Starcraft II. It's Starcraft, but sparklier!

I've played my fair share of real-time strategy games.  The Warcraft and Starcraft series are by far my favorite.  There's just something special about the characters Blizzard creates.  You want to help Thrall and the orcs or Jim Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan and you feel invested in their stories (which I think is a great feat for a strategy game).  It took Blizzard twelve years to release a sequel (not counting the Brood Wars expansion pack) to the original Starcraft, but it was definitely worth the wait.

It was fun to pick up the storyline from the original game and see many of the same characters.  The very first missions follow Jim Raynor as he leads his rebels in an effort to overthrow Arcturus Mengsk.  They're a nice little tutorial that introduces players, both old and new, to the controls.  From the cutscenes and interludes between missions you garher that Jim hasn't really gotten over Sarah Kerrigan, but she (and her Zerg contingent) hasn't been seen in four years.  You are also introduced to a new character named Tychus Findlay who is a former convict turned Terran marine.

The gameplay itself is highly enjoyable.  Blizzard manages to make the campaign missions about more than just attacking and defending.  One of my favorite campaign missions involves a planet with strange day/night cycles.  The humans on the planet have been infected with some sort of disease that turns them into infested zombies.  During the day the zombies can't venture out because they will get burned up by the powerful UV Rays (something like that).  At night they come out in massive numbers and you have to fend them off.  The ultimate goal of the mission is to eliminate the cause of the infection (a special virus spreading Zerg unit) and all the infected buildings.  During the day cycle you must round up your troops and destroy as much as you can within a time limit.  As the timer ticks down you have to move your attacking force back to your base in order to defend against the zombies that will attack at night.  This mission is great because it pushes you to do many things at once--manage your attack squad, plan your base defenses for night, manage the building of new units and improvements, rebuild your defenses....it's a lot, but the challenge is a great part of the fun.

Blizzard decided to break Starcraft II up into three distinct content packs.  Each pack follows one of the three main races--the Terran, the Zerg, and the Protoss.  I've finished the first two--"Wings of Liberty" which follows the Terran and "Heart of the Swarm" which follows the Zerg.  The third content pack "Legacy of the Void" follows the Protoss and will be released when Blizzard is ready to release it (that's how Blizzard release dates generally work--it may take awhile, but it's a slick well-polished game when you get it).  I'm greatly looking forward to this release and will be adding it to my collection.

One part of Starcraft II that I haven't really explored is the multiplayer.  I would get crushed in a matter of seconds so I'll leave that to the pro's.  I'm sure it's a lot of fun and it has become a recognized e-sport in resent times.

Starcraft II is one of those games that every gamer should play.  Even if you don't like RTS games, you will find something to love in this game.