Facebook – Top 100 FAVORITE Video Games: 81

81: StarCraft II – Wings of Liberty (PC and, I guess, Mac, too…)
Developer: Blizzard
Year: 2010

Once again the curse of a new game afflicts my list. I was a day away from starting these posts when StarCraft II came out and I said to myself “Well, once you start, no new games can be added, so you’d better wait.” As such, I left one spot open and played through this game and, as it should be clear to you, the game made an impression. And while it wasn’t as great an impression as I’d hoped, it was enough to get it 20 slots up the list. After years and years of waiting, SC2 earns a place on my list.

Taking place after the events of Brood War, StarCraft II’s first chapter is “human only” – meaning you play only the human campaign of the SC2 trilogy (the Zerg and Protoss chapters are to follow after another year each of waiting), with only one slight deviation throughout the entire game. This opening act sets the stage by aiming the narrative at removing both Mengsk and the Queen of Blades. Lofty goals on their own, James Raynor – hero from the original games – tackles both, all the while looking toward a future full of hybrids and (i hope i hope i hope i hope) that guy, Samir Duran, from Brood War. The voice acting and scripting is ham-fisted most times, shining in some areas but dead in others, but its a science fiction war game, so cliché’s are to be expected. Blizzard knows how to entertain, though, and do so with little difficulty.

This is, of course, due to the game’s amazing single player campaign structure and – likewise – wonderful revisioning of Battle.net’s ladder system. The single player experience is fantastic, offering different difficulty settings, achievements to score, and every unit from the game… and all the ones featured for Terrans in the original game, too. This leads to a wonderful mix of options, paired with a diverse set of levels and objectives. Escort missions, squad infiltration jobs, and simple build-and-destroy levels dot the game until its final, intense finale, a set of levels taking place on the Zerg world of Char, the events of which – while I find to be slightly ridiculous – I won’t spoil here. The multiplayer aspect is better, too, offering the new units, plus a new system that pits you against people of your skill level. Its a much better setup than before, in which you just got schooled in two seconds if you were a newcomer.

The look of the game, too, gets an overhaul, taking a page from the Warcraft 2–>Warcraft 3 book and creating 3D terrain with 3D models. The cinemas are also gorgeous, but – then again – when is a Blizzard game lacking in quality cinematics. Beyond that, every review EVER has commented on the intricate details of the units, the maps, the areas of Raynor’s ship, and even the arcade game in the ship’s bar, so I don’t have to mention it here. Rest assured, though, its of high quality.

All in all, StarCraft II offers up amazing gameplay in a slick package, but fails to produce – in my opinion – anything really “new” to the RTS genre. While it follows both Blizzard and the original game’s structure perfectly, in the end, it feels like the next PART of the first game, but with updated visuals. Perhaps, once all the parts are available in TWO OR THREE YEARS I’ll feel differently and, who knows, maybe include the whole SC2 package as one title on this list. As it stands currently, though, the game is fun, exciting, and addictive. Just like a good RTS should be.

Classic Moment:
The game is still so very new, so I won’t ruin too much, here. Let’s just say that having control over the giant battle mech, Odin yields some of the game’s greatest guilty pleasures. No space-zeppelin is a match for the mighty Odin!

Added September 30, 2016
This one is a tough one: on this hand, the gameplay across the trilogy was awesome. On the other hand, the story was complete and total junk. Idiots and dumb space gods vs tight, responsive, fun gameplay. It is a pickle.