Gameplay 9/10
Graphics 9/10
Sound 10/10
Value 9/10
Tilt 10/10
Overall 9.4/10
With its insanely long development cycle star craft 2 is a game that
promised a lot to its eagerly awaiting fans. So does it deliver on these
promises? The answer is a resounding yes.
To start out , the story is very solid and it will compel you to keep
playing the game to its exciting conclusion. From the onset, you can see
that Blizzard has used the long development schedule to craft a fine
game as there is virtually no let down in action and as the missions are
varied and spectacular. The characters you meet along the way are also
quite memorable and each of them has their own story to tell and
motivation for accompanying you. From the start blizzard has repeatedly
said that the reason for the focus on just one race was because they
wanted to tell a more epic and larger story and I can tell you they were
certainly not exaggerating about it. There is a tremendous amount of
content in here for a game that only focuses on one race.
Like all blizzard games the music is outstanding and flows perfectly
with the game play. Combined with the superb art direction and good
graphics the game is a pleasure to play and is easy on the eyes and
ears. The unit models are detailed, environments are very varied and the
cut scenes are breathtaking . There is a wide variety of units in the
game and necessity will teach you especially on the higher difficulties
that they all serve a purpose and are best used in certain situations.
The A.I was challenging on the harder difficulties, especially during
the later missions but due to the wide variety of units at your disposal
I found these large scale encounters to be quite fun.
The single player campaign takes anywhere from 15-25+ hours depending on
the difficulty , your skill level and another factor is whether you do
the optional side missions or not. I was most impressed with how similar
the game play felt with the original games but subtle tweaks add a
whole another layer to an already great game play experience. without
giving too much away ,the conclusion will leave you with a lot of
questions but is ultimately satisfying. The only serious problem with
the original game was that the missions lacked originality. Most of them
had you repeat the same tasks or had the same objectives. However star
craft 2 fixes it and then some; the missions are very varied and the
situations you will find yourself in are quite enjoyable.
The Multi-Player component of Starcraft 2 offers a game in itself. It is
fast paced and fun and due to the huge community support, there are
always new maps to try out and entirely new game modes. While Blizzard
has made multiplayer it more appealing to new players with the inclusion
of tutorials, it can still be a little unnerving and hostile to new
players and is best played with a few of your friends. I experienced no
problems with battle-net and they have a new robust party system in
place. Blizzard has broken down players by grouping them by their skill
level and this will more often than not lead to your competition being
the same skill level as you are.
Overall, I found the game to be very good and lives up to the very high
standard set for it before launch . I have played a lot of strategy
games and SC2 with its insane breath and options ranks as one of the all
time bests if not the best. The only negative I can think of is that at
60 dollars a pop it is not cheap and the focus on one race stings a
bit. However, it is definitely a must try for any strategy fan.
