REVIEW – StarCraft II: A New Era of Beckons

 

Terran Marine stomps a Zerg Hydralisk skull as he watches a nuclear attack take place in the background.

 

“Hell, it’s about time” – the opening words to the game and the opening words to my latest post after my long hiatus. It can be justified by the simple title of my post. It has been released. The monolith title from Activision-Blizzard (formerly just Blizzard) was released on July 27th, 2010 for Windows and Mac. It has been ten years since the original and eight years since the expansion. Long have the fans waited. Long have I waited. Many believed the title was in development hell, along with the other project from the same universe, StarCraft: Ghost, now a vaporware title. Already a national sport in South Korea, the franchise holds an olympic position among video games. Sequels often fall short and many have questioned whether StarCraft II can hold position next to the finely crafted original. The answer? click past the break.

I suggest you watch this hilarious video (at least to the nerds) if you have no idea what StarCraft is all about.

To the chagrin of many fans, StarCraft II is being released in three iterations, one for each selectable race. If you didn’t already know (and you should) StarCraft is a real-time strategy series for PC. You can play as three separate species: Terran – the humans, Zerg – the brutally violent and uncivilized aliens and the Protoss – the religious warrior aliens with extremely advanced technology. The game is set in the far future and supplies ample amounts of nerdiness. The first release, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, focuses solely on Jim Raynor and the Terran race. Raynor is out dethrone Arcturus Mengsk and eliminate the Zerg menace, if at all possible.

Presentation

Like all Blizzard games, they are finished when they are finished. Blizzard put an extreme level of polish into this title. The new interface, achievements, portraits and mission hub are fantastic additions to what used to be text menu. The greatest addition to StarCraft II is the new Battle.net, the free online multiplayer service that you are now constantly connected to. It includes an integrated friends list, voice chat, matchmaking, ladder systems and customizable options. The new Battle.net is a huge upgrade over the old bot-and spam-filled Battle.net. It was a much needed upgrade that is greatly appreciated. Matchmaking is easier than ever and is now matched by skill so you are always in for a great match. The portraits (unlockable avatars) and achievements are extremely fun additions that can be earned in both single and multiplayer. I found myself playing game after game in order to unlock those bastards. Nothing is more frightening than facing an opponent with a seemingly impossible-to-unlock portrait.

The presentation is lacking in the CG movie and voice-acting departments. While the original title had some of the most impressive CG of the time, the StarCraft II‘s CG looks fat, much like World of Warcraft. The dialogue is definitely lackluster and the characters can cause many to just roll their eyes. The cinematics, however, are beautiful, even though they are few in number.

Story

Sadly, I must say that StarCraft II‘s story is rather… shitty, especially when compared to the original. The story is basic (an ancient prophecy…?). The story becomes fragmented by the mission select system, which is improved, but at what cost? Tychus Findley, apparently the title character, is plain stupid and useless if you ask me. He is a brute that adds nothing but a sense of mistrust, which can compliment the story, but overall he gets in the way with his retarded dialogue and stupid ideas. Whenever a game tries to escape the confines of linear gameplay, the story suffers. This is exactly what happened to StarCraft II. The story never gets rolling. It jumps around. I do not understand how I can be capturing a Protoss relic, then be fighting on the Dominion homeworld and then the next minute be landing on Char to defeat the Zerg. This stuff should take ten years, not four days.

Gameplay

I’m going to split this into two sections, campaign and multiplayer.

Campaign

The campaign had a tremendous amount of variety to the missions. One mission you are using a giant mining laser, the next mission you are a single ghost using stealth and the next mission you are controlling hundreds of Protoss in an end all battle. The variety of the campaign keeps the campaign interesting and fast-paced. The first edition is Zerg and Protoss research, gained by collecting option relics in-game. They are an extremely welcomed addition to the gameplay. The research grants you a permanent change in the gameplay mechanics that are very beneficial. For example, one upgrade enables refineries to gather gas without workers. The second addition is the purchasing of mercenary contracts. The mercenaries can be called into duty mid-game. These units have more hit points, armor and attack power than standard units. They are not original, but only beefy counterparts to existing units. The final addition is the unit upgrades, my personal favorite. The unit upgrades can do everything from giving goliaths dual attack to giving marines shields to increasing medic heal rate. They can also upgrade buildings such as bunkers and missile turrets. Nothing is better than earning upgrades to change the tide of war. The campaign was a fantastic play-through, even though the story did not help it along.

Multiplayer

This is where we get dirty. StarCraft II‘s multiplayer is what everyone was waiting for. Hell, I did not even play a single campaign mission before jumping onto Battle.net. Like I said before, you are always connected, so I could not help myself from quickly jumping over to face some competition. Now, I’ll admit I was a money-map whore back in the days of StarCraft, but I have soon changed my ways with the addition of achievements and portraits. I will not play anything but league matches now. I am constantly trying to improve my ladder rank from gold to platinum. I want to gain additional achievements to show off my baddassery. I want scary looking portraits to strike fear into my enemies and also, I want cool replays of me winning (or losing) in a normal StarCraft battle. The matchmaking keeps games interesting, but I must say that the online multiplayer is as frantic as ever. The custom maps are outrageous with the new additions to the genius mapmaking software. One thing to note is that the upgrades, mercenaries and research do not carry over into multiplayer. Many units in campaign are not even available in multiplayer, which is for balancing issues. I am so glad that they realized they have cool ideas, but still put them in campaign for everyone to enjoy rather than throwing the ideas in the trash. Overall, multiplayer is a blast until you play a Korean and get your ass kicked.

Sound

When I first played the Beta, the soundtrack was the most captivating quality that arrested me. I had the tunes stuck in my head for days. I downloaded the soundtrack and I burned a CD. The music is expertly crafted to such a magnificent extent. It is unique, yet generic, which I think is absolutely vital for video games. When music of a game strays too far into one particular genre, the entire game takes on the persona of that genre *cough* Prince of Persia: Warrior Within *cough*. StarCraft II avoids this and captures a subtle sci-fi theme within its music. It works brilliantly along with the wonderful sound effects. Not only are the sound effects well done, they are extremely important in a real-time strategy. They alert you to danger, shortages, building completions and trained units. Not to mention the voice acting was well done, even if the dialogue could use some work. The unit quotes are also very memorable, just like the original – “From the shadows I come.”

Graphics

Some people may disagree with me in this department, but I do not think StarCraft II’s graphics are anything to hoot and holler about. The character art choice is that fat Blizzard style that is prevalent in World of Warcraft, which I do not enjoy. The in-game models however, are incredibly detailed along with the various textures. You mus play the game on “ultra” graphic settings (like I do) to get the effect. The problem with an RTS is that there are so many small units on the screen. So, if each model is very graphic heavy in terms of luster, shadow and particles, then the game is going to take a huge framerate hit (i.e. slow down). Even on my robust machine, I have encountered dropped frames when the battles and projectiles heat-up. In the end, graphics are not even that important in an RTS, but they are welcome. The problem is that you need one hell of an expensive computer to gain their full effect, so it is often not worth the hefty price tag.

Lasting Appeal

Endless. That is the best word to sum this up. StarCraft has had millions of players online daily since 1998 and I am sure that that will not even die out. StarCraft II will surely be played for a decade after release. New strategies are always developed. New players always rise through the ranks. The robust map editor allows custom user-created content to continually make new game modes that are only limited by your imagination. The matches never become repetitive and the competition is always fierce. Hackers are far and few between and the matchmaking ensures even battles. Simply endless.

Overall

StarCraft 2 is that sequel that we have been waiting for all this time. I do wish the static defenses were tougher, I will admit. I do wish Terran had an affordable ground unit that can attack air. There are some thing that I really wish were different, but I do not know how to make games. What I really want to know is who the Dark Voice is and who the hell is Duran? Where did he go?
Final Note for when you encounter Koreans: Run.

Without further ado, I award StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty 1/2 Chezwick.

When taken alone, the multiplayer earns 0 Chezwicks.