Wednesday, July 28, 2010
by Ben Silverman
July 28 5:55 P.M.
Is the office looking a bit...empty? Find the streets oddly quiet? Notice that a few of your co-workers caught the same mysterious illness this week?
Don’t blame swine flu -- blame StarCraft II.
The official follow-up to 1998's classic intergalactic strategy game arrived on store shelves Tuesday, prompting hordes of fans to skip work in favor of catching up with a brand new version of a dear old friend.
That work exodus included game critics, who were forced to wait with the rest of the gaming masses for Blizzard to flip the switch on their online servers and allow access. But the reviews are slowly trickling in, and what they lack in timeliness, they more than make up for in glowing praise.
"It's a return to form for [developer] Blizzard, with a sweeping story told through gorgeous cutscenes and varied missions that fall along a pitch-perfect difficulty curve," insists gaming blog Joystiq, who call the multiplayer "hopelessly addictive" in a glowing 5/5 review.
Just don’t expect it to be entirely new, which, the blog believes, was the intention all along. "Blizzard didn't change StarCraft, because StarCraft didn't need changing," they claim.
That's how Kotaku feels, too. The popular blog has also yet to post an official score, but they sound off in an impressions piece that paints a picture of a great game rooted very much in the past. Playing the campaign is like "stepping back in time," but rather than a problem, they believe that's exactly what Blizzard needed to do to please their massive fan base.
The Guardian digs it as well, saying out that the game "looks amazing, and every level is crammed with detail" and that it captures the "perfect balance between the capabilities" of the game's three distinct races.
But they also point out a foible or two. The game's single-player campaign only covers the Terran race, a bummer since fans will have to "wait another year or so for proper AI storylines/campaigns for the other two races."
"It's also a shame that LAN games are no longer supported in favour of allowing you to team up with your mates through Battle Net," the 4/5 review continues.
That last bit is a fair point, and one that hasn’t slipped past hawkeyed gamers. With well over 300 user reviews, StarCraft II is receiving a surprisingly lukewarm 3/5 rating at Amazon. That might seem harsh, but it's indicative of the split between those thrilled by the upgrades and those miffed at what Blizzard left out -- or flat-out removed.
"No chat channels, no private lobbies, no cross region play, no offline mode, no LAN and poor custom game options," complains user 562 in a 2/5 review, adding that's it's "an incomplete masterpiece."
Top-rated Amazon user Neosplicer -- who gives it a 3/5 -- also gripes about the limited scope of the single-player.
"Although priced even more than a full premium game, this is not a complete STARCRAFT sequel," he writes. "You would not know this by its price-tag(!) but this is only A...THIRD of the game."
It's not the first time gamers have voiced their concerns through low scores at the online retailer. Back in 2008, they went ballistic over anti-piracy measures included in another heavily-hyped intergalactic strategy game, hammering EA's Spore with hundreds of one-star reviews and prompting EA to eventually back down and change their policy. StarCraft II is faring far, far better, but it's clear that not all users are pleased with the current package.
How about you? Are you playing StarCraft II? If so, tear yourself away and sound off in the comments.
* Related: The real science of StarCraft II
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