Starcraft 2 Campaign Mods

No, I don't mean the ability.
I mean the Mod where you can play the entire Starcraft/broodwar campaign with Starcraft 2 engine and graphics. I am playing through it and I'm having a great time, really enjoyed how well done the original campaigns were before Blizz went all 'hollywood' with it (story wise)
So far, I've been through the first few missions (terran campaign first) and so far so good, there is a map where you get the option to control raynor as a 3rd person shooter or play it normal. Really, really, cool stuff here, some of the missions/units you have access to aren't exactly the same as the original but the changes are all for the better. I highly recommend looking up this mod and giving it a play through. You can't find it on the arcade so you'll have to look it up on google but its well worth it if even for the nostalgia of it all.
The other mod I am looking forward to is Starcraft Universe, has anyone heard anything regarding that project? I can't find the map and haven't found much online.

Legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types will do battle across the galaxy, as each faction struggles for survival. Featuring a unique single-player campaign that picks up where StarCraft: Brood War left off, StarCraft II will present a cast of new heroes and familiar faces in an edgy sci-fi story filled with adventure and intrigue. Starcraft & Broodwar Co-op Campaign Aug 16 2017 Released 2014 Real Time Strategy Want to play Starcraft Campaign with a friend and give yourselves a challenge? So did we that's why we made this Co-op Campaign mod!

Look also for SCR - TGW. I haven't played it yet, but from what I've heard they took Mass Recall mod and it's campaign, polished it and added an additional campaign. It sounds really great so far, I will test it myself soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY6IepX5q8w
Yes, I played some missions recently as well. It's amazing.
I really feel like Blizzard should hire these people and offer them a job, because they definitely have talent.
It's a very fun experience.
As a veteran Sc1 player, Mass Recall is trash. It just takes away from the original story when the creators added their own misguided interpretation of what the inbetween cutscenes would be like. The core missions being recreated gives a sense of novelty for like the first 2 missions. Once it wears off, it's a pretty badly made recreation, quite unfaithful to the core of the Sc1 character. The actual characters and original cinematics save it from being a complete mess, but the clunky difficulty that does not scale properly and the supposed 'additions' in between missions are very stupid and aggravating. Not worth it.
If you want to play Starcraft 1, then play it. I don't recommend sullying your memories with this piece of trash mod. I'd rather battle that old UI than play this nonsensical interpretation of events.
My 2 cents.
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/8198641164#1
Also please don't necro such garbage.

01/20/2016 09:43 AMPosted by JCarrillo
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/8198641164#1Also please don't necro such garbage.
My bad. I went ahead and shared your post in the link too. (sorry)Mods
As a veteran Sc1 player, Mass Recall is trash. It just takes away from the original story when the creators added their own misguided interpretation of what the inbetween cutscenes would be like. The core missions being recreated gives a sense of novelty for like the first 2 missions. Once it wears off, it's a pretty badly made recreation, quite unfaithful to the core of the Sc1 character. The actual characters and original cinematics save it from being a complete mess, but the clunky difficulty that does not scale properly and the supposed 'additions' in between missions are very stupid and aggravating. Not worth it.
If you want to play Starcraft 1, then play it. I don't recommend sullying your memories with this piece of trash mod. I'd rather battle that old UI than play this nonsensical interpretation of events.
My 2 cents.

I can see how a hard critic could be displeased, but the fact fans made an effort to make such a remarkable remake is awesome, I recall Blizzard putting it in a spotlight a few times.
I don;t see how it's vastly different from the original interpretation either, seems pretty accurate, but if you wish to discuss how it was different, by all means, let's have it. if not, I think my statement stands firm :)
As a veteran Sc1 player, Mass Recall is trash.

Well, you are ofiicially an idiot.
01/20/2016 09:51 AMPosted by KhalDanis
As a veteran Sc1 player, Mass Recall is trash.
Well, you are ofiicially an idiot.
agreed.
Massrecall was one of the best mods I played. I loved the cinematics they made like when tassadar was getting judged by the conclave.
I can't find it. I tried 'mass recall' in custom games, mods, and arcade games.
I can't find it. I tried 'mass recall' in custom games, mods, and arcade games.
It's not on the arcade. Google it, you have to install it.
As a veteran Sc1 player, Mass Recall is trash. It just takes away from the original story when the creators added their own misguided interpretation of what the inbetween cutscenes would be like. The core missions being recreated gives a sense of novelty for like the first 2 missions. Once it wears off, it's a pretty badly made recreation, quite unfaithful to the core of the Sc1 character. The actual characters and original cinematics save it from being a complete mess, but the clunky difficulty that does not scale properly and the supposed 'additions' in between missions are very stupid and aggravating. Not worth it.
If you want to play Starcraft 1, then play it. I don't recommend sullying your memories with this piece of trash mod. I'd rather battle that old UI than play this nonsensical interpretation of events.
My 2 cents.

[/quote]
I have no idea what you're talking about here since all the missions are recreated as close as possible (I recall they used a program to convert the original maps into the sc2 engine and the adjusted them so the terrain was fixed? All triggering ect was their own) with zero additions other than the fps versions of the installtion missions which are optional anyway?
As far as i know there's 0 new content in the form of 'extra lines' or 'new maps'. I'd say you're just mired by nostalgia and didn't realize how the original game played.
but the fact fans made an effort to make such a remarkable remake is awesome,
That fact is undeniably great - it's a fan-made mod. It took time and effort, and they deserve a pat on the back for that alone.
Other than that, they don't really deserve to have their work called 'good' just because of the effort. The quality

Starcraft 2 Campaign Mods Pc

is lacking. It really does not recreate the original feel except in select situations. I am just going off the top of my head, but that exchange with General Duke in that 2nd mission was so watered down compared to what I originally felt in the genuine article. Also, the difficulty being arbitrarily set to a higher level than what was in the original game takes away from the experience as well, since you're basically not enjoying the story as much, even on the normal difficulty level because you're having to concentrate on mechanics a lot more - a far cry from what the original SC1 provided as an experience. This here shows the lack of experience in re-creating the original feel of the game. It disappointed me and led me to think of the additions as garbage, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.
That comment is expected to rustle the jimmies of the blind fans of the mod who aren't privy to having an independent opinion but that of a biased perspective, no matter what, which is quite idiotic such as:
01/20/2016 01:32 PMPosted by PsioniX
As a veteran Sc1 player, Mass Recall is trash.

Well, you are ofiicially an idiot.This kind of blind nonsensical reaction is bound to happen.
There was a lot wrong with the 'remake', and just because some idiot on the internet will BM me for disagreeing does not mean I shouldn't say it out loud because I'll rustle jimmies, hurt egos or hurt their poor feelings.
Starcraft
01/20/2016 05:42 PMPosted by JCarrillo
agreed.That idiotic mob mentality.
seems pretty accurate
Only on those parts directly ported over from the original, for which the creators of this mod have no creative right to - Blizzard's team does.
Everything else was done quite poorly and took away from the experience. It's been a while since I played that mod, I'll have to look for it and reinstall, but essentially, this opinion of mine comes from playing it originally and being extremely jaded by it. I'll do a second playthrough for fairness' sake.
In your opinion, though, what would you consider 'pretty accurate' outside of ported material from the original game?
01/20/2016 05:55 PMPosted by LETHALwuggy
Massrecall was one of the best mods I played. I loved the cinematics they made like when tassadar was getting judged by the conclave.To each his own; I found that particular piece insipid and forced.
with zero additions other than the fps versions of the installtion missions which are optional anyway?
You're kidding right? Please re-play through the whole campaign and come back for your comments; you clearly weren't paying enough attention at all if you saw 'zero additions'. And those FPS installation missions being included was merely for fun, I understand, and they didn't really appeal to me, so I am not judging that as a core part of the campaign. The core parts were destroyed, from a veteran fan's perspective, by those really annoying fanmade cutscenes that were so obvious and forced, not to mention modified to suit the modding rather than abiding by the original story.
01/20/2016 07:04 PMPosted by Togetic
As far as i know there's 0 new content in the form of 'extra lines' or 'new maps'. I'd say you're just mired by nostalgia and didn't realize how the original game played.'Mired by nostalgia' is ironic to say about a mod that is supposed to be miring the user in nostalgia of the original game in a new UI and engine.
The extra scenes created using original dialogue instead of sticking to the original action from the game, no matter if it was just static action, is what broke the immersion of the story.
Need to played it, I m curious of sc1.
mass recall is really well refined, probably a lot has changed since you last played. all of the custom models and portraits are done and it plays like sc1 without the bad pathing
mass recall is really well refined, probably a lot has changed since you last played. all of the custom models and portraits are done and it plays like sc1 without the bad pathing

I couldn't agree more.
mass recall is really well refined, probably a lot has changed since you last played. all of the custom models and portraits are done and it plays like sc1 without the bad pathing
We shall see.
I found it yesterday, and I plan to play over this week.
Only on those parts directly ported over from the original, for which the creators of this mod have no creative right to - Blizzard's team does.

I'm pretty sure that 'SC1 maps to SC2 converter' is part of the SC2 editor, therefore they could legally use it.
We shall see.
I found it yesterday, and I plan to play over this week.

Patch 3.0 and over screwed some things over, so expect some visual bug, especially if you're using the retro edition.
They fixed the most bugs they could've do fast. Now they're working on the LotV-version of the mod. ( I mean LotV - compatible]
Also, don't forget that there are people who did not play SC1, and now, because of the limitations, they don't want to. For them, this is a dream. [I am one of them]
It really does not recreate the original feel except in select situations.

You've got to admit that they couldn't recreate it 100% since the SC2 editor itself is not that dark in mood.
Also, when did you last replay it?: Because a lot of things have probably changed sincs then
@Eladar
I wasn't referring to legal right to port the game over. I was talking about creative license to just add random crap I do not want in my SC1 experience simply because I prefer an unaltered version of the original game within the SC2 engine. The creation of those so called cutscene fillers was detrimental to my experience, as a veteran Sc1 and Broodwar player.
With regards to new players experiencing it, I have no doubt that they will like it. But, don't expect any true veteran to come in here and like the additional content to the game. I certainly don't appreciate it, as it ruins my memories of what I expect the game to play like and be.
And, since the game is probably effed up due to LOTV releasing, I am going to hold off on playing it. Thanks for the heads up.
The dark mood as you put it was never a reason for me liking the original game or not;that's another piece of fluff I find people adhering to, in order to compare the original game to SC2, and I frankly cannot give 2 craps about that since it contributes nothing to the quality of the story. This is why I found Broodwar to be nonsense as a story, while other people revere it as the holy grail of storytelling which is quite annoying and stupid. The only real champion of story telling was Vanilla SC1 and Mass Recall managed to ruin it with unwanted and unnecessary fluff. Again. Immaterial to contribute to the quality of the story, and in fact detracts from it.
I played Mass Recall in 2013/2014. So, this is why I plan to play it over again to be fair. I doubt it will change much of what I think of it, though.
The problem is: I know what happens in the original game, and that makes this iteration feel like a cheap knockoff in terms of quality. The missions don't even play as well as I had imagined them to. Oh well, I will post again about it when they fix the game mod and I get to do a playthrough. Stay tuned.
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Sc2 Mass Recall

Every other Monday, Dominic gives you a reason to dust off one of your old games and dive into its mods with Modder Superior.

StarCraft 2 remains an RTS esports favourite nine years from launch, but its mod scene never got the love or attention it deserved. Despite Blizzard’s support, an in-game mod browser, powerful editor and even a short-lived premium mod program, a lot flew under the radar. While some mods and standalone missions remain popular in the StarCraft 2 Arcade, we’re going to be diving deep into the biggest, best and newest single-player campaigns available. Whether you’re an RTS veteran or don’t know what a Zerg is, there’s something for you here.

The icing on the space-cake is that all of this is completely free. StarCraft 2’s first episode – Wings Of Liberty – has full mod support, and Blizzard made it free back in 2017. Every one of these campaigns can be played start to finish, fully intact and without a scratch on your wallet. Impressive, considering one is a full modernised remake of the original StarCraft and its expansion.

Mass Recall

Not to be too hyperbolic, but I consider Mass Recall the best way to enjoy the original StarCraft’s campaigns. Possibly the biggest campaign for StarCraft 2, it’s a comprehensive remake of the original game, its demo (which had its own missions), the Brood War expansion and a bit more besides. Or at least, it will be in the next few weeks. While previous releases of the mod included all six campaigns plus extras, the current version only contains the original three. The rest are coming soon, as they’re currently being updated to include every enhancement that can be borrowed from Blizzard’s own StarCraft: Remastered.

While StarCraft: Remastered did little more than polish up the original game (in the name of retaining multiplayer balance), Mass Recall tries to fill in the blanks inherent in porting a 1998 game to a 2010 engine. There are now difficulty settings (StarCraft’s Normal is roughly equivalent to the sequel’s Hard mode), and where lore-appropriate, Brood War units and expanded hero characters are available in the original game’s missions. For the most part, the missions play similarly to their original incarnations, just with a far slicker interface, a slew of quality-of-life improvements, and the occasional new in-game cutscene. It’s still StarCraft, but a subtly modernised version.

At its absolute most playful, some hero-only missions in Mass Recall are (optionally) playable as a third-person shooter. It’s a bit rough and janky and not something the engine was made for, but it freshens up some short, otherwise dull missions. If any of that that turns you off, there’s an options menu that allows you to pick and choose what enhancements to use. Don’t like a specific unit’s retro voice or model? Replace it with the StarCraft 2 equivalent. Remove the extra hero units, the early Brood War tech or any combination. I personally have everything turned on, but it’s up to you.

As for playing Mass Recall itself, it’s an interesting contrast against StarCraft 2’s overtly cinematic campaigns. StarCraft 1’s missions are far less heavily scripted, often giving you simpler, more direct objectives against an AI enemy that’s designed to harass you with steadily escalating waves of units until either you push back, or your defences crumble. It’s not really comparable to playing against human opponents (the AI seldom adapts to your strategies), but it’ll teach build orders and micromanagement better than StarCraft 2, especially on those new, higher difficulties.

There’s the occasional rough edge to Mass Recall, such as some slightly awkward dialogue portrait models, but for the most part they’ve gone above and beyond. Where appropriate, factions are (again, optionally) given their own unique unit and building models. To top it all off, when fully armed and operational, Mass Recall will also include Enslavers Redux, another StarCraft 1 user campaign, similarly remade. That alone adds another thirty missions to Brood War’s seventy-ish. You’re looking at weeks (if not months) of strategerising here – not a bad intro to the RTS genre either, and completely free.

Installation of Mass Recall is dead easy, and the instructions can be found on its SC2 Mapster page here. In short: Grab StarCraft 2 (either retail or the Wings Of Liberty free edition) through the Battle.net App. Download the SCMR installer, mission files and cinematics pack (highly recommended unless you like missing chunks of the story) and put them all in your StarCraft 2 directory. Run the installer, and when it’s done you’ll have a nice Mass Recall link on your desktop. Of course, if that’s still not enough for you…

Annihilation


A passion project four years in the making from modder “DudkiSC2”. This massive campaign was completed in late December 2018 and consists of 24 long, multi-phase missions featuring all three races. Annihilation attempts to mimic the style of StarCraft 2’s campaigns, including some setpiece boss battles, and a lot of dungeon crawling with small groups of heroes. It has multiple difficulty settings, and in an attempt to imitate StarCraft 2’s campaign tech-trees, you can pick which unit types are available to you on many missions. If there’s one complaint I can level at it, it’s that some of the writing is ham-fisted, with some one-note character personalities.

Annihilation’s missions are all separate SC2Map files, which makes launching them a little fiddlier than Mass Recall. You can open them in the StarCraft 2 level editor and launch them from there. Alternatively, you can also make SC2Switcher_x64.exe (located in your Starcraft IISupport64 directory) your default application to open SC2Map files. Now you can launch any mission or campaign just by opening the SC2Map directly. Missions started this way default to Fastest game speed (as used in multiplayer), but a tap or two of the keypad minus key will slow it down some.

The Antioch Chronicles


One of the more narratively impressive campaigns out there. The Antioch Chronicles is a fully voice-acted Protoss-focused campaign split into three episodes. The first two are remakes of StarCraft 1 fan-missions, but the third – Thoughts In Chaos – was made specifically for StarCraft 2. While I’ve only had time to briefly dabble in this trilogy (as with many of these other campaigns, it’ll take days to play through), the mission design seems clever and varied. Still, be warned – if your Protoss game is rusty you may want to play Mass Recall to warm up. The original two episodes have no difficulty options, but the third does.

The first two episodes even feature StarCraft 1-style mission briefings, although the third episode (and its very swish campaign menu) tells its story through lengthy cutscenes book-ending each mission. While amateur voice acting is a minefield at the best of times, both delivery and the script are surprisingly good in this campaign, although I’m sure Protoss voice post-processing effects hide a litany of cheap microphone sins. While dialogue sequences don’t drag on too long, there’s a little bit of fanfic-esque ‘And I was here doing this not far from this important canon character’ exposition in here. Also lots of George Lucas-style screen wipe transitions. Still, a great excuse to dive deep into Protoss lore and work on your pylon strategies.

Odyssey

Starcraft 2 Campaign Mods Mod

Odyssey has been floating around on the StarCraft 2 Arcade for ages, but is best experienced downloaded direct from SC2 Mapster. First debuting back in 2015, this very polished campaign finally wrapped up its first episode in March 2018. Each of Odyssey’s fourteen missions are sprawling, complex things, sometimes split across multiple maps and almost always with multiple phases of objectives. While mostly similar in structure to StarCraft 2’s missions, it has a few ideas of its own like rocks being usable as cover by infantry in some missions, or special custom units with clever new powers. As with most of the campaigns here, it also supports difficulty settings – Brutal mode lives up to its name.

Odyssey doesn’t have much in the way of custom art, music or audio, but it does what it can with basic StarCraft 2 materials. It does stumble at a couple points – its overly self-serious story feels a bit too nebulous to follow and its character names are a bit My First Action Hero’y (Captain Harsh, Stryker, etc), but some serious thought has been put into its world-building. Some of the later missions also suffer from performance issues, although I’m not sure if that’s due to bugs introduced by Blizzard through updates, or the sheer scope of the missions themselves. Thankfully, StarCraft 2’s interface remains smooth and responsive even when the on-screen action chugs, but it does struggle a bit during some of the bigger set-piece battles between multiple factions.

Honorable Mentions


It would be remiss to talk about massive StarCraft 2 mods without mentioning SC Universe, the Kickstarter-funded, World Of Warcraft-inspired pseudo-MMO mod by Upheaval Arts. Featured by Blizzard and found in StarCraft 2’s own Arcade panel, just search for ‘SC Universe’ and you’ll find the prologue missions, plus the game proper. It’s a technical marvel, and a long game in its own right whether played in co-op or solo. The problem is that I just don’t especially enjoy it. Unlike Mass Recall’s third-person shooter missions, which are brief and amusing distractions, I feel SCU stretches its MMO-lite combat too thinly to make a full game. Still, it remains semi-popular, even though it never got a polished ‘final’ release – worth a look, especially with friends.

Also worthy of a quick shout-out is Perfect Soldiers, yet another thirty-mission monster split into three episodes. Don’t let its first mission (set in an industrial sewer system) put you off, as they’re quite tightly balanced missions – good, considering there’s no difficulty settings here. Once more its writing is a little overwrought, and it makes do with ‘vanilla’ StarCraft 2 assets, but it has the occasional bit of clever new stuff. Metal Gear music is used especially well during a stealth segment, for example. It’s among the older campaigns here, so parts of it may misbehave with present-day StarCraft 2, but I’ve not found any issues yet.

One final nod goes to Astray, a short but very polished story-driven scenario. While its single-hero combat isn’t especially thrilling (although it does escalate into a nicely challenging pair of final boss fights), it’s polished and tells a decent self-contained Protoss story, which manages to imbue its small cast of characters with distinct personalities despite a lack of voice acting. I’d love to see more in the vein of this, hopefully expanding beyond just having a single hero unit. With potentially mod-breaking updates to StarCraft 2 finally slowing down, I reckon there’s a few big new stories still yet to be told, and The Antioch Chronicles and StarCraft Universe prove there’s voice talent available too.

Just this handful of mods should take months to get through, but if you’ve got any more personal favourites to recommend, by all means share with us below. Sadly, some older mods are partially or even completely broken thanks to Blizzard’s sweeping updates to StarCraft 2, a possible reason for the mod scene never quite finding the footing it might have otherwise. Still, 2018 ended with a flurry of modding activity – I’ll be surprised if 2019 doesn’t have a surprise or two left in store.

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