Thanks for the Trial, Corp. ^_^
I played 11 missions including the flashback/crystal one, all on Hard until about 5 am (about 6 hours and 40 odd minutes... seems battle.net's clock kept ticking so I HAD to play then.)
I voted the "it's okay/average" option because other than a few CGI cutscenes, I'm not really impressed. It feels like a glossed over 11 year old game with gimmicky missions and small gameplay refinements (queuing, unit pathfinding, macro elements for multiplayer) that feel anything but revolutionary. The graphics are fantastic like CNC4 or Dawn of War 2 (liked a certain unit's Blink smoke effect, or the creep's look), and the menu system is interesting (didn't Wing Commander or another space sim do this?) but I can't find my self to care about these characters (other than the Fox News-esque UNN clips) or the story, it's generically flat. The animation and facial look is Mass Effect 2 level, but there's no real dialog options to explore more about universe other than the pre-scripted lines. (Though I do agree it's a HUGE overhaul to the old Video Conferencing of the first game.) The research/armory/mercenary idea is a nice touch though. With the missions I played, I just for once wanted to not be required to do something gimmicky which also hurt CNC4's campaign (protect a convoy for one). It felt like the community made a "make something super unique!" level and Blizzard threw it in the game. Lava? Check. Train Robbery? Check. Fun? Errr, it'll be patched in. Don't get me started on how fun controlling a sluggish mining laser every 15 seconds is against endless waves and a door that took 40 minutes to burn through is. Yay innovation. :/
So yeah, highly polished for sure (Ultra graphics = satisfied, and that prophecy cave video was super cool) but I can't just get the feeling that after the decade they had to develop Starcraft 2, it's still 1998 but with 3D graphics, a flashy menu and a much weaker campaign game compared to the first Starcraft. The only time I actually enjoyed myself was the very first mission and the flashback/crystal one. And it's for that reason I'll be picking up the game when the Protoss expansion / triple pack comes out. There's no way in heck I'll pay 60 bucks for this kind of content.
Not trying to be harsh on the game here, but it's just another hyped game with an inflated price to me. It has a lot of good qualities, but not the kind that matter to me, the actual gameplay.
/back to finishing Brood War & DoW2
