Cantina abord your capital ship that you can interact with. Notice the dancing Night Elf?

The title says it all.  I’ve spent the entire day playing the campaign (not even near finished) and I can’t put it down.  Blizzard has taken the RTS model that they already mastered — and were leading in the industry — and innovated on top of it and reset the bar even further out of anyone’s reach.

I’ll spoil absolutely nothing about the story here so worry not.  What I want to talk about is how Blizzard has inserted between missions this hub-like area where you see characters rendered as full models (like a MMO, if you will) and you can click on various things in the room.  I have no idea how to describe this type of interaction but imagine if you will a room where things are interactive by… clicking on them.  Okay I’m repeating myself.  Just look at the screenshot on the right.

These intractable areas are full of things to do like interact with characters, view the next missions, and the best part is that you get to customize.  Your play-through of SC2 might be different than mine.  You get to upgrade units and buildings, buy upgrades from a skill ladder, and choose the order to complete many missions.  Graev did his so different from mine that he had Vikings on a level where you have to defend a base and I had siege tanks and special turrets.  He unlocked his vikings by playing a different level first.

The Campaign is so very, very different from multiplayer.  I lost count at around 20 things that are not in multiplayer.  (SPOILER: Firebats, Medics, Goliaths) and a slew of other completely unique vehicles and building upgrades.  Why these were left out of multiplayer baffles me.  Some of them are so friggin’ amazing. You even get to buy mercenaries that you can purchase to help you during missions.

Blizzard has taken the RTS elements of the game so much further by personalizing the experience and attaching you more to the characters by having you feel like you’re apart of what goes on behind the scenes.  The story unfolds around you instead of in front of you.  As for the story itself, I’m grinning ear to ear just thinking about how awesome it is so far.  Yes, I’m gushing about it.

The achievement system worked in better than I thought.  Bonus objectives and various actions you take just while playing will reward you.  Achievements do add a layer of depth by providing you an alternative way of completing the missions.  Sometimes I don’t check the achievements and just finish the level just to find out that if I had done it differently or maybe tried just a tad harder to protect a particular building that I would have gotten an achievement for it.

Blizzard’s easter eggs are quite funny too.  I’ve found several WoW, a Pirates of the Caribbean, Office Space, and various pop culture references.

A++ on the campaign, Blizzard.  This was such an amazing purchase that I feel strongly will be my game of the year and I haven’t even touched the Multiplayer yet!

PS: Why doesn’t Blizzard take this engine that they’re using to render cutscenes and these interaction areas and create a game with it?  It would make for a phenomenal RPG or something.  The graphics are gorgeous and the game runs so well.

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