Well here we are again, I figurte, and ope after my little rant regarding Final Fantasy XIV punishing players
for playing the way they like I should finish up my beta impressions.
Now for people that are still on the fence Square Enix is having an open
beta for the game. It starts August 31 I believe. So don't take my word
for it as I am after all only one person and one opinion, go try it for
yourself.
Now before I talk about the user interface I
need to point out their is some serious lag on the mouse and the time
it takes to enter commands. Square Enix says they are working on this
but if its present in the open beta I will be...concerned. The interface
is a bit of a mess, if you don't learn all the hot-keys for the game
fast than your going to slow as molasses. Sure you can press your
hot-bar buttons with your mouse, switch out of passive and active staen the main menu, but the mouse lag prevents this and the cursor is HUGE compared to the buttons. So you are left ignoring your mouse in favor of keyboard controls to adjust your camera, move, and fight.
Probably my two biggest complaints about the UI at the moment are inventory management and clicking on this. You cannot interact directly with things you have clicked you have to click them to make them your target than enter the main menu to look at the options you have for interaction... this is just stupid, annoying, and time consuming. Oh and there is no way to sort through your items and equipping an item can be confusing. Yes, the item management system is confusing to me. Sure I have equipped some new items but I have done it differently each time and I still don't know if there is a faster option. Some ability to just drag and drop into the equipment slot would save me a about three menus worth of equipment interface.
Okay on to the meat of any MMO, combat. I have to give points to Final Fantasy XIV here it is not that bad and it is not a World of Warcraft clone. You have two states your character can be in at any given time, passive and active. Passive you run faster, regen health, and take double damage if hit. So the first thing you do before engaging in combat is switch to active state. Shown as you in a battle stance with your weapon drawn you can engage and fight. Fighting is done by targeting an enemy and executing attacks on your hot-bar or macro commands. Final Fantasy XIV has a great macro system with up to 50 commands to be executed in a single macro, easier to learn than most larger macro systems as well. It should be noted their is no auto attack in the game so you have to execute commands if you want the monster to die.
In Final Fantasy XIV there are four bars for combat, stamina, health, mana, and tactical. Stamina is always filling up and all your skills use a present of your stamina bar. It replenishes fast so you are almost never without something to do unless you used several high stamina attacks in succession. Health should be self explanatory, however, it is interesting to note that several skills I came across also drain your health. Usually to increase the power of your attacks. Mana is the tricky one here, except for Disciples of Magic few skills there is no way to regen mana without going back to town. So mana conservation is a priority. If this sounds bad it is not really. They give you enough mana that only the longest of play sessions will force you back to the nearest encampment (so far at most a five minute walk). Tactical points are the final thing and these are used for your heavier, flashier attacks. Every attack you do or take adds to your tactical bar and than you can use powerful skills by spending these points.
The animations for battle are quite flashing and enjoyable to watch. The command delay lag currently in the beta does mess with the flow of combat a bit having some commands not execute properly. Finally the game is not afraid to throw you up against small bugs and rats to start you off which is a bit of a disappointment. I always like it if the things I am fighting in a MMO actually feel they have some worth behind them. What is nice is you can see the difficulty of a monster without the need of a "check" command. However, like it's predecessor Final Fantasy XIV continues the tradition of anything harder than easy or green/blue will wipe the floor with you.
As you kill monsters and do your guildleves you are given experience. Now Final Fantasy XIV has two types of levels, class rank and physical level. Class rank determines what skills you have learned for that class. Now any skill you learn can be carried over and equipped to a different class. Needless to say a stabbing weapon based skill loses some of its bite when carried to a class that uses a blunt based weapon. There is a equip cost with each skill and the higher your rank the more points you can spend on equipping skills. The system overall rewards experimentation and leveling multiple classes. Now physical level determines your stats like strength, vitality, intellect, ect. It also determines your elemental resistances. Nice thing about stats in the game is you get to pick and choose how you spend the points you get from each level up, a min-max wet dream. Even better is the option to respec at any time. So if you were going as a melee juggernaut you are not out in the cold when its time to wear the mage's robe.
Crafters and gatherers also get experience for doing what they do best, crafting and gathering. Neither of these classes are all that simple. Gatherers have to work at the nod delicately to get the full hull or fish up the big fish. Not to mention their are many factors that we just don't know about. For example fishing you determine how deep you are going to go, the lure, and when you get a bite you have to fight the fish to get it back up. Crafting is also rather complex. Crafting requires you to gather the materials and than begin the crafting process. While crafting you have to watch the energy you are working with and determine how to proceed, crafting fast reduces quality, increasing quality reduces durability, and just standard. The object is to reach 100% completion with as high a quality of an item (yes your skill determines the quality) without the durability falling to zero.
Now if you are worried about starting a crafter right off the bat don't the game provides local guildleves designed for crafters and can be done an unlimited number of times. These give you the materials to make the item of course you have to hand the item in for credit (no you can't sell it or equip it). In return you will get some gil to begin working on your crafting empire.
Which brings me to the fact that their is no auction house. The game uses a bazaar system that I have to admit is actually pretty good if it was not so annoying. Basically every player after talking to some random woman gets a retainer who will act as a seller/buyer for you in the market districts. These retainers once set up will sit there with anything you want to sell waiting for people to click on them. They will also buy items from players that you are seeking for a price you determine in advance. This was rather neat until you clicked on your 100th retainer looking for new armor and realized the one you looked at 20 retainers ago had it cheaper than anyone. There is no search function either so finding what you want is a long process of trial and error. Now I am pretty sure Square Enix thinks this will fail. While exploring the city in a almost abandoned section of the town I saw a closed auction house. How did I know it was an auction house? Had the classic Final Fantasy XI symbol for an auction house stamped all over it. Though it makes me wonder if you though a system would fail why did you put it in the game?
Final thoughts? Well I been worried about this game for some time and even though I was really looking forward to an epic story the likes of Square Enix can tell I have to admit the rest of the game leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The limitations of advancement, the lack of any sense of direction, a clunky user interface, and downright depressing attitude of the developers makes me wonder how far this game can go. If it gets off the ground I am sure in a couple years it will be worth a second look. However, with Cataclysm on the horizon and a ton of other games charging this way I can't see myself playing this game. It is just too bittersweet.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The Rise of Fatigue
Oh boy, did a huge controversial story just land on top of me while I was working on Part 2 of the my Beta Impressions for Final Fantasy XIV. If you do a search on any major gaming site (links will be posted at the bottom) you would know Square Enix possibly just shot themselves in the foot. Strong hint to possibly, no one can say for sure until we see the actual finished product.
Now let me try to summarize what happened. Final Fantasy XIV will feature a fatigue system that will penalize you for playing more than the developers think you should play. Now all this I have learned is value based but they explained it using increments of time so I will do the same. Basically the first eight hours of the week you spend killing monsters and farming experience points you will get 100% of your experience points. However, after the value based eight hours are up you have seven hours where you will slowly get less and less experience till you hit flat zero. Now keep in mind this is not timed based its value based, so this could start happening to you in say four hours if you got a really good group and were farming mad experience. Or it could take twelve hours because you were looking at the various wild life and fauna that fill Eoreza.
I should also note here that it is based on class rank but also effects your physical level. So while you can circumvent this fatigue by changing classes when you begin to notice it your stats will not improve as they are tied to you physical level. Now it takes a solid week for this to reset but it will gradually reset with the time you spend in town, talking, or not playing the game. Solid week to get back the mythical eight hours but you might be able to squeeze an extra hour or three in if you don't play for a few days.
I think that's the gist of it from what I understand and reading the equivalent of 1000 different comments across the Internet. As for my personal thoughts...this is a game breaker for me. I HATE more than anything being told how, and when I should play. If I want to level a Pugilist exclusively I should be allowed to. If I want to spend a day off just farming I want to farm. This entire system punishes the hardcore, while doing nothing to help the casual player.
A lot of people have brought up the famous World of Warcraft rested system as an example of doing this right. I have to agree the comparison works. For those of you that don't know World of Warcraft rewards you for not playing the game by giving you double experience off monsters for a while. The longer you don't play the longer the double experience is in effect. This is referred to by the game as a rested state. It rewards casual players while not effecting the hardcore person who logs in everyday. Kinda the exact opposite of what Final Fantasy XIV is doing and the much better option.
While I was already on the fence regarding if I would get this game or not I can safely say I won't. I don't think Square Enix gets it anymore. That or they want to make Final Fantasy XIV the super casual adventure and Final Fantasy XI the hardcore paradise. My personal advice is you were looking forward to this and this new announcement has thrown you off, get Final Fantasy XI. MMOs grow in quality with time and Final Fantasy XI is one of the best on the market and has everything this "sequel" has, plus an auction house.
As promised links to this story across the net...
FFXIVCore.com
Massively
Eorzeapedia
Now let me try to summarize what happened. Final Fantasy XIV will feature a fatigue system that will penalize you for playing more than the developers think you should play. Now all this I have learned is value based but they explained it using increments of time so I will do the same. Basically the first eight hours of the week you spend killing monsters and farming experience points you will get 100% of your experience points. However, after the value based eight hours are up you have seven hours where you will slowly get less and less experience till you hit flat zero. Now keep in mind this is not timed based its value based, so this could start happening to you in say four hours if you got a really good group and were farming mad experience. Or it could take twelve hours because you were looking at the various wild life and fauna that fill Eoreza.
I should also note here that it is based on class rank but also effects your physical level. So while you can circumvent this fatigue by changing classes when you begin to notice it your stats will not improve as they are tied to you physical level. Now it takes a solid week for this to reset but it will gradually reset with the time you spend in town, talking, or not playing the game. Solid week to get back the mythical eight hours but you might be able to squeeze an extra hour or three in if you don't play for a few days.
I think that's the gist of it from what I understand and reading the equivalent of 1000 different comments across the Internet. As for my personal thoughts...this is a game breaker for me. I HATE more than anything being told how, and when I should play. If I want to level a Pugilist exclusively I should be allowed to. If I want to spend a day off just farming I want to farm. This entire system punishes the hardcore, while doing nothing to help the casual player.
A lot of people have brought up the famous World of Warcraft rested system as an example of doing this right. I have to agree the comparison works. For those of you that don't know World of Warcraft rewards you for not playing the game by giving you double experience off monsters for a while. The longer you don't play the longer the double experience is in effect. This is referred to by the game as a rested state. It rewards casual players while not effecting the hardcore person who logs in everyday. Kinda the exact opposite of what Final Fantasy XIV is doing and the much better option.
While I was already on the fence regarding if I would get this game or not I can safely say I won't. I don't think Square Enix gets it anymore. That or they want to make Final Fantasy XIV the super casual adventure and Final Fantasy XI the hardcore paradise. My personal advice is you were looking forward to this and this new announcement has thrown you off, get Final Fantasy XI. MMOs grow in quality with time and Final Fantasy XI is one of the best on the market and has everything this "sequel" has, plus an auction house.
As promised links to this story across the net...
FFXIVCore.com
Massively
Eorzeapedia
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Final Fantasy XIV Beta First Impressions Part 1
The NDA on Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) has finally been dropped I got a key thanks to Fileplanet's giveaway. I been playing it off and on for the last couple weeks now and wanted to give my impressions of the game. Do note there is some mouse and interface lag but as someone who has been in previous betas I expected stuff like this. That being said I will not be reporting on bugs and excess lag because I expect this to be fixed in the retail release.
Like all MMOs I started off with character creation which was very smooth and fluid for the most part. There are five races, each with two different tribes that have their own visual look. From what I can see in game there is no downside to any tribe or race and they all start with the same stats. Not sure if this will change but for now race is only an aesthetic choice. For the sake of the beta I made a Hyur Midlander.
The number of character options were good but not on par with games like Aion, or Champions Online. Rather a few more than World of Warcraft. You were able to adjust your height, chin, lips, nose, hair (with two tone hair color), eyes, and few extra features like adding tattoos or scars. All these were predetermined not slider based. Rather interesting you were given the ability to choose your character's voice, birthday, and deity of worship. The voice is becoming a more common thing in MMOs with the ability to personalize your own grunts and screams. However, I am not sure what effect the deity and birthday will have on the game, only time will tell.
Finally before finishing character creation you must pick your starting class. Now each class in the game is bound to their weapon meaning that the moment you change weapons your class is changed. Think of class more of a style of combat than a career or way of life like it is seen in other MMOs. What is rather interesting is that Square-Enix decided to make gathering and crafting professions into non-combat classes each with their own way of leveling up. For the beta I started as a Lancer since pole-arms are fun.
The game opens up to possibly the most awesome and worst tutorial ever. Awesome in the way it hits you with a story defining moment worthy of the name Final Fantasy but horrible in its execution of actually teaching you anything. The tutorial consists of walking to a door without being told at all from anything in the game on how to walk (WASD is the basic movement keys) and than being told to kill three monsters with only the bare basics of combat being repeated in the chat window. Even if this is fixed there should be more. At the moment only the initiated of MMO players will be able to play this game. Anyone picking up a game for the first time will likely quit in frustration.
After a short series of quests wrapping up the tutorial you are introduced to the major questing and travel systems in the game. All quests are divided into two major categories, actual story quests, and Guildleves the primary way to advance in rank and level. Guildleves, depending on the type, set you up with a task to complete within thirty minutes. For combat Leves you are given the choice of difficulty and than a big arrow on your mini-map tells you where to go. Upon reaching the location you are greeted with a semi-instanced/phased area (the size is visible on the mini-map) where your marks are located. Completing these gives you a trip back to the area you started it from and some nice loot. Leves are repeatable and scale well for solo and party play. It is also nice to actually have your targets only be seen by you. A great improvement to the classic kill 10 X for Y quest. The downside? Well you can only start eight every 48 hours. You can still join others Guildleves for the experience but not the money or loot. Before I move on I should mention there are also crafting and gathering Guildleves which from what I can tell have no cap on how many you can do.
Storyline Quests are done in a similar fashion but give more meaty story (as the name implies) and more varied objectives. I should point out these are 100% instanced, however, you can bump into people doing the same quest as I came across someone just standing AFK in one instanced section. One of the more hilarious ones was escorting a Lalafell fisher to a lighthouse, the instance size was not that large and the instance area was moving with her.
I know many worry that this game will be like its predecessor, Final Fantasy XI, when it comes to traveling. I am glad to report that is not necessarily the case. I will start off by saying Final Fantasy XIV zones are some of the largest I seen in any MMO with plenty to do and see. Scattered through the area are large crystals called Aetheryte. These serve as the starting locations for Guildleves and you can travel to any Aetheryte you visited in the past at any time for the cost of some Anima. What is Anima...I have no idea the game gave me 100 of it to start and it only took four to travel to each of the Aetheryte I have visited.
Well this is getting rather long in the tooth so I will have to make this a two part adventure. Next time we visit the land of Eoreza we will look at the user interface, combat, progression, crafting and economy.
Like all MMOs I started off with character creation which was very smooth and fluid for the most part. There are five races, each with two different tribes that have their own visual look. From what I can see in game there is no downside to any tribe or race and they all start with the same stats. Not sure if this will change but for now race is only an aesthetic choice. For the sake of the beta I made a Hyur Midlander.
The number of character options were good but not on par with games like Aion, or Champions Online. Rather a few more than World of Warcraft. You were able to adjust your height, chin, lips, nose, hair (with two tone hair color), eyes, and few extra features like adding tattoos or scars. All these were predetermined not slider based. Rather interesting you were given the ability to choose your character's voice, birthday, and deity of worship. The voice is becoming a more common thing in MMOs with the ability to personalize your own grunts and screams. However, I am not sure what effect the deity and birthday will have on the game, only time will tell.
Finally before finishing character creation you must pick your starting class. Now each class in the game is bound to their weapon meaning that the moment you change weapons your class is changed. Think of class more of a style of combat than a career or way of life like it is seen in other MMOs. What is rather interesting is that Square-Enix decided to make gathering and crafting professions into non-combat classes each with their own way of leveling up. For the beta I started as a Lancer since pole-arms are fun.
The game opens up to possibly the most awesome and worst tutorial ever. Awesome in the way it hits you with a story defining moment worthy of the name Final Fantasy but horrible in its execution of actually teaching you anything. The tutorial consists of walking to a door without being told at all from anything in the game on how to walk (WASD is the basic movement keys) and than being told to kill three monsters with only the bare basics of combat being repeated in the chat window. Even if this is fixed there should be more. At the moment only the initiated of MMO players will be able to play this game. Anyone picking up a game for the first time will likely quit in frustration.
After a short series of quests wrapping up the tutorial you are introduced to the major questing and travel systems in the game. All quests are divided into two major categories, actual story quests, and Guildleves the primary way to advance in rank and level. Guildleves, depending on the type, set you up with a task to complete within thirty minutes. For combat Leves you are given the choice of difficulty and than a big arrow on your mini-map tells you where to go. Upon reaching the location you are greeted with a semi-instanced/phased area (the size is visible on the mini-map) where your marks are located. Completing these gives you a trip back to the area you started it from and some nice loot. Leves are repeatable and scale well for solo and party play. It is also nice to actually have your targets only be seen by you. A great improvement to the classic kill 10 X for Y quest. The downside? Well you can only start eight every 48 hours. You can still join others Guildleves for the experience but not the money or loot. Before I move on I should mention there are also crafting and gathering Guildleves which from what I can tell have no cap on how many you can do.
Storyline Quests are done in a similar fashion but give more meaty story (as the name implies) and more varied objectives. I should point out these are 100% instanced, however, you can bump into people doing the same quest as I came across someone just standing AFK in one instanced section. One of the more hilarious ones was escorting a Lalafell fisher to a lighthouse, the instance size was not that large and the instance area was moving with her.
I know many worry that this game will be like its predecessor, Final Fantasy XI, when it comes to traveling. I am glad to report that is not necessarily the case. I will start off by saying Final Fantasy XIV zones are some of the largest I seen in any MMO with plenty to do and see. Scattered through the area are large crystals called Aetheryte. These serve as the starting locations for Guildleves and you can travel to any Aetheryte you visited in the past at any time for the cost of some Anima. What is Anima...I have no idea the game gave me 100 of it to start and it only took four to travel to each of the Aetheryte I have visited.
Well this is getting rather long in the tooth so I will have to make this a two part adventure. Next time we visit the land of Eoreza we will look at the user interface, combat, progression, crafting and economy.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Starcraft II in review
Well it has certainly been a long time coming, but Starcraft II Wings of Liberty has finally been released. Was it worth the wait...well let us find out!
Like all Blizzard games Starcraft II immediately hits you with a jaw dropping cut-scene. After that you are forced to come to the possibly painful realization that Starcraft II was designed from the ground up to be an online only experience. I know for some this has been a deal breaker but in the modern day and age I don't see this being a problem. The game can be played offline after your account has been made and verified but you forgo the extras like multi-player (there is no LAN play), and in game achievements.
Upon registering your CD key to your Battle.net account and creating a name for yourself (Ayumi.732) you are presented with some of the most visually appealing in game menus I have seen for a game. Its a shame Blizzard forgot to add two very important things to this massive relaunch of Battle.net, public chat channels and clan support. While they have said they will be added later I been left scratching my head through out most of the beta as to why they would do this. Makes Starcraft II feel as a very isolating experience. Sure you can talk to your Real ID friends across all newer Blizzard games but you can't really connect with anyone inside Starcraft II unless you go out of your way.
Nit picking aside the game offers a wonderful single-player campaign. Now for people that have fallen out of the loop Wings of Liberty is only act one in the Starcraft II trilogy, encompassing only the Terran campaign. In it you play as former Marshal and every-man hero Jim Raynor. Four years have past since Brood War and Raynor is become an alcoholic, tired, freedom fighter. Barely able to keep his ship and crew in the air he is desperate for some cash. Luckily his good friend Tychus comes along and gives Raynor a chance at some former glory and a kick start to his revolution against the corrupt Dominion.
The game does a wonderful job telling the story using full motion super detailed in-game cut-scenes. A great improvement to talking heads in a briefing room. In addition the game offers a rich backdrop as between missions you control Raynor in various locals in a point and click adventure. All this really helps you develop a bond with the characters and makes you feel like you are part of the universe.
The missions themselves are very diverse. While the classic destroy everything and survive the clock are back the new mission objectives leave you with some lasting moments. In one of the early missions you have to burn a city by day while at night survive a very real Zerg zombie apocalypse. Another has you trying to catch trains as they pass through a canyon. One even plays akin to a single player Defense of the Ancients match. On top of the various missions you are given the opportunity to trick out your army any way you want. You can spend your cold hard cash on such things as improved missile turrets or giving your Ghosts permanent invisibility. Or if you rather you can spend it on powerful mercenaries that save the day in the pinch. Not to mention the Zerg and Protoss technology you find and research along the way leading to some very hard decisions on if you want bunkers with guns, or more armor.
My only major complaint with the single player campaign comes in the change of villain near the end of the campaign. Emperor Mengsk is left to live another day and almost completely forgotten about toward the end. Seems rather odd that the guy that went into power during the first Starcraft Terran campaign is side stepped in the sequal. Regardless the campaign is well worth multiple play-through, with its various difficulty settings, achievements, and just to see if you built your army differently how it would turn out.
The game offers a number of challenge missions in addition to the single player campaign. Ranging from how to counter various units to how to properly micro and survive rush tactics. These lead nicely into the fierce multi-player arena.
Starcraft II is nothing without its mutli-player. All three races are available in one on one, two on two, three on three, four on four, and free for all. In addition you can fight versus AI, or play in player made custom maps with the galaxy editor that comes with the game. All the races so far seem very balanced for release and while it certainly is not perfect I expect patches in the months and years to come to further refine the game down the long road ahead.
Blizzard played well to the line if its not broken don't fix it. Using an updated user interface of the original the game feels and plays like its predecessor. Certainly the Protoss, Zerg and Terran have some new toys but no new mechanics have been added. This is the purest form of RTS and it does not hurt Starcraft II in the least. Much rather it leaves you with a sense of nostalgia and a desire to prefect your game.
While I can complain about some of Blizzards choices there is just so much to this game that you have to give it a gold star. Nearly infinite options, a addicting online component and the continued dedication of its creators to the longevity of the game and series, Starcraft II Wings of Liberty is the successor to the decade old game that taught the world what RTS really meant. If you own a gaming PC you should own this game.
Score: A
Like all Blizzard games Starcraft II immediately hits you with a jaw dropping cut-scene. After that you are forced to come to the possibly painful realization that Starcraft II was designed from the ground up to be an online only experience. I know for some this has been a deal breaker but in the modern day and age I don't see this being a problem. The game can be played offline after your account has been made and verified but you forgo the extras like multi-player (there is no LAN play), and in game achievements.
Upon registering your CD key to your Battle.net account and creating a name for yourself (Ayumi.732) you are presented with some of the most visually appealing in game menus I have seen for a game. Its a shame Blizzard forgot to add two very important things to this massive relaunch of Battle.net, public chat channels and clan support. While they have said they will be added later I been left scratching my head through out most of the beta as to why they would do this. Makes Starcraft II feel as a very isolating experience. Sure you can talk to your Real ID friends across all newer Blizzard games but you can't really connect with anyone inside Starcraft II unless you go out of your way.
Nit picking aside the game offers a wonderful single-player campaign. Now for people that have fallen out of the loop Wings of Liberty is only act one in the Starcraft II trilogy, encompassing only the Terran campaign. In it you play as former Marshal and every-man hero Jim Raynor. Four years have past since Brood War and Raynor is become an alcoholic, tired, freedom fighter. Barely able to keep his ship and crew in the air he is desperate for some cash. Luckily his good friend Tychus comes along and gives Raynor a chance at some former glory and a kick start to his revolution against the corrupt Dominion.
The game does a wonderful job telling the story using full motion super detailed in-game cut-scenes. A great improvement to talking heads in a briefing room. In addition the game offers a rich backdrop as between missions you control Raynor in various locals in a point and click adventure. All this really helps you develop a bond with the characters and makes you feel like you are part of the universe.
The missions themselves are very diverse. While the classic destroy everything and survive the clock are back the new mission objectives leave you with some lasting moments. In one of the early missions you have to burn a city by day while at night survive a very real Zerg zombie apocalypse. Another has you trying to catch trains as they pass through a canyon. One even plays akin to a single player Defense of the Ancients match. On top of the various missions you are given the opportunity to trick out your army any way you want. You can spend your cold hard cash on such things as improved missile turrets or giving your Ghosts permanent invisibility. Or if you rather you can spend it on powerful mercenaries that save the day in the pinch. Not to mention the Zerg and Protoss technology you find and research along the way leading to some very hard decisions on if you want bunkers with guns, or more armor.
My only major complaint with the single player campaign comes in the change of villain near the end of the campaign. Emperor Mengsk is left to live another day and almost completely forgotten about toward the end. Seems rather odd that the guy that went into power during the first Starcraft Terran campaign is side stepped in the sequal. Regardless the campaign is well worth multiple play-through, with its various difficulty settings, achievements, and just to see if you built your army differently how it would turn out.
The game offers a number of challenge missions in addition to the single player campaign. Ranging from how to counter various units to how to properly micro and survive rush tactics. These lead nicely into the fierce multi-player arena.
Starcraft II is nothing without its mutli-player. All three races are available in one on one, two on two, three on three, four on four, and free for all. In addition you can fight versus AI, or play in player made custom maps with the galaxy editor that comes with the game. All the races so far seem very balanced for release and while it certainly is not perfect I expect patches in the months and years to come to further refine the game down the long road ahead.
Blizzard played well to the line if its not broken don't fix it. Using an updated user interface of the original the game feels and plays like its predecessor. Certainly the Protoss, Zerg and Terran have some new toys but no new mechanics have been added. This is the purest form of RTS and it does not hurt Starcraft II in the least. Much rather it leaves you with a sense of nostalgia and a desire to prefect your game.
While I can complain about some of Blizzards choices there is just so much to this game that you have to give it a gold star. Nearly infinite options, a addicting online component and the continued dedication of its creators to the longevity of the game and series, Starcraft II Wings of Liberty is the successor to the decade old game that taught the world what RTS really meant. If you own a gaming PC you should own this game.
Score: A
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