EPTThe game is fun, and that hasn't changed at all from the first game to now. It's even more fun when playing on a very good computer with fast internet. Installed it at a friends place the other day and got to play on maxed settings, was quite nice. While I don't mind low settings, if anything I almost prefer it (although maxed settings is nice), there's still a bit of delay in my commands in the game, a combination of my laptop and the internet. I was glad to find out that delay goes away on a faster computer/internet.
So the game is fun, but there are still certain things that I'm noticing that bother me. For one, there's definitely the feeling of having less control over units. In broodwar, the units were idiots. They needed to be told to do everything, and it required the precision and speed to micro them so they were as efficient and effective as they can be. In SC2, while there is micro, there's a lot of added AI features/coding/whatever that takes away from those subtle things we all did in broodwar.
Things like auto-surround or target firing with tanks to spread their damage. You can still do these things, but a lot of the times it will end up hurting more than helping. That bugs me a lot, because I really enjoyed having the control over my units to have them do what I want, and if I lose a battle/the game it's because my lack of control.
Maybe coming at it from broodwar experience is more of a hindrance than a blessing, since I automatically want to do everything, and most of the time the game does it efficiently right off the bat (hello autosplit). There are still ways to micro, but it doesn't quite feel right, maybe in time it won't feel that way but for now it's just not quite how I would like it to be.
It is nice with the improved ai, for instance pathing is way better, as units don't fuck each other in the ass when they move into a small choke. Workers do what they are told and scvs repair is much better. I don't know if the things I am a little hesitant about right now will be changed, if they can be, since it is a bit counterintuitive to want dumber ai so you can have more control over them, but I think in some areas it's needed.
Onto terran specific opinions, since they are still the only race I've played. My first games were playing a lot of bio, than I moved into factory units, than starport, than a mix of bio/mech, mech/air etc. I've done a lot of openings with different timings, unit compositions and my game plans.
I'd say that bio is way to overused currently, because it is the only effective way to play an early aggression game. Reactors allow marines to be pumped rather quickly, and throw in a few marauders and bam you can go poke around. So to avoid falling into the stale trap of always going bio, I play every other build I can. There's less potential for early aggression, which is a style I prefer, but terran can turtle really well and pushing out with a nice mid-game army works wonders.
Despite not having something like warp-ins or nydus worms, terran can be really mobile on a smaller scale. Reapers are fast, especially early on. Build a few, maybe grab their speed upgrade and poke around in the enemy base. Run back and camp at a position you can watch the enemy move from. Once they move out, go back into their base and do some damage. Hellions are fast, but harder to get into the main for scouting/worker harass, but that's okay. They rape the shit out of workers at an expansion. Medivacs are the best transport ship of the three races (okay i'm biased), as they move fast and can heal bio units. They drop fast/pick up fast, so you can fly in, do some damage and fly out. Or move out with your army, push some than pick up and take out an expansion. There's a lot of mobility with them, since every ground unit can be picked up.
I'm having the most difficulty finding ways to effectively play vs. a protoss without doing a bio build. Even bio can be tough, if you get caught off guard, one collosus will destroy a ton of shit. TvZ, I find, tends to be easier to handle. Planetary and bunkers is easily enough to handle early pressure/rushes (depending on the map ofc). Banelings can be a bitch, but there's no issue in spamming bunkers or depots to block and soak as much damage as possible. Bunkers can be salvaged and depots can be lowered so there's no obstruction to troop movement later on.
TvT is by far the easiest to play since I've only played as terran. Bio builds, such as a fast marine/marauder attack, or (if they are silly) fast reapers, are both very easy to stop by just teching up fast enough. I've had a ton of success in getting fast vikings and marauders. Having that fast starport makes a huge difference, as does the factory. A bio attack can be hard to stop, but if you hold it off you're in a great position. If they attack and fail you can instantly expand and send your vikings to harass, or snipe air units when they come out.
Anyway, I can see a lot of potential for the game as long as blizzard is willing to do necessary changes in time. I'm willing to wait and see how the game goes for the next month or so, and where it will be in that time. It's fun, and can be competitive. Will it reach broodwar status? Maybe not, there may be too much riding against it for that to happen, but hopefully blizzard can polish it up to be a solid rts that has a strong scene that goes longer than a year or two.
