Starcraft was easily the first really massively played online real-time strategy game, and of course, made by Blizzard. This game rolled around for years, and people are still playing the original Starcraft, or the Brood Wars expansion online. The fact that it runs awesome on almost any system is a huge plus.
Starcraft II came out within this last week, and has already become a very massively played game on Battle.net. It is extremely easy for me to find matches of people to play, and there are constantly over 100,000 games being played! Lots of people must have pre-ordered it, or otherwise purchased the game the first day it was on the market. Players were waiting anxiously for Blizzard to release the second version of one of the best games they have ever played.
The graphics are absolutely amazing in comparison to the first version of Starcraft, and it is in my opinion that the graphics and animation in SC2 beat out all of the other games of its genre. Of course, Age of Empires 3 puts out some competition, but if you’ve seen the graphics in SC2, you would understand that there isn’t much that can compete.
There are many more units in the new version of Starcraft versus the old + the expansion, even. Each unit-training building can actually create many more units than they were able to in the original Starcraft. Also, many of the units have been changed since Starcraft 1. There are no longer dragoons, no longer are there goliaths, and many, many more changes. The changes hit every race, and the new models are bigger and better.
One thing I’ve noticed is the speed at which units die in comparison to the original. Wars don’t seem to last nearly as long if it’s against a small group of infantry, which is both good and bad, depending on your personal playstyle. However, quicker battles does mean less time to strategically operate – it’s a two-way street so you’ll just have to be faster as well as more aware than your opponent.
The combat is much more graphical, high-speed, and definitely more interesting. With lasers going everywhere, ranged units shooting much frequently, and melee moving much faster, combat is much less like you’re playing a game on the original Playstation! Modern-day graphics make the combat in this game completely amazing, and like I’ve previously stated – there is no other game that compares to the combat or graphics in this game.
In terms of strategy, I’ve already seen some new strategies being introduced to the fighting style of the game. Some new strategies may include spying on an enemies base, waiting for them to attack you and then hitting them, or using units that can burrow to take down your enemies’ command center or hatchery! There are many different ways to win at this game, and depending on your opponent, you’ll probably never be able to guess how they’re going to play, especially in higher brackets of players.
Overall this game is far improved over the original Starcraft, with my only disappointment being that there is no new race available, I was sort of looking forward to seeing a new team out there. But the vast changes to units, buildings, terrain, and combat, the changes are all very unique. A must-purchase.
