As I chomped down on my chai-siu and rice, I searched the net for a PC RTS that I haven’t played yet, to buy. I looked at various games at IGN and Gamespot and didn’t find many that were too interesting. Then I looked up “Best RTS for PC” and came across a few forums with their lists. However, something struck me as ‘odd’, was how many people thought Starcraft and Warcraft were “excellent RTS” or through the words of some poster, “If you want more RTS, choose Starcraft. If you want more strategy, choose Civ.”

Do they NOT know that the “S” in “RTS” stands for “Strategy”?

Anyway, as far back as I could remember, I felt Starcraft and Warcraft to be hollow. Indeed, they looked nice for their time and the in-game sequences were nice. The unit upgrades were cool too and the role-playing element in WC3 was neat, but I could never find them interesting, as if they lacked substance. Which by the way, lore and substance may go hand in hand, but they are not necessarily the same thing.

In short: Starcraft is a top-down point and click action game disguised to look like a real time strategy game. You win games in Starcraft and Warcraft by zerging your opponent. That’s it. Okay, I’ll give them SOME credit – a LITTLE strategy is involved like the timing of a jump in Super Mario 3. However, if you compare it to games like C&C Generals, it falls flat in the Strategy genre. In my books, Starcraft and Warcraft are top notch ACTION games, but as far as Strategy goes, you may find ‘more’ strategy in picking your nose.