So I’ve been playing SC2 for about a week and I can’t quite get the hang of it. But I do know that RTS games have a pretty big learning curve. (I never played the original Starcraft.)
So far in the beta, the only part of the game available to play is multiplayer. Playing through the storyline is probably what I’d like more. Blizz has implemented a new system through their Battle.net site to allow SC2 to search for players, which is kind of like the battlegroup based search for cross-realm PUGs in WOW. So I’ve not had to wait very long in queue to play any of my matches, which is nice. Coincidentally, I’ve not had to play each match very long to have my butt kicked. Perhaps the reasoning behind only having multiplayer content available is to work out kinks in the Battle.net system and make sure its running smooth before moving on to the next phase. I, for one, am anxious to see the storyline component.
There also won’t be any LAN play in SC2, a fact that some people, including Hitler, are pretty upset about. (I promise this will be my last Hitler video.)
More later!
The reason you’re getting your ass handed to you is that, if you buy the game and play through the single-player campaign, you get perks and power-ups that allow you to be more effective… and those carry over into multi-player (whether there are MP-only perks and player advancements that you earn through winning there, I don’t recall). I can’t say I approve of this from a playmatching standpoint (though it would be fairly trivial to implement a “match players based on advancement” heuristic), but from the POV that the developers want people to actually play the entire game, and not just the multi-player, I can see why they’d encourage them to do so via this mechanism.
… annnnd, I just realized mis-read “SC2″ to mean “Supreme Commander 2″ not “StarCraft 2.” Nevermind….