
In that context, I was incredibly excited for StarCraft II. My own experience with StarCraft stretches back to the launch of the original game in 1998, back when it was being somewhat derisively referred to as "Orcs in Space." I was never very good at the multiplayer, so I mainly focused on the single-player, which I found appealing because it was really the story of a woman who is abused and left for dead by a handful of power hungry men and ultimately returns to become the "Queen Bitch of the Universe."ĭepending on your point of view, Brood War's ending is a bit of a downer (Zerg win, Earth fleet destroyed, Raynor on the run), leaving the door open for a sequel. And having now wrapped up the campaign and spent some time with the multiplayer, I have to say that I'm feeling better than I expected. Instead, I'm more interested in discussing how I feel about it as a complete package.

In revisiting Heart of the Swarm though, it's not entirely my intention to harp on StarCraft's place in eSports, which has already been discussed ad nauseum in other places. StarCraft's pro scene lives on, but the community consists of a much smaller group of diehard holdouts. The best players have moved on or retired, and the fresh blood that should have taken their place has instead flowed into MOBAs. But like Kerrigan herself following Heart of the Swarm's rousing opening cinematic, StarCraft II is largely a spent force in the eSports scene. Protoss, which really only boiled down to one build order, became far more interesting in Heart of the Swarm. Previously moribund fights like Protoss vs.

More than a year later, StarCraft II's competitive game is indeed arguably more interesting than before, especially when broken down into individual matchups.
