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Let me start off by saying that this post won’t be a review of Starcraft 2. The game has been out for a while now and if you google ‘Starcraft 2 review’ you’ll find dozens of thoroughly researched and expertly written analyses of the game. Instead I’m just going to write a bit about how I feel about the game, as I’ve heard a lot of people claim it’s the greatest realtime strategy offering of all time and others say it’s just a rehash of the original Starcraft. Now that I’ve fully experienced most aspects of the game I feel like I’m qualified to touch on what Starcraft 2 provides.

I can say unequivocally that the Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty singleplayer campaign is the best solo realtime strategy experience I’ve ever played. The issue with RTS games is that because you play the game from a distance, zoomed out from any one particular character, it’s very hard to pull off character development with the game’s storyline. Most games try to build character relations by showing the player story elements between missions, usually through cutscenes, but when you get to gameplay you’re unattached as a result of the top-down gameplay. Units are just cannon fodder you send into battle to take a base or complete an objective. For the most part SC2’s gameplay is the same way, but Blizzard has gone above-and-beyond during the interstitial segments to ensure that you’re well-informed about what’s happening in the game’s universe and what the purpose of the current mission is. Sure you get cinematics, but you can also move around and talk to different characters to learn their backstories and motivations as well as watch news feeds to see some of the impact your latest mission had on the world around you. On top of that there are multiple missions where you’re actually controlling JUST main characters from the story while they interact via voice dialogue. Through this combination I was able to stay well-informed and actually cared about the characters in the game’s campaign.

It should also be noted that Wings of Liberty is the first of 3 Starcraft 2 campaigns, this one is focused on the Terran race’s plight and the next two will focus on Zerg and Protoss respectively. I feel like Wings of Liberty really wrapped up a lot of the main conflict in the storyline so I’m interested to see how the other two campaigns work. Will they show the same conflict but from a different point-of-view, or will they show the outcome of what happened in Wings of Liberty? We shall see.

Of course the singleplayer aspect of Starcraft 2 is probably the lesser component in most people’s eyes, with the bulk of the focus landing on multiplayer via Battle.net. I’ve had some time to play a few co-op “comp stomps” as well as some 3 on 3 ranked play so I feel comfortable sharing a little bit about my experiences with that portion of the game. I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to structure this part of the post as there are a TON of different elements to talk about, but here goes.

I must first preface my Starcraft 2 multiplayer discussion by saying that, in certain parts of the world, Starcraft multiplayer is not a game or hobby, it is a sport. Korea is well-known for their love of the game and they’ve elevated it to a spectator sport. Us Americans watch football, they watch Starcraft 2 competitive tournaments (as well as many other sports, I’m sure). I always sort of mocked this idea but lately I’ve actually started watching some of the tournaments and I have to say they’re pretty entertaining. I’ll still take my Buffalo Bills and the NFL overall but given the choice between watching hockey or a Starcraft 2 tournament I’d probably take Starcraft 2.

Anyways, now that you can see that there is an ever-growing community of folks that take their Starcraft 2 multiplayer very seriously, I must address the concern that most new players have when approaching the multiplayer component of Starcraft: competitive difficulty. Can someone completely new to SC2 compete in multiplayer? To be honest, not really. You’re going to lose. In fact, you’re probably going to lose a lot. However, Blizzard has created a robust system on Battle.net to match players based on skill level which mitigates the pain a little, and at least you’ll learn from your failed attempts as with any aspect of life.

Let me also say that back in the day I used to play a lot of competitive Starcraft: Brood War. I was never awesome at it but I felt that I had a reasonable skill set that served me well enough to at least be reasonably imposing. The same is not true for Starcraft 2. It could very well be that I’m simply out of practice or more likely that strategies for online multiplayer have evolved significantly since I last played the original Starcraft, but to say I’m not a big threat online would be an understatement.

The good news is that some of the folks who I played the original Starcraft multiplayer with are now playing Starcraft 2, and not only has Blizzard made an exceptional friends system (it even includes Facebook integration, so you can find your real-life friends that play Starcraft 2 and add them to your list), but said friends from the glory days are much better than I am. What that means is that when I play with them in a 3v3 skirmish I can learn by watching (as well as pick up strategies from the official tournament play I’ve seen) and they’ll usually pick up the slack for my ineptitude. With that huge list of caveats and warnings out of the way I can state that, even in defeat, I find Starcraft 2 multiplayer extremely fun.

It might just be my love of all realtime strategy games but there are few more-exciting experiences in gaming (to me) than the rush of trying to build up a defensive base and army faster than my competitors and beating them with strategy. There’s a thrill associated with knowing you’re about to be attacked at any moment and you need to ward off the offenders but you’re running out of resources so you need to meet their army halfway (etc.). It’s actually very hard to describe other than to say, like all realtime strategy multiplayer, Starcraft 2’s is thrilling. SC2 has the added benefit of being extremely well-balanced. All three of the playable races from the game (Terran, Zerg, Protoss) vary greatly in their play style but at the same time no one of the three has a great advantage over the other 2. A great Zerg player can beat a great Protoss player, a great Terran player can beat a great Zerg player and so on and so forth.

Additionally, there’s an added element of fun I find with improving my game. Sure I might play 2 games back to back and get beaten both times, but maybe I improved in some way the second time around so that my skill set continues to advance. Ultimately I might become proficient at the game, who knows, but for the time being I’m having fun being cannon fodder for my friends while they bare the bulk of the enemy’s burden. Again, it’s hard to quantify exactly why I am enjoying Starcraft 2’s multiplayer, and the joy I’m experiencing may be fleeting, but at the moment I can say that I can’t wait to finish this post so that I can go play some more.

To wrap up this epic post I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and say that Starcraft 2 is the greatest realtime strategy game I’ve ever played. Company of Heroes is a close competitor that brought many new ideas to the table, and I still love that game quite a bit, but SC2 is where it’s at. A lot of folks have criticized it for being a modified and enhanced version of Starcraft that is fundamentally unchanged and yes, I’d agree. However, where this game shines is in the polish. Every aspect of the game has been improved in some way. In some cases the enhancements are minor, but in others they are grandiose. I dare any naysayer to go back and play the original Starcraft singleplayer campaign and tell me Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty isn’t much better.

There is another group of folks criticizing the game for being only 1/3rd of the Starcraft 2 story (as I mentioned, Wings of Liberty is the first of three campaigns) and that the game is an incomplete product. I feel that it is certainly a complete experience. The story and gameplay found in Wings of Liberty land in an extremely satisfying way and it took me well over 10 hours to complete. I will say that I hope the other two campaigns are cheaper, as Wings of Liberty provided both the singleplayer and multiplayer experiences for $60 while the other two games will probably only have singleplayer components. With that said I have no problems recommending Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty to anyone with an interest in the realtime strategy genre. I’ll see you on Battle.net!