Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty is PC game perfection
STORY:
Raynors ex-girl, Sarah Kerrigan was left behind on a mission and sadly Raynor was not able to rescue her. Meanwhile, Sarah was taken by the zergs and turned into something more sinister and deadly. Now she is back and Raynor has to stop her from destroying everything they hold dear and also dealing with Emperor Arcturus Mengsk's dictatorship and lust for more power.
You play Raynor, a convict with a long criminal record with a gigantic space ship with 3 things on his mind:
Set people free from the Dominion's rule
Kill Zergs and sometimes Protoss if need be and
Set his former girlfriend free from the zergs
GAMEPLAY
Starcraft 2: WOL is addicting no matter what mode you play one. There are 3 races in the game and Wings of Liberty focuses on the Terran for the single palyer campaign. Others races are the Protoss which use psionic powers and the Zerg Swarm controlled by the Queen of Blades who dominates over the zergs after the Protoss destroyed the Overmind which had control over all zergs. The remainder of storyline in the campaign is quite straightforward and comes to a simple ending.
In game cutscenes are interwoven into the core campaign real-time strategy gameplay so they do not feel misplaced from the top down view of the game. Make no mistake, this is a traditional base building, resource depleting game right from start. There are 2 resources you need to build bases with in SC2 which are Crystals and vespene gases. In order to build your little army, you need lots of these resources. Once your little army and robots are built, you can upgrade their gear from for example: a level 1 armour upgraded to level 3 and this also applies to weapons, vehicles and combat ships. Vehicles include siege tanks to giant walkers called Thor. There are light combat ships to heavily armoured combat ships like the battlecruisers which are difficult to take down and slow to retreat. If you feel like your current base is not safe, you can always uproot some structures and move them to resource heavy places. Every time you finish a mission, you are given credits to spend on better hardware.
Apart from weapon and armor upgrades, every time you start a new mission, Rory Swan, resident Q for Raynor, sends your way mercenaries and other tough bad asses for your pleasure. Other upgrades are more like additions to the functionality of bunkers, marines, medics, etc. For example, medivac units can heal two targets at once when you purchase the right upgrade.
As you progress along the campaign, there will be moments when you have to choose one of two missions based on what you think is right to progress forward. One of the best part of the game is that Blizzard gave depending on the missions enough time to build your troops and annihilate your foes instead of forcing you to complete a mission under a certain amount of time. Once in a while, you play Raynor instead of the usual blue marine pawns striking the enemy where it hurts accompanied by fellow scientist and other important crew members.
Ingame cutscenes are one of the best I have seen in years with breathtaking realism depending on your hardware and character animation is top notch and all rendering using your hardware. Every character in this epic clash stands out. Tychus Findlay is the kind of guy that shoots first then asks questions later. Matt Horner is a humble soldier piloting Raynor's heavy duty spaceship. Each one of these characters is unique and does not feel detached from the main game.
Another way of obtaining better hardware is when going on missions; you complete secondary objectives which helps gather zerg research points or protoss research points for better defence or offense
After you are done with the single player campaign, you can try your hands on challenge modes to test your skills before going online. Challenges also have achievements which you can unlock. Achievements is also the best part of the game which is a thousand times better than most reward systems put in by microsoft and steam. The achievements make you want to work hard while racking up those scores.
Multiplayer is the meat of this game with 1vs1 to 4vs4 game modes. For new players, don't fret any because you get 5 games which test your skills before placing you where you belong online so you do not meet Korean players. In this mode you are not restricted to certain upgrades like in the sinle player mode. In multiplayer, this is where true strategy shines through and through and how fast you can build up your marines, thors and combat airships. There is nothing much to say about the multiplayer except that it has to be experienced individually to fully understand what I am talking about.
PRESENTATION
The terrains on which missions are executed are varied and beautiful to look at no matter the conditions. There is an absolute attention to detail from top to bottom from marines to battlecruisers. The protoss look menacing and the zergs look absolutely ferocious. Some maps involve you only using battleships to accomplish missions while others require you accomplish missions before being overrun by lava. Voice acting is top notch with the same voice characters reprising their roles from the first game.
I do not like to talk about the ingame menus but battle.net is looking spectacular with integration of facebook to add friends. The interface is clean and responsive with nice touches here and there.
The textures of every marine, protoss, zerg and all structures come at a heavy price. Starcraft 2 is a system hog. For some reason this game uses almost 2Gigs of RAM excluding operating system functions. In total, when I'm playing in either singleplayer or multiplayer mode, total memory of my computer sits at 3,4Gigs out of 4 Gigs. Starcraft 2 is beautiful to look at on a large screen and you will need a powerful GPU to run this game at ultra settings but it is worth it. System requirements are quite modest and Blizzard did not want to eliminate some PC bases. According to ATI Tray tools, Starcraft 2 uses less CPU power but uses more GPU power so make sure you have a good graphics card.
Conclusion
Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty is PC game perfection and this is what the PC needs to show that it is not dying but forgotten by game developers who are afraid of the changing landscape of PC gaming which few developers really understand. PC gaming is not dead but misunderstood and Blizzard is sitting on a gold mine. I can't wait for Diablo 3.