Starcraft 2 a hit for PC gamers

By Jared Vaillancourt [creative writing bureau chief]

Starcraft 2: Wings Of Liberty is Blizzard’s long-overdue sequel to the award-winning and epically entertaining Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood Wars video games. However, instead of a standard strategy game where you command your units and hope for the best, Starcraft 2 has a role-playing aspect to it as well.

Anyone who’s played the original Starcraft knows the hero Jim Raynor, the Marshall-turned-freedom-fighter-turned-revolutionary/mercenary, who lost his Ghost assassin girlfriend Sarah Kerrigan to the alien Zerg. (And by “lost”, we mean she was infested by the Zerg and eventually ascended to their hive Queen to wreak havoc and terror on the peoples of the galaxy). While the player in the original game took on the persona of either the mysterious Magistrate, the horrific Cerebrate or the enigmatic Executor, Starcraft 2 puts you in Raynor’s shoes as you fight to bring down the oppressive Dominion that he inadvertently helped rise to power over the oppressive Confederacy (his good friend Magistrate reminds him of this as affectionately and often as possible).

The game itself is similar to the original Starcraft, except the units are 3D and the engine is greatly improved. You can upgrade units back aboard Raynor’s flagship Hyperion between missions, and the upgrades last the entire game. Each mission unlocks new units and research opportunities (upgrades that are uniquely derived from Zerg and Protos’s ingenuity) and grants the player money to either hire mercenaries to help on missions, or upgrade the in-mission units with powerful bonuses and abilities. Missions are also given to the player in a non-linear fashion, allowing each Starcraft 2 experience to be unique–although certain events are still bound to happen (the final invasion of Kerrigan’s fortress world of Char, for example). Some choices made before key missions also affect how Raynor’s friends react to him, either isolating certain individuals or earning him respect.

Players start each mission by fortifying their base and preparing their army for war. Some missions have unique objectives that require players to either destroy certain targets or protect key assets (there are only a few missions where you have to annihilate everything you see). Each unit you build has unique abilities, such as the Viking’s cool transformation sequence that turns it from a spiffy fighter jet into an awesome killer robot walker, or the Colossus’ great cliff-climbing skills. Everything in the game is faster, stronger and smarter – so much so, that playing slow, weak or dumb will result in death (as one would expect).

The story of the game is also a Blizzard classic. Raynor has been bar-ridden, wallowing in self-loathing for allowing the Dominion to rise to bloody power. Kerrigan and her Zerg have been strangely quiet ever since they beat everyone out of her space, and Raynor’s Protoss allies have been busy doing whatever the hell it is Protos’s do. He soon has a lot to do when his old freedom fighter buddy Tychus shows up out of the blue encased in a powered armour suit, offering to help him restart his revolution with some help from a benefactor searching for ancient alien artifacts. Finding one on his homeworld/place of exile Mar Sara, however, soon results in the Zerg spontaneously re-invading Dominion space. Things quickly become more complicated than either of them had hoped for.

As you progress through the game, your social choices for Raynor change the way some events turn out. If you decide to help the Protoss eradicate the refugees of a hot scientist chick who sought you out for your mercy, she’ll not only hate you (although the Protoss and their huge fucking armada will love you), she’ll mutate into a Zerg like her people and you’ll have to put her down personally. If you defy the Protoss to allow her to try to research a cure, however, then the Protos’s (and their huge fucking armada) will loathe you and she’ll be torn apart by Zerg-people anyways. Having the Protos’s on your side later on, however, has certain advantages.

With its unique assortment of missions, compelling story and excellent online play, Starcraft 2: Wings Of Liberty is certainly a must-have for any serious (or fresh-faced) PC gamer.