Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Preview
Improved greatness
by Howie Howard
previewed on PC
Nonlinear
One aspect of Starcraft II that is better than the original is that it requires more of an RPG style of character development. Being that the game is nonlinear this means that side quests or missions can be undertaken at any time for the explicit purpose of fully developing the characters. The player assumes the roll of Commander Jim Raynor in the game and Raynor needs to interact with other characters in order to complete game tasks. As Raynor progresses and completes missions new team members are unlocked and added to the team. Raynor then needs to assign missions to his team members so that they can develop as well.
Price
The Terran campaign is going to contain 26 to 30 missions of varying difficulty as will the following two games. Blizzard has stated that game price depends upon how much content each disk contains. Generally a quality game such as Starcraft might cost fifty US dollars. The retail price is based on the value that Blizzard is putting in the box. If the content value is less than the original then they will price it accordingly. Blizzard goes on to say that naming subsequent releases expansions is not out of the realm of possibility depending upon the games content value.
The fact the we now live in the Internet age, and that Starcraft II is a complete update, means multi-player action is a must. Starcraft II does include a multi-player mode but to be honest this game is designed to be played in stand-alone mode. Stand-alone is where this title truly shines.
Improve greatness
Some folks may feel the need to criticize Blizzard for what they feel is a lack of innovation in this new production. They may say this new game is simply an updated rehash of a ten-year-old game. I say just the opposite. Starcraft was and is still a great game, so how can you improve upon greatness? The fact is this; Blizzard has improved upon greatness simply by adding in the enhanced character development and game interaction features. They have developed an immense and compelling non-linear story line with enhanced options that lets players customize buildings and equipment. This customization option allows each Starcraft II player to decide which style of play best suits them. If a defensive game is preferred over an offensive style then using the customization station to adjust various game options will serve to make an already great game even greater.
Folks, I really can’t say much more about this new Starcraft II game except this: I am disappointed in the release date. Blizzard says that it will reach store shelves sometime in 2009. In my humble opinion waiting until 2009 is way too long to wait for this one to appear. I have been waiting for ten years now and waiting until “sometime in 2009” can only be described as painful. Us Starcraft junkies have been known to be a bit impatient when things happen so slowly!
