I thought it would be great to have a survey of what were the best levels in the original game you have fond memories of. Here is my personal top 10 levels from vanilla and BW combined with short explanations:

1. Dark Origin (BW secret mission): absolutely mindblowingly awesome, this mission and it's cliffhanger truly gives me chills everytime I play it, it's practically a teaser for Legacy of the Void, and what's the greatest perspective of the SC history. But not only that: it's the only puzzle/commando mission, that is actually fun to play, starts very silently, and it's very easy for most parts, only to get quite tricky in the end without losing it's welcome. Also great idea to use the snow tileset for this map, perfect fit.

2. The Insurgent (Protoss BW 7): It's one of the missions that springs to my mind when I'm thinking about BW. If one picture serves as a flashbulb memory, it's how the 3 Aldarises are waiting for you in their platforms. Also the loss of Aldaris is the biggest tragedy in SC, he was a truly complex character, being a stubborn a.hole at times, but also a person with true heart. He gave the best aspects of the Protoss missions. I still love this one, for the reason for it being extremely memorable.

3. The Hammer Falls (Terran 10): Another huge one with a flashbulb memory when I'm thinking about vanilla SC (particularly the area around the ion cannon). It's a surprisingly hard map for it's early state, that makes it even more standout, also the story behind, how Raynor left Mengsk behind, and the tragic unhappy end of escaping before being hunted down. Again, great and complex story segment, and Arcturus's speech at the end makes it even better.

4. Agent of the Swarm (Zerg 4): Who doesn't love this one? While episode II was my least favourite episode in the game, and only had two memorable levels (the other being the Tassadar one), you just have to admit the hatch of Kerrigan gives you chills all the time. Also this is the best looking Char map, with great use of the volcanic aspect of the tileset. It's also great to use Kerrigan in this level, somehow I never again used her as a unit, but here she works well.

5. Drawing of the Web (Zerg BW 7): This one has an amazing atmosphere with great mission design with the memorable pylon cluster, and the only map, where you really have to use ground units for the zerg, and that gives a great challenge. Also, I love the Shakuras tileset (like in Insurgent), it looks very well made and apocalyptic.

6. Fury of the Swarm (Zerg BW 6): Probably some don't agree with me on this one, but again, a great sense of place in this level, the terran base was integrated really well in this ZvZ mission. It also has a really interesting design from gameplay perspective too, how you are trapped on an island, and it's great to see a deathmatch between the zerg flyers above the sea.

7. Reign of Fire (Zerg BW 2): Again, memorable level design, and the last comfy map in the game not counting Dark Origin. The way you can use an all-in of zerg heroes, including the Torrasque alone qualify this map to the top 10, but I also like minor things, like the start with Raynor's strike or when the SCV wants out. It has the most stupid game bug though, luckily only at the start of the level. Also, you can walk on ice, and the Torrasque can go through it.

8. Norad II (Terran 6): Another flashbulb memory type of map for some reason, it always stayed with me, Arcturus's “deal” in the end, or just how you have to circle around the entire map to reach the downed ship.

9. To Slay the Beast (Zerg BW 8): While I think this map would have been legendary with Dark Archons, even without them it's a freaky, memorable, and it's clearly the hardest one in the game (Omega is not even close). You are constantly challenged, no time to breathe, and the Char tileset really helps to add atmosphere to it. This map wouldn't have worked in any other tilesets, the professional craftmanship really shines through here.

10. Desperate Alliance (Terran 3): An easy map for the end, this one really kickstarted the game and gave some taste of zerg treatment early on. Interesting how most of my picks came from either episode 1 (the easiest set) or episode 6 (hardest set). They are just having the best levels, episode 1 shines with its story, while episode 6 shines with its huge level design.

Btw. while I love the Korhal (desert) tileset a lot, it has a reputation of having some really boring levels sadly. I don't like any of the 4 maps on Korhal, they are so boring. The various Char and Aiur levels in episode 2 and 3 also blended together for my memory as being rather generic stuff (although nothing is terrible, this is a fantastic game, even in 2021!)

What's you top 10?

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Nov 25 2021, 12:08 am by TNandi.

1.) The Big Push

2.) The Dark Templar

3.) Eye For an Eye

4.) Agent of the Swarm

5.) Full Circle

6.) Into the Darkness

7.) Shadow Hunters

8.) Drawing of the Web

9.) To Chain the Beast

10.) Omega

1. To Chain The Beast

2. To Slay The Beast

3. Shadow Hunters

4. Omega

5. Eye Of The Storm

6. The Hammer Falls

7. The Big Push

8. True Colors

9. Drawing Of The Web

10. Emperor's Flight

Mine is a bit bias due to the fact I was ~5 years old when I played Starcraft (on N64) so I didn't pay to much to the story, so I often played based on "fun value" of the mission (or if there was cool stuff)

1) Emperor's Flight - This mission I found cool because it was the only mission where the enemy AIs actually fight with each other (and I personally like having allies. This was close to it)

2) To Chain the Beast - This mission I thought was rather unique because the attack waves felt threatening to a good degree. Sunkens had invulnerability and Torrasque was something different where just mass marines couldn't deal with (since they dealt no damage). It gave a bit of a different approach and I remember it was one of the only times where I actually used dropships to unload tanks to kill the Red Cerebrate.

3) Emperor's Fall - I liked the fact that there is an intro "playlike" cinematic and I enjoyed experimenting around alot with it (choosing between BCs or Nukes). Side Note: I used to replay the level with cheats sometimes to see what would happen if I kept the entire starting Ground Zero army that gets nuked

4) New Gettysberg - While the mission itself is rather straight forward, I remember that I always enjoyed saved near the end and then creating a massive barrier to try and "save" Sarah Kerrigan. In some cases I'd also make walls with supply depo and use cheats to make them unkillable and disable the victory condition (which meant the AI constantly auto-spawned zerglings indefinitely)

5) To Slay the Beast - This mission was cool with hybrid Terran and Zerg attacks and was one of the hardest missions too. Also one of the rare missions where you get to use a secondary race's unit (even if its only DTs). Furthermore, I believe with cheats on the N64, you could enable abilities that were originally disables. This meant I was able to merge them into a Dark Archon, and steal SCVs to make a Zerg/Terran/Protoss Army which is pretty funny (memory is a bit hazy).

6) True Colors - This mission I liked using my units to attack the dormant AI and see how much I could do with that time.

7) The Liberation of Korhal - I liked having a ton of money at the start and just massing units a lot at the beginning with a huge army right off the bat.

8) Ruins of Taronis - I remember that I thought that the 4 Hives and each having its own "specialty" unit was just pretty cool (also bum rushing Brown's Hive with tanks too)

9) Trial of Tassadar - I understood a bit (even though I was 5) that the DTs weren't really welcome on Aiur and I thought that controlling DTs for the first time was cool, also how it starts with a battle and how many units you get. I also liked Fenix a lot too and that he was alive. It was probably one of the only meaningful Starcraft Plotlines I understood that I thought was interesting (Agent of the Swarm was another, but I didn't like island maps)

10) Eye of the Storm - I really liked controlling two races.

Honorable Mentions:
Resurrection IV: Since I played on the N64, this was one of the missions we had. Was also the first mission I played that had "bound" mechanics (exploding wraith which kills your unit. It was intense cause if mistimed, Raynor dies and game over)

Drawing of the Web: This mission was funny to me because using one of the cheats enabled all abilities of all units. This includes the AI. For whatever reason, the enemy AI Dark Archons get access to mind control and will actually seek out Infested Duran to mindcontrol him. I find this very humorous now because as far as I know, the computer version of Starcraft (one everyone uses) doesn't have AI capability to mind control Hero Units. (FYI - If Duran got mindcontroled, it would just say "Duran has been killed" and failed the mission)

As I see Drawing of the Web is the only level that have been included in all four lists. Keep'em coming guys.

I agree with some of the picks and they were in my consideration too. The Big Push is a really good forerunner of the Hammer Falls, and probably the only base building map in the game, which incites you to use nukes.

I also like Eye for an Eye, a pretty interesting map that is unique with the 3 choke points and good use of the Nydus Canal and the ultralisks.

I honestly was surprised with the inclusion of Into the Darkness. That's my least favourite level in the game, totally trial and error and no fun for me.

To Slay the Beast with Dark Archons is a magic concept that should have been implemented. In fact I almost want to think Blizzard originally designed the map with it, but probably wanted a real challenge for the player in the end and removed it. The map would be an incredible fun with it: basically terran and zerg vs terran and zerg.

I don't like New Gettysburg. Lore-wise it's very important, but the level was badly designed imho. The protoss should have been an enemy to the zerg and shouldn't enter your base from the north. If they want the protoss to avoid the zerg, the ledge to it should have been removed. But what's worse is how bad the protoss is. A sixpak of tanks and goliaths can decimate both bases which is crazy. Originally I went with battlecruisers, and it was a pain to watch.

I have similar issues with Emperor's Flight. Watching the protoss vs zerg battle is amazing, but you can waltz through the base with some battlecruisers. This is a late map in the game, should be harder than the previous ones.

To Chain the Beast is good, but only until the torrasque's resurrection cut. The north cerebrate do nothing noteworthy IMHO.

Liberation of Korhal and True Colours could have been better maps IMHO with devourers being added. Sending overlords only to get irradiated by sci vessels was cheap.