When comparing Starcraft vs Command & Conquer: Generals, the Slant community recommends Command & Conquer: Generals for most people. In the question“What are the best RTS games for PC?” Command & Conquer: Generals is ranked 7th while Starcraft is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Command & Conquer: Generals is:
While Command & Conquer: General's Multi-Player is a solid addition to the series, it is heightened greatly with the addition of Zero Hour. In this expansion, each faction has different generals the player can choose from, with specific specializations and drawbacks. One Chinese general specializes in infantry, allowing them certain upgrades to increase their effectiveness, while a Global Liberation Army general has an advantage with toxins, giving their vehicles the ability to have Anthrax-laced explosives that deal extra damage. With this addition, Zero Hour gives players the freedom to choose whichever general that fits their playstyle.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Tons of personality that keeps the story and gameplay interesting and entertaining
There are three selectable races in the game, Terrans, Protoss and the Zerg. The Terrans being human, while the other two are alien races. What makes the game stand out is that each race feels exceptionally different from one another, each with their own personalities. This makes for a different experience depending on what race has been chosen to play with.
Pro Built-in offline LAN support
Being an older game, Starcraft suports offline LAN due to not as many people having internet back when it was released. This is something that many games (including Starcraft 2) regrettably do not feature anymore.
Pro Well balanced race selection keeps the gameplay fair
The game is fairly well balanced, so nobody gets an advantage by choosing a certain race. While each race will have their own unique abilities, the balancing of these abilities allows the game to play even handed, with no real advantage to any race.
Pro This game can be downloaded for free
Blizzard is now offering the original Starcraft (titled Starcraft Anthology) as a free download.
Pro Highly specialized units that are easy to learn but hard to master
This helps keep the game challenging and interesting even at a high level of proficiency.
Pro The Zero Hour expansion adds even more ways to play Multi-Player
While Command & Conquer: General's Multi-Player is a solid addition to the series, it is heightened greatly with the addition of Zero Hour. In this expansion, each faction has different generals the player can choose from, with specific specializations and drawbacks. One Chinese general specializes in infantry, allowing them certain upgrades to increase their effectiveness, while a Global Liberation Army general has an advantage with toxins, giving their vehicles the ability to have Anthrax-laced explosives that deal extra damage. With this addition, Zero Hour gives players the freedom to choose whichever general that fits their playstyle.
Pro Classic Command & Conquer gameplay reimagined with moderate realism
The staple of the Command & Conquer series has always been its resource gathering, base building, and large armies, all of which return in this Real-Time Strategy classic. While most Command & Conquer titles feature bombastic and over-the-top units (and storylines), Generals reigns in the franchise to tell a semi-realistic story with semi-realistic infantry and units. Gone are the signature wildly imaginative units from series like Red Alert, replaced with the United States' M1A1 Abrahms tanks, Chinese APCs and the GLA's Vehicle-Based IEDs.
Pro Many fantastic mods for this game
Just an awesome game because it reinvents itself through the many good mods that's out there. Mods like Contra 009, Shockwave or C&C Generals Untitled. The last one of these has an amazing AI.
Pro Three factions with different stories
Command & Conquer: Generals features three playable factions: The United States, China, and the Global Liberation Army, each with their own unique storyline. Every storyline tells a concise and mostly cohesive story, with most of the encounters taking place in the Middle East.
Pro Satirical portrayal of factions
All the factions are exaggerations of current real-world countries or organizations, in the case of the GLA, which adds quite a bit to the experience.
Cons
Con Old and outdated
With the original release dating back to 1998, the game is quite old now and its graphics are not on par with current game offerings.
Con Lacks widescreen support
Starcraft is only available in a 4:3 resolution. However, a hack to make it work in widescreen can be found here.
Con Slightly dated graphics
While great for their time, the graphics in Command & Conquer Generals have not withstood the test of time, thus those who did not play it when the game first came out may find the graphics and art style too appealing and not to their liking.
Con Near-offensive portrayal of factions
While it can easily be viewed as a satirical take on possibly then-current views of each culture represented in Command & Conquer: Generals, some players might take offense to how each faction is portrayed. The United States includes units that state they are doing what's right, the Chinese army units worship the Red Dragon, and the Global Liberation Army are shown as terrorists and near-barbaric. It is because of these tongue-in-cheek depictions that some may be turned off from this title.