StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty

StarCraft was originally released in 1998 for the PC and in 1999 for the Nintendo 64. Developed by Blizzard Entertainment this military science fiction RTS game changed the way gamers played. With great graphics (at the time) and an amazing score by Derek Duke, Jason Hayes and Glenn Stafford players were taken into the 26^th century to do battle deep into the Milky Way galaxy. StarCraft created characters that made players feel attached to them and a story that you could lose yourself in.

You played as three different races: The Protoss was a humanoid species with advanced technology, the Zerg who had an obsession for taking over other races whom were insectoid and finally the Terrans who were humans exiled from Earth.

In South Korea, this game is considered a professional sport and those who play well enough are considered a celebrity. It has been given high praise, several awards, used as a strategic teaching tool at Berkeley and is used by the US Air Force’s Aerospace Basic Course.

With this being said, expectations are very high for StarCraft 2.

StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty was finally released on July 27^th, twelve years after the original. It’s developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for the PC and Mac. Unlike the first installment, StarCraft 2 will be more focused on multiplayer by using Battle.net to bring friends and strangers together to play as a team or against each other.

Taking place four years after the original, StarCraft 2 follows Jim Raynor and his team as you meet old characters as well as some new friends and foes. Raynor’s voice actor, Robert Clotworthy has been around since 1998. It’s refreshing to see that some of the original voice actors from StaCraft have returned for StarCraft 2.

The menu screen allows you to either play alone or in multiplayer and also gives you any new information on the game, like expansion news. There are already two expansions in the works for this game: Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void. Since StarCraft 2 only covers the Terran campaign, we have to wait for the expansions to be released in order to play as the other two races.

If you feel that it’s been awhile or you’re new to StarCraft, check out the tutorials. These cover everything from the interface to combat. No worries if you don’t want to partake since the first few missions of the actual game allow you to learn and become familiar with the controls.

Like most games of today, you are able to choose your difficulty level. You have casual, normal, hard and brutal. If you want to play online, just like Halo, you are matched up with other players that are in your skill level.

As the game starts up, it feels more like a feature film than a simple RTS game. Although the beginning of the game is mostly scenes and video we’ve seen before at conventions and on YouTube it’s still nice to see them in the actual game.  StarCraft 2 feels like the best of StarCraft mashed up with the best of from the Wing Commander series.  After each mission it takes you to either a bar or certain rooms of your ship that allow you to purchase unit upgrades, technical research, and mercenaries. In each room are characters from the story that give you a little bit more information about the ongoing story or a little quip.  This gives some bulk and structure to an already outstanding story.

The most ingenious thing that StarCraft 2 has done was to find a way to keep the old gameplay, but updated with a little flare. For example, missions are pretty much the same as the original but the minds behind StarCraft 2 has decided to throw in a little twist, a challenge if you will, into your missions. Case in point, there is a lava planet where every four minutes the lava rises and covers all low ground.  If you have minerals that are being mined on that low ground and you do not remove your troops in time, they will be killed.  At the same time there is a Zerg base on the other side of the map that you have to worry about.  It makes for a manic pace and you must multi task if you wish to win.

The controls are pretty simple. Same as in the first StarCraft, all commands can be given with the mouse.  Left click to select one unit or hold down the left button and create a box to select multiple units.  Then right click anywhere for actions like the move commands or attacking enemies.  Build orders are given via buildings or SCV’s that you click on. This is the beauty of the StarCraft series simplicity.

This game appeals to almost everyone who has played the original, no matter the age. Fans of RTS games that have never played StarCraft will also find this enjoyable. New gamers who are not familiar with RTS games or the StarCraft series might not find this game appealing.

One thing that I do not like about this game is the log-in feature. You need a Battle.net account to be able to play this game. If you have one copy of the game but two people share a PC or laptop, only one account can be used. If you want to use a different account, you will need another CD key.

With a game that took so long to finally be released it’s a huge surprise to fine out that this game is plagued by glitches, freezes and other issues. Thankfully Blizzard is aware of these issues and hopefully will be taken care of sooner rather than later.

The development of StarCraft 2 incorporated information from the original game and fans of the series. This helped to create improvements as the game was being created. The beta that launched earlier this year also helped the development team to ensure that an enjoyable product was being made.

Twelve years is a long time to wait for a game and despite the issues that are coming up, it was well worth the wait. This is a game that different generations can play and all enjoy. It is a thinking game, much like chess, that challenges the player to multi-task in order to reach their objective.

Here are the specs for StarCraft 2 for the PC and Mac:

PC Minimum System Requirements:

• Windows® XP/Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 (Updated with the latest Service Packs) with DirectX® 9.0c

• 2.6 GHz Pentium® IV or equivalent AMD Athlon® processor

• 128 MB PCIe NVIDIA® GeForce® 6600 GT or ATI Radeon® 9800 PRO video card or better

• 12 GB available HD space

• 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB required for Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 users)

• DVD-ROM drive

• Broadband Internet connection

• 1024X720 minimum display resolution

PC Recommended System Requirements:

• Windows Vista®/Windows® 7

• Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor

• 2 GB RAM

• 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

• Mac® OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.2 or newer

• Intel® Processor

• NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT or ATI Radeon® X1600 or better

• 12 GB available HD space

• 2 GB Ram

• DVD-ROM drive

• Broadband Internet connection

• 1024X720 minimum display resolution

Mac Recommended System Requirements:

• Intel® Core 2 Duo processor

• 4 GB system RAM

• NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT or ATI Radeon® HD 4670 or better