Starcraft 2

Rating: T

Score: 9.0/10

RTSes (Real-Time Strategy games) and I don't go back far. RTSes, for those who don't know, have the player miles above the action, looking down at the war. Normally, they're about as entertaining as reading the dictionary. Slow, boring, overcomplex, and repetitive usually describes them, in my opinion. Starcraft is said to be different, but is it really? This game is exclusive to the PC.

So what does Starcraft do differently? Well, you start with a handful of workers around some pod and some crystals, and you're wondering "how do I get an army and win?" You get an army by producing buildings, and you produce buildings after gathering material. Simple enough concept that remains true through all the classes, Terran (human), Zerg (biological alien), and Protoss (technological alien). So, you get your "workers" (your beginning unit) to gather crystals and bring them to your base. You then build some supply building, and then finally a building to pump out an army. One by one, each individual uses material you're gathering, and you get an army. Then, you send them all to your opponent and watch the magic. It's more satisfying then, say, running in blindly and hoping for the best, since you worked hard to gather that army and watch your opponent fall before you. It's the hard work that makes it all the sweeter.

The different classes play differently. Zerg can pump out an army super-quick since you don't need a custom building; your base can pump out larva (used to morph to basic attack units) already. Because of this, they can rebuild their army faster, since they can pump out new larva as fast as you can morph them. This also causes them to play unbelievably fast, with lots of clicking all around.

Protoss is the opposite. They take a long while to get started, but each individual is super strong, each individual counts. They take a while to actually start an army, but their army is a force to be feared. It's not uncommon for a small group of basic attack units to defend against an army nicely.

Terran is right in the middle. They can build somewhat fast and each individual is pretty powerful, but nothing amazing. They're usually a good starting class.

The story mode doesn't set the world on fire. It doesn't help that the people you see up close in cutscenes are turned into ants leading more ants around a huge field. You kind of lose individuality. It's like a game about a snowflake, one single snowflake. Actually, that's my analogy for RTSes in general.

You have all the standard features. Replays, multiplayer, online support, etc. To get onto Starcraft though, you need to set up an account. Sounds like fun, right? It asks you everything. Date of birth, address, postal code, favorite color, last meal you had, how many times you shower a week, your favorite episode of Mythbusters...well maybe those last few not so much. It'd be less tedious if it was, you have to admit.

So what's so great about Starcraft 2? It plays faster and easier than most dry, boring, bland, lackluster, over clustered (like this sentence) RTSes. The 3 versus 3 adds another element of chaos to the original chaos. That's two layers of chaos! You don't get that in any normal RTS, which is the biggest indication it's something special. Starcraft 2 truly is a golden snowflake in a pile.