So, I’m kind of a Starcraft fan-boy… have been for 12 years now. It’s not that I’m a huge fan of RTS games, because I’m not. In fact, the only RTS games I’ve ever really played are the Starcraft and Warcraft series. However, Blizzard is a master at crafting epic and engaging stories to go with their games, and they suck me in every time. The fact that they keep their RTS game play fun certainly helps though ;)
Anyway, it’s been 12 years since Blizzard released the first Starcraft. My oldest friends (the ones I made in my ill-fated stint at Sewanee), remember how that game affected me back then. Many people would lay the blame for burning out my junior year squarely on the feet of Starcraft and the Brood Wars expansion… They would be wrong, mind you, but I can see why they would say that (truth is, I was burned out either way and if I wasn’t obsessively playing Starcraft 2, I would have found some other equally distracting activity that didn’t involve doing my schoolwork). Either way, I played a LOT of Starcraft back in my college days. I was never a pro-gamer, counting my APM or any of that crap, but I spent a lot of time in that game.
So, with that kind of history, it’s no wonder that I got all kinds of excited when I heard that Blizzard was finally pushing out the sequel. Blizzard being what they are, I knew it would rock story wise, and I had every faith that Blizzard would keep the game fun to play as well as engaging. I didn’t pre-order the collectors edition (because they weren’t taking CE pre-orders anymore when I got to my local GameStop and ordered my copy), but when I went to pick up my copy on launch day, I found my GameStop had an extra CE copy, so I snagged it! Bonus!
LAUNCH DETECTED!
Launch day was agonizing… I picked up my copy at 10:00am, then had to spend the rest of the the day at work. The box was sitting in my car, just begging to be played, all day long! I didn’t get home until around 6:30, and I had only gotten about an hour and a half of sleep the night before. Still… for those of you who know me, you’ll know that I wasn’t about to let a little thing like sleep deprivation deter me from cracking open my shiny new collectors edition and fire it up! The installation went perfect and a few minutes later I was watching the trademark Blizzard cut scene intro to the game. I only intended on playing for an hour or so, because I’m trying to finish a research paper. Before I could blink, I looked up and saw that I had been playing for 4 hours. I did that again last night, playing until 3:00am without realizing it. Nice!
So, the game itself is flat out fantastic. The game play hasn’t changed much from the formula that made it such a success 12 years ago. There are new units, new buildings, new tactics, and new tricks to learn, but largely the game plays just like it did back then. I was happy to find that the hotkeys I remembered from SC1 still worked in SC2, and I was happy to see how naturally I fell back into my SC gaming groove. The first SC2 game is Terran only in the single player, but there are a handful of bonus missions you get to play as Protoss. The full Protoss and Zerg campaigns come out as separate expansions, which may be as far as 18 months out between releases! CRAP!
What’s really got me hooked is the story! In SC1, and even Warcraft, the story was told mid-mission, through scripted events, and between missions, through the occasional cut scene or scripted event. All you ever got to see of a character was their unit in the game, and a small portrait image in the UI. You were either looking at a loading screen, or loaded into a map for the duration of the game. In SC2, they’ve taken that to a whole new level by borrowing the setup of the Normandy from Mass Effect. Now, between missions, you retire to your own personal battle cruiser, the Hyperion. There, you can talk to your crew, look after research projects, check the armory for new permanent unit upgrades, or hire new merc units in the bar. I find myself spending as much time in the ship between missions as I do in each mission!
I’m only 2 days into the game, and I’ve knocked out the first 10-12 missions so far... those being the easy ones that teach you the basics of play. I’ve also stumbled across the bonus Protoss missions, which I’m rocking my way through right now. In terms of levels, I’m about 1/3-1/2 of the way through the game, but in terms of time, it’s more likely 1/4 of the way through, at most. I’m sure the later levels will get much harder much faster. As long as the story keeps pace, I don’t mind. I’ll play the game on easy mode if I have too, just to get to more of those juicy story bits!
So anyway, if you can’t tell by now, I am totally in love with Starcraft 2. If you’re any kind of blizzard fan boy (guilty!), you should totally pick it up. Even if RTS’s aren’t your thing, the story is worth the game play, and you can play through on easy (or even cheat!) to get past the missions. I know I’ll get more enjoyment out of this than the next 3 bluray movies I buy (which cost as much as this game did). Seriously, I can’t endorse this game enough, just for the single player campaign alone. Of course, I haven’t touched multiplayer yet, but I’ll get to that in my own sweet time ;)
--Crash
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