"best" is a rather subjective word. Let us contemplate:SC is the best RTS around, we've established that by now.
"Real Time" ...hmm. Well, having carefully considered, I have decided that Star Craft cannot possibly be using 'real' time. That is, unless in the future it takes only marginally longer to build a battleship then a fighter.
"Strategy" Well I suppose there is always a strategy involved. It may not always be even remotely in keeping with traditional strategic thinking or plain common sense, but I suppose it's still a strategy.
"Logic" Just between you and me, I like my games to make a bit of logical sense. Unit production in AoE, for instance, is rather rediculous. Measured in real time it's impossible, and measured in the games "years" indicator it's amazingly slow. Nor does it seem to make any sense the number of times you can shoot a French Knight, and hit him, with a gun, and not kill the fucker. Homeworld on the other hand is somewhat more excusible. While unit production is still on the fast side (which is, for gameplay purposes, probably a good thing. Although it's still slow for its genre), it's the only game I know of where this speed is actually concivably possible via the use of extreemly advanced, efficient construction techniques. Likewise, most of the tactics are fairly reasonable, and when you think about it, well thought out and conseptually realistic; although I am still a little irked that the gun on a scout can even damage a battlecruiser. SC fails at this, and pretty hard. It may not make any logical sense to take 12 marines up against a battlecruser with the moniker "Behemoth" and expect them to win, but the hell if SC doesn't do exactly that. Again, build times are regulated for balance, not reason. And frankly, a lot of things just don't add up, the technology to send target coordinates has existed by this point for hundereds of years, but that poor ghost still has to stand there with his little laser and call the thing down. Here's an idea, when you hear the phrase, "nuclear launch detected" have all your ghosts in the field point their lasers and the nearest enemy, or even just nothing important... the missile might get confused. And why does it take one ghost per missile? Could not another nuke follow the same laser as its counterpart if they were launched at the same time?
"Balance" I hear tell that SC is pretty well balanced. But as far as I can tell, unless you're a Korean who makes a living from competative play allegedly, this doesn't mean much. Many games are balanced enough for the gamer who *gasp* plays for fun.
"Music" Pathetic... NEXT!
"Gameplay" Let's get right down to it, shall we? SC is a pretty fun game. Seriously, it is. I enjoy playing it, I like it's characters in single player missions, I laud its occasional attempt at "epic," and I really like the variety of units and abilites it presents. It's not my favorite game, and it's certainly not the best RTS, but it's good.
