A Review of Starcraft 2

I think that Starcraft 2 is a game that needs no introductions. The very first Starcraft quickly turned into a wildfire of popularity and went so for as to become a national sport of sorts in Korea. People have eagerly awaited the arrival of Starcraft 2 for >10 years and it finally arrived around a month ago. But enough tl;dr lets get to the review:

Graphics: 10/10

The graphics of Starcraft 2 are absolutely stunning for an RTS and I was quite surprised. I didn't play the beta and had feared that it was going to look like Warcraft 3 (aka cartoony and god awful). But upon gazing at the magnificence and shininess of it all I was thoroughly relieved. Everything looks crisp on Ultra settings and there are quite a few environmental effects as well. The cinematics are stellar as well.

Story: 9/10

The story of Starcraft 2 was actually quite good and dare I say almost surpasses that of the original and Broodwar. It follows the story of Jim Raynor and his convict buddy Tychus and their continued vendetta against Arcturus Mengsk. Along the way Jim runs into old friends as well as old enemies. The single player portion operates around you getting credits for doing missions (as well as side missions) and spending them on upgrading current units and purchasing Mercenaries. The only reason the story didn't get a 10/10 was the voice acting which , at times, could have been way better.

Multiplayer: 11/10

That's right, 11/10. This is the meat and potatoes of the game. Multiplayer works on a ladder system in which you climb up to the top which is Diamond League. You have to participate in 5 placement matches to see where you fit in at (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond). After which the matchmaking system will automatically pair you up with someone of what it thinks to be similar skill level. There are 5 different types of games you can participate in; 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and FFA. It also contains a plethora of user made maps which completely surpass the UMS maps of Broodwar.


The Bottom Line: 10/10

In my eyes Starcraft 2 has lived up to all of my expectations and hopes. It is for sure going to overtake the RTS competitive scene and you can bet it will still be played 10 years down the road. I know I will be for sure.

First Interesting Tidbit

Just found this. It's called polyphasic sleeping and the idea behind it is training your body to instantly enter REM sleep and this allows you to function on basically 2 hours of sleep. I wonder if this is possible? I probably wouldn't have the willpower to do it myself. Here's a couple links for more info:

http://dustincurtis.com/sleep.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

Hey Guys

So it's 2010 and I'm just now getting the blogging fever! I have started this blog to run and my spare time where I plan on posting random things that I find throughout the internet that are funny or informative or whatever I decide. So please follow and comment, thanks!