First I tried a few games against random people and right away went 4-0. Only the first game was challenging, where I still did not grasp the game and it seemed my opponent must have been either a Brood War or WarCraft player. Battles went back and forth over the map, but once I got up lurker tech it was hopeless for him, since he had no tanks my hydralurker combo owned him badly. Then I walked away from there for a while since it said, after each game, "your time has expired, please leave the computer for someone else" or something like that. Later on I noticed that it didn't really matter since there were always free computers anyway.

The 16 computers were good, but sometimes it lagged slightly, not so that it ruined any games but it just struck me as funny that Blizzard had placed computers there that lagged when trying to show off their game. Perhaps they had not picked the computers themselves, and most likely StarCraft II was running on the highest possible graphics. But still! It was well run though, neighbouring World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Blizzard used the same personel for both games after what I could tell. I chatted some with a Blizz representative named Stephanie (I think? I suck with names) who I had met at a previous DH when I represented GosuGamers, told her that the game was above expectations and apparently I was not the only one who had told her that before, but that it was not without problems still. I thought the graphics were really nice actually.

I hear from some admins there that they were running a King of the Hill for StarCraft II, which sounded interesting. Tried to sign up, but the next available challenger slot was at 02.30 AM. Yay. I would later manage to sneak in anyway, due to someone not showing up on his time and then first beat the reigning king and then get my own ass royalle spanked in, what I would argue at least, was a clear classic BO loss! Playing some Return from GG.net I would also get better games, going straight 0-2! And the former KotH who I had beaten before another 1-1 (apparently dual gate still owns Zerg FE).

Overall it was well organised and fun.

It took my about 5 minutes to get used to the graphics, before that it was hard to even distinguish the drones around my hatchery. But after those 5 minutes, I could start to take it in. My first impression was that this was above my expectations (and believe me they were high!) and that this was impressive. An old Brood War player will feel pretty at home, as long as he enters with an open mind and realises that this is a new game. Gameplay was fast paced and seemed to give you lots of alternative routes, and lots of things to do. SC II is not WarCraft III in space, this is StarCraft II in its own right, and it does indeed feel like a natural sequel to StarCraft: Brood War.

There were still things that annoyed me (and I will take them up later), but nothing that in any way destroyed the feeling of the game. Some of them I am hopeful that Blizzard will adress, some I don't think so. But overall, it doesn't really matter to overall gameplay.

Yes, you've seen lots of screen shots and gameplay videos, but playing the game is a different thing.

First of there has been concerns that the graphic is too bright, or that the units look too much like toys. Playing the game, however, it all felt just right. It felt down worn and dirty, especially on the darker tilesets of maps (it looked kinda like a mix between twilight and badlands), but the brighter jungle tileset felt nicer to the eyes. But the units, buildings and map backgrounds felt nice.

Another thing that has been taken up a lot if death animations, that they are too long and flashy. They are longer and flashier than in Brood War, but I noticed no problem with this. When you're in a battle you focus so you will notice what is going on just like in BW. It's really not a problem at all. Neither did I notice any too flashy attack animations or similar that took blurred or took away focus from what was happening.

I really got nothing bad to say about the graphics. They were simply good and well made.

Some people have raised concerns that units move too well, that they are too smooth. And that that would result in the micro that has sprung from the mechanical limiatations of Brood War would not exist in StarCraft II. I've always thought this was weird, because how can you intentionally include such limitations in a game? They were not there intentionally in prequel, and neither should they have been here. And they were not. And still micro could be done in impressive ways, after what I percieved.

However some units felt wierd controlling. I did not like how the Zerglings or Mutalisks acted when I tried to give them commands from time to time.

The Zergling AI hindered me sometimes, it felt like. When targetting a single unit, they would run in strange patterns to reach their goal, if they at all did. It seemd like they tried frantically to not get separated from their group, which also made it very hard to surround attack a smaller group of units. If you clicked right behind the enemy group, you expect the to divide and run on both sides of them and then implode on the enemy when I give the attack command. Instead they would all try to fit in on one side to not get separated. Perhaps this is just a learning thing, and I want to point out that Zerglings were in now way hard to micro, but wierd things could happen from time to time. Also, Zerglings were often hard to keep count of. I once thought I had tree zerglings running, then I selected those three and noticed it was in fact six.

The Mutalisks were clumsy. That's the best word for it. I did not expect Brood War mutalisk micro, expecting that the mechanic would be exactly the same would be foolish. But I did expect them to be fast and agile. They are not. They have two problems as of now:
First, it takes for ever for them to accelerate. Meaning of you do a turn or an attack or anything than flying in a straight line they are slow as hell.
Second, sometimes I would order them to make a turn to go somewhere else, and they would instead end up on a slightly different spot from where I ordered them to go to! This never happened in battle, but often when I was testing to micro them in the open.
They are still a potent and mobile weapon, but this unit needs some work.

Also I noticed whit my hydras, and probably for other slightly larger units too, that it took time for them to turn around when I told them to move or change direction. This is annoying and adds an unecessary latency to all commands. It looks good for sure, but it hinders good swift and split second reaction micro.

Apart from these units (and often with the Zerglings too) micro was a pleasure, and definetly lived up to hopes and expectations.

Here I will adress the good old discussion about MBS, automining and the gas mechanic, and some other smaller stuff. This is from what I percieved, and not a general truth.

First out the MBS. This actually felt natural and did not oversimplify macro as so many have feared. This is partly due to how it's been changed that you have to press once for every unit you want to build. It works like this, if you want to build 5 marines and got 5 Barracks hotkeyed on 4, you press 4mmmmm and you will get one marine produced in each Barrack, it will automaticly build in the Barrack with the shortest que. Same thing for Protoss, and for Zerg. With Zerg, if you wanted to build 5 hydras from your hatcheries, and you had the hatcheries boud on 0, you would press 0shhhhh. However, one problem here: With T and P it would automaticly choose the building with the shortest que, with Zerg it would not choose the hatchery with the most larvae. This should be fixed, since larvae economy is a part of Zerg macro.
What made macroing harder was that you still had to use different hotkeys for your production facilities. For example, if you add different addons for different Terran buildings would have to hotkey them separately to be able to build all your available units. And with zerg you still want to hotkey some hatcheries separately to be able to quicker jump to those locations.
Overall, MBS works well and does have a place in StarCraft II. I don't think it should be removed.

Automining however. I don't like it. It's not a big issue though, but overall I don't like it. It's simply too simple to just hotkey Command Center, Nexus or even the Hatchery (as it has a special worker rally point, which is good from a balance point of view as of now), set rally on minerals and keep constant production. It wasn't an as big of an issue as I thought it would be though, as you still had lots of other things to do (or perhaps that was just me trying to read out the requirements for each tech building?) with microing and building and, yes, macroing. Because you still have to put an effort in to macro.

And finally the gas mechanic. It's annoying. It doesn't ruin anything really, but it's just annoying hearing a BEEP BEEP everytime it goes offline and online. Sure, it creates an interesting aspect but it's too annoying. Blizzard said they try to put in cool stuff and units. Well this is not cool in any way. if it's done to make macro harder, just remove automining instead. Another problem is writing BOs with this annoying stuff. It will make BO writing for tech builds annoying and complex, instead of easy and practical as it is today. I know that might not be Blizzard's top priority to make functional, but still. Just remove this. It just annoys player. Sure, I can play with it and it doesn't ruin the game feeling in any way, but it's a small annoying that just feels forced.

Those were the big issues. Some other cool info on macro. It feels like mineral lines get saturated with workers really quickly, compared to Brood War. This creates and interesting effect: You gather minerals really quickly right away, but at a quite early point you will notice that you HAVE to expand to make money flow faster. This is probably because workers gather minerals quicker, so you don't really increase mining speed much by adding more workers after you have like 1.5 per patch. Forcing players to expand like or go for aggression should put an interesting spin to macro! I like it!

Overall macro works good as it is now, but it's one of the aspects of the game that isn't perfect yet and needs to be slightly rethought. It is no way smaller part of the game than before though and neither is it dumbed down the level that your mother can grasp it right away (like someone thought before on our forums). But here we have the major stuff that needs adressing.

Competitive play and strategic depth. From the little I could see from 11 games it was really good. Almost all my games ended early though, due to me not knowing what I was doing or my opponents not knowing what they were doing. Or just me being gosu and owning them. We all lacked solid standard builds, which made us all open to attacks at several points, and when both players are playing to win it makes the games pretty short. Perhaps I should have tried a classic 20min no rush plz! for old times and sake to be able to explore the tech tree some.

However I really got the feeling that this was on par with Brood War in all aspects of competition. I only scratched the surface, sure, but it FELT deep. It was quick, fast paced. Once I got rushed and killed, once I made a big micro mistake in the middle of the map and lost half my army in an instand, once I got hopelessly medivac harassed do death (medivac works like drop ships for Terran). It's quick, brutal, mobile and effective. It actually felt like a more mobile and fast paced game than Brood War, and this coupled together with the macro that will make you try to expand earlier or go for more aggression, it will make things interesting.

Of course, we will not know how the meta game will develop and how deep this game REALLY is until it's been played for years. If it still, 8 years after release, produces new strategies then it's as good as Brood War. Until then we won't know. But it felt that good!

Just some funny stuff I noticed when playing.

It appears not all units have their own sounds yet. For example roaches seemed to have the same sound as Zerglings from Brood War (this kept me confused when I built them, as I thought lings spawned from the sound I heard).

I saw Jump from good old CDS) getting destroyed several times. I also heard he got beaten in a KotH match. And since I beat the one who must've beaten him, or at least something like that long down the line, that must mean I'm better than Jump at SC II! Right..?

You can set rally points for specific eggs now! That's cool! And handy for scoutin drones without having to change your automining rally point.

I once got owned in ZvZ by mass roach when I went hydras. Then I tried mass roach when I saw my opponent go hydras. And got owned again. It felt complex and left me some stuff to think about...

I'm just gonna be a bore in the last part and summarise what I think should change.

Remove automining and the gas mechanic. It will make macro not a lot harder, but it will remove at least one VERY annoying element from this game. Shutting down gas.

Units must do exacly what you tell them to do. Zerglin AI should be looked over (and other AI for similar units, if there are similar issues). Mutalisks must be agile again and move where you tell them to! And units should respond immideately instead of slow turning animations when changing directions.

Very often it's hard to see how many Zerglings you have. It's almost like some of them are stacked on top of each other. You need to be able to clearly see what is going on, and this hinders it.

Zerg hatcheries also need a system where larvae from the hatcheries with most larvae are used for production first, just like Protoss and Terran has where units are automaticly built in the building with the shortest que.