half-life, opfor, blue shift. can't go wrong with any of them. some people knock blue shift because it's a bit short, but that doesn't mean it's bad. playing the starcraft 2 campaign so i can start getting used to the way the game controls/plays before eventually jumping into 1v1's online. i did not like the campaign in starcraft 1, but i did really enjoy the campaign of warcraft 3. basically, from what ive played thus far (about 6ish missions in) it's pretty good. there's a good chunk of stuff you simply can't do in a standard multiplayer game. ill try and break it down.
-mission objectives other than destroying the enemy. this is expected, it's campaign.
-units unavailable in multiplayer. when i say multiplayer, i don't mean custom maps where you have access to anything. few examples, terrans do not get medics or firebats in a standard game, they are quickly available in the campaign, as well as a bunch of other stuff.
-completing side objectives can (depending on the objective) grant you zerg or protoss research points (possibility of the dominion terran research later down the road). these are essentially used in talent trees. a screenshot will easily explain this, so let me go take that...
as you see, they come in bunches of two, and give you a bonus of some sort. so far in the game i have the first zerg one. when you pick one, the other is greyed out as you can only pick one per tier. probably going to do a mission (you somewhat get to pick the order in which you do things) which gives toss research points so i can get that first upgrade. i have the screen at automated refinery because i thought it was pretty neat.
-you gain money from missions used to upgrade units/buildings as well as hire mercs. mercs are essentially "elite" versions of normal units in varrying numbers that you can buy a certain time into the game. first one is 4 elite marines for 225 minerals, they are pretty goddamn beefy, but you can't hire them until 5 minutes of the game have elapsed, they are "built" out of a building specific for mercs.
-there's the typical story/character interaction stuff, feels a bit adventure gamey, without really being that in any way at all. if you watched the campaign demonstration a few blizzcons back, it's like they showed.
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the lost viking. it's an arcade machine in the cantina which you can play, pretty tongue and cheek, and surprisingly fun. i got to TERA TRON(think giant robot made out of terran buildings) before i fucked up and died.
anything else?
well i really enjoyed the last mission i played. pretty neat going from place to place hitting up all of the minerals, avoiding lava death, and keeping the zerg at bay while trying not to spend the money needed to beat the mission all on units. after completing it, i said i hoped there would be more like it, and the next mission that dude gave me was a gas mining mission with a different twist to it, looking forward to that.
and that's just the few hours ive played of the campaign. there's the obvious ladder multiplayer, custom maps, there's challenge missions, a stupid amount of achievements, pictures/decals to unlock. feeling like a complete package, save for the "this is the first game of 3" thing...which i will give you my opinion of that after i get through more of the campaign, because so far, it feels like they put some serious time into developing it.
*edit*
instead of reading my post, here's a quicker summary of the campaign.
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/campaign-overview-starcraft-ii/702131
