Game Reviews

Hell it's about time! These were the first words players heard when the teaser trailer for StarCraft 2 was unveiled and those sentiments have been echoed over and over again since. But after waiting a decade, fans of StarCraft have their sequel - a bigger, better and certainly more badass version of one of the best RTS games in history. Yes, that's right, StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty is here and it will rock your world.

The story was extensive in the original StarCraft and it was expanded upon when Brood Wars appeared. It's even gone on to spawn numerous books and StarCraft II expands on the lore even more with a story that sees the three main races fighting for survival. The Terran, a race of humans, are having conflicts within their own ranks, while the Protoss and Zerg are locked into a fierce battle. This is only the first game in the StarCraft II series though and it focuses on events from the Terran perspective.

Players take control of Jim Raynor, who veterans may remember from the first game. He has formed a band of men known as Raynor's Raiders and is set to do battle against the Terran Dominion. His reasoning? The Dominion's leader Arcturas Mensk is responsible for Sarah Kerrigan, the love of Raynor's life, having left her to die and subsequently becoming infected by the Zerg. Jim's only intention is to set things right some way some how, to see Mensk fall and to free Kerrigan from the Zerg by any means necessary.The mission structure in StarCraft II is very unique. Unlike in typical RTS games, players are able to take a slightly more interactive approach. Players are taken to a hub where they can talk to key characters about the current turn of events, upgrade their units and base and investigate more about the actual game. They can even play on a fully developed space shooter aptly titled "Lost Viking", one of Blizzard's first games. There's also a jukebox which will play a few songs that players will definitely recognise. Essentially though the hub is a very nice feature as players will find they have a lot more freedom about the order they do the initial missions. This also means they have a choice of when they get certain units and what tech they get for them; it adds another level of strategy and allows different ways to actually tackle each mission.