I was introduced to this game, by an old Starcraft Fan, who is a proud owner of the original Battle Chest back when it was just released. At first I was upset with the pricing announcement and the various server limitations that Blizzard has imposed on the game. But after having played the game, I can honestly say that I forgive Blizzard for all those, in lieu of the great game that we get to play.
Just so that I can compare, I played through the original game, not only to get a feel about why the original was such a hit, but also get to know the story, which is continued in this game. Even though that game was made in DX5, I was quite amazed with what the devs of that game achieved with that game at that time, and suddenly the fact that a game can go strong for 10+ years, seemed very true to me.
And true to Blizzards style, this game is solid in gameplay, with ample single-player content to keep you satisfied for a good long time. Add to that the story line throws in choices too, that can result in different units to characters leaving, you have a good replay value. Sure it's not RPG-grade choice-making, but it just adds to the innovations that Blizzard has got just right with their game. Also, after you're done with the single-player, if you are feeling a bit cagey to go online, like me (because you don't want to get you butt whipped the moment you crank out your first SCV), Blizzard has, quite thoughtfully, included some challenges, that teaches you the nitty-gritty of online competitive play, and how to respond to different types of zerg or protoss rush, and even manage your army at full efficiency. These, along with the standard skirmish mode and also lots of achievements, in both the Campaign and the Challenge, will keep you motivated to come back to the game and give it another go.
The game-play is the same the as the original, with the different races providing completely different type of gameplay. The Terran are still SCV dependent for building the bases and defenses, and being the only race to be able to repair. The Zerg are still the creep-loving-creeps that they used to be with native healing for all their units and the early rush capabilities. The one thing that you'll immeadiately notice is that the building gives off some units when destroyed. And finally, the Protoss, the high-tech morale-bound alien. They still have their shields and the touch-and-get-back-to-work Warping technology. The major attraction of the Protoss is that you can change your Gateway to Warp Portals, which allow you to teleport in Gateway units, directly onto the field within the radius of a Pylon, faster than conventional training, albeit with a few seconds cooldown on all the units for that respective gateway. Blizzard even thoughtfully, since this technique would result in multiple gateways, added a shortcut key to select all your gateways at once!
The interface remains the same for all the races, which is ok, since why should one try to fix something that isn't broken (unlike a certain RTS with Cs in the name)? You still issue orders from the right-hand command card, while the middle portion represent the health of the unit(s) using different colours and the Left part is the mini-map. But you do find small innovations here and there, which aren't exactly as revolutionary, but would make new-comers to SC universe feel at home. For example, it is now possible to upgrade your SCVs to allow multiple SVCs to work on a single building.
Now, the main focus of the game, is the continuation of the story, and I must say that Blizzard did an exceptionally good job in this front. The traditional conference based mission objective is gone. You now control, almost, Jim Raynor and interact with not only different people, that you get to recruit in the course of the game, but also with various part of your flag-ship, the Hyperion. These include a TV, that keeps you updated on the results and the portrayal of your actions and sometimes some plain silly commercials, just like the real-world counterpart, only you can't change the channel. You can also check out the new, select few, units that you acquire during the game (The spider-mines animation is real cute). Along with this there's a mission archive computer, from where you can check and replay any cinematic or missions, in case you missed something, and also see your collected alien specimens grow. In short, you do have a lot of things, if you are interested in the story of these things. They don't get in your way, but do make the game feel more alive and give a sense of interaction. Plus, if you click Raynor, you can hear him grumble some funny lines too. Apart from that, the main story is very well-told. It answers a lot of questions and follows up on the previous story very closely. The character are well fleshed out and develop quite nicely. Again, it isn't forced onto you, but if you want, you can talk to them and find out the story. You meet with some old friends, while you make and recruit new helps. The voice acting is great, with quite good emotions given in. The ending of the campaign left me wanting for more and gave me a feeling of emotional attachment with the game. The events felt real, like the last stand really made you feel like you were making your last stand, with your comrades and friends coming in to aid you with everything they've got, but still falling one by one to your unending enemies. Over all the story is a big plus point of this game, and Blizzard has managed to deliver on that. Also, you get to see many of the classic units as well as some new units come in the campaign, which, otherwise you don't have access to in the main game. The campaign structure is very lenient. You have to choose a planet to launch a mission from the Starmap, from the Hyperion's Bridge. Each mission has a back-ground story that is told by the respective character, along with a specific unit unlock, which will help in the that particular mission. In other words the missions are designed around that specific unit. So, in a way, you can choose which units to unlock first and take with you on your future mission. Plus, if you are feeling adventurous, you can attempt the bonus side missions that rewards you with different research samples, that you can exchange, in your lab, for different powerful upgrades. But you can choose only one type, so you might want to replay to check out the other upgrades.
As for the graphics, if you have a good enough system to meet it's requirements, it is one of the most beautiful game in the RTS genre.The best visual treat is perhaps the forest covered map. But even in the lower end, with textures set to medium, it looks pretty, kind of like Warcraft III's. It uses the Havok engine for it's Physics rendering so ATi owners can also enjoy Physics. The animations are great, you can also zoom in for better details too. But the one thing that I really liked about this game's technical aspect, is that, all throughout the game that I played, on a 1GB RAM, HD3200 IGP with XP, this game didn't crash even once. Though the loading times were long, but once it's loaded, the gameplay was smooth. And if, while playing, the game runs out of resources, or starts to lags, it displays a dismissible dialog that tells that the game is running slow and that I should lower the settings or that I have run out of paged pool memory and adjusts itself on the fly and lets me continue to play the game! Unlike other games, which would crash in such scenarios and would force me to hard restart the machine, or just exit to desktop. It was really thoughtful of Blizzard to put in guard codes and let people with lower speced machines enjoy the game, rather than making them feel guilty for having such a low speced PC.
Another great aspect of the game is it's background score. The music, in accordance to the Terran theme, is mostly Texan, but still it blends in well with the game and doesn't distract you. Rather it adds to the atmosphere of the map and lets you feel more into the game and enjoy it. The same can be said for the sound effects too. Each of the units have a distinctive queue sound, and on clicking them multiple time, like traditional Blizzard game, they'll say something funny. The units shout out for medics when they are low on health and even shout out when under heavy fire. The gunfire, laser blast and explosions, everything is spot on with perhaps the best effect, for me, is the charging of the main-gun of the Battlecruiser.
Overall, this game has been worth all those years of wait and more. It's a gem of a game, that managed to perfect the persistent unlock system and still not ruin the game. They kept most of the game the same, but did make lots of improvements within that boundary, that makes it feel like a fresh game, which I think is a great achievement. The game also has the option of saving your saves and profile online, so you can jump in from anywhere. So, would I recommend others to get the game, given the high price here in India? I would say definitely get this game, if you can afford it now. You won't be disappointed. Otherwise, you could wait for the other parts, when the main game might come down by a few bucks or get it as a gift from someone else!
As for score, I would give it something in the range of 9.6/10 That 0.2 is because of a weird mechanic, where all the units feels like bubble. I mean, if you order a tank to go in front from the back of a group of marine, it will push aside the marine and go forward, while the marines slide along the side of the tank. And the other 0.2 is because there still isn't any formation command. I mean most of the RTSes have the formation commands by default, but still, after adding so many improvements, Blizzard could've put in a formation function. Getting the marines into a definite formation, with the medics always at the back is a pain. If I command them to turn back, or even right or left, the medic will take the lead, because the medic was there in the first place. Apart from these two weird problem, I didn't see any major problem. (And that doesn't count the high price and the online restriction)
