from the other reviews. What I want to tell you is this: I took the 'Starcraft Battlechest' home, expecting to play it under 'Classic'; there is no mention on the box of OSX, and the game was made well before OSX was. However, when I installed it, there was an OSX native version right on the disk! So, Mac fans, if you want a good RTS, here ya go.

24 of 25 found the following review helpful:


THIS GAME ROCKS  Nov 29, 1999
This is definitely the best RTS game around. Unlike all other RTS', this game provides you with 3 different races-and i mean DIFFERENT. Most RTS' provide many races, but all the units are basically the same-ie) in Warcraft 2, the orcs had grunts and the humans and footmen-they are the same in concerns with stats. However, Starcraft provides 3 different races that specialize in different things. You can also play on a multiplayer network called battle.net, with up to 8 people at one game. There are countless strategies that can be employed because all the races are so diversed-this game is definitely the best in the market. I hope you enjoy it

48 of 55 found the following review helpful:


I agree with Denny  Jun 23, 2004 By Stephanie
StarCraft boasts award-winning advanced control features, such as waypoints and training queues, to provide enhanced gameplay. In addition to the intuitive interface, StarCraft has the superb graphics and outstanding sound and music that have come to be expected from Blizzard Entertainment.

21 of 22 found the following review helpful:


New Player who Actually bought the Battlechest  Mar 27, 2002 By DFE
All of the reviews I've read seem to come from longtime players of this game rather then new players who actually bought the Battlechest. One of the first things you need to know about this addition that there is NO MANUAL. I was pretty surprised to discover this. But wait, you say, there are two official strategy guides. Yes there are. But they won't teach you how to play the game. They don't include basic stats on all of the units; they don't include all short cut commands; they don't include technology trees; they don't explain the concept of real time strategy games. They offers hints, observations and walk throughs of all of the missions which are handy, but not a substitute for a manual. The only help the game itself offers is a list of some of the keyboard short cuts, hints and one training mission which will be of little use unless you are familiar with real time strategy games.

I've recently discovered and fallen in love with real time strategy games and having recently begun playing Age of the Empires II and Empire Earth, I found the basic concepts similar and could figure you out in general what I was supposed to do. But I found myself struggling to understand the specifics of the game and how to best use the units to win the missions, with such incomplete information. Fortunately at battlenet.com, the official StarCraft website, I discovered extensive documentation. Still it's hardly as convenient as having a manual to refer to while playing.

Armed with a link to the battlenet documentation, I have played through half of the Terran Missions and have found them to be very entertaining. The missions are varied and gradually introduce you to new units and concepts. Hints are offered along the way. So far that are quite easy (once you actually understand what the units do) but for completely mastery of the game there is a huge amount of information to learn. Even though the graphics are not as snazzy as newer releases the attention to detail is outstanding. The cut scenes are excellent and the storyline is far more involved then other similar games. There is an amazing amount of strategic possibilities in this game.

In addition to the missions there are a bunches of ready made scenarios and maps in the Custom Scenario section ready to play. I suspect these were not in the original version, but since I don't have any documentation, I can't say for sure.

So if you have played more recent titles and are wondering if this will seem dated, rest assured that on the fun factor scale it compares very favorably to newer titles. But if you have never played this type of game, you may want to consider another title first unless you have a friend to help you out or are willing to invest the time needed to figure it out on your own.

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