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Playing off the success of the original WarCraft real-time strategy series, Blizzard took the game’s winning formula, wrapped it in sci-fi, added many layers of refinement and released StarCraft, which ultimately became the gold standard for RTS. It remained a staple of Internet cafés and game tournaments around the world for over a decade. With this history, it’s no wonder that gamers’ hopes for StarCraft II were so high.
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Wings Of Liberty is the first of three releases for StarCraft II. It takes you through the Terran campaign future expansions are in the works for the Zerg and Protoss storylines. In single-player mode, you take a non-linear path through a linear story arc pitting the human Terrans against the alien Zerg. Better storytelling is one of the key improvements in StarCraft II, where the emphasis is on the characters and their struggles.
The only flaws in StarCraft II’s perfect finish are the lack of LAN support and the division of its matchmaking service by world regions. The unprecedented success of the original game was largely due to LAN parties and the international tournament scene built around it. With Internet-only multi-player capability, it remains to be seen if StarCraft II will have the same kind of longevity.
StarCraft II is about as close to perfection as a game can get. It’s beautiful, the gameplay is intriguing and rich in details – it’s the only reason you need to get off your console and back on your desktop for one of the best RTS games ever made.
$59.99 from HMV
