StarCraft 2 Review: The sequel – Single Player

Jan Vermeulen

Jan Vermeulen is a technology journalist and web developer at MyBroadband. After receiving a Computer Engineering degree at the University of Pretoria he worked at...

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Overall score

85%

9 Mechanics (SP)

7 Narrative (SP)

7 Multiplayer/Battle.net

9 Aesthetics

7 Out-of-game

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Platform: PC

Release date: 2010-07-27

Genre: Real-time Strategy

In order to do justice to StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty in a review the story and storytelling have to be discussed. I won’t go into the details of the story, but for those who are averse to any kind of spoiler out there here’s the quick, absolutely spoiler-free version.

For more background on the game as well as the multiplayer aspect, check out part one of the review.

Single player summary

The narrative of StarCraft 2 is excellent. It’s not the best story ever told in a video game and it’s not the best execution of storytelling in a videogame but it’s still very well done. It’s a bit cheesy at times, but that’s offset with the B-grade charm of sci-fi hits like Starship Troopers.

One can’t help but think that the strategy game mechanics of StarCraft 2 remain a barrier to storytelling, but for fans of strategy games and science fiction the latest instalment of the franchise is a must.

If you’re into Blizzard’s cinematics, you’ll definitely get enough of a fix to tide you over until the Zerg expansion is released.

Now go away spoiler-phobes! I can’t guarantee that what follows won’t irritate you.

Dissecting SC2′s single player

There is not a single bog standard “build a base and annihilate all enemy structures” mission in StarCraft 2. 

Other than being able to access units not available in multiplayer, including some old favourites, single player also adds the lab, armory [sic] and mercenaries. Upgrades purchased from the lab or armory persist across missions, so the only upgrades you have to research between missions are damage upgrades for your troops.

Up until the last few missions of the game you’ll also be able to choose in which order you want to do missions. The choice is largely irrelevant to the progression of the story, but it does affect which units you unlock, as well as which upgrades you unlock at the armory and lab.

While the game contains 29 missions you’ll play 25 or 26 of them during a single play-through of the campaign. Three missions are actually a choice between two which affect the story in subtle ways. The fourth mission you may miss is a secret level. For more detail than that you’ll have to ask Google.

The story centres around James “Jim” Raynor. He was one of the many heroes under your control as a Terran Commander or Protoss Executor in the original StarCraft and Brood War. This time he’s the commander of a group rebelling against the self-appointed Emperor of the Koprulu Sector, Arcturus Mengsk.

To veterans of the first game Mengsk is more than the dictator used to act as a convenient villain. He was once an ally that helped Raynor save many lives as well as fight against the corrupt Terran confederate government.

Narrative and storytelling

Blizzard have outdone themselves as far as the narrative is concerned. The narrative in the missions themselves are not awe-inspiring, but between missions you’re treated to conversations and cinematics of a calibre you would typically associate with high quality computer/console role playing games (RPGs).

Each mission briefing is a cinematic in its own right. This is likely to be a contentious opinion because these cinematics aren’t pre-rendered.

However, the in-engine cinematics put even the pre-rendered ones of the original StarCraft to shame. Graphics engines have come a long way and Blizzard has made good use of the graphical power most gamers have at their disposal.

Although the dialog can be uninspiring at times, every cinematic is fully voice acted. The voice over acting of the Protoss characters encountered in the game falls a little flat, unfortunately.

Over and above the mission briefings there are also conversations with some of Raynor’s crew. For the most part these are high quality scripted scenes, but there are a few below-par dialogues in the mix. Some might find them tedious to work through since you have to visit each area of the ship and click on every marked crew member individually to see the conversations unfold.

On top of the in-engine cinematics you’ll also still get to enjoy all the pre-rendered goodness Blizzard has been using these past three years to whet our appetites. If you haven’t seen any of these yet, they are animated sequences of comparable quality to those of animated films.

Is it worth it?

The Wings of Liberty campaign will take anywhere upwards of 15 hours to complete and the ending doesn’t disappoint. It doesn’t leave you hanging but it does leave you wanting more. A perfect, but daunting start for a trilogy. Blizzard has a tough precedent to live up to for the Zerg expansion, tentatively called “Heart of the Swarm.”

When Blizzard announced that StarCraft 2 would be a trilogy some fans accused Blizzard of being greedy by splitting one game into three. These were valid concerns that were soon addressed in an FAQ on the game’s official website [http://us.starcraft2.com/faq.xml#trilogy]. The explanation offered by Blizzard is that StarCraft 2 would receive a “base game” (Wings of Liberty) with a Terran-centric campaign, as well as two expansions centred on the Zerg and Protoss.

With the release of Wings of Liberty it’s official. Not only do you get the full multiplayer game but you also get a full single player campaign dedicated to Raynor’s exploits.

Unless the region locking or lack of LAN affect you in a big way StarCraft 2 is absolutely worth the money, even at the higher prices asked of PC games nowadays.

StarCraft 2 Single Player << Please try to keep spoilers out of the forum

System requirements

PC Minimum System Requirements*:

• - Windows® XP/Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 (Updated with the latest Service Packs) with DirectX® 9.0c
• - 2.6 GHz Pentium® IV or equivalent AMD Athlon® processor
• - 128 MB PCIe NVIDIA® GeForce® 6600 GT or ATI Radeon® 9800 PRO video card or better
• - 12 GB available HD space
• - 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB required for Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 users)
• - DVD-ROM drive
• - Broadband Internet connection
• - 1024X720 minimum display resolution

PC Recommended Specifications:

• - Windows Vista®/Windows® 7
• - Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
• - 2 GB RAM
• - 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

*Note: Due to potential programming changes, the Minimum System Requirements for this game may change over time.

Mac Minimum System Requirements:

• - Mac® OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.2 or newer
• - Intel® Processor
• - NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT or ATI Radeon® X1600 or better
• - 12 GB available HD space
• - 2 GB Ram
• - DVD-ROM drive
• - Broadband Internet connection
• - 1024X720 minimum display resolution

Mac Recommended Specifications:

• - Intel® Core 2 Duo processor
• - 4 GB system RAM
• - NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT or ATI Radeon® HD 4670 or better