RTS Vet underwhelmed by lack of innovation in SC2
Don't get me wrong, this game is presented well, and has a good-looking package and streamlined interface, but after being spoiled by many other RTS games over the past 12 years, I'm surprised Blizzard didn't do more with the actual gameplay and game setup. On the plus side, they didn't break anything related to the original gameplay.
I played a lot of Starcraft when it came out in '98. I couldn't afford it at the time, but a dorm buddy of mine down the hall let me spawn a copy of it so we could play it multiplayer over the LAN. When I learned how to pump out zerglings in no time for a rush attack, I was hooked. Heck, up until about a month ago I would periodically play the first game for nostalgia's sake. I like Starcraft and I'm glad they updated the game, but I'm disappointed that they didn't add much to the gameplay. No new races, no heroes to level up, and almost none of the "standard" RTS mechanics I now take for granted.
Sure, there are lots of new units, and they've added some features like build-queuing and waypoints, but it is really startling how much is exactly the same as the 1998 game when games like Supreme Commander and Sins of a Solar Empire have added insane amounts of innovations to the genre. There's no zooming out, period. I don't understand why designers still cling to this old gameplay style. It's much more preferable for me to use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the map, especially since Starcraft 1 and 2 emphasize base expansion so much.
There are still some bugs present here as well. One of the most frustrating things that Blizzard never fixed from the first game was the bug where an SCV will get stuck after building something like a missile turret at the edge of your base. Maybe it's a feature?
The campaign had a nice story to it, but despite the Wing Commander-like NPC interaction between missions, there's not a ton going on here. You'll get sick of the same jukebox songs in no time. The shooter mini-game was a nice touch, but I found it very clumsy to control. Between each mission, you can purchase units and skills for things, which is fun, and I like how the browsing experience always had an accompanying video to show you what the purchase does for you. These are all nice distractions to break up the pace of the game a little bit.
The gameplay within the campaign missions started out fun, but I got so sick of countdown timers and escort missions by the end that I doubt I will go back and play many of these to get the extra achievements. Most missions had to do with beating the clock somehow, like getting to point X before so-and-so does, or fending off a wave of blah every 5 minutes until you complete some objective, which rarely ever meant destroying the enemy's base (which is my favorite part in an RTS). In fact, on a mission where there were waves of zerg coming every 5 minutes, even if you destroy all of the zerg structures on the map, those waves of enemies never cease. I just find that annoying. I guess Blizzard was trying to make these missions quick to play, but not necessarily solvable in more than one way. Instead of enjoy these missions near the end, I had a hard time not getting frustrated with the same types of scenarios, just a different way of presenting it. Instead of expecting to stop a zerg rush every 5 minutes, how about this time we'll try to stop a train every 5 minutes? Yay!
Everyone keeps saying how the multiplayer is fantastic. I like the new party feature which groups your friends together so that you can enter games together without having to risk one person getting into a room while the other one didn't make it in before another person took the spot. Beyond that, I just don't see much in the multiplayer to brag about. The Battle.net interface is clean, good-looking, and everything is "streamlined," which says to me that it's dumbed-down rather than useful. And boy, that's exactly what has happened here. It's easy to quickly get into a ranked game or a practice game, but the custom game lists are painful to browse with no sorting ability or search, and for every page in the list, you have to click the "See More" button to go further down the list, every 12 games. This setup is awful if you're looking for a specific game, like if you have a certain tower defense map you like to play.
At the multiplayer game setup, there are very few options to tweak. This is a deal-breaker for me most of the time, since I play in this mode more often than not in almost every RTS I play. It is very simple. You pick your map, choose your race and handicap, type of game, game speed, and go. There's no picking starting locations or starting resources or anything you might expect on a better game. Even Dawn of War had many more options going on here. Multiplayer seems to be about quickly getting into a game, any game, and playing with a standard set of rules competitively. It doesn't seem to cater to the players that like to go against the AI, which is truly unfortunate. There are lots of custom maps and interesting ways to play the game in the custom games section, but it's hit or miss at this point. Maybe I'll check back in a year and see what kind of cool new games people have invented using the map editor. Unfortunately, if I don't have many knobs to tweak for game options, I'm probably not staying long.
All-in-all, this is a decent sequel, and it feels like complete game, even though it doesn't bring a lot in new gameplay for us old RTS farts. It's not the best game I've played this year, nor is it the worst, but I may be cautious in buying the sequels this time. It may be $180 for all of Starcraft II, which is too rich for my blood, I think, even if we do get new races in the end.
