The long awaited return of the king of the RTS genre is finally upon us. After years of being ignored by Blizzard in favor their Warcraft franchise, primarily the associated MMO, Blizzard announced in 2007 that they were working on the long awaited sequel for what many argue to not only be the greatest RTS of all time, but even one of the greatest games of all time period. Of course, Blizzard was working on SC2 for some time before 2007, but they didn’t share that with the rest of us then. It took another 3 years of waiting before finally, this past Tuesday, the game was released more than 10 years after its predecessor.
I was a “Starcraft” geek like so many others, and the game has always defined the RTS genre for me. I played RTS games like “KKND” and “Warcraft II” before “Starcraft”, but it wasn’t until its release that my love of the genre finally developed. “Starcraft” really helped to reshape a genre that was getting stale by demonstrating a quality of storytelling and scripting unheard of at that time, amazing multiplayer support, but also balanced factions that weren’t virtually identical. To this day “Starcraft” is still the defining game of the RTS genre, and now the day I was beginning to think would never come has finally come and the story continues in this sequel.
Gameplay
What impresses me the most about “Starcraft II” isn’t the advancements and changes, but rather the similarities. In spite of more than a decade between them and all the improvements and changes, “Starcraft II” still manages to feel very much like its predecessor. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played sequels to games that were released within only year to a few years of their predecessors where all the changes and improvements actually made the game feel quite a bit different from the first one. Here we get “Starcraft II” that comes out over a decade after the first game and it still looks and feels and plays very much like “Starcraft”. The game has improved quite a bit, but all the changes and improvements feel natural and meld perfectly what how the original game was established.
Of the improvements though, I’d say the best one are the mission types. In “Starcraft” you had three basic types of missions; the usual base against base type, the dungeon crawler type without bases and a limited number of units, and then the survival type where the objective is simply to last a certain length of time. In “Starcraft II” the mission types vary greatly, and as far as I am there’s hardly been one mission that has felt like another. They all have their unique twists and rules governing how the mission functions, and thankfully the boring dungeon crawler types have been significantly less present. How the engine handles missions is a huge step up from the original, and it really feels like Blizzard has provided a robust set of options for what can be done in a mission/map as opposed to the much more limited basic type available in its predecessor.
The way in which the campaign operates has also been improved in a number of great ways. One of the big changes is the inclusion of a more dynamic mission layout where you are presented with several different missions to select between at a time instead of just one mission after another in a linear layout. You still generally end up doing the same missions in the end, but you can now determine the order, which actually does matter. As you progress through the campaign missions reward you with new unit types of research points and credits. Doing one mission ahead of another to get a larger stable or units and more upgrades could really help during more difficult missions.
Another good campaign related improvement is how the game utilizes the time between each mission. Pretty much every mission has followup cutscenes, which is a very positive benefit for the games storytelling quality. Aside from cutscenes though you can also roam your headquarters and talk to characters to gain information about what’s going on, watch UNN news broadcasts, check out and buy upgrades, look at trophies and such, or even just kill time by playing a “Starcraft” themed top-down arcade shooter game in the headquarters Cantina. This is also where you get your options regarding your current mission choices and the briefings for each mission. Like the cutscenes, this all goes a long ways towards improving the storytelling quality of the game and really immersing the player in the story and the games content.
Yet another great campaign related improvement are the tech upgrades you can purchase. Each mission rewards you with credits which you can then use on your ship to purchase technical upgrades for your units and buildings. These upgrades take effect permanently once purchased and can be very useful; such as improving your Medics healing rate, or increasing the capacity of your Bunkers from 4 Marines to 6, or just damage/range upgrades for units. You obviously won’t have enough credits to purchase everything for quite some time, so you really have to prioritize here and selectively decide which upgrades are the most useful overall, and for your particular style of play.
On top of the technical upgrades are the research upgrades, which you gain by finding research material on the maps you play. These materials almost always appear in the form of a secondary side-mission that isn’t necessary to win the mission, but are beneficial in unlocking these upgrades if you do them (I highly recommend it). These upgrades require you to be even more selective about which you purchase than the tech upgrades. In this case you have several tiers of upgrades, each tier you reach will give you two options. You can only pick one option, and you will not get the opportunity to change your mind or pick the other option again, so choose wisely. The upgrades are huge though, some providing huge upgrades to existing units and buildings, and others completely opening up new upgrades and buildings altogether. As a result of this you’ll never have everything open to your disposal since picking one unit will forever deny you access to the other, so the research upgrades require a lot more though than the tech upgrades.
Now, aside from tech upgrades you can also buy mercenary contracts with your credits. Once you have a mercenary contract purchased you can then call those mercenaries while in a mission to supply you with a sudden force of elite units of various types. You can only call a mercenary unit a limited number of time per mission, so they’re not to be used indiscriminately, but they can really make a huge difference if you’re in a tight spot and need immediate backup. The key to remember here is that these aren’t just regular units, but elite units, so they are tougher than their counterparts that you’d normally build in your barracks and factories. Personally I still focus on tech upgrades, but I have purchased a few of these contracts for the unit types I find particularly useful for my style of play.
Aside from these campaign and mission improvements, the games editor has also been largely improved. Map editors for RTS games have been around for quite some time and are included in a lot of these types of games now. “Starcraft II” took it to a new level though by providing an editor that is far more robust and gives the designer control of nearly every aspect of the gameplay. You can make maps, script events in the map and make singleplayer missions, generate mods and change the UI, and you even get access to assets that Blizzard didn’t even use in the release. Blizzard really set the bar higher on this one as it is well beyond the capabilities of other simple map editors seen in other games. The one caveat is that the added complexity makes the editor much harder to use and understand, so the learning curve is much higher than it is with a simpler map editor.
One thing I’m not sure about yet is the integration the game now has with the Battle.net online service. You basically have to sign in to your Battle.net account just to access the game now and I’m just not certain how I feel about that yet. The inclusion of the friend system is nice as you can now talk to any of your buddies playing other Blizzard games, though I’m honestly not 100% certain if classic games like “Diablo II” work that way. I do know that the new Battle.net doesn’t even recognize “Diablo” and “Warcraft II: Battle.Net edition”, so those two are out at the very least unfortunately. Another part of it that I know I don’t like is the use of “Real ID”, which basically means you don’t get an alias, anyone on your friends list sees you by your real first and last name, not your chosen internet handle. Personally, I like to keep those two parts separate, and there’s some crazy freaking people on the net. In my opinion it’s only going to make people less willing to add friends and use the Battle.net service to its fullest potential.
This brings me to another related element of “Starcraft II” I’m not big on, and that’s achievements. Don’t get me wrong, I like achievements as a fun little extra goal, but I’m not as big of a fan when achievements unlock game elements regardless of whether they’re fluff or not. “Starcraft II” gives the player the ability to customize their Battle.net portrait and symbols on units which is really all just fluff, but still a nice little addition. The problem is that you have to unlock these customizations by getting achievements, and that’s something I’m not really big on. It’d be better if you at least got some reasonable options without achievements, but that’s not the case, pretty much everything is locked at the start. This is particularly annoying for your Battle.net portrait, since most people prefer to customize that type of thing, including me. Sadly the Steam overlay (comparing the in-game overlay only) used in their games is still far superior to Battle.net at this point.
Now, one other thing I have to touch on is the new units and buildings. The game not only includes a number of the old classic units you know and love from the original, but also quite a few new units and buildings to play around with. Some of the returning units also saw some changes, such as Hydralisks seem a bit weaker in general, while Firebats seem a bit tougher than before. Generally the lower on the tech tree you go, the more likely the units are the same or similar, and the higher you go the more likely a unit has been replaced or revamped. There is, of course, also the additional units and buildings available from research upgrades which are generally not game changing, but still very useful. Although I might consider the top tier upgrades to be potentially game changing, and I know the Perdition Turrets I purchased have proven very useful on defense to support my bunkers.
As I stated at the start though, one of this games crowning achievements is its ability to remain true to its predecessor and still remain very much the same game in spite of all the changes and improvements that have been done to it. Anyone who played and enjoyed the original will have no problem jumping right back in the saddle in “Starcraft II” with maybe only a refresher at most if you’re a bit rusty. Also, what made the first “Starcraft” so great was its accessibility and how easy to learn it was, and “Starcraft II” is no different in that regard. So even if you never played the first one you will easily be able to catch on after a quick run through the tutorial, which is thankfully more concise and to the point than many other RTS games. If you’re worried you’re missing out on the story then don’t worry, the game brings you up to speed through audio files and text during the installation process.
Setting
The setting, like its predecessor and as the name implies, is out in the vast cosmos of outer space. More specifically though, the setting is on or around various diverse planets floating within those vast cosmos. This area of space is basically divided between three powerful races, the Terrans, the Zerg and the Protoss. Each race is unique in its own way, which is part of what made the original game such an amazing advancement in RTS’s at that time. Before “Starcraft” most RTS games generally consisted of different groups with basically identical units that just looked different. Even “Warcraft 2″, which was basically the predecessor to “Starcraft”, followed that formula. Now some games had a few unique units per side, but they were otherwise essentially identical.
The Terrans are the race that make up the focus of this game, which is the first installment of a trilogy. The Terrans are a well balanced group that tend to operate in a pretty standard way for the RTS genre with both manpower and machines making up your forces and being built in their respective buildings. The Terrans are fairly reminiscent of how humanity appears in “Firefly” and “Serenity” with a sort of western style slant to an otherwise advanced race. Luckily the whole “dumb hicks” style often seen in the first “Starcraft” is not really present in “Starcraft 2″.
The Zerg are a biological race that operate as a sort of collective, like the Borg from “Star Trek” only without the cybernetic part. While the Zerg units often tend to be weaker, they are also cheaper and more quickly produced. I’m sure if people have played MMO’s or other online games they’ve hard the term “zerging”, which usually means hitting an enemy with vastly superior numbers; well this is where that came from. The Zerg still have their fair share of tough units, but they tend to take longer to to build and sometimes have to mutate straight from another unit, basically requiring you to go through two build processes for a single unit. The Zerg are also more centralized, with most units coming from the central hive instead of from individual buildings.
The Protoss are the opposite of the Zerg, being very advanced and very powerful. They are an honor oriented and religious race unlike the destructive Zerg that infest and destroy at will. The Protoss have been fighting the Zerg for a long time, and humanities first interaction with the Protoss is the result of Terran worlds being “purified” of infestation. The Protoss’s power comes at a price as their units are powerful, but expensive to produce and maintain. The Protoss require the use of more care to play effectively than the others since the loss of one unit is a bigger blow for them than the others.
For the missions the settings are quite diverse, from desert and wasteland worlds to more lush jungle environments and even space. The diversity in “Starcraft II” is much greater than was present in “Starcraft”, where the environments tended to look very similar in every mission. “Starcraft 2″ did a great job of diversifying the game environments on top of diversifying the mission types which makes the campaign experience quite a bit funner.
What is similar between the two are the ways the maps are laid out. In “Starcraft” maps generally consisted of ground level and valleys and plateaus/platforms with ramps between them and then some sort of impassable area like water or lava. In “Starcraft II” maps tend to follow the same formula and natural hills and varying terrain still just doesn’t seem very present. The layout works, but it would have been cool to see more usage of natural looking terrain.
The environments between the campaign is nice too, if for no other reason than to promote the storytelling and immersion of the game and develop the characters. Being able to roam HQ and talk to people between missions and see the news is a great addition and does a great job of fleshing out the games setting. Immersion isn’t just for RPG’s anymore, and while other genres abandon immersion and setting for the sake of dry online play, it’s good that Blizzard took a franchise known for its online play and still gave the campaign setting a lot of attention.
Story
This story takes place about 4 years after the events of “Starcraft” with Jim Raynors rebellion against the Dominion being effectively underground and the Zerg being silent as well. With Mengsk and the Dominion exerting greater control over the Terran populace you start out by inciting rebellion with Raynor and his crew before the Zerg make an untimely performance and things get interesting again. If you’re not familiar with the “Starcraft” story then pay attention during the install process or just look up the wiki article. It’s an interesting story and players should be familiar with it before hopping in to the campaign.
Similar to “Starcraft” you find yourself with Jim Raynor with pretty much everyone against you. The Terran government believes you a rebel, the Zerg are just being the Zerg and pretty much look to wipe out everyone, and the Protoss aren’t too keen to take sides but there are fanatics out there who don’t take too kindly to you. You have a few friends, most of which seem questionable, but in this situation you’ll take what you can get.
The story advances in a pretty smooth narrative that tells a linear story but gives you some level of control over some of the order of the events by choosing your mission. The story remains linear since the end is the same no matter what and each mission is still played, but it’s not quite as linear as it used to be. This doesn’t actually bother me because there’s a reason people read normal novels and those choose your own adventure books just never really took off. A good storyteller knows how to tell a good story and I trust them to tell me one that is engaging and interesting instead of offering gimmicks and finding ways to toss alternates out there. Blizzard has proven again and again that they can tell a damn good story and I don’t mind having a somewhat linear story if it means I’m getting an amazing story. Still, I like having some control and I feel this game presents a good compromise.
Graphics
If you had thought about what it would look like if you took the graphics from “Starcraft” and made them true 3D on a modern engine then you’ve already imagined how “Starcraft II” looks, because that is what you get here. Part of why this game is so reminiscent of its predecessor is because it looks so much like the original. Even the user interface layout is very similar to the original and will be very familiar to anyone that played “Starcraft”. The graphics are much more high quality 3D though and allow you to zoom in and out on the action rather than watch from a static camera angle (due to the use of sprites in the original game).
The game also makes use of a physics engine for explosions and debris and stuff like that to give it a more realistic feel. Particle effects are used quite a bit as well, particularly noticeable with explosions and with the Protoss and Zerg creep. Unfortunately the Terrans don’t get quite as much of the effects budget love, but it’s still there and you’ll also see plenty of it when you face off against the other races.
The rendered environments between missions looks pretty good as well and is more high res than the mission portions obviously. The portions between missions render more closely to the cutscenes while the mission portions tend to be a bit lighter since the units are smaller and don’t need the heavier detail. The models definitely have that art style Blizzard fans are no doubt familiar with, though the art isn’t nearly as stylized as you see in the WC franchise, particularly “World of Warcraft”.
The one drawback for the graphics are the cutscenes themselves. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great and work well, but if you’re expecting the cinematic beauties you see in the “World of Warcraft” intro movies then you’ll be disappointed. “Starcraft II” has an abundance of cutscenes, but they’re game rendered cutscenes and are not pre-recorded renders. They run smoothly and they still look great, but they don’t have that super hi-def and ultra polished look to them since computers still can’t render those on the fly. For instance, it takes weeks for Pixar to render one of their films, so obviously computers aren’t quite up to the task of doing that on the fly quite yet.
Still, game rendered cutscenes do have their advantages. Since a pre-rendered cutscene has to be packed in to a movie file, that takes up a lot of room. The polished look and amazing appearance also has to be crafted separately from the game since those graphics are more detailed. All of this takes a lot of time and money, so like in “Warcraft III” the result would be a few cutscenes peppered across the course of the campaign. By game rendering the cutscenes the amount of hard drive space required is far less since all the game needs are the files to tell the models what to do instead of a fully rendered video file. Plus, the cutscenes will simply use the same models and textures, possibly slightly higher res versions, so no major extra graphic work is necessary. This allows them to do what they did in “Starcraft 2″ and provide cutscenes for pretty much every campaign mission, which is a fine trade off if you ask me since it benefits the storytelling and they still look great. Pre-rendered cinematics still exist, but the bulk of them are game rendered.
Audio
The voice actors did a great job, particularly Robert Clotworthy who returns as the voice of Jim Raynor. Tricia Helfer of “Battlestar Galactica” fame has taken over the voice of Kerrigan, though due to the audio manipulation of her voice to make her sound Zerg it isn’t really noticeable. The rest of the cast are generally new except for Mengsk, who also maintained the same actor. Zeratul also has a new actor, though again the digital manipulation of the voices makes disguising that easy.
The new characters and their respective voice actors did a great job and I don’t really want to single any one out because I think they all did an equally great job. The weakest links are probably the background characters you see in the Cantina or on the bridge who have one-liners if you click on them. They’re not really weak because of the acting generally although that isn’t anything special but also nothing bad, but because the one-liners are just kind of meh.
The sound effects during gameplay are new and updated, but still very reminiscent of “Starcraft”. There aren’t quite as many irritating sounds when you click on everything either, which wasn’t really a big deal, but I don’t miss them. The important thing as that, like the graphics, when you hear the gameplay it still looks and feels like “Starcraft” only updated.
The music is an interesting element of the game as it is also fairly reminiscent of “Firefly” and “Serenity”. It still has that “Starcraft” vibe too it, but it just feels like they infused it with the feel of that show and associated film and it works well. The map music also varies between missions instead of just one all encompassing tune for each race, although I do miss that catchy Terran tune from the original. Some of the mission music is forgettable, but others are actually quite good.
Another interesting music element is the jukebox between missions. When you click on it it’ll play various songs, including covers of a number of classic tunes and “Starcraft” inspired tunes as well. All the songs are pretty country and western in their vibes, which is fine since it again matches the country western feel of the Terrans in the game in general.
Single-Player
The campaign mode has plenty of meat to it with a great story and cutscenes to back it up. Each mission tends to have its own unique element to it to keep it interesting, and the ability to buy upgrades in various forms from various sources and associated secondary objectives on maps adds another good layer to the single-player gameplay. The campaign is also of fairly good length and has the promise of two sequels to help build the storyline in to what I hope will be one hell of an epic tale.
Still, beyond just the campaign mode is custom content, which is not just for multi-player anymore. The editor that comes with “Starcraft II” gives designers so much freedom that there will likely be whole new campaigns and even new game modes as time goes on. The added diversity to the campaign mode also provides more replay value than the previous “Starcraft”, and I have to admit I replayed that one a number of times over the years. In fact, it’d be kind of cool if someone made a mod that recreated the first “Starcraft” on the “Starcraft II” engine, letting you play the original within the new engine similar to “Half-Life: Source”.
Multi-Player
The multi-player of “Starcraft II” is actually a mixed bag. If you get the right people it’s an absolute blast, but it also suffers from similar problems to the original. The high speed early rush is still a favored and boring tactic that this game hasn’t been able to resolve. Basically people will form a game with the objective of simply building up the most lower tier units and rushing the enemy before they can do the same. The bulk of the tech tree and building types remain untouched as this “strategy” basically utilizes the tiniest fraction of what the game has to offer. This type of game making up the bulk of what I experienced in “Starcraft” is a big reason why I stopped playing that game for multi-player, and it is sadly one thing that other online playable RTS games have managed to curb to at least some degree.
Another thing I noticed about the multi-player is that the Terran tech tree from the single-player campaign is not the same as the tech tree in the multi-player campaign, and there is no option to enable it. I imagine this is done because only the Terrans have campaign only units, so it would give them more versatility and functionality than the other races. Still, I have to wonder if it will even ever be an option even after all three are out, and it would have been nice to be able to enable the full tech tree for human versus human situations. To give users a certain number of credits and research points to spend for multi-player would have provided another aspect to the strategy too so it’s unfortunate the multi-player is more limited in what you can use.
With all the customization for maps and mods there is still going to be plenty of options for online play beyond just the type of multi-player games that would be decided by an early mass rush. There’s also much better support for cooperative play, which is great news for someone like me that really enjoys cooperative gameplay in spite of the fact most developers never bother with such a mode. The diversity of the gameplay will be the best hope for the longevity of multi-player in this game as it still presents more options for players who don’t want to play the tired old rushing game. The editor presents even more opportunities as designers can develop even more ways to play the multi-player gig.
Closing Comments
Is it bad that this game hasn’t even been out a week and I’m already eagerly anticipating the next two installments? With Blizzards work on “Diablo III” also in full swing and the great potential for that game, I have to admit they’re going to be getting a lot of my attention in the coming years. This is especially the case with Valve’s (my other favorite developer) inability to make any progress on the long awaited “Half-Life: Episode 3″. Still, Blizzard isn’t perfect as the lackluster waste of time that was “World of Warcraft” demonstrated, considering I could have been playing this game and “Diablo III” years ago if not for that. Still, the money that WoW poured in to Blizzard may well have a lot to do with this amazing game, so I’ll give credit where credit is due if that’s the case.
All in all though, Blizzard made what looks to be another masterpiece in the RTS genre with this game. As long as they don’t fudge it up with the next two installments then I think it’s safe to say that “Starcraft II” will only secure the “Starcraft” franchises longevity as the games that essentially define the genre. I had my fears that they’d somehow foul it up, but I’m glad to report that those fears were unfounded and the game was everything I was hoping it’d be and more. Bravo Blizzard, keep it up, I look forward to the rest and to “Diablo III”.
© 2010, Keonyn. All rights reserved.
Tags: Blizzard, Starcraft, Video Games
