StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty review - Single Player Campaign

For the last ten years, gamers have been waiting patiently for the sequel to the critically acclaimed StarCraft and its expansion Brood War.  Although Blizzard already has cash cow in World of Warcraft, and could be highly successful as a company without creating StarCraft 2, they decided to do so anyway.  The $100 million dollar price tag that was associated with the game has turned out to be false, as the game clearly didn’t take that much to make.  It certainly took millions, but not a hundred million.  As an RTS campaign, StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty offers a high degree of replayability, a large degree of depth, and a memorable cast of characters, all essential developments for a successfully campaign.

The story takes place four years after the conclusion of Brood War.  Kerrigan and her Zerg forces have disappeared since the events of Brood War and the Protoss have once again taken a more passive role in galactic affairs.  As a result, Acturus Megnsk’s Dominion is the dominant power in the galaxy. As the player, you control Raynor’s Raiders, a revolutionary faction headed by none other than infamous outlaw Jim Raynor, who is again voiced by Robert Clotworthy. And boy does he look it.  Gone is the rough-and-tough Southern marshal of the previous StarCraft.  Haunted by guilt over Kerrigan’s infestation, Raynor has now been given a disheveled, edgier than a knife collection look that complements his newfound obsession with alcohol.  Actually, the majority of Raynor’s crew are alcoholics, with the exception of the annoyingly geeky lab technician Steadman and Raynor’s idealist second-in-command Matt Horner.

The campaign offers 26 missions in addition to a handful of Protoss missions, where the player takes control of Zeratul’s forces.  These Zeratul missions are accessed through a mind crystal that Zeratul gives to Raynor, allowing access to his memories about the Xel’Naga, an ancient cosmic Protoss/Zerg hybrid that created the Protoss and Zerg.  Although unavailable until about midway through the campaign, these missions prove to be arguably the most enjoyable in the game.

The campaign itself begins in Mar Sara, where Jim Raynor is drinking at the bar, Joey Ray’s, which serves as your headquarters for the first three missions.  After witnessing an on-air verbal assault at a press conference by Acturus Mengsk, Raynor edgily shoots the TV in the bar, signifying the start of the revolution on Mar Sara.  Raynor then leads his forces to liberate the people of Mar Sara, inciting civilians that were being shipped off to labor camps to throw Molotov cocktails at Dominion forces.   Bringing down holo-statues of Mengsk really brings out the little Lenin in us all, and this four minute first mission is a great way to kick off the campaign.

After the first mission, Raynor continues to drink at Joey Ray’s when he is approached by his old friend Tychus Findley.  Tychus Findley is voiced by Neil Kaplan, the voice of Hawkmon from Digimon.  During their meeting, it is revealed that Findley and Raynor had fought together in the Terran Guild Wars, a conflict from a bygone age.  Findley claims that he escaped his prison sentence that he was serving for a crime both he and Raynor committed and offers Raynor a business proposition.  Findley asks Raynor and his raiders to collect Xel’Naga artifacts for the Moebius Foundation, a scientific research organization.  In return, the Moebius Foundation will fund Raynor’s war against the Dominion.  Raynor agrees to this deal, and then puts together a team to steal an artifact from a Dominion dig site on Mar Sara.  In the midst of recovering the artifact, the site is invaded by Kerrigan’s Zerg, starting a hold out for evacuation mission that feels extremely reminiscent of the Confederate defense of Mar Sara by Raynor in the original StarCraft.

Before meeting their demise, Raynor and Finley extract the artifact and are rescued by Raynor’s flagship, the Hyperion.  The Hyperion was initially Mengsk’s flagship when he was leading the Sons of Korhal until Raynor hijacked it during the events of the original StarCraft.  Now captained by Raynor’s second-in-command Matt Horner, the Hyperion serves as your base of operations for the remainder of the game.  The Hyperion features four levels, the armory, the bridge, the cantina and the laboratory.

In the armory is the Armory Console that allows you to upgrade infantry, vehicles and buildings by using credits earned from completing missions.  Also featured are the schematics of various units you unlock by completing missions and Swann, resident fat alcoholic mechanic Swann.  Swann is voiced by Fred Tatasciore, famous for his voicework for the Hulk in the Marvel animated universe and for Sarren in the first Mass Effect.  On the bridge is Matt Horner, the captain of the Hyperion that believes in Raynor’s ideals for a better tomorrow despite Raynor’s deteriorating stability.  Horner is voiced by Brian Bloom, known for co-writing summer blockbuster The A-Team, where he also played antagonist Pike.  In the bridge, the player can also sometimes find Tychus Findley when he’s not down in the cantina. From the bridge, the player can also access new missions on the Star Map and replay past missions and rewatch cut scenes on the Mission Archives panel.

Down in the cantina, a sprawling bar that quenches the thirst of the crew, you can hire mercenaries for use in the campaign, talk to Findley when he’s down there, and listen to country hits such as ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ on the jukebox and watch the news for some hilarious banter between the anchor and the reporter. Sometimes, the TV also features commercials. One in particular that I found amusing was for a fictional band that came out with singles such as ‘Rouges Do It From Behind,’ a reference to World of Warcraft, and ‘Every Rose Has It’s Thor,’ a pun off Poison’s hit single. The cantina also has an arcade machine with the game Lost Viking, which is pretty much a combination of Space Invaders and Ace Combat. The last area of the ship is the laboratory, which features overly nerdy lab technician Steadman. More importantly, the laboratory hosts Protoss and Zerg research that is collected on missions. Using this research at the Research Console allows you to upgrade your forces with upgrades such as a Hercules transport and the ability to produce two SVC’s simultaneously from a Command Center.

After exploring the Hyperion, Raynor discovers the full extent of the Zerg attack. Biding her time for the last four years, Kerrigan is now launching full scale invasions of all Dominion controlled planets.  Because of the volume of these attacks, Dominion forces withdraw their forces to the most heavily populated planets, leaving the fringe worlds to infestation.

Raynor then sets off to rescue refugees from the agrarian fringe world of Agria, rescuing Dr. Ariel Hanson in the process.  This mission involves Raynor’s Raiders protecting a series of convoys of displaced civilians from Zerg attacks. As far as I remember, I haven’t played an RTS that features a mission where you defend a constantly moving object from enemy attacks, and as a result I felt as though this mission was pretty original.

During Raynor’s struggle to relocate the former residents of Agria, Raynor has a run in with Protoss fleet commander Selendis, a former ally of Raynor’s.  The player is then given the option of slaughtering the civilians along with the Protoss, or killing the infested ones and rescuing the rest from Protoss killing attempts.  There are several instances in the game where the player is forced to make a decision that gives two separate missions, but you can go back anytime after completing the first mission and play the second one on the Mission Archives panel.

Throughout the course of the campaign, the player can embark on plot missions and side missions.  Side missions usually involve doing missions for profit, while story missions often put the player at odds with the Zerg and the Tal’darim, a fanatical Protoss offshoot that worships the Xel’Naga offshoot as gods.  Although the side missions aren’t necessary to completing the campaign, you really should finish all of them to get the complete experience.

Another notable series of missions are the ones involving Gabriel Tosh, an ex-Dominion Specter. Specters are an offshoot of the Ghost program that was begun and discontinued by the Dominion government, with the resulting Spectre operatives being imprisoned and branded criminally insane.  However, Tosh escapes and contracts you for a series of mission involving the harvesting of special crystal and gases on a volcanic planet, all the while defending the harvesting operation from Zerg.  After collecting these resources, Tosh asks Raynor to break into a prison holding the Specters and other political dissidents.  Nova, the protagonist of the cancelled StarCraft Ghost, then makes a cameo appearance, revealing via transmission that Tosh only wants to free the Specters to create an army to destroy the Dominion.  The player is then given the option of siding with Nova or Tosh, being able to create Ghosts or Specters depending on who they side with.  If the player sides with Tosh, he will then be available to chat in the cantina, but if the player sides with Nova, she will not join the crew of the Hyperion, as she is a Dominion assassin.  Regardless of the mission chosen, the alternative one can be played by accessing the Mission Archive console on the bridge of the Hyperion.  The game continues as Raynor’s Raiders fight against the Dominion, Kerigan’s Zerg and the Tal’Darim Protoss, all the while locating Xel'Naga artifacts for the Mobeius Foundation. At this point of the game, Zeratul, also voiced by Fred Tatasciore, covertly boards the Hyperion to give Raynor a memory crystal of his journeys searching for the Xel’Naga prophecy.  The crystal can be accessed in the laboratory, and unlocks a series of missions following Zeratul’s search for answers. These missions end with an epic defense of Auir against the Zerg, where the player controls the Protoss commanders Zeratul, Artanis, Selendis, Moharder and Urun along with their respective forces. This mission is complete with nearly infinite resources and a kill count, and ends only when 1,600 kills have been accounted for and all Protoss forces have been destroyed.  After this, the player can access the final few missions, which I won’t go into detail of because of spoilers.

The campaign features some unique units, such as medics and firebats, and upgrades that are not available in the multiplayer. Although these are not available in the standard multiplayer, the Galaxy Editor can utilize them for some interesting Used Map setting experiences such as the Helm’s Deep Used Map Setting that was prominent in Brood War. Graphically, the game is obviously an improvement over the first, and lends itself to a more cartoony Warcraft III style. This works well for the game, as the low system requirements consist of

• Windows XP
• Direct X 9.0
• 2.6 GHz Processor
• 128MB Video Card
• Intel Processor
• 12 GB of Storage

Although there are still some pathfinding issues with the units, the campaign is one of the most comprehensive I’ve ever played for an RTS.  And I’ve played plenty of RTS’, so that’s saying a lot. Although the cliffhanger ending is clearly meant to entice players to buy the Protoss and Zerg campaigns, which I would hope would not be sold to players for the large $60 price tag each, the StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty campaign makes you feel like you’re flying, Jim Raynor style.