"Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty" Review

I, obviously, am reviewing Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty. For this game I only have one word to say, "YEAH!" but unfortunately the world does not appreciate 1 word reviews so I'm going to have to go into more detail. First of all, I have been waiting for this game for at least five years before the game was released, ever since I saw that fake trailer featuring the hybrid, which they actually put in the game. And they first announced the release date as three and a half years before it actually was released. And this long wait annoyed all of us Starcraft one fans, but made the line "Hell, it's about time" even more meaningful. For those who don't know, Starcraft takes place in the distant future in the void of space. There are three major races of people: Terrans, which are essentially humans; Protoss, which are a highly advanced alien race; and the Zerg, which if memory serves, are another kind of alien that were genetically experimented on and they evolve at an extraordinary rate. All three of these races have their advantages and disadvantages, but they are essentially evenly matched in a fight, which is what they have to do. The Terrans are each fighting for their own reasons as humans do, the Protoss are fighting to maintain balance in the universe, and the Zerg are fighting just to burn everything in their path until there is nothing left but themselves.

[Single Player]

[Campaign]

The Wings of Liberty Campaign, unlike the campaign of Starcraft one and Brood War, only had one races' storyline covered. In this game it happened to start on Terran. The story starts out on the planet of Mar Sara, and you are introduced once again to the character Jim Raynor, and a new character, Tychus Findlay. You do a series of missions on Mar Sara as Jim Raynor until you eventually end up aboard his friend's Battle Cruiser called the Hyperion, and that is pretty much all I can say before the storyline splits. It goes down five different paths: Colonist Missions, Covert Missions, Rebellion Missions, Artifact Missions, and Prophecy Missions. But in the long-run, the goal of the storyline is to take down the leader of the Zerg, Sarah Kerrigan AKA "the Queen of Blades". The campaign missions are a lot like the regular games except you have a specific task to do, and when your not in the game you can purchase upgrades with credits that you earn by completing missions, which I thought was a very nice feature.

[Challenges]

I personally thought that this was one of the best things that they put into the game. This section was put in to help players gain better strategies in their playing. I really like Starcraft, but I was never very good at it, and now that I've played through all of the challenges, I've noticed that I've gotten significantly better. You do specific missions just like the campaign, but on a smaller scale, and each mission was designed to train you in a certain ability. The only problem is that there are (at the time that this was created) only nine challenges. I would have loved for there to be more. This is just a really effective training method for Starcraft. I just don't know what else can be said.

[vs AI]

This is basically like the standard match against real players, except it is against AI. I'll go into the regular matches in a minute, so I'll just be evaluating the AI's performance. The greatest thing about the computer player that they changed from the first game is that it can't see what the human player is doing without scouting. In the previous game this is why I could never beat the computer. It would be doing its own thing, and then without any scouting at all, it would see that I was rushing zealots, and it would make the perfect counter-attack. So I would get there and be totally annihilated. And I would shout many words that I will leave censored in this review, but the problem was solved in this game. Another problem they solved from the first game, is that now the AI can only input commands as fast as a human. That is why I've grown a hatred for the zerg. The computer would always rush me with unreasonable speed. Luckily they fixed that. They also added maps that are made for beginners, where the AI can't rush you, and that was helpful when I was training.

[Multi-Player]

This is where the bulk of the game lies, and the Blizzard team did a great job of making this work well. If you don't know how this game works I suggest you watch some game-play videos, because explaining this entirely would take far too long. So I'll keep this in terms of the old game. Sure they added a few units for each of the races, but unfortunately they got rid of a few units that were some of my favorites such as the firebat, dragoon, dark archon, interceptor, corsair, scout, arbiter, and I don't know exactly for zerg, because I hate them. It is very sad. The way that you are set up against other people is done very well. When I just started playing I won the first 4 matches, so They put me up against really good players. I couldn't win a single match for a day or so after that, but eventually, everything evened out, and now I only fight people who are nearly my level. Overall, this game plays very well. The different races were definitely equally matched. Those people at Blizzard know what they're doing.

[Results]

The Achievements in this game made it so that I will definitely playing this game for years to come... Well, any Starcraft 2 game. With everything put into account, I give this game a 9.25 out of 10.

[In Addition]

[Beta Testing]

Nothing after this point will count towards the score of the game. I was proud to participate in the beta testing of this game. It is the first game that I've ever beta tested. Unfortunately I was unhappy to see that nothing that I told them was problem was fixed. I suggested that there should be a cancel button when loading a game with someone. I thought it would be necessary if the load is taking a very long time and you decide, "forget it, I'll just quit and play solitaire, because I'm a loser who lives in the basement of my mom's basement." but no they didn't add that to the game. The other thing that I brought to their attention, was that sometimes, when you start up the game, the screen will be pushed to the left about an inch (2.54cm), depending on your screen size, and so you lose an important part of your screen. Luckily for you I figured out how to fix this. You just go into settings, and turn down your resolution one or two notches, but it would of been a lot easier if they just fixed it themselves.

[Collectors Edition]

Like I said before, I am a huge Starcraft fan, so I had to spend the extra $40 to buy the collectors edition. The behind the scenes DVD is great, I loved seeing everything that went into the game. The music CD was just as good. I love music, and I will tell you that the music in this game is phenomenal. It comes with a book with the art of Starcraft 2. What they have in the book is good, but I wanted more. It also comes with a World of Warcraft pet, and it would be cool to have a Thor as a pet, but I don't play WOW. I just don't have enough time. The game comes with a comic book, and this must have been the worst comic book I've ever read. The story was terrible and pointless, but I'm still going to hang on to it. Maybe in a few years it will be worth something to the right buyer. The dog tag/2GB USB drive is alright. It comes with the original Starcraft, and Starcraft Brood War on it, so I can play it literally anywhere. The dog tag's appearance is great, and if nothing else, it is a conversation starter. The only bad thing about it is the chain that it comes with. I couldn't get the chain to fit in the hole it's supposed to go in, and even if I did, I wouldn't put it around my neck like it was made for, because I'm not a weirdo. I just keep it in my pocket. There is also some DLC that you can only get with the collector's edition. They're just profile pictures that are pretty cool I guess. I use the Diablo Marine. It is some great intimidation. Or not. But perhaps the greatest part of getting the collectors edition, is the case that it comes in ("kksssshhhhh" sound effect).