Highly praised by critics for a traditional RTS that never showed any innovation.
The game hasnt gone to much of a change. A new set of engine which dont really shine from the RTS crowd (cant expect much from Blizzard's History), Several replacement of units and some new concept units and finally slapping a $60 price tag on release. While is really pricey for a decade old game redone to meet 2010 expectation, its really good in it. Starcraft 1998 is already a very good game, and blizzard did was to improve Starcraft 2 gameplay in balancing and concept units to perfection.
Singleplayer campaign is the only one i enjoyed the most. Players are in control of Terran marine hero named Jim Raynor whom is a leader of a rebel group against the Dominion Empire and whatever in his way. Players are put in his shoes as the journey goes across the galaxy. In any mission, players are thrown into an traditional RTS gameplay and upon completing mission, players might gain resources or new units to be added to your arsenal. During the journey, players are often give resources to upgrade existing units and gain unlocks into better units. The campaign often forced player to pick and choose units and upgrades in relevant to the mission players pick, so the game isnt very linear as compared to other RTS. It is quite like DOW2 but without the heroes customization. The option to play as Jim Raynor is extremely satisfying, players can visit around the ship that you command, communicating and interacting with objects or personal around similar to a point and click adventure. Blizzard did a good job in trying to give players a better look into the universe of Starcraft and with the help of News and radio channels. Sadly no much innovation are done to the RTS formula and Mulitplayer experience is similar to the 1998 Starcraft with a slight enhancement to battlenet which by the way is rename to battlenet 2.0. Singleplayer campaign has been stripped to only terran fraction. Zerg and protoss will come later in 2 expansion packs, however singleplayer campaign will keep player busy for about 10-16hrs depending on difficulty.
I cant really recommend this game to anyone that so happen never played Starcraft. Even if the Singleplayer portion of it was outstanding, i dont feel right to con them $60 just for the singleplayer campaign. Only fans for the classic will appreciate it, and i m sure Fans will grab this anyway even it cost triple the price of the original starcraft.
As a PC gamers from the late 1990's, those times there were abundant of great innovative RTS, sadly this last few years are total disaster for AAA RTS titles, C&C5, Supcom and COH which never did continued their sequel. (DOW2 is a strip down version of DOW and Shogun retain its traditional concept from Rome, does not count). Its kinda sad what happen to PC RTS industry. If it doesnt sell, it is ripped apart and forgotten. Well all its not lost, PC RTS still have indie RTS games.
Graphics: 7.0 (Not supprised Blizzard dont spend time on it, Average animation)
Gameplay SP: 8.0 (impressive campaign, strip to 1 fraction instead of 3, total length of SP is just right at 10-16hrs)
Gameplay MP: 6.0 (huge variety of maps, new units to replace old units, and good balancing, No innovation)
Audio: 7.5 (great audio work, good selection of soundtracks)
Value: 5.0 (pricey if your not into the traditional RTS games, i wouldnt expect blizzard to produce so little content compared to their other titles).
Conclusion for warcraft3 players; theres nothing to see here, go back to your cave.