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July 29 2010

On July 27th 2010, the much anticipated sequel to Blizzard Entertainment’s smash hit real time strategy (RTS) Starcraft arrived. The original game focused on the battle for galactic survival between three races; the Protoss, a race of technologically and telepathically advanced beings; Zerg, a bug like race and devourers of worlds; and finally the Terrans, which are the humans in this universe. Each race had unique advantages and disadvantages as well as very distinct stories.

The second installment comes roughly 12 years after the release of the original. It comes packed with polished visuals, amazing voice acting, new units as well as varied missions. The game also takes the story and and cranks it up a notch, playing on our sense of nostalgia as well as using its new visuals and audio abilities to full effect to play at your heart-strings. The story picks up 4 years after the conclusion of the wildly successful expansion to the original Starcraft, the Brood Wars. Blizzard has added new depths to the story previously un-thought of and has taken the opportunity to place many twists and turns in the plot along the way. The score also does its job well, by matching the mood perfectly and getting the player excited and pulled right into the action and story of the game.

Traditionally, Starcraft has come packed with a campaign or story mode for each of the races in the game. This time around however Blizzard has released only the Terran campaign with the intention of releasing the Zerg and Protoss campaigns at a later date. This doesn’t leave the game feeling hollow however, but instead it has given the developers room with which to make the campaign deep, varied and to add a new element; consequences. Missions you decide to take, as well as the action in those missions help to determine the story that unfolds for the players. This adds a level of re-playability that goes beyond simple achievement hunting.

They have also added an “upgrade” system to the campaign mode. As players choose missions, they will gain access to credits to spend on upgrading current units and each successful mission unlocks new units and buildings for the player to use. Missions also include optional objectives that reward research points for either Zerg of Terran. These points unlock new upgrades and units for the player based on how many research points they receive. This can include automatic turrets on top of bunkers or hidden defenses for your base. Either way the campaign mode is deep, thoughtful and more robust than anyone could have imagined.

Out of the box, multi-player is standard, allowing for players to choose each of the three matches facing off in teams against other players, the computer or in a massive free for all. The multi player aspect awards players achievements as well as adding competitive play through rankings. You can choose to play random games through the match maker system and it will attempt to group players of like skill against one another to keep the matches as fair as possible. It takes into account win-loss records and preferred race and goes from there. Players can be grouped in Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum grouping, with platinum being attainable by those hard core players (read: borderline professionals).

There are several nods to pop culture throughout the game, including references to other Blizzard IPs, and updated versions of classic songs playing on the jukebox between missions like Freebird and Suspicious Minds. The game offers something for everyone, from fast paced addicting game-play to deep involved strategies to beautiful cinematic cut scenes with a well written story.

On the first day, the game sold 1.8 million copies, though experts are predicting it will sell 4.5 million units through September and 6.5 million units by the end of 2010. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that number may very well be 9million + by the end of the year.

The standard version of the game will cost you $59.99US while the collectors edition will cost you $99.99US. For those that shelling out the extra forty dollars, you’ll receive a copy of the game, the Starcraft 2 Soundtrack, Stracraft the comic issue zero, an artbook with concept art from the game (be warned there ARE story spoilers in the artbook), a behind the scenes DvD, a unique vanity pet Thor for use in Blizzard’s MMO World of Warcraft, as well as unique Battle.net player icons and unit skins. One last cookie for the CE is it comes with the original game Starcraft and the expansion Brood Wars on a 2gb USB thumb-drive shaped like the dog tags of the campaign’s main antagonist, Jim Raynor.

Screenshots

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