Hidden308
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I wrote this review about a year ago, so I apologize in advance for spelling errors.
Copyright all material to myself. This is not to be used anywhere else than other designated places that I have designated.
Unlike any real-time strategy (RTS) game ever created, Starcraft 2 is the future of the all strategical games. You may have played Age of Empires or Starcraft: Brood War, but none can quite match up to the aspects of one like this. Like all RTS games, the purpose of the game is to defeat your enemy in the most strategical way. Whether you are massing a single unit such as "blink stalkers" or "speedlings", all of it is strategy without realizing it.
The point of Starcraft 2 is to use these strategies to your advantage, countering you enemies units in all ways possible, gather resources to produce units and buildings, and take down the enemy. There are several game modes in Starcraft 2 such as 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, Free-For-All (FFA), and Custom Games. There is no one particular game mode that is more popular than the others, though your true skill is shown in 1v1, as it is only you verses your opponent. Team games such as 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 are shown as skill as well, but since you have others helping you, it is more for fun.
If you played the original Starcraft with its expansion Starcraft: Brood War, then you probably have an idea about what Starcraft 2 is about. If not, you're in for a treat. With Blizzard Entertainment's newest RTS game, Starcraft 2 has its own unique matchmaking system and ranking system. Though it still needs much improvement, Blizzard has created a system that will automatically pair your up with people around your skill level (granted you have previously played placement matches which determine your skill level) and set up a match for you to play in. Whether it is a 1v1 or 4v4, you will be placed among people within your skill level in that certain game mode.
As previously stated, Blizzard has created a ranking system with seven different leagues. The leagues go in the following order of skill (least to most): Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Masters, Grandmasters. To be placed in a league you must go through a series of five placement matches, where you are placed against a random opponent and play. How you do in your placement matches determine where you are at for the league. Leagues also have divisions for them in which you are placed in a group of 100 others and gain points as to whether or not you win future games or lose them. It is possible to move up and down leagues, but it takes a lot of wins or losses to do so. Once you get a hang of the games for a while, you may be mad that were placed in a low league, but there are no worries for that as Blizzard has created "seasons". Each season lasts for anywhere from 3-9 months. Season 1 lasted from July until early 2011 and Season 2 has begun. Once a new season starts you get one more placement games to determine where you will be placed for that season.
The process of the leagues may sound quite confusing and difficult to grasp, but once in the game, it is a breeze and one of the more fun aspects of the game! To get off leagues, we will delve in to the subject of the campaign. If you played the previous Starcraft, the campaign may have been the easiest and simplest thing to the games, as there were no difficulty changes and hardly a user interface. In Starcraft 2, you step aboard the massive Hyperion battleship. Within this ship you have several options of continuing with your missions, playing arcade games, interacting with CPU's, or watching the newscast! The greatest thing about the campaign is the ability to determine your future. While there are several missions to choose from at once, there several options on what routes to take. An example of this is either choosing to let a planet get over run by the enemy Zerg and helping out another ally, or helping out the planet and letting them survive. The glory of the whole campaign and the continuation of the Starcraft story is revealed in an epic video at the end of the campaign!
On the other side of the game, Blizzard added, once again, the ability to let users create their own maps with the Starcraft 2 Map Editor. I have made a few maps in Starcraft: Brood War, but I haven't had the chance to check out all of the options in the Starcraft 2 Map Editor yet. When I first opened it, I was shocked by how much better it looked than the Starcraft: Brood War editor. The user interface of it was better in so many aspects I could not even imagine. I have yet to make a map, so if you have, comment here with your opinion on it!
As we continue to go into more depth of the game, I would like to take a moment to admire the graphics of the game. Never have I seen any graphics quite like this on any other console or game. While it is possible to bring the graphics down in quality if you are running on a slower computer, it is still better than any other game you will have ever played before. The art team of Blizzard stepped up big time here and did what was needed to be done, by creating a game of completely terrific graphics.
Besides the graphics, most of the game here has been covered. Some of you may wonder how this game sounds fun, but you can easily see for yourself with a Starcraft 2 trial. Blizzard offers a free demo that includes a few mission of the single-player, as the trial has to be obtained from a Starcraft 2 player who has bought the box (it includes two trials). I suggest trying out the demo, as even the first mission of the campaign will put i awe with the highly-detailed graphics and he lore that goes along with it. While the game is fun and you may think you are bad, there are thousands of Youtube videos and streams that can be watched to easily improve your game-play. As Starcraft is a national sport in Korea, there are hundreds of professional teams and players world-wide that offer lessons and stream endlessly. Thousands of tournaments are available to watch at your fingertips and streams are on air all day long! A website I will refer you to for Starcraft 2 streams, tournaments, and tips is Team Liquid. Team Liquid one of the biggest Starcraft 2 fan sites with tons of professional gamers streaming daily and playing tournaments. All information on must-see tournaments will be posted on that website, so I suggest you check it out!
As for the minor aspects of Starcraft 2, if you have ever played World of Warcraft, you would know of the Achievements system in the game. The system works by completing tasks to obtain titles, mounts, and achievement points to show off to others. In Starcraft 2, it works the same way except there aren't any rewards for many of the achievements. Why do this then if there aren't many awards? Not only does it make you look like a better Starcraft 2 player, but you can show it off to all the people you know and brag about it. As I see it, it's more of a bragging rights thing in Starcraft 2.
Another game mode that I mentioned once is custom games. Custom games are non-ranked games that are mainly for fun with things such as defense games, cat and mouse, mafia, competition games, role-playing games, and so many more. There are hundreds of custom games to choose from and you can even make your own with the map editor!
Overall, Starcraft 2 is an incredible game in which depth I cannot even fully explain. What I have touched base upon here is not even half of the game, as it is a see-it-to-believe-it situation. The game is a must-buy, especially with the new expansion, Heart of The Swarm, being released hopefully sometime in 2011, you won't want to miss out on the action and lore being told! While the graphics are on the high-end of the table along with the multiplayer and single-player features, the game has numerous things to explore and do. A custom game of Cat & Mouse or Turret Defense may be to your liking, or possibly even a 1v1 match against a CPU to earn achievement points for your next profile picture! While hundreds of thousands are out enjoying the game at this very second, you are reading this being informed upon what others consider, the greatest real-time strategy game to ever be upon us.
Copyright all material to myself. This is not to be used anywhere else than other designated places that I have designated.
Unlike any real-time strategy (RTS) game ever created, Starcraft 2 is the future of the all strategical games. You may have played Age of Empires or Starcraft: Brood War, but none can quite match up to the aspects of one like this. Like all RTS games, the purpose of the game is to defeat your enemy in the most strategical way. Whether you are massing a single unit such as "blink stalkers" or "speedlings", all of it is strategy without realizing it.
The point of Starcraft 2 is to use these strategies to your advantage, countering you enemies units in all ways possible, gather resources to produce units and buildings, and take down the enemy. There are several game modes in Starcraft 2 such as 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, Free-For-All (FFA), and Custom Games. There is no one particular game mode that is more popular than the others, though your true skill is shown in 1v1, as it is only you verses your opponent. Team games such as 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 are shown as skill as well, but since you have others helping you, it is more for fun.
If you played the original Starcraft with its expansion Starcraft: Brood War, then you probably have an idea about what Starcraft 2 is about. If not, you're in for a treat. With Blizzard Entertainment's newest RTS game, Starcraft 2 has its own unique matchmaking system and ranking system. Though it still needs much improvement, Blizzard has created a system that will automatically pair your up with people around your skill level (granted you have previously played placement matches which determine your skill level) and set up a match for you to play in. Whether it is a 1v1 or 4v4, you will be placed among people within your skill level in that certain game mode.
As previously stated, Blizzard has created a ranking system with seven different leagues. The leagues go in the following order of skill (least to most): Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Masters, Grandmasters. To be placed in a league you must go through a series of five placement matches, where you are placed against a random opponent and play. How you do in your placement matches determine where you are at for the league. Leagues also have divisions for them in which you are placed in a group of 100 others and gain points as to whether or not you win future games or lose them. It is possible to move up and down leagues, but it takes a lot of wins or losses to do so. Once you get a hang of the games for a while, you may be mad that were placed in a low league, but there are no worries for that as Blizzard has created "seasons". Each season lasts for anywhere from 3-9 months. Season 1 lasted from July until early 2011 and Season 2 has begun. Once a new season starts you get one more placement games to determine where you will be placed for that season.
The process of the leagues may sound quite confusing and difficult to grasp, but once in the game, it is a breeze and one of the more fun aspects of the game! To get off leagues, we will delve in to the subject of the campaign. If you played the previous Starcraft, the campaign may have been the easiest and simplest thing to the games, as there were no difficulty changes and hardly a user interface. In Starcraft 2, you step aboard the massive Hyperion battleship. Within this ship you have several options of continuing with your missions, playing arcade games, interacting with CPU's, or watching the newscast! The greatest thing about the campaign is the ability to determine your future. While there are several missions to choose from at once, there several options on what routes to take. An example of this is either choosing to let a planet get over run by the enemy Zerg and helping out another ally, or helping out the planet and letting them survive. The glory of the whole campaign and the continuation of the Starcraft story is revealed in an epic video at the end of the campaign!
On the other side of the game, Blizzard added, once again, the ability to let users create their own maps with the Starcraft 2 Map Editor. I have made a few maps in Starcraft: Brood War, but I haven't had the chance to check out all of the options in the Starcraft 2 Map Editor yet. When I first opened it, I was shocked by how much better it looked than the Starcraft: Brood War editor. The user interface of it was better in so many aspects I could not even imagine. I have yet to make a map, so if you have, comment here with your opinion on it!
As we continue to go into more depth of the game, I would like to take a moment to admire the graphics of the game. Never have I seen any graphics quite like this on any other console or game. While it is possible to bring the graphics down in quality if you are running on a slower computer, it is still better than any other game you will have ever played before. The art team of Blizzard stepped up big time here and did what was needed to be done, by creating a game of completely terrific graphics.
Besides the graphics, most of the game here has been covered. Some of you may wonder how this game sounds fun, but you can easily see for yourself with a Starcraft 2 trial. Blizzard offers a free demo that includes a few mission of the single-player, as the trial has to be obtained from a Starcraft 2 player who has bought the box (it includes two trials). I suggest trying out the demo, as even the first mission of the campaign will put i awe with the highly-detailed graphics and he lore that goes along with it. While the game is fun and you may think you are bad, there are thousands of Youtube videos and streams that can be watched to easily improve your game-play. As Starcraft is a national sport in Korea, there are hundreds of professional teams and players world-wide that offer lessons and stream endlessly. Thousands of tournaments are available to watch at your fingertips and streams are on air all day long! A website I will refer you to for Starcraft 2 streams, tournaments, and tips is Team Liquid. Team Liquid one of the biggest Starcraft 2 fan sites with tons of professional gamers streaming daily and playing tournaments. All information on must-see tournaments will be posted on that website, so I suggest you check it out!
As for the minor aspects of Starcraft 2, if you have ever played World of Warcraft, you would know of the Achievements system in the game. The system works by completing tasks to obtain titles, mounts, and achievement points to show off to others. In Starcraft 2, it works the same way except there aren't any rewards for many of the achievements. Why do this then if there aren't many awards? Not only does it make you look like a better Starcraft 2 player, but you can show it off to all the people you know and brag about it. As I see it, it's more of a bragging rights thing in Starcraft 2.
Another game mode that I mentioned once is custom games. Custom games are non-ranked games that are mainly for fun with things such as defense games, cat and mouse, mafia, competition games, role-playing games, and so many more. There are hundreds of custom games to choose from and you can even make your own with the map editor!
Overall, Starcraft 2 is an incredible game in which depth I cannot even fully explain. What I have touched base upon here is not even half of the game, as it is a see-it-to-believe-it situation. The game is a must-buy, especially with the new expansion, Heart of The Swarm, being released hopefully sometime in 2011, you won't want to miss out on the action and lore being told! While the graphics are on the high-end of the table along with the multiplayer and single-player features, the game has numerous things to explore and do. A custom game of Cat & Mouse or Turret Defense may be to your liking, or possibly even a 1v1 match against a CPU to earn achievement points for your next profile picture! While hundreds of thousands are out enjoying the game at this very second, you are reading this being informed upon what others consider, the greatest real-time strategy game to ever be upon us.
