I started up the Starcraft 2 campaign again. I originally wanted to play more endless variations of the "Startion" custom map, but I avoided that trap successfully with a little help. One, I just came off wasting time in a very similar manner with Age of Empires 3, and two, its much harder to play custom maps now, due to various updates of the SC2 engine. I think I could get it running, but the SC2 game setup menu is so crude and slow I lose patience enough to break free, and try and do something more useful.
So I play the campaign instead. Its been long enough, and the first expansion for SC2 is on the horizon, so why not refresh the memory, and see if its still fun. And it is, because of all the little touches that go into it, that Blizzard is well known for. My favorite is the time in-between maps where you get to hang out, upgrade your equipment, research new technologies, interact with other characters, and learn more about the story and the setting. I like it a lot, I wish the game spent more time there, but then this would be an adventure or RPG, and not an RTS.
I wonder what that would be like to play a sim of commanding an army, instead of actually doing all the clicking yourself, and just watching it play out from above, on board the Hyperion. I liked the mechanics of the Sims games, but there's little if any consequence, and I get bored. I remember when Blizzard shoe-horned RPG elements into Warcraft 3, but it felt clumsy. I enjoy the epic feel of a good long RTS campaign, but I like this experimentation with genre cross-over, and hope to see some more of it.
