I posted this
on my blog this morning:
My copy arrived yesterday mid-morning, like I hoped it would and thank God it did because I probably would've gone insane if it didn't, considering the fact that I pre-ordered my copy back in May this year.
Packaging / Installing:
After opening the package, I immediately installed the game and activated my copy over Battle.net, which went smoothly. Installation was a bit long (8GBs worth of data to install), but worth the wait because you're presented with a 'Let's Get Up to Date' story while the game installs.
Even for a standard edition, the packaging is quite nice. The game comes with a cardboard covering, that folds out, a 28 page black and white manual, 2x StarCraft II guest passes (valid for 7 hours / 14 days - whatever comes first), 1x World of Warcraft guest pass (valid for 10 days) and of course, the game on a disc.
I was quite impressed with the StarCraft II guest passes and Blizzard's attempts to get your friends playing StarCraft II with you. Wise move on Blizzard's behalf as I think they know only 1 - 2 people out of a group of friends is actually going to buy a legal copy.
Single Player Campaign:
Once installation was complete, the first thing I did was log into Battle.net within the game, hit the options screen and pump everything up to max (which the game had actually already done for me). I then began the single-player campaign.
At the moment, I have currently completed 12 missions on Normal difficulty and I'm sitting at 290 achievement points (9% of all the obtainable achievements within the game).
I am going to admit that I found the single-player campaign to start off quite slowly and mediocre - nothing gripping happens within the first few missions. However, after about 6 or so missions, the game's storyline slowly starts to take shape and gets interesting. The missions become increasingly more interesting and fun to play, missions like 'hi-jack a train' or' protect yourselves at night from a 'zombie' infestation' were particularly fun to play.
Completing a mission is very rewarding, for numerous reasons. Firstly, you are awarded achievement points for doing it right (or a certain way). You are also rewarded research points if bonus objectives are achieved, which you can later use to improve your army / bases / skills. Then, you are awarded credits, which you can use to hire mercenaries and upgrade your base / army. And finally, for obvious reasons, the story then progresses, awarding new interactive options aboard the Hyperion, Jim Raynor's space ship.
Being aboard the Hyperion links all the missions together. You can travel to the armory, cantina, bridge or lab and interact with people / things you may find there. This is also where all the talking, upgrading and story progression takes place. It breaks the game up nicely, giving you a breather before you take on the next mission. If you head over to the cantina, you can even play an original arcade game called 'Lost Viking' - which is a space shoot em up that sees you destroying hoards of incoming space ships. Addictive stuff.
I've still got a long way to go in the single player campaign. Playing missions right to earn achievements and clearing additional missions, whilst doing bonus objectives really extends the life of an already long single-player campaign. I hear there are 30 or so missions and the game takes around 16 hours to complete.
Multiplayer:
I did manage to briefly try out the multiplayer, which as you can imagine is really going to extend the life of StarCraft II and the true reason most people actually brought a copy as opposed to just pirating the game like so many PC users do.
I managed to play two custom games; both tower defence maps as well as an unranked 1 vs 1 game. I can confirm for anyone who has doubts about it; the multiplayer experience works perfectly on a 384kbps line with MWEB uncapped, shaped internet.
There are already a ton of available online games (and it was only launch day) and I found it very easy to jump into any one of them. I didn't have to wait and downloading a map I didn't already have was surprisingly quick.
The Verdict So Far:
Blizzard has done it again folks! I have not even scraped the surface of this gem, but I know an excellent game when I see one. StarCraft II is a winner and yes, it does live up to the hype, in every way. This one is going to be played for years and years to come (no doubt about that). When I finally finish the single-player and experience more of the multiplayer, I'll post a review. Until then, you know where to find me.
If you want to add me online, please do. My nickname is
Spaceman and my character code is
187.
