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Monday, July 26, 2010

Starcraft 2 multiplayer review

Did you like the catchy heading? Did you really expect old Darth Solo to have written a review to Starcraft 2 before everyone else got the chance? I'm afraid I'm gonna have to disappoint. However, check this out...

Here, a quick review of the multiplayer: No LAN, 0/10.

This comment, if you follow the link, was posted on arstechnica today and it made my laugh. Every Blizzard junkie probably knows that tomorrow's the launch of Starcraft 2 but personally I won't bother even though the event itself is of great interest to me. It's a Blizzard game, what do you expect?

It makes me sad that they decided to omit LAN play from SC2. My theory is that it had nothing to do with the difficulties of implementing this feature but that they did it simply as a means of preventing piracy. This is regrettable but I'm afraid it won't stop piracy one little bit. I'm willing to bet that someone out there will create a LAN mod for the cracked game. It's just that LAN won't be playable out of the box. For those who really need the functionality of LAN play (and there are plenty, believe you me), the only option might be to download a pirated version.

I was never big on strategy games and while I managed to finish other RTS games in single-player mode such as C&C, Red Alert and LotR Battle for Middle Earth, I simply couldn't do it in any of Blizzard's games, including Warcraft 1-3 and Starcraft. The story in all of these games is amazing and the gameplay is very well balanced and polished but from a certain point in the single player campaigns the game got so hard that I was easily overwhelmed and gave up in frustration every time.

So I won't be buying SC2, at least not at this point. I might do it later when all 3 campaigns have been released and when the price drops to a decent amount but for now I'm just gonna watch from the sidelines. I can't wait for the first real reviews!

5 comments:

Gyldenfeax said...

RPGs have always been my game of choice but I still played Starcraft, the Warcraft series and a few of the C+C titles. Single player wasn't too bad but I always got crushed in multiplayer. Keybinding is the key to doing well in multiplayer RTS which I could never be bothered doing.

I'll probably do the same as you Darth and buy it when it's older and cheaper. Sadly, though, I'll miss out on the WoW mini pet, Mini Thor, which comes with the Starcraft Collectors Edition. Mini Tyrael is still superior, at least in my opinion.

Darth Solo said...

Meh, I'm just about over these vanity pets.

I was always scared of multiplayer. That's part of the reason why I don't play PvP in WoW. I'm too chicken so I'd rather play against NPCs. The only multiplayer games that I've enjoyed were 3D shooters such as Quake 3, Unreal Tournament and Counterstrike. Back in the day...

Oh look, as I'm typing this there's an ad for Starcraft 2 on my blog lol.

Rugus said...

I'm not a huge fan of SC series (I've got SC1 and never finished it, same goes for ANY rts like you already mentioned in your post). More than difficulty (that exists) it's just I get bored of repetitively building, raising armies and zerg enemies.

But...

I've got Sc2 (digital download) via Battle.net.

Why?

1) it's amazingly well done, both technically (superb) and in terms of story/gameplay. It really puts you on the field and the single player campaign (26 missions) have 3 achievements each that make them even more fun. I've been trying a LOT of times the last mission for the last (damned) achie... I've never ever done that before.

2) it's Blizzard and Blizzard -let me say that- outrules any other company when it comes to RPG, Hack'nSlash and RTS. Diablo3 will be my next purchase.

3) I don't care about lan but I like the b.Net stuff (and achievements are awesome).

4) I like 80% single player and 20% multy, that said I'll be playing multy only after I finish the single player (that features side-missions to master tactics in absurd situations).

5) multy stuff is just impressive.

6) It's a masterpiece, in my opinion. Worth the money.

Rugus said...

By "last mission" I mean mission 3, it's the last of a series. Well anyay not the last "overall" ofc :)

Darth Solo said...

@Rugus I agree for the most part. It's without doubt an amazing game in terms of graphics and gameplay. However...

The only multiplayer I would engage in would be with my closest friends at a LAN party. Too bad we can't clone a game from a legit copy anymore, I guess Bliz... erm Activi$ion discovered a way to sell more copies.

I would really like to try the single player campaign but I'm not gonna pay full price for this game and I'm not yet bored with WoW.

Diablo 3 is definitely a buy for me, most likely from the first day. I'm a huge fan of the Diablo series, having played D1+3rd party expansion, D2+expansion. I've played D2 the longest of all games, for over 5 years. But I'm afraid I'll be an old man when they finally release it.