The wait will be over soon and Blizzard released their last trailer: Ghosts of the Past last night.



When I watch Blizzard CG like that, I wonder if they'll ever make their own movies.

*weep*

It's just so...beautiful...

Apparently we have no review thread.. so this will do. This isn't a full review.. just some thoughts. I played for a couple of hours last night and had a few thoughts.

One thing I really hate is that we're playing as Raynor. In SC1, you play as a commander of the army that reports to these various people. Executor, Cerebrus, Commander. It was much easier to become immersed in SC1 because of this. Now we're playing as Raynor. Lushi is not Raynor, and I have a hard time with it. Are we going to play as Kerrigan in the Zerg campaign?

The in-between-maps thing is interesting. In SC1, the time between maps was a bunch of floating heads telling you what to do next. You had a cut scene about every 3 or 4 maps. The new method is to have a cut scene (or 3 or 4) between maps as well as an actual base of operations (your ship). There's a lot of back story in these sections. I feel almost overwhelmed though. Is it possible to gimp myself if I decide to upgrade a bunker instead of a medic? I spend more time hanging out in the ship than I do on some of the missions.

The missions themselves.. I've not gotten very far. Right now I see that I can pick between helping colonists or going for an artifact and making some credits. If I keep helping people, will I lose the other missions and have to replay? If so, that's really lame. So far the other planets haven't left my missions screen. And I hope they don't. I absolutely hate thinking I missed a mission just because I didn't pick the right path to follow. In an RPG, that's okay since there are so many things to do in an RPG. In SC2, the game only has 29 (28?) missions. Missing one is a huge deal.

Achievements are fun, but SC2 takes them to a stupid level. You get an achievement for every fracking mission, plus 2 more are possible. And then you have the hidden ones (Feats of Strength). And the multiplayer achievements. Finish the map like you should? Congrats! You're awesome! Here's a token! Oh, you took a piss?? WOO HOO! HERE YOU GO! ... Achievements are supposed to be just that, achievements. It's not an achievement if you barely have to breathe to get it.

Overall I like the actual missions since they feel exactly like SC1. And the skirmishes against the AI in multiplayer mode are quite fun. Is it worth the $100 I spent on a collector's edition? Well, it did have an awesome WoW pet (Mini Thor!).

The "choice" missions don't seem to affect what planets you get etc - just the following cut scenes which makes it kinda cool

I see the "congrats you completed it" achievements to be equal to leveling in WoW. Congrats, you killed a boar. Have a biscuit. Once you have those, then you can start playing with the harder mission objectives, the multiplayer achievements, or the challenge maps.

As far as the upgrades and "gimping" anything, I've found you don't gimp yourself as long as you buy stuff you use. I haven't upgraded the vultures since I don't use them. I have upgraded the medics, marines, marauders, and goliaths since I use the hell out of them. Unless all you do is hoard the credits, there isn't a way to "gimp" yourself.

For those of us playing:

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/ ... g-bug.aspx

Great. One of my fears was that my aging system wouldn't handle the game, but it does so quite beautifully, but at the cost of my video card? Hope not. (And to a pile of folks on that blue thread, read the damn sysreq on the box BEFORE you buy it. ugh).

But overall, the game is awesome. I love the interface between missions, along with the gobs of backstory (I tend to stink at RTS games, at least against live people, so the story is what keeps me going with the ones I do cling to).

Also,

If you're a fan of the original, or looking for a good RTS, don't miss this one!

I'm most of the way through the campaign, and you don't lose missions, they just wait for you to play them. So if you see another mission unlocks a unit you really want, you can put off a mission til later, or do the laboratory missions for more protoss/zerg upgrades, etc. There is one secret mission which I found last night during a normal mission. I've seen two missions so far where you have pick one faction to side with, which causes the other faction to turn on you which reminds me of Dragon Age/Mass Effect 2.

All of the missions have a certain twist to them or gimmick which keeps things lively.


As far as the campaign upgrades go, you spend your money on merc units to call in during missions and/or buy building/unit specific upgrades, like Stim Packs for Marines. Once you unlock a unit upgrade, they have for the rest of the campaign, no need to research it like in multiplayer. Since you have limited funds, you do have to decide what to upgrade and what to leave as standard, so pick what you favor the most in missions.

The addition of Starcraft 1 units into the single player is awesome. Marines+Marauders+Medics = Win! Firebats are now heavy infantry like Marauders, great vs piles of zerglings/zealots. Vultures with spider mines and Goliaths for mech anti-air were missed in multi player.