StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty – Review

Reviews of Starcraft 2 usually begin by delving into its rich history, about how it’s a game of 12 years coming, and how the original Starcraft is Korea’s national pasttime (okay it’s not, but it’s really huge if you read up on it) but in the end all you care about is if Starcraft 2 is any good. If you’re not one of the 1.5 million people who purchased the game within its first two days of release, what are you waiting for?

By all means you do not need to have played the original Starcraft and know the well established story of the original to thoroughly enjoy Starcraft 2. You will soon be familiar with all the characters and the back story, to the point you can’t wait to hear what each character has to say next after you’ve completed each mission. Everyone has excellent dialogue exchanges among one another and the game features superb voice acting to back it all up.

Starcraft 2 uses a hub style system in which you simply click a character when you’re not on a mission, and an in-game cut-scene will take place advancing the story, new dialogue options added on after each successful mission you complete. The system works very well, streamlining the process of how the game unfolds the story before you.

The story itself is pretty self-contained, though getting a bit too vast in its lore at times as it delves into mumbo-jumbo prophecy nonsense and an overseeing force from left-field I really could have done without, but overall a highly satisfying story nonetheless. Good ending to boot, well in my opinion. Don’t forget this is only one-third of the original storyline they have planned out, as the Zerg and Protoss stories have yet to be explored. Knowing Blizzard though, it’s going to take another couple of years until we get to play those campaigns.

RTS (Real Time Strategy) is a very intimidating genre of the videogame industry, and by all means it really is (you’re fooling yourself if you don’t think it is – some people even have a hard time on casual mode for crying out loud!) but Starcraft 2 does a really good job in making the game accessible by providing the incredibly easy casual mode option. No fret if you can’t keep track of a million things at once, casual mode eases the pain! Though it dumbs down the game to a level I think negates a lot of the hard work Blizzard did in designing the single player campaign, it gives players a chance of beating the game with their sanity and hair intact.

Getting into Starcraft 2 itself, this is without a doubt your bread and butter Real Time Strategy game. While other games have separated themselves from the template of what Starcraft 1 had established, Starcraft 2 remains loyal to both itself and its many fans that have played it for … well … forever, and it still works. Sure there are minor refinements here and there and overall improvements in usability and accessibility, but Starcraft 2 remains down to its core the same game its original laid down 12 years ago.

Starcraft 2 down to its basics simply involves building up your economy by collecting minerals and vespene gas, building units, and completing the mission objectives. It’s everything in between that really shines.

Blizzard has done a fantastic job in making sure every mission is unique, having you carry out a variety of mission objectives within each mission, everything from: stopping a well-defended run-away train, defending your base from a continuous onslaught of infested Terrans during the night and heading out in the safety of the day, to racing against the clock as the map is gradually consumed by a wall of flames, requiring you to move your base every couple of minutes into enemy territory.

Starcraft 2′s campaign was structured so that each mission introduces you to a new unit, whether it be the always entertaining to use tank, the one-time use Diamond Back (seriously you don’t need this unit outside of the mission it’s introduced in), cloaked Banshees, or the fun hit-and-run reapers (you don’t need these either outside of the mission their involved in). The design of the game keeps you on your toes as you progressively figure out which units counter what, which unit is best to use in this and that situation, and which combination of units you just like to play with. The combination of different objectives and a new unit in each mission really helps make sure you don’t feel as though you’re doing the same thing over and over as you play through the game’s 29 missions.

You can take part in missions in any order you wish as they are made available to you. What mission you tackle on first does play a role in how easy later missions become, as sometimes in one play through of the campaign you may not have so and so unit to use in your army because haven’t played that mission yet to get them.

As you progress further and further into the campaign, you’re given Protoss and Zerg tech trees, where you can alter and enhance how the single player campaign plays. For example, you can choose an upgrade that allows you to build two SCVs a time, have your mechanical units regenerate health, or even mind-control Zerg units if you wish.

In addition, as you earn credits via mission objectives and relic turn-ins, you are given access to the Armory where you can upgrade each new unit you acquire as you please, making them more efficient and unlocking new abilities for them. The combination of the Zerg / Protoss tech trees and Armory upgrades establish that sense of being a commander furthermore, allocating your limited resources (though it’s unlimited once you figure it out) to which units you like using the most.

I’m just going to comment that the game can screw you over in the last mission if you choose the “wrong upgrade”. I’ll just comment that choosing to go up against air in the last mission when you have Psi-emitters is a recipe for disaster and will lead to much, much frustration. By all means it’s still possible to beat, if you’re a masochist.

If you want to get the most value out of the single player campaign (and in the process unlock the multitude of in-game portraits), I highly suggest you strive to get all the achievements the game has to offer. In all honesty, Starcraft 2 is pretty damn short if you decide to just breeze through it, even worse if you just give up on yourself and choose the casual mode difficulty. Hell there’s even an achievement to beat the game in less than eight hours! That’s only one hour more than what a simple guest pass account gives you! Now, before you think to yourselves achievements are lame (to which I do agree), achievements in this game help strengthen the experience of the campaign itself. Achievements help you get better, think smarter, and actually appreciate the level designs and encounters more so than if you were playing on an easier difficulty setting as your units would steamroll anything the game would throw at you.

Sure some of the achievements will have you pulling your hair out, the main culprits the timed achievements, but overall I had fun getting them even if it meant I had to replay the entire campaign on brutal difficultly for the very, very sexy Sarah Kerrigan portrait. I’m telling you I’m a sucker for the unlockable female portraits. If you actually become bald from ripping your hair out though, there are plenty of videos on YouTube to ease the pain and enlighten you on the number of possible strategies available to beating any level of the campaign. In terms of replayability, Starcraft 2 has it.

Just a hint, you can beat the game with literally only marines and medics. There are obvious exceptions, but an upgraded marine / medic combination along with above-average control of your units can demolish the game even in Brutal mode.

Starcraft 2’s multiplayer is a different animal altogether. As with any competitive online game, Starcraft 2′s multiplayer takes some serious effort on your part if you want to advance your game and your skills to a higher tier of play. What does that mean? Well it means you have to do some research outside the game, visit the fan-sites for the latest trends, download and watch replays of top-level players to see how they play, their build orders, and their general strategies.

I’m not saying you have to go out and do what I just mentioned, but in reality you will eventually peak in your Bronze/Silver/Gold league, worse yet you’ll probably have a very limited understanding of what you’re even doing in the first place during a multiplayer match. You’re not going to learn anything from your replays if all you do is play against bad players with bad strategies for months on end.

The SC2 community is already huge and growing every day, multiple live streams of matches and tournaments on broadcast every hour of the day. The streams and commentary during matches are really fun to watch, even for non-gamers, so you may want to give it a try, and you will gradually learn something, I hope. I’m not going to promise you you’re not going to turn into a huge nerd if you start to like them though. In that regard I would highly recommend Day9’s stream.

Okay, enough of the loathsome elitism, luckily Starcraft 2 has a very good ladder system in place for all practical purposes for the first time Bronze SC2 player, to the top-level Diamond league pro. The game places you in a league (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Diamond) based on your first 5 placement match results. From then on the game will match you with opponents of your skill-level … I hope. You will be paired up against opponents of higher or lower skill level to make sure you meet a 50% win / loss ratio.

One problem with the Battle.net 2.0 experience is that there are no chat rooms, though Blizzard commented that they are working on it. The multiplayer at times feels quite lonesome despite the “There are 1,000,000 players on Battle.net” statistic on your screen. Matches can go on with players not speaking a single word between each other. Not even the obligatory “gl, hf” (Good luck, have fun) at the beginning of the match. Chat rooms are useful in finding opponents of your skill level to practice with instead of playing against random opponents every time. Chat rooms also help establish friendships and clans or whatever you want to call them, fostering a sense of community inside the game, not just outside on the message boards.

Since this is the internet after all, don’t be shocked if you come across bad mannered players. Just shrug it off, you lose the moment you try to smack talk a 12-year-old anyway … unless you humiliate them on a live-stream for thousands to watch in a 1v1 game.

Oh, please don’t bother with the 50 practice league games. These games are played under different settings than what real league matches are played with. Trust me, it’s better to just lose your first five placement matches if you’re new and stick yourself in Bronze and get some real practice under real game settings.

Did I mention that all the “cool” units of the single player campaign aren’t included in the multiplayer game for the sake of balance? You liked building that Firebat all the time, or Goliaths during the campaign? Sorry, it’s excluded from multiplayer. No mercenary units, no instant supply depots, and even no medics! Just thought I would mention that as I’m pretty sure most if not all the first time Starcraft 2 players will begin their first match not knowing that’s the case.

Overall … Starcraft 2 is a very good game and you like very good games don’t you? So pick up this very good game today!

Rating: 5/5