The adrenaline, the ego-boost of apparent mastery of that finely-tuned machine: I want that. I have put limited hours into StarCraft II multiplayer, but (after initial cynicism towards it) I can see the appeal even if I don't have the time/resolve at present. It is, in the here and now at least, very much what I wanted from a formula which can so often seem exhausted.
This is less real-time strategy game, and more a game about roleplaying as the Zerg, as the Aliens, as the Tyranids, as the Flood, as every implacable hivemind menace there ever was, unbound. With a shrug, Heart of the Swarm's campaign repeatedly says "sure, have it your way" and bestows ultimate power upon you, offered under a thin veneer of actual strategy. It means what StarCraft lore tells us the Zerg are like, that indefatigable tidal wave of chitinous, chittering horror, and not the infinitely more tactical, vulnerable experience of fielding them as a multiplayer force.
Here, power fantasy means commanding an immense, innumerable army of uncommonly destructive aliens as it tears apart anything that isn't nailed down. The phrase 'power fantasy' gets bandied around this place often, but really it's shorthand for 'being a faceless man who's allowed to shoot any and everyone with a large selection of automatic weaponry.' That's nothing compared to StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.
This time around, the stars are hiveminded alien nasties the Zerg and their sometime ruler Sarah Kerrigan, seeking a comeback and revenge after the events of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. No throwaway side-dish, this is a vast, bubbling, consciously epic, setpiece-filled cauldron of scifi RTS-RPG. It probably won't come as any shock to learn that none of the current RPS team have gone the distance in StarCraft II's incomparable multiplayer, but I can at least tell you what I made of the expansive singleplayer campaign in its first expansion, Heart of the Swarm.
0 kommentar(er)
