Jim Raynor and his rebel forces attempt to capture ancient alien artifacts to sell on the black market and fund their revolution to destabilize Arcturus Mengsk' tyrannical stranglehold on the Koprulu Sector, but soon finds himself at the centre of a scheme to return Kerrigan's humanity and remove the leadership of the Zerg. Meanwhile, Zeratul warns from the shadows that an apocalyptic threat is on the horizon. Stars the voice talents of Robert Clotworthy, Tricia Helfer, Frank Tatasciore, Neil Kaplan, and Brian Bloom. Technical design by Dustin Browder, artistic design led by Samwise Didier, and written by Chris Metzen. Released for PC in 2010.
There's a lot to like about Starcraft II. The position has been taken that the gameplay formula and rock-paper-scissors strategies of the original are good enough and don't need to be messed with. The game looks beautiful, plays fluidly, and rewards experimentation, ingenuity, and unpredictability. Even as a guy who's not very good at it, I know I'm playing a great game. However, Starcraft II fails to surpass its predecessor in pretty much every field but technology. Does it need to be surpassed? I suppose that's a whole other discussion. The single-player campaign is my major complaint. It's very fun to play, don't get me wrong. It's challenging and has a lot of replay value, and is a unique experience from the multiplayer. That's about it. The new characters are very shallow and one-dimensional, and the veteran characters ring false more often than true. The dialogue is atrocious, and while the original's briefings were admittedly limited in scope, at least they had a little talent behind them. This feels spread very thin. All that aside, there are some glaring story elements that just don't make any sense. Its saving grace is a series of side missions involving Zeratul, but they only last so long and fail to make up for the absence of a full protoss campaign. I really hope that the negative response to the campaign will result in some improvement in the expansions to come, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Starcraft II's gameplay is enough to make it a success, but it's not a work of art. I think a legacy has ended.
No comments:
Post a Comment