Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Catch-All: It is here!

Just finished playing through the campaign yesterday and I have 1 burning question:

Spoiler:

How on earth did Jim Raynor have a loaded gun with him in his cell in the most well guarded supermax prison facility in the universe?

So thanks to a friend who updated the client for me I managed to get this running and immediately put a couple of hours in. Hey, this things pretty good. I haven't got far, but the story seems serviceable in a generic kind of way, it looks good on the newer graphics card and playing as Kerrigan is fun.

So far so good.

Nomad wrote:

Just finished playing through the campaign yesterday and I have 1 burning question:

Spoiler:

How on earth did Jim Raynor have a loaded gun with him in his cell in the most well guarded supermax prison facility in the universe?

That's a good question, I have no idea how I missed the plot-hole there.

Just finished the single player and said mission where the burning question was put forward. I almost didn't think about it and then immediately guffawed! "Oh you! Blizzard, you so silly!"

But that last CGI cutscene?! Oh man! That was pretty fun to watch! Overall a fun ride, but VERY predictable and full of tropes (and maybe some plot holes ).

Ok good folk, do I buy Starcraft 2 and the Expansion pack for the low low price of 79.95 from Blizzard, or wait for a sale? I like my RTS games and I'm very much looking forward to Company of Heroes 2 in June, but I'm not sure on this one... anyone play the DOW series or CoH series? Is it similar?

Sell me on the idea good sirs and madams!

Do Blizzard games go on sale? I've never really noticed any, or at least so soon after release, it's seems they only do it if they want to plug the next one. That's if you're going for just a cd key, I think Bliz are the only official place to get it digitally.

I'd say your best bet is to keep your eyes on brick and mortars, or maybe mail order.

BlackSabre wrote:

Ok good folk, do I buy Starcraft 2 and the Expansion pack for the low low price of 79.95 from Blizzard, or wait for a sale? I like my RTS games and I'm very much looking forward to Company of Heroes 2 in June, but I'm not sure on this one... anyone play the DOW series or CoH series? Is it similar?

Sell me on the idea good sirs and madams! :)

The multiplayer in Star Craft (1 or 2) really is its own beast. I personally think it has more in common with the MOBA genre it spawned than something like Company of Heroes. Admittedly I've played neither competetively, but Star Craft feels like a sport, it feels like a game in the true sense of the word, like chess or baseball. It's also like Counterstrike in that respect.

I'm not sure where that leaves CoH, but it doesn't have that 'sporty' feel that the aforementioned games have. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is really up to the individual, personally the hyper-competitiveness in Starcraft/MOBAs/Counterstrike is a real turn off for me, but other people love it.

BlackSabre wrote:

Ok good folk, do I buy Starcraft 2 and the Expansion pack for the low low price of 79.95 from Blizzard, or wait for a sale? I like my RTS games and I'm very much looking forward to Company of Heroes 2 in June, but I'm not sure on this one... anyone play the DOW series or CoH series? Is it similar?

Sell me on the idea good sirs and madams! :)

They have a demo, allowing you play some parts of the core game. (not sure what parts) Click on the big thingy at starcraft.com and find out for yourself whether it's to your tastes!

Hmm, good idea with the demo. I should also mention that the multiplayer is not something I'd be interested in. I can see that it's awesome, but I already have other games that are scratching that multiplayer itch for me and I don't want to invest the time I know it would take to get decent at the multiplayer.

So that being said, single player.... how long to complete the original and then the new expansion?

Bought it today. Will first finish SCII campaign before starting this one. Finished it a while ago. Not sure how the story went anymore.
But, will start playing some games in HoTS. To get used to the new units. Be nice if we played against each other
And having said that, I like games vs AI better. Or 2 vs 2 Goodjers maybe?

BlackSabre wrote:

Hmm, good idea with the demo. I should also mention that the multiplayer is not something I'd be interested in. I can see that it's awesome, but I already have other games that are scratching that multiplayer itch for me and I don't want to invest the time I know it would take to get decent at the multiplayer.

So that being said, single player.... how long to complete the original and then the new expansion?

Depends on your familiarity with RTS games.

If you fairly comfortable with RTS games, then I would say Wings of Liberty is about 15hrs and HotS is probably 10-12hrs. HotS is a bit easier, so if you play them back to back, you are probably likely to barrel through HotS faster.

Sparhawk wrote:

Bought it today. Will first finish SCII campaign before starting this one. Finished it a while ago. Not sure how the story went anymore.
But, will start playing some games in HoTS. To get used to the new units. Be nice if we played against each other
And having said that, I like games vs AI better. Or 2 vs 2 Goodjers maybe?

We've been having a fairly regular Thursday night game session. So, if you're on tomorrow night, I know at least I'll be around. I should be on between 7 and 10 or so eastern time.

AP Erebus wrote:

If you fairly comfortable with RTS games, then I would say Wings of Liberty is about 15hrs and HotS is probably 10-12hrs. HotS is a bit easier, so if you play them back to back, you are probably likely to barrel through HotS faster.

There's also some missions that you leave behind due to having to choose one over another, so you can go back and do those afterwards. Additionally outside of the multiplayer proper there's a bunch of challenge modes to train your skills in a number of very specific scenarios: defend against early rush in MP, use micro to win against larger forces, learn which unit compositions work well against others, etc. May or may not count depending on what you're looking for.

Thanks guys. I'll grab the demo first, and if it's decent, might be able to grab it next month for my birthday.

As for being proficient with RTS, yeah, ask oMonarca

PWAlessi wrote:
Sparhawk wrote:

Bought it today. Will first finish SCII campaign before starting this one. Finished it a while ago. Not sure how the story went anymore.
But, will start playing some games in HoTS. To get used to the new units. Be nice if we played against each other
And having said that, I like games vs AI better. Or 2 vs 2 Goodjers maybe?

We've been having a fairly regular Thursday night game session. So, if you're on tomorrow night, I know at least I'll be around. I should be on between 7 and 10 or so eastern time.

I have today off, so will try to be there. My girls want to skype as well, that's the only thing that might give me some delay

BlackSabre wrote:

Thanks guys. I'll grab the demo first, and if it's decent, might be able to grab it next month for my birthday.

As for being proficient with RTS, yeah, ask oMonarca

Keep watch on the prices between now and then. Wings of Liberty was recently $20 at a couple places. I was able to snag HOTS for $30 with a Newegg coupon code.

So far the cheapest I can see is actually from Blizzard online for $79 which is both WoL and HotS. I was still downloading the demo last night (13gb was taking ages). It said I could play it while it was still downloading, but the intro movie was all kinds of choppy, so I left it and will come back and play today.

However, I really do like that interface. That main menu area just feels nice. Good UI design.

BlackSabre wrote:

However, I really do like that interface. That main menu area just feels nice. Good UI design.

If there's one thing you can count on Blizzard for, it's for having awesome CGI cutscenes. And (more recently) if there was a second thing, it's definitely super-polished UI with tiny little flourishes all over the place.

I've played a few games 2 vs 2 and a couple of 1 vs 1. All AI.
Now, I beat the AI on hard. Being Protoss vs Zerg. Not sure if that is good or not.
Certainly not great lol But I finally feel like I am getting a bit more speed in doing things.
And am starting to get more familiar with the building tree.
Still lacking in situational awareness for sure. I don't even scout lol

Sparhawk wrote:

I've played a few games 2 vs 2 and a couple of 1 vs 1. All AI.
Now, I beat the AI on hard. Being Protoss vs Zerg. Not sure if that is good or not.
Certainly not great lol But I finally feel like I am getting a bit more speed in doing things.
And am starting to get more familiar with the building tree.
Still lacking in situational awareness for sure. I don't even scout lol

Well, scouting the computer isn't really that useful since it's omniscient. You really just want to practice macro, a little micro and having map vision so you can see when it moves out.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Amazing.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/936...

You guys should try it in-game. It's amazing.

Q: Are we really supposed to believe that Zerg Warhounds are now biological units that can morph into structures?

A: Yes! It's all very complicated and it involves ribosomes.

If you guys havent played today, read that article and then fit at least one game in.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Amazing.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/936...

I love how every race is their favorite!

Went into EB games today and picked up both Starcraft 2 and the Heart of the Swarm expansion. Really enjoying the Terran Campaign so far. Love the little things like the arcade cabinet in the cantina. As for those zerg and protoss upgrades... any must haves? I went with the bunker which has the turret on the roof as it seemed like a good idea.

Double SCV production makes your life a lot easier.

LarryC wrote:

Double SCV production makes your life a lot easier.

This. Also the call-down for the Supply Depots.

They're very much dependent on your play style, so it's really hard to recommend one over the other.

Ok, good to know. Also, what's with the streaming data? Have I not installed everything or something?

I think map and mission data aren't installed at first. My guess is that it allows them to hotfix issues without needing to patch the entire game.