It was only a matter of time before some cracker managed to get the recently released StarCraft 2 beta client working without the required beta key. The beta client was leaked via torrent sites last week, and a crack was released enabling players to view replays, although they were not able to actually play the game.

According to a forum post over on gardenofaiur, players can now download the beta client, and crack it to enable them to play offline 1v1 matches against the AI.

This is the first time that I can remember that so much fuss was made over a beta for a game, but then again, it is StarCraft 2. One desperate MyGaming forum member, who will remain unnamed, has confirmed that he used the crack successfully and is able to play 1v1 matches against the AI.

The beta has been met with an imensly positive reception, although there are reports from those playing the cracked beta version that it is buggy.

As the beta continues, the level of desperation to play this game seems to be increasing. Blizzard has released a very limited amount of beta keys, and will continue to release more keys in waves until it is happy with the outcome of the beta.

In the meantime, many gamers are likely to crack the beta client in order to get a taste of things to come.

I usually don’t even have the patience to play games that are still in beta. Furthermore, the idea of my first experience with SC2 being with cracked buggy beta code is not particularly appealing. Still, there are bound to be tens of thousands of gamers downloading the crack over the next few days.

It should be interesting to see if and how Blizzard responds.  

Discuss the StarCraft 2 Beta in the forums