Should I buy Starcraft 2?

[John Funk]

Yes, absolutely. The campaign is one of the best-designed campaigns ever in an RTS with a bunch of great, unique missions. The story is kind of cheesy but it's well told, and it's an enjoyable backdrop for the great missions.

The multiplayer, of course, is absolutely fantastic. It's addictive, ruthless, and as much fun to watch as it is to play.

 

[Seanchaidh]

So basically, I'm okay at RTS games. I bought Battle for Middle Earth 2, but after I completed the campaigns, it became apparent that the multiplayer was dead, down to a few people only looking to play with specific people.

Starcraft is essentially a nerd sport at this point, I always hear praise of it being such a fantastic RTS, and then there are the tournaments. All in all, it looks fairly attractive, but I've had my experiences with disappointing RTS games. So I'd like a few more opinions.

SC2 is essentially about resource gathering, unit control, and building management. The UI isn't nearly as archaic or annoying as SC1 or Brood War, and how the units work is pretty straightforward. Probably the most important skill to have to be competitive at SC2 is the ability to utilize all your resources and buildings efficiently. You don't want idle workers (this is fairly easy to avoid, as a rally point on a resource will cause a worker that is being built to start mining on completion, and you can get into a habit of shift-right clicking on a mineral patch whenever you have a worker do something else) or buildings (this can be harder, it requires attention and for you to build overlords, pylons, or supply depots early enough for your production not to falter) and you don't want to queue unit production, as that spends your resources now only to start actually using them to build something later. (It's much better to build a barracks for 150 than queue 3 marines for 50 each.) The game is very fast paced-- units can die very quickly and are built fairly quickly. Micromanaging your units is effective, but it's generally a bad idea to let your unit production slip because you're paying too much attention to microing what you have.

If you get a zenlike joy from matching your spending to your income perfectly and positioning units intelligently, take a look at SC2. It's a fun game if you like managing a lot of different things at once. There is virtually no limit to the number of decisions you can make, the difficult part is in knowing or remembering which decisions need making.

 

[Whateveralot]

Yes, if you are into really competative multiplayer.

Not even that. If you're just looking for fun, that's ok too. If you are good or bad, it doesn't matter. The matchmaking system is a life-saver.


To be honest, I hate micromanaging RTS games, but I really loved SC2 because it does so much more than that. It has amazing mechanics at times.

Edit: OI WHO DARED REMOVE CAPTCHA?!

 

[LightningBanks]

The campaigns brilliant, and the custom modes are amazingly fun too (they even go as far as turning it out of an rts into something else, for example, Mafia is a game where the Mafia has to murder people without being caught)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQQkPidCOW0 heres a video of Mafia

I'm a bit miffed that they are releasing each campaign as a separate game however. Seems a little greedy.

The campaign is pretty big though, and I think the expansion pack has a ton new maps n stuff iswell

 

[thiosk]

I would say DONT buy it if you are really into the single player.

I am disappointed by the complete lack of single player modifications.

 

[NinjaTigerXIII]

Starcraft 2 is the best, most balanced, and all around most entertaining RTS ever created. From its surprising, gripping, and innovative Single Player Campaign to the highly competitive multiplayer Starcraft 2 shines in every aspect. Not only is it the best RTS ever made it is one of the best games ever made.

 

[GraveeKing]

I'd say god for it - even if it's just for the custom games, they're damn fun. Playing it with friends is also good and if you're hardcore and are very good at RTSs then you should.
With that said I'd probably say, look for a.... 'alternate way' of getting the campaign - and if you like that then I'd say wait until the next part comes out (which is the Zerg campaign) then you'll get the newer campaign and the multilayer together (i think)

 

[The Funslinger]

So basically, I'm okay at RTS games. I bought Battle for Middle Earth 2, but after I completed the campaigns, it became apparent that the multiplayer was dead, down to a few people only looking to play with specific people.

Starcraft is essentially a nerd sport at this point, I always hear praise of it being such a fantastic RTS, and then there are the tournaments. All in all, it looks fairly attractive, but I've had my experiences with disappointing RTS games. So I'd like a few more opinions.

Yes you should, cause wen you look at it, you're buying thousands of games at once (see: custom maps)

and don't call it a "nerd sport" that's what the brain dead idiots at my school call it... you know, those idiots that beat nerds up and make them do their homework so that they can stay on the football team, while they sit at home and play WoW while insulting StarCraft not knowing they're by the same company...

but yeah- if you like GAMES, then YES you should get it
if you want alternatives but don't care about multiplayer... get Earth 2160 off steam for $5

if you want well played custom maps that you don't mind filtering through
get WarCraft 3

but if you want one of the best RTS games made

GET
STARCRAFT 2

Meh, I wear the tag "nerd" with a source of pride. Football, basketball and cricket etc all started out as mere games. I'm glad we're getting our own "sports" big, powerful RTSs are the inevitable first step, because there's so much you can do with an army.

Nerd sports (although so far, we only have the one, with FPSs also starting to bud through) are way better than regular sports, because we get sheer, unadulterated violence!

OT: I'm downloading the trial, if it's good I might have a look around Cex (pronounced see-ex!) for it when I soon go into the city with my friend again. You get some unbelievable deals there.

 

[Slenn]

Wait for a price drop is what I say. I had fun with the game, and the campaign (while not on par with the previous campaigns of the original Starcraft) was pretty decent and it had a good conclusion with suspense. Although the game still feels like it is easier to play than the original, which is kind of a drag. The original price tag for this game is still $60, and I'd say that this game more likely worth $20.

 

[karloss01]

dispite being able to run the game on medium settings my memory pool craps out after an hour with only the game open (even with everything set to basic). i would recommend it but i would warn that this needs some serious hardware to run properly.

 

[Dyme]

yes, if you are insane and have nothing better to do
and mutiplayer sucks, especially in this game where people believe their rank defines their worth as a person. not a fun thing to get into.
also as far as RTS goes, it is no where near as good as the original, and i'd still put any Command and Conquer game ,generals and before, over this.
honestly, i'm not a fan boy, but a fan boys opinion is hardly objective.

Multiplayer is great. And no one gives a shit about rank or league. They are as important as "achievements".
And coincidentally, I installed Generals + expansion 2 days ago and played it again. It is really good, but the controls feel incredibly wonky and less polished compared to Starcraft 2.

Starcraft 2 is better in every other way as well (except for story and "setting", space sucks compared to Terrorists/USA/China).


I never really played Starcraft 1, but it really seems "better" than SC2. But: It is infuckingcredible difficult to play multiplayer. It is more interesting to watch though.

 

[killcheese]

If you like rts games at all its pretty safe to say you would like starcraft. I am not what i would consider a rts fan, the only rts i ever played and not for competitive reasons just for fun, was age of empires. Dont worry to much about the hardcore pros, you will probably never play them, unless you are in their league.

 

[CrustyOatmeal]

starcraft 2 is an amazing game that is for both the casual player and the competitive players. the map editor is so amazing for the game that you can play a shooter with sc2, a rpg, and dota with it. if you buy this game it is the equivalent to buying dozens of others

 

[RedDeadFred]

It's probably the most balanced RTS besides the original but in my honest opinion, there is only so many times you can build a base and try to kill your opponent before it starts to get boring.
And everyone who raved about the amazing story....I guess it was alright but nothing really special.
For a large chunk of the game the reason you were going to missions was to get money...
There are some pretty good custom games though.
If you like RTS games you should probably get it. Just prepare to be a bit disappointed in the amount of races. It's half that of BFME2.

You could say that about any game though, every multiplayer game has you going through the same motions in a different way over and over again, whether it be WoW, Call of Duty or Starcraft 2.

And the small amount of races is a good thing, it makes the game easier to balance. BFME 2 has some serious balance issues, with the Elves being massively over powered, EA just are not very good at making RTS balance it seems, C&C3 had the Scrin which where godly, and the elves were really powerful in the original BFME as well. In fact the elven custom heroes ran faster than everyone else, could attack at range and had the least amount of xp needed to level up, along with some of the most powerful skills. EA even admitted the Scrin and Elves were overpowerd but had no intention of fixing it.

You are absolutely right. I know why only three races is a good thing but if he is not really into competitive RTS he might prefer more races.
lol I forgot how insanely OP the Scrin's air units were.
And the OP of the Elves. Silverthorn arrows plus Mirkwood archers equals win against anything. Hell the only thing that would be able to even get close to them would be the Rohirim.

 

[UnusualStranger]

Personally, I am quite torn on Starcraft 2. I enjoyed the campaign despite how horribly cheesy and foolish it got at times. It is not "TEH GREATEST THING EVA!" But it gets the job done. Upgrading units and stuff with cooler stuff beforehand, and choosing missions? Good times.

However, I really don't like the multiplayer, largely because its popularity has made it a "Win or lose" game. So much is done in multiplayer, and while many say it is a "Micro and macro" game, I find it horribly pointed on micro. Having to constantly check structures to make units, having to keep track of the army all the time, check harvesters, buildings, add ons, upgrades....all by yourself, even though there is a 5 unit que, you will never use it, because you NEED those resources elsewhere.

However, that doesn't mean it can't be fun. Having huge armies duke it out (Even though I find battles last a total of 10 seconds to be too fast) is something that will not get old. There are different strategies that you can try which can be fun to execute (Even though Blizzard seems to hate things like the Archon hole of death. PSH!)

However, again, the professionalism is always there. People just trying to end the game quickly, and do stuff like that. But, that can be ignored, and you can get a pretty good experience out of everything overall.

At best, I would suggest you to wait till the game is on sale. Its good, but with the new "Expansion" coming out, and the new units that still need to be added in, and all the balance issues that will come with it, it might be best to wait it out till the price tag is more reasonable for the DRM and other messes that come along.

 

[Zer_]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpFuJsG5-F4

That is all.

The custom maps alone are worth it.

 

[Joccaren]

Lol you have no need to defend yourself against someone who sites using "60 voidrays to kill anything"

He clearly doens't play 1s, and as such has no right to comment on your rank or your builds.

I challenge you then, lets go back to before the multiple void ray nerfs, and I'll pit my 60 voids against whatever army you decide to make.

The voids win. There was a reason that their damage was greatly reduced, their speed upgrade was removed, and a number of patches came out addressing this issue. Let me get my voids that move as fast (or barely slower) than a viking, or maybe mutas, hit 48 dps or so and will kill most units in seconds. Personally, your best bets are pheonixes. Marines have too little hp (they die in 1.2 seconds or so), Vikings are armoured and thus take extra damage, Thors are armoured and take extra damage and hydras don't have a lot of hp, and die slightly slower than a marine.

With the patches, void rays have become a niche unit, used only in certain situations, or as an anti-heavy part of an army.

Then I can definitely recommend DotA. It's one awesome and hard as hell game with a steep learning curve, you can really see yourself improving. Pick up Warcraft 3, its a really nice RTS, though a little old, It's personally my favorite RTS, and not that hard to get into.
Yeah, you should get WC3 if you want the best strategy experience, its two games in one, because DotA is a custom map for the game. Not to mention the many other awesome custom maps it has. WC3 is still the most-worth-it's-money game I've ever played, buying it online for a few tens of bucks is in my opinion like robbing Blizzard. Great campaign with fun gameplay, nice story and good characters and great multiplayer, both the multiplayer of the game itself and the custom maps. You'll have to buy the expansion too though, but seeing as the game is pretty old, it'll be cheap by now.

I personally hated DotA. I never actually got why it was so popular. It ends up being balanced, due to the number of heroes, not the fact that the heroes themselves are balanced. It also is incredibly difficult to play WC3 skirmishes and DotA games online unless you have friends, as the people on there have usually been playing for years and there is no matchmaking system to place you with players of equal skill. And if there is, it doesn't work very well.
The story in WC3 is better than SC2, in SC2 the story is horrid, and the campaigns in both are quite good. SC2 is very easy to start into multiplayer, though I would suggest skipping the practise league and vsing AI instead (practise league matches place you against other practise league players, seemingly regardless of skill or experience. It could be your first match, and you may be vsing someone who has played 49 matches and has learned how to play.

I also quite like the difference in difficulties for the campaign. On easy and normal, it is a cakewalk to complete for even a new player. Hard is difficult if your new, but as you gain experience with the game, it too becomes a cakewalk. The hardest difficulty would be nigh on impossible for someone who found hard difficult. It too, however, eventually becomes a cakewalk, especially if you use exploits in some missions (Stealthing 4 banshees and a medivac with marines and an scv next to the artifact at the start of Supernova, picking just the right spot to ODST 4 ghosts in then nuke the bunker on the Worldship mission), which are fun, but take a lot of the challenge out of the game.

 

[The Madman]

I challenge you then, lets go back to before the multiple void ray nerfs, and I'll pit my 60 voids against whatever army you decide to make.

The voids win. There was a reason that their damage was greatly reduced, their speed upgrade was removed, and a number of patches came out addressing this issue. Let me get my voids that move as fast (or barely slower) than a viking, or maybe mutas, hit 48 dps or so and will kill most units in seconds. Personally, your best bets are pheonixes. Marines have too little hp (they die in 1.2 seconds or so), Vikings are armoured and thus take extra damage, Thors are armoured and take extra damage and hydras don't have a lot of hp, and die slightly slower than a marine.

With the patches, void rays have become a niche unit, used only in certain situations, or as an anti-heavy part of an army.

Void Ray then and now both were easily countered *if*, and that's important, if you knew they were coming. Marines were easily the most effective at taking them our as well since the main mechanic of the Void Ray is that in order to be able to deal its full damage it needs to charge up hitting a target. If they got charged up they were hard to kill, but sending a wave of marines, stalkers, or hydralisk at em would stop em dead in their tracks simply because none of the low-tier ranged units have health enough to allow them to charge up. Meaning the Void Ray is dealing minimal damage. And while certainly there are enemies dying, the thing is all three of those I just mentioned are dirt cheap, easily replaced, and quickly reproduced. Void Ray are not! They're fragile as paper to boot, the proverbial glass cannon of the Protoss army. Viking Mutas and Phoenix also worked well against them for the very same reasons, though those options are also slightly more expensive than their ground unit companions.

That's why even at their 'peak' Void Ray were extremely rarely used in high-tier competitive games. Too risky when if the opponent knows they're coming, they can be so easily countered leaving the player completely vulnerable.

Reason they were nerfed is because, bluntly put, in low tier games almost no one scouts to see what their enemy is doing as so too many newbie players were getting their asses handed to them by the Void Ray rush. Which makes sense, despite mostly playing Protoss myself it was a needed change. Now if only Blizzard would make Carriers actually useful we'd be in business!

...

Yes, yes I have been playing a lot of Starcraft 2 lately.

 

[CowboyfromHell666]

I highly recommend Starcraft 2. Yeah you need to take the time to get good if you want to stand a chance in the multiplayer aspect, but that is why there is vs. AI either alone or co-op and the challenge scenarios. Also the custom maps are pretty nice. Some people bash the story, but I personally loved it. I find it hard to play C&C now because SC2 has a huge focus on economy, builds, counters, etc. It is also the most balanced RTS out there. I always hear other players bitching how something is overpowered or imbalanced. They say that because they are too idiotic to be able to counter whatever is thrown their way. For example, one guy said forcefields(a spell that makes a psionic wall to trap the enemy/block an area)is OP because it is "too good" for holding off early rushes. Yeah it holds off early attacks well, but the Protoss NEED that spell for the unit that casts it, the sentry. Protoss have little to no way to deal with early aggression other than FF.

Bottom line, it is well worth it.

 

[Rack]

If you want actual strategy go for Frozen Synapse.

Common mistake from a quick look at the game. Starcraft has plenty of Strategy, if you are willing to learn it. Why do you think Grandmaster league players devastate gold league players?

Starcraft does have a decent level of strategy in it at very high levels, the thing is that clicky click is absolutely dominant at low-mid level. If you want a strategy game Starcraft is an awful choice because you have to tolerate a ridiculous amount of speed-training before you get to the point where strategy is going to make the difference. If you want a game which calls on that level of click-speed then Starcraft is a fine choice, if it's something you're prepared to tolerate to get a strategy game it's a truly awful choice.