Now that starcraft 2 has been out for more than a year...

[Chops McGandhi]

Now that starcraft 2 has been out for more than a year and has had time to settle a little bit, how do you feel it stacks up compared to the original?

In my opinion, they seem to be pretty equal. But I don't really play multiplayer that much so I don't really feel qualified to have an opinion and that is why I am interested in hearing from others. Nevertheless, Here are my praises and complaints.

complaints: I actually think that they did not change enough. For example, they had some really exciting unit ideas earlier in development that seem to have been scraped. I was not looking for anything revolutionary but it feels no different than the 1st one in terms of unit strategies. Regardless, I would chose too few changes over too much changes when it comes to starcraft.

My next complaint would be the campaign. The campaign for sc2 felt weak. Also it kinda bothers me when a game has different mechanics for single player and multiplayer. But that's just a personal preference.

Praises: I like a lot of it's interface changes that were brought over from warcraft 3 such as, being able to see a unit's health just by waving the cursor over it without having to click it, or being able to queue upgrades, and just the other little things. Also being able to select unlimited units did not ruin things like I was worried that it might.

So, thoughts?

 

[Maximilian]

I dont like the way they took the story, it could be epic in the end but i dunno, overmind was an excellent villain dunno why they changed that.

I dont like how for an RTS game its still stuck on DX9, lousy multithreading support.

Lastly battle.net 2.0 sucks balls. Im not sure if they've changed it but the way you view games, most popular first is lame it just means ill have to play the same garbage map everyone else is playing. Income wars is okay! But a bit of variety wouldn't go a miss. Starcraft 1 didn't stay alive online for 10+ years with people playing the standard game all the time... at least outside s.korea. In starcraft 1 i could play what everyone else was playing, a LOTR game, cat & mouse, the phantom, the thing, simpsons madness etc, or i could take a map that hasent been hosted in years like room warz! and get people joining. Great system! I had 8000 custom maps downloaded once, all from bnet, shame i lost that folder.

So in conclusion its not a bad game, its just not the starcraft 2 i wanted and hoped for. IDC anyways its not like starcraft 1 is going anywhere.

 

[marino.DV]

i have been playing the game for like 7 months now and i can say somehow Blizz managed to reinvent the wheel.
I was very skeptic at the beginning and said .....hey let's give it a shot and now i can't stop playing. And to be hones the same thing happened with the 1st version of starcraft. 10x Blizz and keep up the good work

 

[Red Storm]

I like SC2 better. As much as I believe in the Gameplay > Graphics mantra, SC1's limited graphics actually hurt gameplay because of things like pathfinding issues. It's not the best game of all time (that title will most likely forever be held by Baldur's Gate II IMHO), but I definitely like it better than the first game.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i honestly dont play SC2 a whole lot anymore, but i still love the game. regular matches are just too intense for me - i'll leave that for the koreans

i love me some starbattle though

and htf do you beat the last level on brutal with brood lords on the map? they get me every goddamn time.

 

[MustangSVT]

heh, once i moved to sc2, i cant go back to sc1...

 

[micrometers]

SC2 is clearly the better game compared to SC1. Unit balancing is more interesting. For the time though, SC1 is better since it revolutionized RTS gaming, with the first truly assymitrical forces.

But I still think WC3 is better than either.

 

[Borealis7]

these are different times. RTSs now are far more "forgiving" then the old ones circa 2000.
i don't really like RTSs, more of a TBS man myself, but i did enjoy SC2 so i think that says a lot.

 

[darkxshade]

could've used a pohl

 

[lord_emperor]

SC2 is clearly the better game compared to SC1. Unit balancing is more interesting. For the time though, SC1 is better since it revolutionized RTS gaming, with the first truly assymitrical forces.

But I still think WC3 is better than either.

I disagree with balancing. Hard rock-paper-scissors completely disinterests me.

 

[Imp]

I saw Starcraft 2 in a flyer last week, and went "holy shit, it came out already"?

I knew, I just totally forgot. I try to avoid RPG games nowadays because I suck so bad at them.

 

[Zenoth]

I played the campaign for SC2 and then I stopped playing. I tried a few skirmishes against the A.I. and I got bored, I still prefer playing the original Dawn of War, or Dark Crusade, or even Dawn of War II when it comes to either A.I. stompings or multi-player. Yes even multi-player, since MP in SC2 is for elites, you make the slightest of mistakes and you get a 10 years-old "l33t SC d00dz" bossing you around.

I really liked the campaign though, I must say. I don't think I'll buy the next two however, since all I am interested by is the story, what I think I'll do is to wait until they are released, and watch the CGIs on YouTube and call it a night. By the way, I also own and have played the original SC as well of course, I liked it, but just like SC2 I played SC1 mostly for the campaign, which I also liked. I just never got into multi-player in SC, or SC2.

But, for a clear answer, I preferred the campaign in SC2, even though I liked the campaign in the original as well... so I guess I can say I prefer SC2 over SC1.

 

[RebelCapitalist]

How many hours is this game for just 1 player? Thought about getting it when it comes down in price, but won't bother with MP at all.

 

[Ns1]

I haven't touched singleplayer on any blizzard game since SC1

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I like the gameplay of SC2 about the same or a little better. The campaign was worse and custom map selection is worse. Ladder seemed to be a giant improvement over SC and a little improvement over WarIII. The whole being a mercenary thing sounds like a cool idea, but when I was going through it the story just felt watered down and I blame it on the way missions needed to be structured for the merc thing to work.

 

[Chops McGandhi]

could've used a pohl

I suppose it could have. But I was not really interested in quantifiable results.

I like the gameplay of SC2 about the same or a little better. The campaign was worse and custom map selection is worse. Ladder seemed to be a giant improvement over SC and a little improvement over WarIII. The whole being a mercenary thing sounds like a cool idea, but when I was going through it the story just felt watered down and I blame it on the way missions needed to be structured for the merc thing to work.

I think you explained really well, the problem I had with the single player.

 

[Barfo]

I enjoyed the SP campaign and MP ladder games for the first few months. I even made it to Gold League. Haven't played since February or so, though I plan on going back to play casually...some day.

Overall I think it was a pretty good game, well worth the $60 I spent on it.

 

[Udgnim]

SC1+BW single player story >>>>>>> SC2 WoL and HotS story (leaked HotS ending cinematic is very likely to be accurate imo)

multiplayer wise

SC2 seems to be doing well for itself as a competitive game. not anywhere as close to as big as BW was and is in Korea, but on a worldwide scale, SC2 is in decent shape.

although, if I was playing SC2 mulitplayer (haven't in a while), I'd likely just be playing some custom game (probably Starjeweled)

 

[coreyb]

LOVE IT

only online game I play now. so much fun

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I dont like the way they took the story, it could be epic in the end but i dunno, overmind was an excellent villain dunno why they changed that.

What are you talking about, the Overmind was never a villain

 

[Plimogz]

It think it's fine. I'm somewhat underwhelmed by some aspects of the MP.

I hope that the two upcoming expansions will be big, with a good number of additional multiplayer units. It seems to me that if they're going to sell what is arguably a 180$ RTS game, it should end up being absolutely huge with all the units from the 1st one thrown in there, somehow. Oh and also most of those units which are only seen in the single player campaign. The inevitable balance issues which must crop up with any and all additions should be Blizzard's to resolve, on account of their decision to make a !*@$ing 180$ game.

More units, more upgrades, more everything. This, to me, is what releasing SC2 as three individual, full-price games should entail. And I won't be really satisfied until it gets there, although I doubt it ever will.

 

[Lyfer]

LOVE IT

only online game I play now. so much fun

Same here, love 4vs4 matches.

 

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

The only thing I really disliked about the changes are that the units clump into those huge balls.
Also the larger units aren't that interesting. Carriers aren't that useful Colossus are boring but overall I think the game is funner as it doesn't have the frustrating mechanics of the first game. Also it is nice that Stalkers don't crash into everything on their way to places like Dragoons.

 

[shortylickens]

Tried it again this morning.
All the fuckin leagues reset again. Had to start over.
HATE placement matches. Always end up with a bunch of stoners who cant keep track of anything, going up against a team of guys that used to be platinums before they lost their ladder standing.

 

[Red Storm]

The campaign in SC2 was no where near as memorable as SC1.

The multiplayer is just as fun though, and that's what's important.