Just in case you’ve been sequestered from any sort of gaming information for the past few years, StarCraft2: Wings of Liberty is the latest real time strategy game brought to you from the folks over at Blizzard. Well it’s been a week since the release of StarCraft2 and in typical Blizzard fashion it seems to have dominated gaming news. Love Blizzard or hate them, they sure know how to make an impressive impact come release day. 800,000 pre-ordering fans can’t all be wrong, fanatical perhaps? Not all wrong.
Installing Starcraft2 was nice change from the normal game installs. During the installation process there is a nice bit of StarCraft history narration. For those of you who are story driven, this gives you a nice background of the game’s universe and inhabitants. The narration covers the original StarCraft as well as the expansions. Always wondered who that half Terran half Zerg woman displayed on some the original boxes is? Wonder no more; it’s all explained for you. The narration goes on until about sixty percent of the install, and then it just drones away. Feel free to leave your machines at this point.
Appearance
Starcraft2 has done a solid job of addressing some of the challenges that face RTS games. Developers want to make a solid impression for the appearance and feel for the game with overtaxing game play. Starcraft2 has graphical appeal for all players. Blizzard’s cinematic scenes have always been impressive and StarCraft2 is no different. I was a little disappointed to see that the opening cinematic is previous footage scene before the game release. It looks great but it’s in effect a rerun. Not to worry there are plenty of other cinematic scenes throughout to compensate for that.
In addition to the cinematic scenes there are number of detailed scenes that take place between the missions. More details on that during the Campaign Mode discussion. While these types of scenes can enhance a game’s story it doesn’t for the gameplay. Fortunately the gameplay graphics are fantastic. Well fantastic for an RTS. There is only so much detail you can provide for your own emerging army.
There are number of graphical effects to make the elements of the game shine. The animation of watching building be constructed is one such element. If you’re a hard core PvP player you may want to scale back the intensity of the graphics. There are times where they can even be a bit distracting. The terrain, structure and characters all have a rich feel to them.
Not to be outdone by the visual aspects of the game, the sounds and voices of the game fit well with the game. The Terrans have space marine gruffness to them, the Protoss possess that mystical alien vibe, and well the Zerg….well some of those sounds are downright disturbing. Just want you expect from a rampaging brood genetically driven to devour and destroy. Each of the three races in the game certainly stands apart and has their own unique feel. The original game captured the feeling; StarCraft2 seems to have perfected it.
Gameplay
Frills aside, this is where a game stands or falls. StarCraft2 certainly will not disappoint any fan of RTS games unless you completely loathe sci-fi. Blizzard sums up the RTS Game play perfectly it’s a “game of economy, base management and combat”.
There are two primary methods of play, Campaign Mode and Multiplayer BattleNet. There’s something here for everybody. Do you enjoy a progressive richly developed story or do you just prefer to mix it up with your fellow gamers? Either version you choose will be launched and maintained on the BattleNet. This element to the game was a little disappointing. I was looking forward to hiding in a corner at work and sneaking in some solo games on my Macbook. Then there are those occasions when the internet is just not connecting and you’re looking for a game to play on your own. There are bonuses to be logged into BattleNet: Your game is always saved, up to date, and available for play on any computer with Starcraft2 installed.
The use of the BattleNet seems to be the new trend in online gaming. Gone are the days where you had to worry about how many computers you installed a game on. You can install your copy on as many machines as you want. At the end of the day you still only have one active account on which to play. So load it on your desktop and laptop, no worries.
Starcraft2 comes with a solid tutorial section. In this section you can become familiar with the aspects of collecting materials, constructing buildings, and of course movement and combat. It’s nice to be able to try these tutorials without the mandated tutorial missions that so many games before have forced gamers to endure. Through these tutorials players will learn about the User Interface and a number of the keyboard shortcuts available. The UI is appropriate for an RTS, although there really is only so much you can do with the Interface. There’s the standard mini map and hotbars. You do have an additional little graphic box with characters explaining mission parameters. I would like to say you feel like you are immersed in the world, but that would be a bit of stretch.
Campaign Mode:
This truly is the home of the PVE enthusiast as well as anybody looking to master their gameplay skills. Campaign mode is unfortunately limited to the Terran race at the moment. Players can choose from the following four difficulty levels; Casual, Normal, Hard, and Brutal.
As with the trend in many existing games there are a number of achievements to accomplish in this mode. The minimum level of game play for any achievement appears to be normal mode. I would like to see a slacker achievement for anybody completing the game in casual mode.
Missions begin with a nice little animated scene. These scenes aren’t at the level of the full cinematics, but they add a nice touch. Once the scene is over players have a chance to interact with the environment. Some examples of this are clicking on video monitors, maps, and photos. Clicking on any of these items will have some relevance to the story at hand.
Once you are done looking around you can enter the mission. The mission objectives start off extremely easy. There are primary objectives as well as secondary objectives. Completion of these objectives naturally leads to the next mission. In addition to the mission advancements, players are awarded credits. These credits can be spent later on during the campaign to enhance your troops and buildings. I would recommend holding off the spending any points until a little later in the game. I’ll admit to not having crunched the numbers to explain what the best enhancements to shop for are. As the game progresses I am sure there are better and better items to keep an eye out for.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer game play is essentially like single player game, well single player played on Brutal level multiplied by about twenty or maybe ten. Here the spirit of competition resides in all its glory. StarCraft multiplayer has been on scene and holding strong since the original release twelve years ago, so much so that it’s a professional “sport” in South Korea. Look it up if you don’t believe me.
In order to ease your way into the madness that is multiplayer mode, players are afforded fifty Practice League Games. These games don’t count towards your ranking. Even in the practice league these players feel like pros.
In multiplayer games resource and base management are essential. There are a number of strategy sites dedicated to this process. Mastering shortcuts is essential to a quick resource management. I was obviously doing something wrong with my opponents having nearly double the resources I had at the conclusion of my games.
The basic options are 1v1, 2v2, and Co-Op, I’ll be honest, I haven’t tried 2v2 yet. I don’t want to subject another player to my sub par skills. Not only will I be crushed, I’ll drag an innocent down along with me. Both the 1v1 and 2v2 game results will affect a player’s ranking. The Co-Op play allows players to team up against the AI of the game. This is a great place to practice those 2v2 strategies. Choosing this option will not impact a players ranking.
Community
There is already a large existing StarCraft community alive and well online. This community has carried over to include StarCraft. At its core StarCraft2 is just an improved StarCraft. It benefits from twelve years of technological improvements. Including, but not limited to, common place broadband connections and vastly improved graphic cards and processors. Something that seems as trivial as 22” monitor these days was unheard of when StarCraft was released.
The large number of fan sites not withstanding, you really can’t beat going straight to the source of a game’s information. There is an enormous amount of information provided on the official StarCraft2 website. On this site there are number of examples of gameplay and plenty of information on how to play each race. The diagrams of the building progression are a great to familiarize yourself with that aspect of the game.
One thing about campaign mode is that it teaches you to play as a Terran. All three races have enough of a distinct feel that is easy to confuse yourself as to which direction to progress. The Zerg are biological and it takes a little time to wrap your head around their progression so the official site is handy. It all comes down to what you are familiar with. The site is certainly worth checking out for both those who have not yet tried the game and veterans alike.
Playing StarCraft2 and have some insights to sure with your fellow gamers? Let us know.
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