All things StarCraft

[Combine Hunter]

We're recording a Starcraft 2 podcast on 07/03/2013. So please share your thoughts on the series.

[dezm0nd]

We require more vespeyne gas.

[Mijmeister]

SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS!!

[GSMason]

Mineral field depleted

[Combine Hunter]

I'm after proper opinions! Not three word reviews!

[Bulletzen]

Is it wrong that I've never played the game in multiplayer and have no desire to. Yes I'm intimidated but for me Starcraft was always about the singleplayer. Anyway looking forward to Heart of the Swarm.

[Combine Hunter]

Same here dude. The single player is equally fantastic

[James]

I'm after proper opinions! Not three word reviews!

Not to say that a three-word review isn't a proper opinion, but I think Josh means that there will be a time (nearer the show) and a place (Twitter) for #CRTWR. The here and now are for less constrained, potentially more considered and discursive viewpoints to be gathered, mulled-over and given the appropriate time to breathe. Or something like that.

[Leg of Time]

I've not played since it was released but...

I tried the multiplayer but was awful at it (I play RTS games slowly, which doesn't play well online)! So not played much.

The Singleplayer I really enjoyed. I'm glad they split up the game into three (one per race) as it seemed to lead to a more in depth and enjoyable story. I really liked the feel, reminded me in places of a Firefly style (Jim Raynor has some scenes which are very space cowboy like). Very nice looking cutscenes!

Thought the game revolving around the ship was a good idea, made it feel grounded by something and nice to 'walk' around it, going to each deck to upgrade vehicles/units etc.

Generall gameplay wall well presented and slick, easy to pick up and develop strategies. Map design was overall good (that I can remember) as was the individual missions - especially the one so the day/night cycle!

Also, loved the Protoss short storyline. I really like their design/play style so to have a preview of them in what is a Terran focused game was nice!

[Todinho]

I love starcraft,I have been playing it since the first and I enjoyed every game.What really grabed me was the universe and the factions,a big change for me who only played Age of empires at the time, the characters are also very memorable with 2 of my favorites being "Emperor" Mengsk and Sarah kerrigan,every campaign is both very creative and challenging in it's missions with a good story to wrap up everything.
Starcraft 2 gave me everything I wanted in an RTS game and a sequel to the original,the upgrading of your troops,the mission choices and the hyperion are all great additions to the franchise,with I have one problem is with the "Big end of all life plot" I feel it has been done a thousand times before(even by blizzard themselfs in WC3) and it doesnt add much to the table,I just hope they dont overcomplicate the plot too much and start ruining the characters(I really dont like the whole vegeance theme o HotS) but other than that I've got no complaints as for the multiplayer I couldnt tell you since Im always destroyed whenever attempt to play it.

[GSMason]

I'm also old enough to remember the good old days of the original starcraft. I was introduced to it by a school friend of mine. He was a big pc gaming and blizzard fanboy and had already introduced me to Rock N Roll Racing, Diablo and Warcraft. In those days a lot of us were playing RTS games like Dune 2, C&C, Warcraft 2, Red Alert etc and Starcraft was the next big one to come along. I have always been a big Sci-fi fan and I always preferred Sci-fi to fantasy so thought Starcraft sounded right up my alley.

I remember getting a 'copy' of Starcraft but unfortunately my family's pc at the time wasn't great and my machine struggled. I was left to play through most of the Terran campaign in short sessions at my friend's house but never got much further despite enjoying the story, setting and gameplay.

Cut to 2010 and as an owner of an ageing iMac I wasn't exactly keeping on top of PC gaming. However I found myself getting caught up in the pre-release hype for Starcraft 2 and subsequently discovered my mac would run it, admittedly not very well. Before I knew it I had dived head first into all aspects of the game and found myself completely engrossed. The story had me intrigued from the start and I was very impressed with the cutscenes as well as the structure of the campaign. The hyperion set up was such a great design choice that it almost seems obvious but it seemed very different from a lot of RTSs to me and I felt immediately drawn into the world as well as the different facets of the gameplay. I found the campaign to be excellent with enough variety and brilliant pacing that I never once thought about not seeing it through to the end. The whole game just seemed so coherent and polished, it was clear to see the years of work that had gone into it.

I'm sorry that I'm already running long but I can't not mention the challenges and multiplayer. I loved the challenge modes as a nice change of pace from multiplayer and I appreciated that these were in essence tutorials teaching key tactics and basic strategy. This can be improved upon (see HOTS training mode) but it made a pleasant change for a game to dive deeper than the fundamental controls.

Last but not least the multiplayer. Never has a game inspired such strong emotions in me in multiplayer - both positive and negative! At its best Starcraft 2 feels like a fast paced complex game of chess and a victory in which you have out-thought your opponent leaves you feeling like a genius. The downside is that as you are playing on your own and replays expose your flaws you can start to feel dis-heartened if you have a bad run of form. I spent hours pouring over strategy guides and tip videos as well as watching plenty of e-sports matches. However never has a game done so much to ease you into multiplayer and yet been seen as intimidating. Challenge mode, Skirmishes VS AI (of multiple difficulties and speeds) and ranking of players are all available to help progression. This is being joined in HOTS by Training mode (at 3 different levels for each race), different AI styles as well as speeds and difficulties and unranked play (more on all of this in HOTS thread).

I spent months loving the multiplayer even though I wasn't great and only stopped as I have limited game time and wanted to play other games more. I am hoping to get back into playing multiplayer with HOTS as following the build up for that release has got me falling in love all over again....

[Donk]

I played through the campaign once and really liked it. High production value, cheesy sci-fi, build lots of dudes and attack the enemy base. It also had enough variety in the mission structure and types to keep you entertained throughout.

I still haven't felt the need to revisit it for the harder difficulty or achievements. The main reason would be the multiplayer, that's where the true magic lies. I say this even though I grew up on shooters, spending most of my teen and 20's playing them online and competitively in the local scene. Despite my heavy bias towards shooters and that I had never played any multiplayer RTS games, when you have a matchmaking service like battle.net and hundreds of thousands of players (at launch) online you can guarantee finding an even match, no matter how bad you are. That's what really makes StarCraft 2, every game you play online will be a close game.

Since the launch in 2010 I'm at just over 500 ladder games and made it to Gold league last season, a goal I thought I'd never reach starting out. Can't wait for Heart of the Swarm to come out.

edit: line breaks lol