When Blizzard first announced that Starcraft 2 would feature only a Terran campaign, you could hear collective groans from every corner of cyberspace. After all, it was the expert balancing of three separate races, each with their own interlocking storylines that made the original such a step change for real time strategy games. Some of that disappointment was dispelled by the misguided belief that at least we would not have to wait long for the next installment That was nearly three years ago – so is it all we hoped for?
HotS picks up where Wings of
Liberty left off, this time picking up Sarah Kerrigan's tale. Now stripped of
her Queen of Blades memories, your task is to rebuild the Zerg swarm and take
on the evil Arcturus Mengsk and occasionally just about everyone else. As with
WoL, you do get the chance to dabble with the other two races, courtesy of old
allies Raynor and Valarian. However, the single player emphasis here is on Zerg
who behave very differently to the obedient Terrans and the methodical Protoss.
Zerg forces move fast and grow organically, terraforming the landscape to
expand. As such, HotS gives us an excellent test of the improved AI with
route-finding seeing fewer units getting lost or stranded and forces defending
their ground with new confidence.
So obviously, the 20-mission
campaign is new – but what else haven't we seen before? Well, for starters
there's a few welcome tweaks to the interface, particularly useful with Zerg
who were always the fiddliest race to control, thanks to their confusing reproductive
cycle that left you unsure what to click to get what result. It's still a bit
confusing but at least drones now automatically head for resources and there's
a single button to select all armed units at once. Nevertheless, HotS remains a
brutal test of micro management skills, and without deft use of hot keys you're
never going to keep track of all your units or compete with better players.
Another big change is an
overhaul of the upgrade system, replacing the tedious balancing of Protoss and
Zerg research points with a three-tier system. Firstly, there's three power
upgrades per unit – usually a choice between movement, combat and spawning
speed, which can be changed at any time. However, you can also unlock more
radical Evolutionary changes, picking one of two permanent upgrades that
radically effect the shape, behaviour and animation of each unit. These are
quite brilliant – with even lowly Zerglings instantly morphing into winged
insects that swarm over enemies with nauseating zeal. Sadly, these evolutions
are prefaced by linear mini-map challenges, which become more of a chore than a
pleasure to go through. Finally, there's Hero upgrades to give Kerrigan
additional physical or tactical abilities. The point of all these changes is to
make most of the upgrade paths reversible – unlike WoL, if you decide you need
a different power, you not locked into a choice you made when starting out. By
and large it works well – although obviously, unit upgrades are not available
in multiplayer.
And, of course, there's new
units – a whole mess of them; from heavily armoured Aberrations to the
brilliant Scourge Nests – basically a one-off fire-and forget missile battery
to take down the new and improved Terran battlecruisers. Naturally, some fans
may lament the passing of old favourites, but collectively the new additions
make the Zerg a lot more fun to play; adding better attack and armour to their
already superior aerial and defensive capabilities.
However, Starcraft 2 has always
been geared towards the multiplayer side, and this is where its true longevity
lies. At the time of writing, I'm still getting to grips with the new ranking
system and how the new units balance out. However, clearly Starcraft remains a
furiously competitive online experience – ostensibly now easier for noobs to
find a decent match but still as passionately debated as ever. It remains to be
seen how all this pans out – however, most of the new multiplayer maps look
great; with Discord IV and Eternal Scar proving early favourites.
So
undoubtedly this is a great (if tardy) addition to the Starcraft legacy. The
single player campaign can be breezed through on easy setting, but this doesn't
detract from some truly massive levels, packed with multiple objectives and
considerable replay value. And when you get to the bosses, the struggles are
epic and gorgeously animated. Is HOTS as surprising and welcome as WoL once
seemed? Maybe not – it basically looks and feels like the same game (not
necessarily a bad thing), the story takes us nowhere particularly new and the
bland voice acting has, if anything, has got worse. However, for RTS fans
starved of major releases, PC fans
increasingly abandoned for exclusive IPs and, of course, Starcraft fans in
their millions, HotS is a massive slice of expertly crafted, beautifully
balanced and totally tactical gameplay.
Source: Mike Anderiez www.guardian.co.uk
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