Review: Wings of Liberty Campaign

Though I played Starcraft's Broodwars expansion extensively, Wings of Liberty is the first campaign I have ever played. I was never very familiar with the lore from the original game - I just played because it was a remarkably balanced and exciting RTS game. The primary reason for my campaign avoidance was that I absolutely hate playing Terran - though I occasionally play Zerg for variety I heavily favor and nearly always play as Protoss.

Regardless of my general distaste for Terran, I enjoyed the campaign and the storyline. The purpose of the campaign is twofold - to tell a story and to introduce the character to the gameplay and game units. It achieves the practical aims well. I never felt out of my depth and was quickly reminded of the basic commands and strategies in the first few missions. As they became more complicated, I found myself really enjoying the variety. They managed to work tactical training into realistic scenarios (teaching the player how to relocate buildings due to periodic lava flows, teaching the player how to manage troop drops due to terrain constraints, etc) that were often fun and creative. The addition of achievements also reinforced the enjoyment, offering additional levels of difficulty for the more skilled players. The most enjoyable part for me was definitely the few missions that I was able to control Zeratul and play as Protoss - they left me very excited for the coming Protoss campaign!

The storyline was also well done - the characters were well flushed out and the voice actors were excellent. The high quality videos were astounding - particularly the Kerrigan betrayal video and Kerrigan vs. Zeratul fight. The astounding quality of these videos helped to balance the disappointment I felt at the final video which was a complete let down. Though it leaves the story in an interesting place to be picked up for the second installment, focused on the Zerg, it was a very uninspired ending. No cliffhanger, no foreshadowing, nothing exciting. Though it was a nice moment, I was expecting a lot more that was just not delivered.

Overall I was surprised - I did enjoy learning about the Terran units and the storyline was unexpectedly deep and genuine. I did see a shocking number of parallels and similarities to Firefly and the movie Serenity, from the disillusioned mercenary space cowboy vibe to the actual use of similar names and visuals. I can't wait for the Zerg and Protoss campaigns to see where the story is headed. Blizzard is great at throwing in just enough surprises to really keep people on their toes, so I know better than to make too many predictions at this point.

Early Review for SC2

It's a bit humbling to remember exactly how long it has been since I last played Starcraft, and I admit to being surprised at how much I am enjoying SC2. I originally began playing some time after the Broodwars expansion to Starcraft during my days as an undergraduate. I had finally begun to tire of the repetitious nature of Diablo 2 and because Battlenet shared servers between SC and Diablo, I was coerced into learning to play by some friends who had been avid SC fans from the beginning. This meant that I had a lot of catching up to do, lots of practicing, lots of matches to observe.

As a result, I played the game socially (I can't really say "competetively" due to my mediocre skills) - always on Battlenet with my friends, and never played through the single player campaigns. Because of this, I never really understood the storyline and was unfamiliar with the main characters of the narrative. For me, it was always just a strategy game - one match after another without end. SC2 is the beginning of the story for me, and I am impressed with the simplicity of the narrative - I am not overwhelmed or confused without having played through the original Starcraft or Broodwars campaigns. The characters are solid and interesting, and each new campaign mission is interesting as well as excellent practice for someone with RTS skills as rusty as mine.

My only serious complaint is that my computer, after managing to survive years of WoW raiding on high graphics setting has finally become completely obsolete. I lag so badly even on medium settings (which, sadly for me, look phenomenal) that it makes competetive play impossible. Even on the lowest settings I feel the processor dragging. That being said, I do wish they'd produced a few more high quality cutscenes - years of playing Final Fantasy have certainly spoiled me when it comes to these. Blizzard did a good job of producing the narrative cutscenes - you get a lot of character and emotion even though they are not rendered in high quality. This makes the few cutscenes that are done in high quality stand out from the rest, but left me wishing more had been done to the same standard.

Starcraft 2 Multiplayer

When I was originally sucked into the world of Starcraft years ago, it was by a tight knit group of friends. They trained me in basic strategies and general gameplay, and we always played together. I spent a lot of time observing the matches I wasn't skilled enough to participate in, and serving as a handicap for the most skilled players. Over the years I played, we must have played hundreds and hundreds of matches, 2v2s, 3v3s, 2v1s and many other permutations.

This time around it's different - I have friends playing, but not a dedicated set group. As a result, I have spent a lot of time playing with random strangers and suffering heavily. I had forgotten just how badly some people play - it's astonishing that people with such poor skills get any enjoyment out of the game whatsoever. I've watched people build 4 or 5 gateways at the start of a match, and then only use one to build units. I've seen people build up defenses without any units whatsoever. And some things never change - some people still know no strategy except for amassing battleships.

One thing is for sure - if I keep playing pick up games I will go completely insane. I'm not a fantastic player, I'm an average one who has been getting stuck with absolutely terrible partners nearly every time. So far I am less than impressed with the game's "skill matching" system. Hopefully some of these players will give up or actually learn how to play, because at present it's just unbearable in the lower casual brackets of gameplay.