So I've mentioned that I'm playing a lot of Starcraft 2 and I felt that it would be a good entry into our Last Rant segment; stealing some of Tyler's thunder. Starcraft as a, I hesitate to call two and a half games a series, game and I have an interesting relationship. Which basically means I suck at it. The game is in my personal opinion the best real time strategy game that is currently available followed closely by only Starcraft Brood War.
Now that is a pretty big statement I know but keep in mind that Starcraft, the original, is STILL sold in stores on the shelf fifteen years after its original release. Its staying power can be easily attributed to the sheer balance of the game. When the first game released other strategy games like Age of Empires were built around a basic setup of every "race" had the same units with maybe one or two unique and special units. Starcraft changed the formula and each race has its own playstyle and strengths. For the record all three hosts played Terran. Each race also contained a variety of units that could be used to differentiate themselves and play well, Tyler preferred nukes while me and Geremy leaned toward more conventional options.
You said it was about Starcraft 2 not 1!
Yes I did, and in this case I wanted to give some basics.
Starcraft 2 Maintains this same paradigm with some of the star units making a reappearance in the second game. Terran still get Marines and Siege tanks but can no longer build foot medics, they're now the dropships, or Goliaths. While Protoss lost the Dragoon and the Reaver but kept the Zealot and the High Templar. On the front of the evil Zerg they did not lose their icons of Zergling and Hydralisk but they received, as did the other two, more units with new jobs.
One thing that really causes Starcraft 2 to stand out as a unique game is the difference between its campaign mode and its multiplayer mode. Currently only the second campaign has been released, the Protoss is the final one that we are all waiting on. The two are different in many ways. The Terran Campaign included units that were completely unavailable in multiplayer while the Zerg included upgrades to their units that weren't carried over. Personally this intrigues me since Starcraft is a game about practice and reaction but campaign, other than teaching the very basics, doesn't teach good multiplayer habits which in many other games I've played generally does. While that isn't a terrible thing it is a little strange. Of course as my fellow host pointed out when we were discussing the game it does allow the guys at Blizzard to throw in some things that may have been thrown out of development into the game. Well lets roll into some more interesting things shall we?
As I said above this game is all about the practice and rewatching games that you have played to see where you could have done better. I'm terrible at this game and it is difficult for me to see where I made a mistake especially in games that I have won. Clearly if I won I made the right choice. Well in Starcraft that isn't quite the case. I've found even when looking at games I've won I can find some things wrong with my actions. A classic tale that I had was I scouted a opponent and saw he was probably looking to go air harassment and armed with that knowledge I did absolutely nothing about it. I won the game but it was a moment that even as I type I'm trying to facepalm. You see each build and unit has something that can hard counter it. My prefered Marine, Marauder, Medivac can be hard countered by protoss colossi or enough Ultralisks. The game is just so well balanced that while people can claim that things are overpowered but in reality most are just a new challenge that you have to deal with.
You've heard me mention that I was a Bronze League hero and you may have wondered what that meant. Well Starcraft 2 employs a matchmaking system that often will put a player up against another one of equal skill. Now this can feel broken especially after you go three games straight without a win but stepping back shows that it recalculates and often you'll be facing down people on your level or at least near it. Eventually of course you will jump to another league and keep moving. At time of writing I have jumped into Silver league which means I'm no longer in the true scrubs division but still nothing to really brag about. And while I haven't played really any the game continues to have games that are geared towards one specific thing that doesn't affect your ladder rankings. This is the arcade, as I stated I have no experience with it but I assume it consists of all kinds of game modes that people dreamed up.
All things considered my only real criticisms of the game stem from the need to login to battle.net, Blizzard's multiplayer system, to play the game and earn any kind of achievements. The other is that I don't care for the game's menu layout. I had to look up on their website how to create a game to practice against computers, which isn't really a truly big problem but it was annoying and I shouldn't have had to.
In short if your computer can run the game go buy it. It is hands down the best game that has made its way onto this blog or podcast thus far. Even if you don't play the multiplayer the varied units and characters will make the campaign fun to run through multiple times.
With that I leave you with. . .
Nuclear Launch Detected.
Damn it Tyler!
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