StarCraft
Ranked 4 of 24 real-time strategy games by recommenders
Sci-fi real-time strategy game praised for its balance, deep competitive play, voice acting, and a long-lived multiplayer community; critics cite clunky controls and heavy micro demands.
Sci-fi real-time strategy game praised for its balance, deep competitive play, voice acting, and a long-lived multiplayer community; critics cite clunky controls and heavy micro demands.
58 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 36
- criticize it
- 22
- approval share
- 62%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 36 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Long-lived, widely played multiplayer community
“Hell that LAN environment WAS the reason StarCraft got so hugely popular in the first place, before Blizzard got jealous”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Gamedate – A site to revive dead multiplayer games” “loved it, bought it, and then played many hundreds of hours on it”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Blizzard Revives 'StarCraft' Franchise with Open-World Sci-Fi Shooter” “starcraft had very lasting user base long after their release”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software” - Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “EA is shutting down BioWare”
LAN play with friends
“Hell that LAN environment WAS the reason StarCraft got so hugely popular in the first place, before Blizzard got jealous”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Gamedate – A site to revive dead multiplayer games” “let you take your computer to anywhere and connect on the LAN with anyone”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Gamedate – A site to revive dead multiplayer games” “who I played Starcraft with over modem”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness” Well-balanced, finely tuned gameplay
“The controls are a finely tuned machine in starcraft, as evidenced by the competitive scene with crazy apm.”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Total Annihilation, rebuilt for modern computers” “because they got the balance just right, and all the dirty little details of that universe”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “Xbox Turns Down Netflix $500M Offer” “one of the best playing games of all time”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “Total Annihilation, rebuilt for modern computers” Strong voice acting and cinematics
“The cinematics were the best part of Starcraft!”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness” “All the Starcraft voice acting is amazing.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Warcraft III Peon Voice Notifications for Claude Code”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Clunky controls and interface
“the controls were hella clunky and fiddly”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “Total Annihilation, rebuilt for modern computers” “I felt SC to be a huge downgrade in terms of controls, and dropped it almost immediately.”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Total Annihilation, rebuilt for modern computers” “I could go on for HOURS about why I LOATHE the Starcraft interface”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Total Annihilation, rebuilt for modern computers” Heavy micro and APM demands
“I'm not a fan of starcraft because I don't enjoy how important micro is to it”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)” “Other games like StarCraft are too complex for me to fully engage with.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness” “the clicks per minute juggling competition that was starcraft”
Comment from 25 Sep 2026 on Hacker News Grindy, repetitive build order play
“Starcraft can be just grind grind grind all of your openers”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “30 Year Anniversary of WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness” “After a certain point, it almost becomes a rhythm game.”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Total Annihilation, rebuilt for modern computers”
Other real-time strategy games people recommend
The four most recommended other real-time strategy games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond All Reason | 76 | 17 | 82% | 10 | 1 yr6 owners | Approved |
| Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness | 51 | 2 | 96% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Total Annihilation | 48 | 7 | 87% | 7 | — | Approved |
| StarCraftThis page | 36 | 22 | 62% | 10 | — | — |
| StarCraft II | 32 | 18 | 64% | 10 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 62 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“because they got the balance just right, and all the dirty little details of that universe”
“I played an absurd amount of SC and WC3”
“At least SC has satisfying effects.”
“I felt SC to be a huge downgrade in terms of controls, and dropped it almost immediately.”
“After a certain point, it almost becomes a rhythm game.”
“I think the campaign still holds up today, especially in the remastered version.”
“I could go on for HOURS about why I LOATHE the Starcraft interface”
“The controls are a finely tuned machine in starcraft, as evidenced by the competitive scene with crazy apm.”
“the controls were hella clunky and fiddly”
“one of the best playing games of all time”
“none of the fluff contributes to gameplay”
“the clicks per minute juggling competition that was starcraft”
“I love StarCraft. I started playing it right from the beginning”
“It was super fun but definitely not the same competitive experience.”
“loved it, bought it, and then played many hundreds of hours on it”
“StarCraft 64 kind of sort of proved that, too”
“Many of the best games - Rimworld, Dwarf Fortress, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Starcraft, Simcity - all automate their background tedium”
“at least the OG StarCraft / SCBW MoPaQs were, playing with that is what I learned binary data handling on”
“Love that warcraft II and starcraft were also top of mind for fun packs.”
“starcraft had very lasting user base long after their release”
“I'm not a fan of starcraft because I don't enjoy how important micro is to it”
“StarCraft, LoL, DOTA are likely more relevant.”
“continue to amaze me in how well their seemingly comical "game physics" model the intrinsic dynamics of real world conflicts”
“It's remarkable the game functioned as well as it did.”
“Hell that LAN environment WAS the reason StarCraft got so hugely popular in the first place, before Blizzard got jealous”
“let you take your computer to anywhere and connect on the LAN with anyone”
“The latter has some fun references to the Alien franchise and even a callback to Diablo”
“gameplay wise I really like the starcraft 1 system without the heros”
“All the Starcraft voice acting is amazing.”
“I'm a Diablo and StarCraft fan because of pirated games played during my childhood”
“Starcraft can be just grind grind grind all of your openers”
“Other games like StarCraft are too complex for me to fully engage with.”
“WC2, SC1, and things like Heroes III (and somewhat today with Factorio) perfected that 2D art-style”
“SC1/2 brought genuine improvements in the genre in many ways”
“who I played Starcraft with over modem”
“The cinematics were the best part of Starcraft!”
“I quite like the StarCraft remaster. It plays just like the old one”
“terrible cinematics which just doesn't cut it today”
“its a fantastic game (though I do prefer Warcraft)”
“Games that would let one rotate the isometric view once blew my mind”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.