Reviews// Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

The missions in the campaign are interesting and varied. Some start in the old school fashion of building from scratch; setting up your SCVs (Space Construction Vehicles) for gathering resources; building supply depots, installing new barracks and building an army from the bottom. Other campaigns you enter as a small band of marines and fighters, passing through the terrain and picking up allies and bases as you travel.

One mission that has got many people talking is set on an unstable volcanic planet. The volcano will erupt periodically, meaning that you have to get foot soldiers to higher ground before they are charred to a cinder by the magma flow.

It all feels exciting and new, even if we have seen elements of it all before. On each mission there will be the opportunity to gain additional research points towards Protoss or Zerg technology that can later be spent aboard The Hyperion.

Stats Entertainment

At the end of each campaign mission you will be greeted with a stats screen showing how well you did and if you met any of the additional objective criteria. If you did, you will gain achievement points, which are there for little other reason than to willy wave. We’re all familiar now with these points systems, and how addictive they are when trying to achieve them. Achievements combined with the ability to view your friends’ battle.net statistics on their single-player campaign offer enough motivation to max-out the longevity of the single-player mode by beating your friends.

Between missions you are greeted by what is essentially an interactive graphical menu system. Instead of being faced with pages of text, mission updates and plot information, you traverse through The Hyperion’s four sections. The bridge, with its Star Map, is the hub for starting missions. By clicking on another control panel you can view previous missions' statistics, cutscenes and options to play through past campaigns. Clicking on characters offers a short conversation cut-scene. The voice acting continues to be of the high standard expected of StarCraft, and it helps to keep you involved in the plot.

The Cantina is the main ‘social’ hub. Here you get to speak to some of the other people aboard, such as Tychus Findlay, an old friend of Jim Raynor’s back from when they were in a PoW camp. You can view the latest news with host Donny Vermillion, ass kisser to Mengsk and The Dominion.

There’s also the option to hire mercenaries; small groups of specialist units that you can call in on missions. You pay firstly to hire them, and then also pay extra amounts of resources during the campaigns themselves to have them drop in instantly. These mercs are variations of extant units, only with plenty of extra clout.

Dancing Girls & Mini-Gaming

World of Warcraft fans will also notice the dancing female on the balcony of the cantina, gyrating to the animation of a female Night Elf. Also, one of my favourite things I love to see in a computer game also belongs in the cantina; a game inside a game. Lost Vikings is a vertically-scrolling shoot-‘em-up. There’s not much to the game as far as shmups go, but it’s quite a lot of fun, and a much welcomed addition.

Lastly there are the Lab and the Armoury, both of which are self explanatory. Upgrade units and bases in the armoury, and research new developments in the lab. Protoss research is generally about becoming more efficient and being defensive, whereas zerg technology is all about bigger, badder and altogether cooler weaponry.

Retiring to the Hyperion after each mission breaks the game up nicely. You get to see what new stuff you’ve unlocked, play through the story somewhat via the cutscenes, and generally break away from just repeatedly going through skirmishes.