At long last. 12 years is a veritable desert between releases, but, finally, it’s here. The long-awaited, feverishly-anticipated sequel to the massively popular Blizzard title, was released globally on 27th July. And the good news? Blizzard, wisely, did not mess with the formula too much. In fact, just enough, is the consensus of response and reviews from the gaming world.

Four years after the Brood War devastated the Koprulu sector, most of the superficial damage has been repaired – but the true wounds still run deep, and far away from human eyes, the zerg’s final metamorphosis has just begun…

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The three races which were a feature of the original, the Terrans, the zerg and Protoss are still the protagonists, and the game has not changed enough in execution, to warrant jabbering on about. To wit:

“In almost all scenarios, you start with a command centre and a few worker units with which to mine resources – in this case diamond-like minerals and vespine gas. You use these to construct buildings, which in turn produce military units. You then use said military units to blow the enemy into its component atoms before tapping out one of many fine ‘noob’ based insults you’ve been working on. Happy days.”

The big kick is in how much more refined the strategies are, and how absolutely uniquely, the three races of StarCraft play. The Zerg feel more evil and biological, the Protoss – telepathic, telekinetic and smug.

Of course, StarCraft plays best in multiplayer mode. Blizzard’s new gaming portal, Battle.Net, is where this happens – you can’t even play the single player campaign without registering for a Battle.Net account – It all happens there. Yay for uncapped Internet in SA!

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If you haven’t already, you should rush out and grab your copy from your local Incredible Connection store. At R529.99, it’s a price worth paying. This title as been one of the most anticipated of all time, and the boys and girls at Blizzard had quite some pressure to perform. Kudo’s to them, they aced it.

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