RTS used to be a prominent genre within gaming, but recent years have seen the amount of releases dwindle. A large problem has been a lack of innovation in the single player campaigns. Each new title followed the old model of merging story with an extended tutorial, and if that story was lacklustre; there was little purpose to its existence. A prime example of this is Supreme Commander 2. A poor story married with very limiting missions.
So it surprised me when Blizzard took a real step forward in
design with the first Starcraft 2 campaign: Wings of Liberty. And it needed to
be a step forward as well considering Blizzard announced form the start that
Starcraft 2 was to be released a full price trilogy rather than a traditional main
game with expansions or DLC.
To begin with I was a little worried about jumping into the
story having not completed the original game and its expansion. The installer
handily provides an overview of all the major events as a slightly confusing barrage
of names and places; although it does manage to convey the key pieces of
information. Going into the campaign I knew that Arcturus Mengsk was a traitorous
leader from the Saturday morning cartoon school of evil. And as the player I
would be controlling the forces of Jim Raynor, a former member of Mengsk’s
rebel group who is now an outlaw of the Terran Dominion.
And that was all I need to know as new and returning
characters were introduced properly. Their links to Jim Raynor were explained,
so I never felt that I had missed part of the story. To achieve this, Blizzard has
used a mix of cut-scenes, in game dialogue and optional conversations between
missions. The core cast of characters is reasonably small, as the game focuses
on Jim Raynor’s story and the future of the Terran forces.
It keeps events easy to follow, which is an advantage
considering the campaign’s length. There are a total of twenty three missions
if you follow all of the optional paths, with each mission averaging twenty to
forty minutes of gameplay. The flip side is that the characters are very one
dimensional. Everyone can be easily defined by one or two motives, making the
events of the game rather predictable.
There are a couple of missions which give you a choice on
how you approach them. Either choice provides a different mission, but the
actual effect on the story is minimal. That being said, I wasn’t expecting a
wide branching story structure similar to Bioware’s titles.
And the lack of story choice is made up for in the upgrade options
you can select from between missions. As you progress through the missions, you
acquire cash and can discover research artefacts which are invested in
persistent unit upgrades. These range from hiring mercenaries who are elite
units to activating new battlefield abilities. All the customisation is
accessed by wandering around Raynor’s flag ship between missions. It also gives
you the opportunity to indulge in extra dialogue with the supporting
characters.
Crucially the missions themselves don’t feel like an
extended tutorial. The first few of course are very basic, but the game quickly
spreads its wings as you get access to the optional missions. The majority also
introduce new units to your arsenal which can then be used freely in later
missions. Several of these units are unique to campaign, adding another reason
for players that usually focus their attention on multiplayer to come and take
a look.
Thankfully you don’t need competitive skills of multiplayer
to complete the campaign. I was able to breeze through it with basic tactics on
normal difficulty, only having to restart the final mission as I started with
wrong strategy.
Blizzard has set the bar for single player RTS campaigns
with Wings of Liberty. Like all good trilogies, they have been careful to make
sure that on the whole, the story provides a complete chapter with its own
conclusion. It would be nice to see a few more complex characters, but the
story does manage to pull a few convincing twists. With the release of Heart of
the Swarm, it may be possible to find Wings of Liberty for a reduced price;
making it worth the purchase if you’re not that interested in the competitive multiplayer
scene.
