Review: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

Veterans of the original StarCraft will be pleased that the ingredients that made the game such a classic are again present in its much anticipated successor.

Set 500 years into the future, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty maintains the multiplayer balance and charm of its predecessor while tarting up the graphics, tweaking the user interface and adding a selection of new unit types and abilities. The changes aren’t huge considering it’s been 12 years since the original StarCraft was released, but all of them are steps forwards, rather than backwards. As before, base building, mineral harvesting, unit creation and combat are the game’s primary challenges.

The single player campaign has a deeper storyline than the original and improved cinematics. Developers at Blizzard have also added more depth to gameplay, giving players a degree of control over the order in which they complete campaign missions. Instead of just completing missions one after the other players can browse a star map on board the Hyperion battle cruiser to decide which of a selection of planets they will explore and do battle on next.

Completing missions earns a player credits, which can be used to upgrade unit abilities and buildings or hire mercenary units for future missions. Technology points, obtained by completing optional tasks during selected missions, can be used to upgrade your Terran technology. You might research the Vanadium Plating technology to improve your infantry’s armour using points obtained in missions against the high tech Protoss, or maybe flame throwing Perdition Turrets using technology learnt from the brutal Zerg.

Your spending and technology choices will effect your buildings, units and potentially your strategy in future missions, making the campaign experience different for every player.

Of course, hardcore fans will probably be buying the game for its multiplayer action rather than its improved campaign. The original StarCraft went down in history as one of the best RTS games of all time, primarily because of its almost flawless gameplay balance between its three playable species. Thousands of people around the world still play it competitively because winning as the Terran, Zerg or Protoss is equally possible.

In Starcraft II, that multiplayer balance appears to be intact. The new units add a different dynamic but those in the single player campaign that might have given one race an advantage over another have been left out of multiplayer -- a wise choice by developers.

The matchmaking system works well once you’ve completed a series of placement matches and been dropped into a league. There appears to be no shortage of opponents online at all times of the day and night. The various leagues, available for 1 v 1, 2 v 2 or 4 v 4 competition, allow players to gain or lose ladder placings depending on success in each multiplayer map.

One small downside of this online focus is that Blizzard has made an internet connection compulsory, at least during the sign-up phase. Players are required to register an account on the company’s gaming service, Battle Net, and link the game to their account using a product key on the box.

This is an anti-piracy measure as much as anything else and won’t be a big deal for most, but you will want to ensure you have internet access before you play. Fortunately, once you’ve registered and linked the game to your account, you will be able to play in offline mode if needed. Any achievements won’t be logged in offline play but it does allow a gamer to play through the full campaign, challenge levels and skirmish matches vs AI if internet access is not available.