Review: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

As a gamer, Tuesdays have always been special to me. New game releases, patches and new content for one’s I’ve been playing, and that inevitable queue when trying to get in to your WoW server… In the past people asked, “Where were you July 20th 1969, the day we put a man on the moon.” In the future we will ask, “Where were you July 27th 2010.” I’ll give you a hint where I was, it starts with ‘Gamesto.’ Yes that’s right I was on line with another 300 people at my local Gamestop waiting for a game that was more than a decade in the making Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty.

Starcraft in its base elements include 3 races: The Humans, Terrans. The super advanced Aliens, Protoss. And of course the ever evolving super primitive Aliens, Zerg. These three factions are constantly at war with each other and at some points even with themselves.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is a Real Time Strategy game based in the year 2502 the Koprulu Sector in its own galaxy. The story line follows a rugged and scruffy outlaw Jim Raynor and his attempt to over throw the reigning Dominion Emperor Arcturus Megnsk while trying to fend off the Protoss and the Zerg. With the help of some old friends and a few unlikely comrades you dive head first in to combat fighting off enemy after enemy in Raynor’s quest for peace and revenge.

Being available for the first time on Mac as well as PC, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty takes place merely 4 years after the original. The campaign is riddled with choices, and these choices effect how your story unfolds. Some choices even effect who is aligned with you and what happens with them.

The only downfall of this game is that the campaign does little to nothing for getting a willing participant ready for the multiplayer online play. While I adjusted fast because of my history of Starcraft, a hint for you all, if at first you don’t succeed rush your enemies base.

With numerous new units its miraculous that Blizzard managed to keep this game completely balanced, but again they managed to surprise us all and do it again. For the Terran how would you like a giant mech with capabilities to destroy whole bases with a blast from its 320mm cannons. For the Zerg how would you feel if I said you could have a unit not only regenerate a ridiculous amount of health while burrowed, but with the ability to move while burrowed! Last but not least the Protoss how would you like a ground unit so tall is can be hit by AA fire with the ability to cleave through your enemies ground forces from a distance. While this is only one new unit per race there are plenty more that were either changed or removed.

For those of us that beat the campaign, I know I did on the day it came out… playing it at work helped, fear not there will be another installment of Starcraft II sooner than you think!! Yes, that’s right ladies and gentleman the brilliant minds at Activision Blizzard split Starcraft II in to three installments, Wings of Liberty is only the first of them. Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm is the next one on the list, and the Final piece would be Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void.

Special thanks to Brian Rains for the article.

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