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Starcraft II - Any good?

Spanky Deluxe

Spanky Deluxe

macrumors 603
Original poster
Mar 17, 2005
5,291
1,832
London, UK
I've heard it hyped on about for months but is it actually any good? I remember playing the first Starcraft a little but thought it was a bit poo compared to the likes of C&C and Red Alert. I'm a little tempted to give SC2 a go and get the collector's edition that has the original game bundled. I've seen mixed things on other sites and have heard that Blizzard are muzzling the media because they know the reviews won't be good. So, what do you guys think of it so far?
 
I've been playing it all day. It is really, really good. The productions values are super high, the replay value is great, the missions are fun and varied. if you like RTS's at all its a must get.
 
im a huge starcraft lore geek, and i loved the story, with the first game, i feel the story was pretty bad, the protoss side missions were the best of them all. Shame.

Allthough multiplayer is nice
 
I enjoy the game, especially multiplayer. But I didn't have to pay for it (gift) so free is great. :)
 
Bought the collector's edition.

Really enjoyed the single player experience. (Not going to dissect the story / ending to spoil it)
I'm very CASUAL when it comes to multiplayer components but really enjoyed it all through the beta.

Was the reason you thought SC was a bit "poo" due to the story or the game itself compared to C&C and RA?
 
AshStorm said:
Bought the collector's edition.

Really enjoyed the single player experience. (Not going to dissect the story / ending to spoil it)
I'm very CASUAL when it comes to multiplayer components but really enjoyed it all through the beta.

Was the reason you thought SC was a bit "poo" due to the story or the game itself compared to C&C and RA?
Click to expand...

Is the original starcraft that comes bundled with the collector's edition still 4:3 or have they remapped it to 16:9? I really enjoyed Starcraft and then Broodwars.
 
AshStorm said:
Was the reason you thought SC was a bit "poo" due to the story or the game itself compared to C&C and RA?
Click to expand...

I don't remember the story much but I remember being underwhelmed by the gameplay. Mind you, fifty million Koreans can hardly be wrong, can they?

It's a shame it's not on Steam otherwise I'd be more likely to impulse buy.
 
In regards to the gameplay, its definitely Starcraft but with more, brought up to today's technology standards. Though the mission design aspect of the gameplay is on another level compared to the original SC1. They also separated what you can do in single player versus multiplayer. For example, in Single player, you get tech choices to kit out your units.

Story wise, it's simple but continues what was established from SC1. Not award winning by any manner but I enjoyed it. I suppose the appeal is in the way it was told.


As for finding it cheaper, hold out a week. Prior to it hitting the shelves, a bunch of places dropped the price down to the $40's range. I suspect it will go back down after the release hype / "Week one must have" buyers are done.
 
xlii said:
Is the original starcraft that comes bundled with the collector's edition still 4:3 or have they remapped it to 16:9? I really enjoyed Starcraft and then Broodwars.
Click to expand...

Xlii, that's a really damn good question. I'll find out for you when I get home from work. There were a couple of times over the last few years that I wanted to fire up old Starcraft 1 but I couldn't stand how it looked on my monitor.
 
AshStorm said:
Xlii, that's a really damn good question. I'll find out for you when I get home from work. There were a couple of times over the last few years that I wanted to fire up old Starcraft 1 but I couldn't stand how it looked on my monitor.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, the version of SC/BW included in the Collector's Edition is the standard unmodified version, ie. 4:3 only. (And to be honest, it would kind of have to be - otherwise players with a wider screen would have an unfair advantage.)

SC2 is a fantastic game. The single player is a bit meh if you are into complex plot or rpgs or anything; but as a tactical RTS it's very good. And Bliz have really really put a lot of effort into making SC2 "newcomer friendly" re multiplayer gaming, and it shows. I'm very impressed with their system of tutorials and "challenges", works very well. Even the achievements system, which I used to think of as corny and a console thing, actually work pretty well in SC2.

Compared to SC/BW, well, there are differences. SC2 is a little WC3-y in some ways - you tend to attack and rebuild more rapidly than you did in SC/BW. And games seem to be over faster (although that could be because during the beta at least the maps were on the small side). But they did a good job retaining the "feel" of SC/BW in terms of unit control and speed and so on.

I'm a bit of a SC2 addict now but accepting that, if you have any interest in RTS you should spend some time getting up to speed with SC2. My 2c.
 
This game is great. Especially the multiplayer. There is a handful of imbalances here and there but otherwise fantastic. In higher levels of play the imbalances are pretty obvious. But in lower leagues where the plays aren't as defined or sharp the balance is pretty spot on if you know what you are doing. (btw, top 20 plat player so I do know a little more about the game)

Single player is brilliant. We haven't gotten a RTS with such a consistant pacing and fleshed out cast. Ending is a big of a downer but I guess since it is a trilogy there needs to be some lose plot points.

Overall an excellent single player and balanced, addictive multiplayer with a company who genuinely listens to their fans and constantly patches problems along with a slew of promised features (chatrooms, and possibly cross region play and maybe even psudo lan) makes Starcraft 2 an absolute steal for 60 bucks.
 
I really liked the first one and I love the second one. I can't speak to the multiplayer part of the game because I haven't played it. But I have been hooked on it since I bought it day one. I like it. Not an avid gamer more casual then not but this one is great!!
 
Well I ended up getting it in the end. Went for the normal edition since GAME didn't have any of the collector ones in stock. I've seen that you can buy the original Starcraft as a digital download straight from Blizzard so I'll probably give that a shot later on sometime, that was the only thing that interested me in the collectors edition.

I've played it a fair bit so far, something like 10 missions or so. It does seem quite good, just typical RTS type stuff really. Nothing that blows me away but fun enough for a playthrough. The only thing that bugs me at times is the pathfinding of the units, it seems to be atrocious at times, I mean really bad. It's also crashed a few times on me after missions finish but luckily it's got a good autosave that saves just as the mission's finishing rather than at the beginning of the next part so that deals with that.

I can't quite see why it's taken them this long to make a sequel though. The general game mechanics seem to be pretty much standard, the storyline is OK but nothing groundbreaking and the characters are decidedly wooden. I don't find myself feeling for any of them, their interactions between each other are seriously unconvincing. Maybe I'm just spoilt after playing through Mass Effect 2 a couple of weeks ago and seeing what another games company can produce in a fraction of the time. The graphics are also very standard, it doesn't look any better than Command & Conquer 3 from a couple of years ago. I haven't tried it in Windows yet though, it might be better there but I'm not sure if save games transfer over like they do with Steam.
 
Does anyone have a code that comes with the game so that you can access the trail that they would be willing to give out?

I was thinking of buying it when the price goes down a bit. I have not really played on this type of games before but I would like to give it a go and a trail would be nice before I paid for it. I will probably wait a bit though before buying it until it gets cheaper just in case I buy it and can't get in to the type of game.
 
Spanky Deluxe said:
I've heard it hyped on about for months but is it actually any good? I remember playing the first Starcraft a little but thought it was a bit poo compared to the likes of C&C and Red Alert. I'm a little tempted to give SC2 a go and get the collector's edition that has the original game bundled. I've seen mixed things on other sites and have heard that Blizzard are muzzling the media because they know the reviews won't be good. So, what do you guys think of it so far?
Click to expand...

Where did you hear the reviews wouldnt be good?? Considering on Metacritic it got a 93% (universal acclaim) I don't think Blizzard needs to do any media muzzling.
 
Spanky Deluxe said:
I've heard it hyped on about for months but is it actually any good? I remember playing the first Starcraft a little but thought it was a bit poo compared to the likes of C&C and Red Alert. I'm a little tempted to give SC2 a go and get the collector's edition that has the original game bundled. I've seen mixed things on other sites and have heard that Blizzard are muzzling the media because they know the reviews won't be good. So, what do you guys think of it so far?
Click to expand...

Just buy it. It's a challenging game and is far too addictive and will have endless support from the massive fan base with patches and updates. It suites my MB Pro very well and if I wanted I can play with the trackpad. I only brought the game because of the hype and because I love tower defence games and Robocalypse (rest in peace) on my iPhone, and this game is the same type of gameplay and has me hooked. I give it 5/5.
 
I'mAMac said:
Where did you hear the reviews wouldnt be good?? Considering on Metacritic it got a 93% (universal acclaim) I don't think Blizzard needs to do any media muzzling.
Click to expand...

I heard several PC gamers say bad things about it just after release and at the time Blizzard had an embargo in place on reviews until the first wave of people had bought their copies - similar tactics used by other game makers when they know they've created a dud game but with a very popular franchise. A lot of people at the time were complaining about the game only being "a third of a game" due to only one campaign faction. I disagree on that though since so far the one faction's gameplay seems to be far longer than in games where there are three (i.e. way more story and missions than one faction in C&C3).

apolloa said:
Just buy it. It's a challenging game and is far too addictive and will have endless support from the massive fan base with patches and updates. It suites my MB Pro very well and if I wanted I can play with the trackpad. I only brought the game because of the hype and because I love tower defence games and Robocalypse (rest in peace) on my iPhone, and this game is the same type of gameplay and has me hooked. I give it 5/5.
Click to expand...

I did buy it in the end, see my thoughts on it a few posts up. :)
 
There are always critics. It's like SC1 = 10 zerg, 10 terran, 10 protoss missions. SC2 = 30 terran missions. ...something like that. It's not "1/3 of a game". They are going to have 2 EXP with likly 30 zerg and 30 protoss.

The other complaint is the lack of LAN play. They want to make it "fairer" and "harder to hack" or some crap...which is reasonable. I'm sure it costs more to run battle net this way.

The reason why SC is so popular compared to CNC etc. is because it's actively balanced by a dedicated team. The draw of Starcraft is not the "aweome storyline". The first one was actually kinda corney (as with most video games ofthe times) but it was still kinda creative. The draw of the game is the multiplayer replayability and the multiple uses of strats and counters and tricks that ppl come up with. It is also the most successful e-sport game.

Players who get into this don't just work on their mouse skills to be able to headshot a guy jumping across a cliff while runing and jumping toward the rocket launcher themselves. They study the stats of all the units and think about builds and manuevers and counters and force combonations and whatever while commuting to work/going to school/ falling asleep. This is the kind of game it is and it's why it's been so everlasting through the years.

There will also be many custom maps that emerge and a player driven "Custom Starcraft 2" community just like Warcraft 3, where players are given a rulset or some sort which will allow them to make all sorts of mini-games...either RTS based, or not even close.

Oh, and they halted SC dev, they even canceled a consule FPS game, because they moved everyone to ... you know what.
 
Was considering buying this but have not read too much about it. But can someone clear it up for me... Do you have to pay a monthly fee ?
 
There's a solid 12hrs single player content in it. Worth the price. Plus invaluable online battle experience.
 
MRU, no need for monthly fees. Battle.net is free. If you've enjoyed RTS games before then give it a shot! I'm certainly warming to it although I'm not sure if I'll ever bother with the online play.

TheJae, I reckon there's more than 12 hours of single player content in it. It usually takes me about an hour per mission. I don't rush games like this on my first play through and I try to complete all the bonus objectives. I don't really bother with the achievements though. I think there are 26 missions in total in the game so I'd imagine that most average gamers will get about a solid earth spin's worth out of it. Of course most missions could be done within half an hour if you put peddle to the metal but then you miss a fair bit. There's also a fair bit of story narrative bits etc which probably add up.
 
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