First published: Aug. 25 10
Latest edit: Nov. 09 10
Latest edit: Nov. 09 10
incolas's opinion on StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (PC)
Back in the 90's and early 00's, I had worn out many a mouse playing the first one. Through years, millions of my nerves and neurons had been lost to excitement and frustration, frustration and excitement while I was discovering what playing online meant. Starcraft was more to me than any other game.
Unsurprisingly, years later, the sequel was still the title I was waiting for. When Blizzard announced it in 2007, it felt like the first sunny day of a long-awaited summer, the kind of summer that only comes once in every seven or eight years. When I finally put my hands on it, a couple months later at the Blizzard booth in Leipzig, my summer of StarCraft 2 ended up abruptly. Winter was back, in the middle of August.
Underwhelmed I was. Starcraft was back and it was... the same. Better graphics, true, but no excitement. It wasn't that they didn't add a fourth race: to people that really played a lot of Starcraft and bitched so much about balance for years, like me, it wasn't the point. Three balanced races are a billion times better than four in an unfair game.
No it was just that it was the same. And I had stopped playing StarCraft for two reasons: frustration and, at long last, boredom. For it was so much of the same, I couldn't see how Starcraft the second would ignite any loving fire in me. I wasn't even started with it, yet I was already done.
The beta got in, I barely played it. I really wasn't into it. Some of my old gamer friends from the Starcraft days were, but that wasn't enough. I still thought I'd buy the game to play the solo and for old times sake, that'd be it.
:: allright on your own ::
And so I did.
At first I liked the solo campaign. I elected to play in "brutal" mode, the toughest. Getting to see Jim Raynor and hear about the evil Mengsk and Kerrigan again made my day. And playing in "brutal" required that I really played the game: I was back to microing small units that die in not even two seconds. I loved it. The speed, the precision, the punishment and the reward. That was so much more demanding than saving a slow grunt in WarCraft 3 or my hero with 1000 HP that gets stunned all the time in DotA/HoN.
The solo campaign quickly got me bored though. Playing through it I couldn't help but remember the game was born right next to Hollywood. As predictable, heavy with cliches and full of clumsy turning points as Transformers 2: it just had more CGI's in it.
But anyway, as in the first Starcraft, the solo campaign is only a deluxe tutorial for online play, where Starcraft 2 really shines, at last.
:: better together ::
Back in the day, with its brick and mortar look and feel, Battle.net felt like a prison you had to break into to, paradoxically, enjoy the freedom of playing with any human being, anywhere on earth. Battle.net 2010 is a whole different story: more welcoming and newbie friendly than the Sims and Spore put together, it's making Mr Wright jealous. At the other end of the spectrum, it also still works marvels for super demanding players who like to play for real. Never has it been so true that a Blizzard RTS was easy to learn and took a lifetime to master.
That, dear reader, was the key to me. Day after day I realize that when I log in Starcraft 2. I can play with my old Starcraft tournament buddies in high level games or just enjoy the fun with those I would have never expected to see here. They're even more hooked than I am. I still can't believe it. To them Starcraft is all new. They're discovering a facet of video gaming they didn't know even existed, one that got my fingers clicking millions of times. We're doing it together and I'm loving it like Mc D.
:: i got more flow than a dj hero ::
Whoever I'm playing with, Starcraft 2 gets me in a state of flow and focus no other game can activate. It's fast and complicated, full of hurdles put in by the system and the opponent. Visualize them, pass them or fall. You can do so much with so little, it's about a point of view and a state-of-mind: playing Starcraft 2 is like training for life. Am I winning or losing? Doing good or bad? Most of the time, Battle.net tells me it's a matter of perception and reaction. The only thing to care about: how to make the next second better than this one?
When I come to think about it, the moment I expected Starcraft 2 the most, when I was still playing the first one, my only hope for Starcraft 2 was that they kep the exact same system and made it feel new. That would have been a ballsy move...
Unsurprisingly, years later, the sequel was still the title I was waiting for. When Blizzard announced it in 2007, it felt like the first sunny day of a long-awaited summer, the kind of summer that only comes once in every seven or eight years. When I finally put my hands on it, a couple months later at the Blizzard booth in Leipzig, my summer of StarCraft 2 ended up abruptly. Winter was back, in the middle of August.
Underwhelmed I was. Starcraft was back and it was... the same. Better graphics, true, but no excitement. It wasn't that they didn't add a fourth race: to people that really played a lot of Starcraft and bitched so much about balance for years, like me, it wasn't the point. Three balanced races are a billion times better than four in an unfair game.
No it was just that it was the same. And I had stopped playing StarCraft for two reasons: frustration and, at long last, boredom. For it was so much of the same, I couldn't see how Starcraft the second would ignite any loving fire in me. I wasn't even started with it, yet I was already done.
The beta got in, I barely played it. I really wasn't into it. Some of my old gamer friends from the Starcraft days were, but that wasn't enough. I still thought I'd buy the game to play the solo and for old times sake, that'd be it.
:: allright on your own ::
And so I did.
At first I liked the solo campaign. I elected to play in "brutal" mode, the toughest. Getting to see Jim Raynor and hear about the evil Mengsk and Kerrigan again made my day. And playing in "brutal" required that I really played the game: I was back to microing small units that die in not even two seconds. I loved it. The speed, the precision, the punishment and the reward. That was so much more demanding than saving a slow grunt in WarCraft 3 or my hero with 1000 HP that gets stunned all the time in DotA/HoN.
The solo campaign quickly got me bored though. Playing through it I couldn't help but remember the game was born right next to Hollywood. As predictable, heavy with cliches and full of clumsy turning points as Transformers 2: it just had more CGI's in it.
But anyway, as in the first Starcraft, the solo campaign is only a deluxe tutorial for online play, where Starcraft 2 really shines, at last.
:: better together ::
Back in the day, with its brick and mortar look and feel, Battle.net felt like a prison you had to break into to, paradoxically, enjoy the freedom of playing with any human being, anywhere on earth. Battle.net 2010 is a whole different story: more welcoming and newbie friendly than the Sims and Spore put together, it's making Mr Wright jealous. At the other end of the spectrum, it also still works marvels for super demanding players who like to play for real. Never has it been so true that a Blizzard RTS was easy to learn and took a lifetime to master.
That, dear reader, was the key to me. Day after day I realize that when I log in Starcraft 2. I can play with my old Starcraft tournament buddies in high level games or just enjoy the fun with those I would have never expected to see here. They're even more hooked than I am. I still can't believe it. To them Starcraft is all new. They're discovering a facet of video gaming they didn't know even existed, one that got my fingers clicking millions of times. We're doing it together and I'm loving it like Mc D.
:: i got more flow than a dj hero ::
Whoever I'm playing with, Starcraft 2 gets me in a state of flow and focus no other game can activate. It's fast and complicated, full of hurdles put in by the system and the opponent. Visualize them, pass them or fall. You can do so much with so little, it's about a point of view and a state-of-mind: playing Starcraft 2 is like training for life. Am I winning or losing? Doing good or bad? Most of the time, Battle.net tells me it's a matter of perception and reaction. The only thing to care about: how to make the next second better than this one?
When I come to think about it, the moment I expected Starcraft 2 the most, when I was still playing the first one, my only hope for Starcraft 2 was that they kep the exact same system and made it feel new. That would have been a ballsy move...
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