At its core, StarCraft is a game about the struggle for survival.
The Protoss, with low birth rates and costly technology, struggle to survive against the Zerg infestation and the occupation of their homeworld.
The Zerg are driven by their Overminds and the Queen of Blades to occupy and absorb everything they can in a twisted version of survival.
The Terrans, new to the neighborhood and set up to be the kid that everybody picks on, are just trying to eke out a living, while struggling amongst themselves.
Even with Blizzard’s tongue-in-cheek humor and tongue-out-of-mouth humor, the game has a serious and almost desperate feel as players fight to keep their dwindling armies alive.
But who says you can’t have a little fun now and then? Thanks to StarCraft’s editor, StarEdit, fans around the globe have been making small changes, tweaks, and all-out ridiculous additions to the game for over a decade.
Some of these take the form of campaigns or new maps, but some are simply known as “mods”, which modify some part of the game experience – be it sound, graphics, or gameplay.
Creepcolony has an excellent selection of mods at their website and, after scrolling through the list, here are a few that stood out:
Fungunscraft Gold is a fun little mod that makes the buildings of each race into mushrooms. It doesn’t alter their functionality, it just makes them fungal. Snowcraft is a nice holiday-themed mod which includes both snowmen and refrigerators, for some reason. Pacmod is just what you’d think. Pacman. We can all use a little Pacman now and again.
Strength in Absolution is also a fun one – not so much in an amusing sense, but for the fact that it changes some of the Terran voiceovers. Those got really old really quick in the original version, so having some updated voice responses is a nice touch.
Unlimited Units Xen, though, is one of the best. It works with the current version of StarCraft and it removes all of the Psi requirements for building units. This means no more unit restrictions, which means bigger armies, which, of course, means building the biggest army ever seen!
One of the best things about the original game was its balance and the fact that units had to be rationed and thought out in order to win. Having said that, however, it can be a hoot to pound out as many massively huge units as possible and crush an enemy until they have been ground down into a fine powder. Good times.
The StarCraft community is nothing if not creative, and there are mods out there to suit any taste. So why not try a few while suffering through fevered dreams and ridiculous rumors of StarCraft II? You’ve got to do something while you wait.
