Jim Raynor looks a lot better than he did in the original Starcraft
I’ve decided to give in and partake in Leveling Down’s Summer of Starcraft. Not that I haven’t been playing hours and hours of the game (much to my wife’s chagrin), but I wasn’t sure if having six straight articles on Starcraft was what the people wanted. Nevertheless, espion4ge has been focused on multiplayer, so I figured I’d give my single player impressions – especially for those of you considering buying this game that might be a little intimidated by the multiplayer suite. Hit the jump for my impressions!
“Hell, it’s about time!” – The Saga Continues
I’ve been waiting over a decade for the Starcraft story to continue. I know a lot of people don’t care too much about the single player, but I for one have been dying to know what’s transpired since Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, basically took over the entire universe. Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, is the first in a three part trilogy that will tell the story.
Wings of Liberty follows your old buddy Jim Raynor and his buddy Tychus Findlay as they set out to overthrow Arcturus Mengsk, the evil emperor who controls the Terran worlds. Same old same old, right? Not quite. Although you run into a lot of familiar faces, the story introduces some new characters that inject some flavor into the story.
The storyline is standard space saga fare, and most, but not all, of the twists and turns are pretty predictable. Still, it’s a story well worth hearing – one that does a great job resetting the playing field and setting up some killer sequels. I definitely didn’t walk away from the single player campaign disappointed.
“I am here, click me!” – Branched Pathways
The original Starcraft basically had you playing through all of the missions in order. Wings of Liberty introduces a new mechanic – after the initial missions, you are given the choice of branching storylines. There are multiple characters on your ship and each of them has their own unique storyline that you can follow through to the end. A lot of the stories dovetail, but it’s pretty neat how you can choose missions – it makes you feel like the commander of the ship and your army. There is also a short Protoss arc where you get to play as the Protoss, which is a nice diversion.
The other new addition to the gameplay should be familiar to any fan of the Wing Commander series. Between missions, Raynor can travel to different areas of his ship, talking to characters, watching newscasts (they’re pretty funny), and upgrading your units. Each mission you complete earns credits (which doesn’t really make sense if you think about it, but whatever). You can use these credits to buy upgrades for your units or to hire mercenaries that you can use in battle. Again, it gives you the feeling of commanding your troops, especially since you can’t afford all of the available upgrades. Overall, I definitely liked the break in the action that time on the ship gave me, although at times it can break up the action.
“Fight or Flight? Yeah, right” – Varied Gameplay
Compared to the original Starcraft, there are a plethora of mission types in Wings of Liberty. It feels like every single mission is unique. Each battle involves a different scenario, some of which really affect the way you have to play the game. Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting in and out as quickly as possible, at other times you have the time to build up your army and systematically roll through your opponents.
There are a couple of notable missions – there is a secret mission that you can find and play which is a ton of fun. The last Protoss mission is also a blast and a very clever take on a tried and true mission type. You also have missions where you need to move your base multiple times (remember Terran can lift their bases) and there’s even a zombie apocalypse type mission. The gameplay is stellar, even if you don’t care about the story, it’s a lot of fun to see the different things Blizzard throws out you. They did an excellent job of changing the way the game plays without changing too much. I don’t want to spoil too much, but trust me – the campaign is worth it.
“People lose teeth doin’ that” – Achievements
The last thing of note about the single player campaign is the achievements. I know I’ve been trying to kick this achievement habit, but the achievements in Wings of Liberty are downright addicting. Not only do you unlock achievements, but you also unlock portraits that you can add to your profile and use in multiplayer. The achievements definitely affect the way you play the game, but none of them are annoying like kill 200 pigeons or anything like that. It can be pretty difficult, but it feels really rewarding to unlock some of the achievements. Be warned though – they’ll take a lot of time. I probably can’t do half of them, so I’ll just take what I can get.
“The Swarm will consume all” – Parting Thoughts
Even if you’re not interested in the multiplayer, the single player campaign could lock up a good 20 or 30 hours of your life. I literally feel torn between playing single and multiplayer, both are amazing options. For fans of the original story, Wings of Liberty is well worth the wait – too bad we have to wait again for the next installment. For new players to the series, the single player is a great introduction to the different units in the game – just bear in mind that some of the Terran units aren’t available in multiplayer. I love all the new additions and some of the cutscenes are amazing as well. Starcraft, welcome to the 21st century.
The achievements are semi-easy to get. Especially with the save/load feature of sc. (yeah i guess it’s cheating heh). But going through “Whispers of Doom” on Hard without Zeratul losing life was tricky!