I wonder if Blizzard was taking notes when
Capcom rolled out Street Fighter 4 last year. As with real-time strategy, the popularity of fighting games
has waned significantly over time, thanks in large part to their
reputation for being inaccessible. But Capcom's Street Fighter reboot
has done much to bring the genre back into the mainstream consciousness.
I have no doubt that Blizzard would love to do the same with StarCraft 2 , as they've thrown the full weight of their
considerable resources into making StarCraft 2, in essence, a platform
unto itself. They've played it safe with the nuts and bolts, but
Blizzard hasn't been entirely blind to advances made in the genre over
the past decade. And it's all been married to a thoroughly modern suite
of matchmaking options and achievements.
The non-linear design of the campaign is the strongest indication
that Blizzard has been paying attention to current design trends. The
single-player story is significantly more advanced than either the
original StarCraft or WarCraft III . The story, set four years after the last
StarCraft expansion, picks up with the story of Jim Raynor. In the
intervening years, the Terran marshal has developed a drinking problem
and a full head of hair.
Much of the exposition takes place aboard Raynor's flagship, and I
think our MyCheats editor Mike Nelson had the right idea when he said that this area is
reminiscent of Wing Commander , a game which also let you
interact with various crewmembers between missions. If memory serves
though, it was never possible to do things like upgrade existing units
and research technology (like the Hive Mind Emulator) on the Tiger's
Claw, all of which are possible in StarCraft 2.
These upgrades are nothing new in real-time strategy, but they do
have a history of unbalancing the experience -- ask anyone who's beaten
Dawn of War II using only Cyrus the Scout. But Blizzard
manages to avoid that trap thanks, in large part, to the game's design,
which is geared to exploit the abilities of whichever units are unlocked
for a given mission. It's a tricky balance, but even spamming the
mighty Thor -- a top-tier unit -- isn't enough to break the game's
missions thanks to well-designed map layouts.
The units you unlock over the course of the campaign include old
favorites like Wraiths and Goliaths, and it's honestly a relief to see
them back. I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of some of the newer units --
the Banshee in particular looks like a Command & Conquer reject. The other races are
similarly hit-and-miss; for instance, I love the new Protoss units like
the awesome Colossus, but the Zerg Roach just comes across as a
significantly downgraded Hydralisk. Thankfully, these changes are
largely mitigated by the single-player campaign, which spotlights pretty
much the entire Terran arsenal at one point or another.
The excellent design also extends to mission objectives. One of
my favorites put me in the midst of a colony that had been completely
infested by the Zerg. I had to scramble to destroy as many buildings as
possible by day, then retreat to my base to weather a massive assault by
night. Another mission had me constantly relocating my base in the face
of a constantly advancing wall of fire, desperately trying to fulfill
my objectives before time ran out. The science behind that mission was
laughable -- the planet I was on was slowly being devoured by a star or
something ridiculous like that -- but the mission itself was great.
The story brings one of the major threads
from the original game to a close, but it also introduces a host of new
questions. StarCraft 2 isn't quite as solid as the original game -- it
takes a bit to get into gear, the writing is hammier, and the ending
feels a little too-similar to previous Blizzard games -- but it does a
good job of turning certain elements on their head. I honestly have no
idea how Blizzard will approach the second part of the trilogy.
What will probably get me to come back to this first entry while I
wait is the achievement design. Blizzard has learned a lot from World of WarCraft , and it shows in the staggering number
of achievements in StarCraft 2. Every single campaign mission has three
achievements, and they'll force you to pause and rethink your approach
to any given mission. Most of the time they revolve around completing
all objectives, but every once in a while Blizzard throws out an
achievement like "finish the mission on hard while only using your
superweapon once." Good luck to those who try for that one, by the way,
because that mission was murderous just on normal.
If I have any problem with the achievements, it's that they require a
constant internet connection to acquire. It's not impossible to play
StarCraft 2 offline, but the whole experience feels rather crippled
without achievements. Isn't it possible to have the game record your
achievement acquisition offline, then sync up with your profile later?
I think the reason behind this approach is that people will want
to play on the Internet anyway due to the game's social networking
aspects, and it's true that multiplayer comprises a large part of the
StarCraft 2 experience. But this competitive part of the game feels much
more like a throwback than the single-player campaign due to the way it
emphasizes build orders and resource management -- elements that games
like Company of Heroes have sought to
deemphasize over the years. That the old formula has remained
entertaining over the years is a testament to the original design, but
it also feels a little too safe at times. It makes me wonder what
happened to the Blizzard that was turned WarCraft III into a
"role-playing strategy game.
Even with that in mind, though,
StarCraft 2
is hardly identical to the original game. The economy boosters in
particular make for much faster games; and Blizzard has also tweaked the
controls, greatly expanding the number of units you can control at
once. The supply limit is still around, which seems rather quaint in
this day and age, but Blizzard has thankfully gotten rid of WarCraft
III's odious "upkeep" mechanic, which went too far in its attempt to
limit the size of individual armies.
The races are also rather different this time around. The racial
philosophies are still in place -- the Zerg still swarm and the Terrans
still turtle -- but certain abilities really change things up. I favored
Terran in the original game, but I've switched to Protoss now that they
rely on towering robots more than well-placed Psi Storms. And unique
upgrades like the Protoss warp gates also make it possible to instantly
beam in new units anywhere on the map, adding an interesting new
dimension to power rushing.
And for those who have no idea what I've
been talking about over the past three paragraphs, there are the new
challenge missions. Like Street Fighter 4's challenges, which serve to
teach certain combos and super moves, the challenges in StarCraft 2 do a
nice job of teaching newbies basics like defending against a rush, unit
counters, and hotkeys. Also welcome are the tiered multiplayer leagues,
which are highly effective in assuring that you're matched up with
opponents of roughly the same skill level (though dedicated trolls can
still game the system and sneak into a lower league). Regardless, it's a
far cry from the wild west of the original Battle.net, which had no
matchmaking whatsoever.
Other new features, like cross-game chat and the ability to form
parties, make it nice and easy to get a game going, and Blizzard has
done a commendable job of integrating the achievements in every facet of
the experience. I am, however, disappointed that the servers are now
region-locked. Speaking as someone who made friends playing WarCraft III
and StarCraft with people in Europe, Australia, and, yes, Korea, I miss
being able to jump from server to server. My understanding is that
Aussies will soon be able to join North American servers, but for now
the system is locked up tight.
I also deplore the lack of LAN play. I understand that Blizzard is
trying to fight back against piracy, but I wonder how feasible it is to
get eight people on Battle.net on one connection. LAN play and dedicated
servers are two functions that once served to distinguish PC gaming,
and I find their absence in StarCraft 2 (and Modern Warfare 2 ,
for that matter) unsettling. It's a bit like witnessing the death of
the Old West.
Thankfully, another hallmark of PC gaming -- custom maps --
remain quite intact. Maps emulating Tetris , Metal Slug , and a
host of other games prove the power of StarCraft 2's map editor -- it's
no exaggeration to say that Blizzard has created an editor nearly on
par with that of LittleBigPlanet .
With everyone still getting to know the single-player and multiplayer
though, the custom map community for StarCraft 2 is in its infancy. A
quick glance at the selection of custom maps on Battle.net reveals the
usual collection of tower defense, Starship Troopers, and Defense of the
Ancients maps. In the fullness of time though, the custom maps will
likely be one of the most powerful incentives to stick with StarCraft 2,
as has always been the case with Blizzard's RTS games.
Between the custom games, the achievement design, the
multiplayer, and the campaign, StarCraft 2 is quite massive. Blizzard
obviously built it to last, and, given the opportunity, I can see myself
sinking dozens of hours into achievement hunting alone. I've only
unlocked around 30 percent of them so far, and there are plenty more
coming (Wings of Liberty is, after all, just the first part of a
trilogy).
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