Video Game Review: Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty

Written by Lee Clifford Tuesday, 27 July 2010 13:54

written by Lee Clifford

Starcraft, a real-time strategy PC game that took elements of it's big brother, Warcraft, and threw it into a sci-fi space epic.

To date, Starcraft is still one of the most highly played online strategy games and is a staple of LAN parties everywhere; not bad for a game released in 1998.

Here we are now, 12 years later, and one of the most anticipated and demanded sequels in the history of gaming can be held in our grubby little paws: Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty.

Oh yes, the nerdgasms will be endless tonight.

If I tried to give a "brief history" of Starcraft, I would still need half the article. honestly just wiki it and read the story of this multi-layered sci-fi odyssey to save yourself some time, all you need to know is that this is a sequel that does not disappoint....(read more to continue)

Story
In Starcraft 2, you play the role of Jim Raynor, a sheriff turned outlaw in a futuristic Robin Hood-esque sense. As a freedom fighter in a campaign to overthrow an oppressive colonial government, Jim has become a kind of a hero of the people, but his dark past, the events of the first Starcraft, still haunt him.

As Raynor continues his crusade to free the people, unfriendly familiar faces begin to return; namely, the alien race known as The Zerg. This brutally vicious alien race has returned to wage war on humanity, which means it's only a matter of time before the other alien race, the enigmatic Protoss, will return as well.

I really like the main character of Raynor, he has a real western gunslinger motif about him, even his theme music is unmistakeably western; he reminds me of John Marston of Red Dead Redemption and there is nothing wrong with that! He's a "man of the people" type hero that is commonplace in traditional stories, but he has that dark side that keeps him from being flawless, add the agony of a lost love to the mix and you have a very enjoyable multi-layered character.

Starcraft is arguably Blizzard Entertainment's deepest and most well rounded story, yes Warcraft has an entire world, but very little pulls the gamer into the emotional experience the same as Starcraft has to offer. My mini s ynopsis above doesn't even chip the paint of what's going on in this volatile universe, but I don't want to spoil too much for you. The story has aspects that are hardly new, but it's told in a way that gives a real solid experience; add in the wonderfully made characters who will suck the gamers in and make them care, and this is a tale that can and will trigger many emotions from its audience.

Gameplay
It's a standard issue Blizzard "Craft" game: build your area up, amass an army, invade or defend against an enemy army. Minus a few escort missions and a few other tasks to change it up a bit, Starcraft does not deviate from what the gamers know and love; except for the fact that now the gamer will be controlling the largest number of troops and units at one time ever!

Seriously, I was grinning like an idiot as I realized how many units I could control at one while I just continued to add more and more to my forces.

Another great feature are the varying difficulty levels, allowing for the hardest of hardcore and the casualest of noobs *cough cough* to be able to all enjoy this gaming experience.

Controls
Blizzard has polished RTS controls to a pinnacle others can only hope to reach, and they didn't try to fix what wasn't broken. Any gamer with experience playing the Starcraft or Warcraft series will pick these controls up very quickly. Gamers that are new to the series may find a bit of a learning curve, but the tutorials are thorough and will leave you with all you need to know by the time you're ready to saddle up for the first mission.

Sound
The sound effects are undeniably tech sci-fi greatness, everything sounds how you would expect it to sound if you were imagining this world.

The music is also wonderful. Starcraft can't rely on the sweeping orchestral epics of Warcraft, so instead gives the player huge electronic scores that capture all the emotions and urgency of the missions, building when things are getting hairy, and then calming when skirmishes are over only to sweep into a huge climax at the next big clash.

Graphics
When I first booted up Starcraft 2 on my Mac mini, I jacked those graphics as high as they could go and was ready to be immersed in an incredibly beautiful and lifelike experience.

Sadly my computer, despite it's amped up graphics capabilities, could only handle so much. It ran the "ultra" graphics setting, but was slow and took away from the experience. I decided to play it safe and bump the graphics down to medium and the game still looks wonderful. Lush vegetation and dead wastelands look incredibly good and has gone far above and beyond Blizzard's past graphic achievements.

Gamers with the graphics settings so tricked out and overclocked that the energy of their computer could power a small village are going to be in for a treat if they can run the ultra settings of the graphics smoothly, but for the rest of us, high and medium settings still look terrific.

Online
It's Starcraft, this is going to be the new staple of online and LAN gaming for probably another decade.

Flaws
There aren't many, at this time the only issues I've encountered is the rather long install time (it is 12 gigs, so you might want to go make a sandwich while it installs) and in the Cantina of your ship there's an arcade game in the corner: don't play it until the first patch has come out, trying to play it caused my game to crash three times.

Not bad if the only flaws I've encountered is a one-time install, and a small issue that will no doubt be fixed within the next day or two.

Final Thoughts
This is a must-have PC game. I'm not much of a computer gamer (I do own a Mac after all) but this game has sucked me in just like the old Blizzard contributions and will likely leave my XBox and Wii gathering dust for a while.

Sorry Warcraft 3, but you've just been overthrown as my go-to computer game, Starcraft 2 is here and it's leaving everything else in the dust.