GAMEPLAY

+ Maps have, for the most part, clear objectives.
- Not much other than build and destroy.
- Briefings go by way too quickly. The first mission's briefing does not explain anything. Even after three tries of the second mission, I still have not been able to fully read its mission objectives.

MAP 1:

- First map is unnecessary. Not much is introduced in this "tutorial" mission other than the Lancer, but that could have just been introduced in a real mission.
- The player could do nothing and they would never be in danger.
- The "Warrior Cerebrate" does not serve any purpose other than being a stronger unit; not sure why it was given such a grand title.

MAP 2:

- First map is beyond easy, whereas the use of the insane Zerg AI script makes the difficulty jump to a surprising and unexpected level.
- Some attacks from the Zerg in the second mission are a bit overwhelming; would have been better to just use a less difficult AI script and make your own attacks via triggers.
- Could not entirely read what Taro said at the end; map ended too quickly.
Complaint: No interaction between in-game heroes to further explain the situation. With the briefing going by so fast, it would have been nice for the heroes to converse so that the player could get a better understanding of what he/she has to do.

Score: 3/10

ORIGINALITY

+ Campaign is completely original; nothing is taken from any other campaign.
+ Introduces new heroes and many new units, all with custom graphics and portraits.
- There is some hint at an actual storyline near the end of the second map, but nothing is explained.
- Repetitive missions (build and destroy).
- None of the characters have any development. No background on any of them. I have no clue who this Taro or Gaddar is.

Score: 6/10

AESTHETICS

+ Minimal pathing issues.
- Text is not aligned very well. There is some formatting, but it still looks sloppy.
- The text loses its color once it goes onto a new line.

MAP 1:

- Very bland terrain. No doodads are used other than the two ramps.
- No effort for detail was detected.

MAP 2:

+ MUCH more detail in this map than the previous one.
+ Some use of doodads.
+ Map is very open; allows for easy unit movement.
+ Use sprites greatly elevates the atmosphere of the temple. Gives it a very mystical feeling.
- Temple corridors were very narrow; it was hard to maneuver lots of units through it.
- One of the trees was placed in the middle of grass, but the tiles were meant for dirt (blocky dirt inside of grass).
- Typo: "expeditionairy" instead of "expeditionary"
- Typo: "expiditionary" instead of "expeditionary"
Praise: Custom trees made out of subtiles and sprites.
Complaint: The awkward shape of the starting base made it difficult for Dragoons to go down the ramp after many buildings had been built.

Score: 2½/5

THEME

+ Theme is related to Starcraft. Makes references to Aiur and the Xel'Naga.
+ Two maps are included.
- The first map really does not contribute anything to the campaign.

Score: 4½/5

COMPLETION

- You can win the first mission without building any Lancers.

MAP 1:

- Tons of wasted space. Could have been used space bigger and added a small Zerg outpost so that the map didn't seem so barren.

MAP 2:

+ Most of map's space is used.
- Bigger cliffhanger than the end of Halo 2.
- Nothing is explained after you reach the end of the temple.
- No closure/concluding statement explaining what happened.

Score: .5/5

EXTRAS

+ A mod is included.
+ Custom in-game music.
+ MANY new units with custom graphics and portraits.
+ Included a credits file that credits all makers of programs and custom graphics/portraits.
- Some new units still retain their old wireframes/unit sounds.
- Tarro's wireframe is messed up.
Praise: I really liked the Xel'Naga units in the temple. They fit my interpretation of the kind of machinery that the Xel'Naga built.
Complaint: Replacing Blizzard's missions was unnecessary and a bit confusing, especially since only the first two missions are replaced.

Score: 4¾/5

TOTAL SCORE: 21¼/40

GAMEPLAY

+ Maps have clear objectives.
+ Use of new units allows for diversity.
+ Required constant attention in each mission.
- Objectives become unclear after a while because of the lack of updates.
• In Zerg 3, the mission objectives was a long list of things to do, such as capture the Stargate and destroy the zerg bases. These never changed even after I did all this.
• In the Protoss mission, when I'm destroying the clusters after I reach the base, the objectives still tell me to lead the Immortals to the outpost.
- Every mission was essentially just build and destroy.
- The campaign's difficulty jumped to an incredibly annoying level of difficulty after the second mission. In the third and fourth missions, the zerg units are spawned so frequently that it causes them to block off half of the map or stack up on top of each other. Also, the multiple spawnings of units caused them to be stacked when they unburrowed, which further crippled their fluent movement.
- The zerg portion of the campaign kind of ends abruptly with no explanation of what happened to the cerebrates or to the hybrid.

Map 1:

- Voice acting is not aligned with text; often overlaps with other wavs in briefing
- Was incredibly difficult to make any major push at a single time because of the abundance of cannons and the absence of stronger zerg units. The massive amounts of dragoons and reavers made it increasingly difficult to do damage with even 4-5 groups of hydralisks.

Map 2:

+ Nice use of blocked path/key system to make the mission a little more interesting.
+ The hybrid is a very fun unit to use!
- After your forces guarding the temple entrance are destroyed by the protoss, you still retain sight of the entrance. Additionally, after you destroy the Stasis Cell, you have vision there from then to the end of the mission.

Map 3:

- Lots of confusion throughout the entire mission.
• I didn't realize that the yellow player was allied to me even after going into the base.
• I randomly got extra zerg hero units without knowing where they came from.
• It wasn't clear how you were supposed to kill the spore colonies on the east side of the map (the one with no ramps). If I hadn't torn apart the entire map, I probably would have never found the Nydul Canals.
• Map doesn't detect the objectives of clearing the spore colonies properly. It didn't trigger for me until I ran back to almost the beginning of the map. There was a small group of orange zerg burrowed next to a purple Creep Colony. After the unburrowed, the triggers kicked in.
- The amount of units that you are up against is ridiculously overwhelming. The speed of the spawns were so fast that the units were backing up all the way back to their spawn point. At times, my entire force got crushed and I had to quickly get the hybrid out of there.
Odd: The protoss forces are the same color as your zerg allies (yellow). Also, your escape isn't exactly clear. The protoss had arbiters on the planet and flew right past you, yet you somehow managed to pull out of orbit with no damage done (at least, there was no indication of any damage).

Map 4:

+ The map has a nice RPG element to it.
+ The idea of playing through flashbacks is a very cool and interesting concept.
- Again, the number of enemies is completely overwhelming. When I only had Altaesir at the beginning, it was almost impossible to get through the waves with so many zerglings/hydralisks spawning and all the sunken colonies attacking me.
- When Altaesir begins to talk at the beginning, there are sometimes zerglings already attacking him.
- The base didn't come into my possesion when the zerg began attacking. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but if it was, then it seems kind of strange that the probes just stand there and don't mine any minerals.
- The mission doesn't end in defeat if the base gets destroyed. It's a good thing, too, because I see no way of how it won't get destroyed. I was watching my Immortals for literally 30 seconds, and when I went back to the base, it was completey gone. No indication of it being runover or anything. The frequent spawns caused the zerg units to stack up on top of each other (as seen here) and back up all the way back to their spawn points (as seen here). It was actually impossible for me to get through any of it with only 4 Immortals.

Score: 5/10

ORIGINALITY

+ Campaign is completely original; nothing is taken from any other campaign.
+ Introduces new heroes and units, all with custom graphics, portraits, and voice acting.
+ COmpletely new storyline with diverse characters and settings (inside of a temple, on Aiur, etc)
+ The protoss mission ends in a very good way. I'm interested to see how the Immortals got through the cave and what happens after Altaesir finds them.
- Influences from Vile Egression are a bit too apparent in the fourth mission. The opening sequence is basically the same exact thing as VE, and the "..." during the character dialogue is also used in that campaign.
- The mission objectives became a bit tedious after a while. Having to destroy all of the zerg buildings/protoss bases was a recurring objective in almost all of the missions.

Score: 8/10

AESTHETICS

+ Minimal pathing issues.
+ Immense detail in terrain. Maps are filled with a variety of doodads that add greatly to their appearance.
+ Subtiles are used to create new doodads from existing ones.
+ Text is properly aligned and readable. The format is consistent throughout the entire campaign.
- Typo: "apologise" instead of "apologize"
- Typo: "sizeable" instead of "sizable"
- Typo: "endeavour" instead of "endeavor"
- Typo: "advance" instead of "advancement"
- Typo: "eiliminated" instead of "eliminated"
- Typo: "synchronisation" instead of "synchronization"
- Typo: "honourable" instead of "honorable" (all of these typos are under one category; I'm just listing them out for formatting's sake)
- The pathing for mission 3 was a bit frustrating. The AI of BW does not go well with tight spaces and impassable doodads. >_>
Praise: The protoss mission looks very well done and professional. There's an incredible amount of variety in the terrain, and there are MANY doodads.
Odd: In the fourth mission, Altaesir starts off by saying, "The memories of your death haunt me still," but later in that monologue he says, "What haunts me still, and what may put my weary mind to rest?"
Complaint: Hyphening the words at the end of the line made them kind of hard to read. I'd just go with putting the entire words on the next line.

Score: 4/5

THEME

+ Theme is related to Starcraft. Makes references to Duran, Kerrigan, UED, hybrids, and Aiur.
+ At least two maps are included.
+ The storyline revolved around topics that could be understood by anyone who has played the BW campaign before.

Score: 5/5

COMPLETION

+ It is apparent that the campaign isn't finished, but the ending to the fourth mission leaves enough of a cliffhanger to call it 'complete'
- The zerg portion ends abruptly without any explanation.
- Mission four can't be won properly because of a bug involved in identifying destroyed zerg bases.

Score: 4½/5

EXTRAS

+ A mod is included with enough new things to almost call it an expansion.
+ The new units all work properly and are very cool.
+ Custom graphics made by the author.
+ The entire campaign is fully voiced with great voice acting.
+ Lots of apparent work in changing iscripts and unit/spell behavior.
- There is custom music, but it does not loop well. Sometimes it will only take a few minutes for the music to start up again, and at other times it will take longer than 10 minutes.
Odd: The new lurker units are called "Hunter Killer" along with the original Hydralisk hero, and their wireframes are that of Infested Kerrigan. Also, the new zerg units that appear out of the Cavern of Solace have zealot wireframes.
Odd: The images for each episode in the single player main screen have been changed, but they are placed in the wrong spots. Zerg is first, protoss is second, and terran is last.
Complaint: The new mouse pointer made it impossible for me to tell who was my ally and who was my enemy.
Suggestion: Remove the high templar trail effect from Altaesir. It doesn't fit in with the rest of his graphic.

Score: 4¾/5

TOTAL SCORE: 32¼/40 - 25% late penalty
FINAL SCORE: 24.1875/40

GAMEPLAY

+ Maps have clear objectives.
+ Gameplay is straight-forward.
- Whole campaign revolves around defense, which can get boring at times.
- Breifings were -very- short. Couldn't get much information out of them.
- The player just kind of jumps around from place to place. First it's in one area of the city, then they go south, and then they evac to fight more zerg, and then they go back to base.

MAP 3:

- If someone is using 'power overwhelming,' the mission won't end for them and they'll have no clue what they're doing wrong.
Praise: Nice use of air units to swarm the map; reminds me of the cinematics in BW where the zerg are taking over everything.

Map 4:

Odd: One of the dropships randomly explodes after unloading the marines.

Score: 7/10

ORIGINALITY

+ Campaign is completely original; nothing is taken from any other campaign.
+ Introduces new heroes with custom portraits and unit sounds.
+ Custom music composed by author.

Score: 10/10

AESTHETICS

+ No pathing issues in any of the maps.
+ Each map includes different terrain on different tilesets. Terrain is varied to make maps look nicer.
+ Doodads are used well to enhance the maps' quality.
+ Text is properly formatted; little to no typos.
- Language was a bit too much for my taste. I understand that it's a military environment, but I just don't think using words like "fuck" and "shit" that much is necessary.

Score: 4½/5

THEME

+ Theme is related to Starcraft. Terran fighting Zerg, human vs alien; the definition of starcraft.
+ Campaign is at least two maps.

Score: 5/5

COMPLETION

+ Campaign is complete; concludes with an actual ending that will lead into the next episode.
+ Almost all of the maps' space is used.
+ Storyline flows well and makes sense.

Score: 5/5

EXTRAS

+ Some custom modding is done.
+ Includes new portraits, unit sounds, background music, and attacks.
+ Custom voice acting.
Complaint: The voice acting at times felt kind of bland. Dialogue didn't sound convincing at times.
Complaint: The ghost sounds like he's infested.

Score: 4¾/5

TOTAL SCORE: 36/40