Starcraft 2 - Wings of Liberty
Platform - PC
Hello everyone and welcome to my first review for the Escapist forum mobs (yes, I do consider this a mob... a dangerous, awkward, friendly mob). Today I'll try to give out, in very broad lines, a review of Blizzard's latest money maker.
The game, as those of you who aren't living under a rock, is the sequel to the hugely popular Starcraft Brood War launched over 10 years ago by the guys at Blizzard.
Despite all hype and everything behind the game I feel that the producers didn't bring anything mind blowing to the genre itself. Even Starcraft (the original) didn't start a huge revolution regarding changes brought to the genre but it created the wheel the way we know it today - round.
A lot of people might argue that this is just not true, as Starcraft reinvented the RTS genre and I would tell those people to move back to betting on cock fights and let the games to the gamers. The game didn't reinvent the genre but it perfected it. The controls, the mechanics, the basic concepts are all things we have seen done over and over again in god knows how many other games yet just as previously stated I consider that RTS's before Starcraft were like the initial invention of the wheel - it was an ellipse (or maybe even a square).
Starcraft 2 doesn't come out with brand new ideas but it perfects the old ones. Things such as multi-select, better gameplay in terms of overall control of the game itself - these are all things done by other companies as well but Blizz always manages to polish them just right.
The story of the game follows the one from Broodwar and all I can say, without spoiling anything, is that its just as the round wheel - perfect; now mount it on a tank and lets do some damage.
All the characters behave as we would expect humans to behave. The connections between player controlled characters and NPC's is real. The choices which are spread across the game have a large impact on how the story is told thus giving of the most important element to a game - immersion. The player feels as if those choices are affecting the lives of others and everything causes a reaction.
Gameplay wise we have nothing new under the sun. Even those born after the launch of the first game (for, yes it's time to admit that we are old and anyone most likely under 14 didn't get much out of the first game) can quickly and easily adjust to the game style Starcraft 2 employs. The biggest issue in my mind was that - How could you say the game is balanced in multiplayer when some players will have the chance to play terran for over 20 missions and thus get to know the race. This was easily solved by creating a singleplayer campaign with lots of RPG elements; upgrades, special units which don't appear in the multiplayer version of the game, mercenaries and the list goes on, change the single player campaign from the multiplayer just enough to give equal odds for anyone trying their hand on Battle.net 2.0
The biggest issue of the first one, in my mind at least, was the "breaks" between missions. Surely we must know what happened and so on, but the briefing screen seemed very sterile and in a way broke the flow of the game. This time the player gets to see tons of cinematics with the games graphics in which you find out what to do next and what you have just achieved in your previous mission. The way we get to "move" around the ship the great majority of the action takes place, is a great method to get the player into the skin of Jim Raynor.
Of course the game has the standard Blizzard "take your time to see what we just did there" elements. These Easter eggs are spread across the game - different posters, trinkets from certain missions, unit description in the armory, research on the other two species and a lot more truly give the game a life of its own.
A huge list of achievements and the possibility to finish the campaign with dozens of different choices and upgrades give the game a huge life expectancy for the single player part.
At the time I am writing this I only have roughly 30 or so games played in multiplayer on battle net and even those are from the beta test period so trying to get into it to much would be just wrong. Although, as many think - including me, the multiplayer is the true mark of a worthy successor to the first game of the series, I cannot comment on it with so few games.
So as a conclusion - great gameplay, great graphics and beautiful soundtrack combined with top of the notch voice acting make those 50 or so euros the game cost a bargain. Not to mention the increased lifespan the game gains through it's multiplayer.
If someone asked me - should I buy this ? Yes ! Should I buy this if I were to play only singleplayer ? Yes ! Should I buy this if I will play only the multiplayer ? Dunno why you wouldn't single as well but, YES !
Overall rating - 9/10
PS - This was only a rough overview for, imho Starcraft 2 would easily deserve 3000+ words to give a rundown of its mechanics, sound, graphics and tons and tons of other stuff. Until such a thing is to appear - PLAY IT ! The reason for which I didn't add any images or vids is because I think the webz is either way flooded with Starcraft 2 comercials and vids and even though I love the game, those do get annoying >_>
Platform - PC
Hello everyone and welcome to my first review for the Escapist forum mobs (yes, I do consider this a mob... a dangerous, awkward, friendly mob). Today I'll try to give out, in very broad lines, a review of Blizzard's latest money maker.
The game, as those of you who aren't living under a rock, is the sequel to the hugely popular Starcraft Brood War launched over 10 years ago by the guys at Blizzard.
Despite all hype and everything behind the game I feel that the producers didn't bring anything mind blowing to the genre itself. Even Starcraft (the original) didn't start a huge revolution regarding changes brought to the genre but it created the wheel the way we know it today - round.
A lot of people might argue that this is just not true, as Starcraft reinvented the RTS genre and I would tell those people to move back to betting on cock fights and let the games to the gamers. The game didn't reinvent the genre but it perfected it. The controls, the mechanics, the basic concepts are all things we have seen done over and over again in god knows how many other games yet just as previously stated I consider that RTS's before Starcraft were like the initial invention of the wheel - it was an ellipse (or maybe even a square).
Starcraft 2 doesn't come out with brand new ideas but it perfects the old ones. Things such as multi-select, better gameplay in terms of overall control of the game itself - these are all things done by other companies as well but Blizz always manages to polish them just right.
The story of the game follows the one from Broodwar and all I can say, without spoiling anything, is that its just as the round wheel - perfect; now mount it on a tank and lets do some damage.
All the characters behave as we would expect humans to behave. The connections between player controlled characters and NPC's is real. The choices which are spread across the game have a large impact on how the story is told thus giving of the most important element to a game - immersion. The player feels as if those choices are affecting the lives of others and everything causes a reaction.
Gameplay wise we have nothing new under the sun. Even those born after the launch of the first game (for, yes it's time to admit that we are old and anyone most likely under 14 didn't get much out of the first game) can quickly and easily adjust to the game style Starcraft 2 employs. The biggest issue in my mind was that - How could you say the game is balanced in multiplayer when some players will have the chance to play terran for over 20 missions and thus get to know the race. This was easily solved by creating a singleplayer campaign with lots of RPG elements; upgrades, special units which don't appear in the multiplayer version of the game, mercenaries and the list goes on, change the single player campaign from the multiplayer just enough to give equal odds for anyone trying their hand on Battle.net 2.0
The biggest issue of the first one, in my mind at least, was the "breaks" between missions. Surely we must know what happened and so on, but the briefing screen seemed very sterile and in a way broke the flow of the game. This time the player gets to see tons of cinematics with the games graphics in which you find out what to do next and what you have just achieved in your previous mission. The way we get to "move" around the ship the great majority of the action takes place, is a great method to get the player into the skin of Jim Raynor.
Of course the game has the standard Blizzard "take your time to see what we just did there" elements. These Easter eggs are spread across the game - different posters, trinkets from certain missions, unit description in the armory, research on the other two species and a lot more truly give the game a life of its own.
A huge list of achievements and the possibility to finish the campaign with dozens of different choices and upgrades give the game a huge life expectancy for the single player part.
At the time I am writing this I only have roughly 30 or so games played in multiplayer on battle net and even those are from the beta test period so trying to get into it to much would be just wrong. Although, as many think - including me, the multiplayer is the true mark of a worthy successor to the first game of the series, I cannot comment on it with so few games.
So as a conclusion - great gameplay, great graphics and beautiful soundtrack combined with top of the notch voice acting make those 50 or so euros the game cost a bargain. Not to mention the increased lifespan the game gains through it's multiplayer.
If someone asked me - should I buy this ? Yes ! Should I buy this if I were to play only singleplayer ? Yes ! Should I buy this if I will play only the multiplayer ? Dunno why you wouldn't single as well but, YES !
Overall rating - 9/10
PS - This was only a rough overview for, imho Starcraft 2 would easily deserve 3000+ words to give a rundown of its mechanics, sound, graphics and tons and tons of other stuff. Until such a thing is to appear - PLAY IT ! The reason for which I didn't add any images or vids is because I think the webz is either way flooded with Starcraft 2 comercials and vids and even though I love the game, those do get annoying >_>