None of the hundreds of gamers playing Starcraft II look in any way confused by it. Sure, this is a roomful of Blizzard fans - half of these guys have grown up with Starcraft. Nevertheless, to see not a single furrowed brow as a vast number of folk play a new game for the first time is an extraordinary thing. 'Starcraft' has become a by-word for 'hardcore', but what we keep forgetting is that, for all the pro-gaming trappings, this is a Blizzard game. Accessibility is all - anyone can play Starcraft II.
Playing it well is another matter entirely. While the original Starcraft wasn't designed with pro-gaming in mind, SCII is designed to be heavily competitive from the off. It isn't an idler's game, and it makes this startlingly apparent. It doesn't ever nag or push, but in every moment when you're not building or attacking the game feels weirdly static, and with that is a sense of guilt. SCII's toylike battlefields are supposed to be busy, ever-moving, explosive. If they're not, if feels wrong – because you're doing it wrong. The bright, cartoon colors and familiar interface suggest an RTS for casual players (and a quick game against easy AI proves newbies will indeed be able to slip into Starcraft II), but there's no mistaking that it really only comes alive in the hands of a seasoned player.
This isn't just nostalgia talking. Remain in birds' eye view – or at least as far out as the rather extreme close-up camera will allow – and SCII doesn't look like a hugely distinctive affair. Zoom in and the little details change everything – the way Overseers pour Creep (that aforementioned grey goo) onto the terrain from unmentionable orifices in this vile, splashing torrent, the pulsing of the pustular buildings, the ceaseless twitching of the Zerg lava. There's something inherently artificial about Starcraft – it's very much based on inflexible rules – and yet it manages to feel so much more alive than its peers. Smatterings of destructible scenery add to the sense this is a real place. A rock cluster's impeding our drones' progress to a tempting nodule of Minerals; in other games that area would either be inaccessible or would require a painfully long-way-round hike. Here, we just set a bunch of slathering Hydralisks onto it, and the road's clear in no time.
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