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It feels great to go home again
It has been twelve years since Starcraft was released, and Starcraft II is a long time coming. Blizzard has a habit of releasing some of the best games on the PC, and I'm pleased to say, Starcraft II is no exception. It feels so great to go home again.
I don't even know where to begin, so lets just start with the single player game. Starcraft II's campaign focuses on the Terrans, specifically Jim Raynor and his ongoing struggle against the tyranny of one-time ally Emperor Mengsk and his Dominion empire. While the campaign only features one of the game's three races(with the exception of a four-mission bonus campaign focused around the Protoss), that campaign does contain nearly thirty missions, so little is lost in the way of content. The game also features a series of challenges that help teach new players skills needed for multiplayer, such as controlling multiple unit groups and using unit abilities effectively.
The multiplayer of Starcraft II is also quite robust. The main game lies in the ladder matches. After five qualifying matches in each battle type(1v1, 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4), players are assigned into an appropriate bracket based on their skill level, and then advance as their skills improve and they garner more victories. I'm pleased to report that this system seems to work quite well. I'm not exactly dominating in my bracket, but I'm not being mercilessly destroyed in the first two minutes like I normally am when I play Real-Time-Strategy games online. Also featured are co-op missions, where players can take on the A.I., and custom maps, games made using Blizzard's very robust map editor by players.
The best thing about this game is the solid experience. Load times are reasonably short, and the A.I. In the campaign ramps up gradually so as not to be to overwhelming. The campaign's story is rich and robust, with a wide range of characters and a story that really sucked me in and kept me interested. The campaign missions are kept interesting via the variety of objectives. Not a single time was I confronted with the lazy mission design of “build a base then destroy this guy's base to win” design that many other RTS designers fall back on for their missions. The missions range from one where you are constantly trying to outrun a wave of lava that is wiping the map clean to capture-the-relic and even a mission where you have to rob trains! The music is also top-notch, and I found the voice acting wonderful(with a couple of minor exceptions).
I can really find very little wrong with this game, but I do have one minor complaint: the lack of LAN play. Blizzard has chosen to move the entire experience(including single-player)online using the new Battle.Net. While this isn't a major inconvenience to me, it does constitute a huge middle finger to anyone not on a broadband network that just wants a nice single-player experience. It also pretty much takes the idea of a Starcraft II LAN party out behind a barn and puts two in its brain. As someone that has many fond memories of playing the original Starcraft and Brood War over LAN with friends in high school and college, it saddens me greatly that Blizzard chose to eliminate this feature.
That being said though, this is still one of the best games I have ever played period, and certainly in my top five RTS games. Congratulations Blizzard, you've done it again. Don't ever change.
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PC
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| Genre: |
Real-Time-Strategy |
| Experience: |
Completed the Campaign on normal, several hours with multiplayer
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play, but it was really cool to watch.