One of the best RTS games ever made
Gameplay 9/10
Graphics 9/10
Sound 10/10
Value 9/10
Tilt 10/10
Overall 9.4/10
With its insanely long development cycle star craft 2 is a game that promised a lot to its eagerly awaiting fans. So does it deliver on these promises? The answer is a resounding yes.
To start out , the story is very solid and it will compel you to keep playing the game to its exciting conclusion. From the onset, you can see that Blizzard has used the long development schedule to craft a fine game as there is virtually no let down in action and as the missions are varied and spectacular. The characters you meet along the way are also quite memorable and each of them has their own story to tell and motivation for accompanying you. From the start blizzard has repeatedly said that the reason for the focus on just one race was because they wanted to tell a more epic and larger story and I can tell you they were certainly not exaggerating about it. There is a tremendous amount of content in here for a game that only focuses on one race.
Like all blizzard games the music is outstanding and flows perfectly with the game play. Combined with the superb art direction and good graphics the game is a pleasure to play and is easy on the eyes and ears. The unit models are detailed, environments are very varied and the cut scenes are breathtaking . There is a wide variety of units in the game and necessity will teach you especially on the higher difficulties that they all serve a purpose and are best used in certain situations. The A.I was challenging on the harder difficulties, especially during the later missions but due to the wide variety of units at your disposal I found these large scale encounters to be quite fun.
The single player campaign takes anywhere from 15-25+ hours depending on the difficulty , your skill level and another factor is whether you do the optional side missions or not. I was most impressed with how similar the game play felt with the original games but subtle tweaks add a whole another layer to an already great game play experience. without giving too much away ,the conclusion will leave you with a lot of questions but is ultimately satisfying. The only serious problem with the original game was that the missions lacked originality. Most of them had you repeat the same tasks or had the same objectives. However star craft 2 fixes it and then some; the missions are very varied and the situations you will find yourself in are quite enjoyable.
The Multi-Player component of Starcraft 2 offers a game in itself. It is fast paced and fun and due to the huge community support, there are always new maps to try out and entirely new game modes. While Blizzard has made multiplayer it more appealing to new players with the inclusion of tutorials, it can still be a little unnerving and hostile to new players and is best played with a few of your friends. I experienced no problems with battle-net and they have a new robust party system in place. Blizzard has broken down players by grouping them by their skill level and this will more often than not lead to your competition being the same skill level as you are.
Overall, I found the game to be very good and lives up to the very high standard set for it before launch . I have played a lot of strategy games and SC2 with its insane breath and options ranks as one of the all time bests if not the best. The only negative I can think of is that at 60 dollars a pop it is not cheap and the focus on one race stings a bit. However, it is definitely a must try for any strategy fan.