In StarCraft II, it’s still the
Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss clashing against each other, and you’re
still mining minerals with SCVs, Drones, and Probes and pulling Vespene
Gas from the ground to fuel production. It’s a classic style of
real-time strategy play, one old-school RTS gamers should be very
familiar with. Compared to the changes Blizzard made between the
traditional gameplay of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and the
hero-based leveling elements of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, StarCraft
II feels like a relatively safe play; a game designed to slide in and
discreetly supplant its predecessor instead of ruffle the feathers of
longtime StarCraft devotees and risk rejection. While it’s not a
revolutionary game, it is one of the most fully featured, expertly
designed, and impressively refined real-time strategy experiences on
the market.
Even though at its most basic level a
lot of the game is familiar, much has been adjusted. In no area is this
more apparent than in the single-player campaign. Blizzard’s decision
to split the overall story of StarCraft II into three parts sparked
some controversy when it was first announced; basically that means you
only get to play as the Terran faction (with a few exceptions) for the
solo portion, and must wait until later for the Zerg and Protoss
campaigns to be released to see the entirety of the story. While that
affects some of the impact of the tale, it in no way means you’ll be
starved for content if all you’re looking to do in StarCraft II is play
alone. There’s a huge campaign here that could easily take many hours
to play through (depending on your style and level of difficulty). It’s
all exceedingly well presented, with a totally reworked narrative
delivery system, a few instances of choice driving the story, and
options for inter-mission upgrades that make it feel like more of an
role-playing experience than a series of mission that exist solely to
get you ready for the multiplayer.