About to drive out and pickup my copy of SC2. Anyone else going? I plan to play campaign to death before getting killed in multiplayer. If anyone will be on tonight, add me mor911[at]gmail[dot]com My first review of the madness
Just woke up.... I literally played all night. I'll write up a quick a review in a bit. Need to play more. brb
Reviewage Ok this is my review after exactly 10 single player missions, about 7 custom map games (multiplayer), and a few me VS CPU AI skirmishes. Story I am a huge Starcraft nut. Having played through the original and Brood Wars, I'm kind of in touch with what's going on in the universe. I've read one of the books and half of another (i know I'm missing six lol) but I dig the story line alot. This one has you controlling the known terrorist Jim Raynor. Not gonna dive into to much, but it's very well explained. I have to not that on the SC2 forums there are people complaining about the writing and how it's not deep enough... I like it. Graphics I think the game looks amazing. My PC is nowhere near decked out and it runs perfectly with a bazzillion units on screen and looks excellent. I'll even post specs that I'm playing on: See... Definitely nothing to write home about. and still the game looks great... Note: I took all of these screens from my PC and shrunk em down... The cut scenes are all done in another engine but it's not pre-rendered CG. I would LOVE to see it running on a high end PC. It also looks great on my Macbook (which has considerably worse specs) but I am playing it on the PC. The Game There's so much to go over it's not even funny... They've (again) rebuilt the way we look at RTS campaigns and story modes. I'd like to note that they didn't invent any of these features. They just do a helluva job putting it in a game perfectly. In the campaign your given options which mission to take one. They're very diverse and range from collecting X amount of resources to robbing trains of their goods. There's also optional goals in each mission and adjustable difficulty for every mission. I personally like it because I had to cheat at the end of Broodwars because the missions were too difficult. Between missions you can also walk to various parts of your ship/base and talk to different people you've met and gather intel on what's going on. It's not required, but allows you to gather more info on the story and what's going on. after a few hours you'll start to realize that the rumors of Blizzard not being overly concerned about the single player experience is totally untrue. When going through your ship/base there's different rooms to go into that has different uses. This is where the game gets deep and awesome. There's credits acquired in each mission. These credits can be used to buy upgrades for units on the field or hire mercenaries that you can call on in battle. The mercs are VERY good as they're usually fully upgraded units. There is a limited amount of mercs you can call and a cool down period between hires. Here's the screen that upgrades can be purchased in... It adds an amazing dynamic to campaign because it's at the players disposal what he upgrades. The same goes for research done in the lab. Throughout missions you find Zerg and Protoss artifacts that give you research points. This can be used to further advance your units (usually offensively or defensively in some way). But it's an A or B type tree of upgrades... So my single player experience can be completely different from yours... Very cool. The combat is what you'd expect in Starcraft. If you played Starcraft and Broodwars, you'll feel totally at home. A few minutes getting to know the new units and you're off to the races. I am addicted. Looks good, sounds good... Must be ****ing good. I'll repost once I played through more. The Armory:
Someone completed the single player campaign in 16 hours. $60 for that? Ouch. Yes, I know the draw of Starcraft is the multiplayer, but you're going to pay $180 for 16 x 3 hours of campaigning?
people pay $60 happily for Modern warfare's 8 hours of campaign... And take away MGS's movies and how long was that game (like actual game)? 16 is plenty imo
Yea, 16hrs is plenty of time for single player. Anything over 10 (provided it is good) is gravy as far as I'm concerned.
Also, it came with some 7 hour game trials... Guess it lets my guest try the game for 7 hours (or 14 days, which ever comes first). If anyone's interested in one, let me know.
You two are talking to someone who's logged 90 hours and counting into DQ9, a $35 game, and over 110 hours in FF13, a $60 game.
Yea, both of which are RPGs and pretty much exclusively single player experiences. Long single player experiences are expected from me in most jRPGs, that doesn't mean a game with a 8hr singe player story is automatically not worth MSRP though.
I would say that 1/3 of a game is not worth $60, not that Starcraft 2 isn't worth the time invested, especially since most people are just going to play the multiplayer for another 10 years.
I am up for kicking some ***. I bought a new computer for this game...well...i would have needed one soon anyways...but this game was my excuse.
If you could hook me up with one i would really appreciate it, would like to try the game out before i drop $60 on it, thought it definitly looks like its worth the investment.
Bought and downloaded the game yesterday, I'm not too far in yet but the game definitely impresses, looks, sounds and plays fantastic. My roommate was having a good time just watching me light zergs on fire. Would say to anyone on the fence about getting it that it's definitely worth the $60.
I got that shiz. Pretty fun I'm 2-0 in the practice league Void Rays ftw. Nexus Wars in custom games is pretty fun too. Only like 4-5 mission in the campaign but who's really in a rush to beat that anyway? Not like it's going anywhere ;p
anyone else looking for someone to run 2v2s with? my email is dannyg282(at)gmail[dot]com. I'll warn you though, im not very good
Good game. I enjoyed the campaign even though I was a little disappointed with the direction the story went, but I will withhold judgement on that until after the final expansion. However, I couldn't be more pleased with the gameplay thus far. The multiplayer does seem to get a little bland quickly, but I think that will change as people start experimenting with strategies more and it gets more social when the chat channels are finally introduced.
I'll run some 2s with you sometime. Share some strategies will probably get you winning more than losing. I'm not crazy good or anything but I'm good at working off my teammate and making coordinated effective strikes. I just got pushed up to the Gold league in my 1v1 games. Between SC2, Madden 11, Work, GF, Survivor, and the weekend there's just not enough hours in the day.
As expected, the map community have gone ape ****. They've made some third person shooters from the starcraft2 map editor that work scarily well. It shows just how versatile this engine really is.
Definitely. I got to play with some of the Blizzard mods (the Bejeweled and Iron Chef ones) and they were really well done. They want to showcase what this engine can do, but seems the community isn't having any issues digging in and making good stuff on their own.
I watch my roommate who is diamond league play online and I couldn't do it. The amount of short key strokes you have to do is ridiculous. These people take this game too seriously
