Jul
28
SC2 – First Impressions
With some convincing from some work people as well as some readers (…filthy enablers…) I did go out to Best Buy and grabbed a copy of Star Craft 2….and I’m glad I did.
Right off the bat…Evil Korean Theory is partially proven correct in that Blizzard did not really change much in the way Star Craft plays. They certainly had their main target audience in mind when they made the game. That being said, the way they’ve delivered the single player experience is totally different. The delivery of it all took me totally off guard. The single player “lobby” aspect where you interact with various characters and items to get story elements is quite brilliant. The achievement system is a nice touch, although not surprising. The cut scenes and story itself is vintage Blizzard and very well done. I realized something about the whole atmosphere of the game in that it totally has a Firefly feel to it. There is an Old West element that is completely charming.
The actual gameplay has not really changed since SC1. I went through the tutorials just to make sure I was up to speed and everything is where it needs to be. Resource management, combat, all of it is pretty much on par with the game you know from 12 years ago. If you’re expecting no changes in combat, then you’re good to go. What kind of bugged me about combat was the apparent inability for my troops to form up in any organized way. I guess I have the Total War series to thank for that expectation. In SC2, it seems like your units like to bunch up together into one big, inefficient blob. Would it have really pissed off the Koreans that much if you had some semblance of a Line Formation? I’m finding that I cannot maximize my firepower on the bad guys…which is frustrating. If I overlooked that, the gameplay is quite good and…again…vintage Blizzard.
There is now a whole “social” aspect to the game now as well. The backbone is all about Battlenet and social networking. Links to Facebook, friends lists, etc etc. Blizzard is totally in line with the current “social” trend, so buckle up for all of the goodness that it brings to your lives. No…I didn’t get to try out the multiplayer yet but will get there soon once I finish up the campaign.
D out.
