StarCraft II, StarCraft II, what would I be doing without you?
StarCraft II is a game that I've been meaning to review for a while, but with great games like this that have a lot of stuff to learn about in the multiplayer realm, I usually hold off on reviewing them until I feel I've got a good grip on most of the game.
Firstly, there are three main races in StarCraft II. The first race, which may be simply known as the good guys, is Terran. The majority of the campaign you'll be playing solely as the Terran, but you may occasionally play a mission as Protoss or with assitance from the Protoss. The Protoss are an alien race that are neutral towards the Terran, but are enemies with the Zerg. The Zerg are the bad guys in StarCraft, their leader being the Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan. They are made up of mutant creatures such as Zerglings, Roaches, Hydralisks and other abominations.
It is the first part of the StarCraft II trilogy, focusing on the storyline of the Terran race. The second part of the trilogy, Heart of the Swarm, focuses on the Zerg race and releases this year. The final part, which focuses on the Protoss race, has not yet received a name or an estimated release date.
The combat in this game is similar to the majority of Real-Time Strategy games. You build units at their appropriate buildings (for Terran, you'll build Marines at the Barracks, and you'll build air support at the Starport), then you wait until they are produced and you rally them up for an attack, or you place them in a defensive position.
Each unit has its own special abilities, and to name each unit and all of their abilities would take several pages of explaining. Every unit is going to take practice to master.
Graphics
The graphics in StarCraft II are superb, and they really did a great job on the cut-scenes. There are a few dozen cut-scenes, and all of them look like they could be from a hit-movie. The textures look very great, and there is an overall glow of happiness that you'll get when you play the game at its highest resolution. The best part about StarCraft II graphically is that you're able to play the game with a 3D Vision Kit, which really adds whole new layers to the game (pun intended).
You might experience a bit of lag if you're running the game with the graphics really high if your computer isn't great, or if you're playing on one of the user-made maps that allow more than the standard amount of units on the field, which could be tolling on your graphics card(s).
Sound
The voice-acting is phenomenal, and there are a lot of great quotes from each of the units in the game (Battle-Cahroosar on duty!). The extensive amounts of cut-scenes have especially great voice-acting and sound effects (in the case of the Zerg race), and it really helps add to the depth of the story.
The sound effects in StarCraft II are spectacular, which helps make it one of the most action-packed games of this generation. You'll always remember that dreadful feeling when "you do not have enough minerals", or the screeching of the enemy zerglings about to destroy your economy.
The sound-track is actually quite relaxing, and helps set the mood. It isn't meant to make the game feel so fast-paced that it makes you anxious, but more meant to help you settle down and enjoy the game and feel more like an armchair-general than being at the edge of your seat shouting at your opponent.
Story
The story in StarCraft II isn't lacking at all, which one might expect seeing as the game does mainly focus on multiplayer. It's a very emotional story at times, but it's also packed with action, betrayals, life or death decisions and some of the most epic battles you'll ever play.
It's a fairly short story mode, and if you're playing on the lower difficulties it shouldn't take you all that long, seeing as it only has 29 missions in the campaign, and unless you make sure to complete them in a certain order, you might not even need to play some of those missions.
The main characters in the story are some of the old favorites from the original StarCraft, such as Jim Raynor, Tychus Findlay, Matt Horner and Sarah Kerrigan. There are plenty of other characters, both new and old that Jim will partner up with or fight against in the story, all of which have their own unique back-stories to go with their great character designs.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer for StarCraft II is separated into several different Leagues: Bronze < Silver < Gold < Platinum < Diamond < Master < Grand-Master. You'll start off in Bronze League, and if you practice a lot you'll probably be able to get up to Silver League by the next season. Seasons tend to last around a quarter of a year, and while the seasons are in full-swing you'll be competing to be the highest rank in your division.
There are tons of divisions in each League, minus Grand-Master, and to get to Rank 1, you'll have to play a lot and be the best in your division. Once you are in the Top 8 for your league, you'll be pitted against players from higher leagues at random times, and if you continue to win even with tougher opponents, you'll eventually be promoted into a different league. If you don't practice a lot or your skill really slips, you might get demoted and go down a league, but this is quite rare in the lower leagues.
Unlike a lot of multiplayer games, you aren't immediately inserted into matches with high-level players that will compeltely thrash you over and over again, but instead you'll be placed with players around your own skill level, as before playing the multiplayer, you complete five placement matches that will place you accurately according to, well, skill! This means you'll likely be playing against other players that know next to nothing about the game when you first start, and you'll work your way up at your own pace as you learn the ropes and get past the learning curve, which gets progressively larger.
The objective of every multiplayer game is to either make your opponent surrender by over-whelming them to the point where they know they're defeated, or by taking out all of their buildings. Most players know when they're beat and will surrender at the point where there's nothing they can do to fight back, but there will be the occasional person who refuses to let you win without giving you a work-out and making you find the tiny buildings they've hidden around the map; however, once you destroy all their Command Centers/Nexuses/Hatcheries, the remaining buildings of theirs will be displayed on your map.
Longevity
StarCraft II is a very lengthy game if you decide to engage in the multiplayer aspects of it, but if you're just looking to play the single-player experience, you're looking at a very engaging 15-hour campaign that is packed with lots of thrills. The multiplayer will have you hooked almost instantly, and from experience I can say that you'll probably be looking at a few hundred hours of online time if you really get into it.
The Verdict
Pros:
• One of the most fantastic multiplayer experiences ever
• Great story
• Graphics look slick and fine
• Above par voice-acting
Cons:
• Short campaign
Gameplay: 9.5
Graphics: 9.0
Sound: 9.0
Story: 9.0
Multiplayer: 10
Longevity: 10
Though you might feel disappointed if you bought this game solely for its single-player, if you even decide to touch the multiplayer you will be immediately immersed in what is one of the most fantastic online multiplayer experiences ever.
9.5/10