Mike Bantick
Monday, 16 August 2010 16:38
Entertainment
Page 1 of 4
Has real time strategy come very far since the 1998 release of its predecessor? Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty says yes in so many ways, and yet no in others.
For many years those attempting to live out fantasies as military leaders were confined to sitting around board game tables shuffling stacks of cardboard to and fro.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
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Developer
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Blizzard
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Publisher
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Blizzard |
Rating
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M
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MAC, Reviewed on PC
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The advent of home computers didn’t change much about this process other than bring the games complexity away from thick rule books and look-up tables and secrete these processes into the CPU instead.
These early games maintained their board-game turn based, deep tactical thinking heritage. And then developer Westwood changed everything with games such as Dune 2 and Command & Conquer. Real Time Strategy was born, and the kids went wild.
No longer was success in this genre down to the deepest thinker that had showed up on the day, now there was an element of speed leading to the sweet smell of success. Quick thinking and good planning as well as the age old understanding of terrain and enemy capabilities win the day in a bout of RTS game-play.
And so Blizzard has released Starcraft II. Coming in three parts, the first being Wings of Liberty focussed on Terran (or human) force, with the alien Zerg and Protoss receiving their own instalments to come.
The original game and its expansions is a beloved, well balanced title still played ravenously by dedicated fans all over the world. None more so than the well connected land of South Korea where Starcraft is a televised national sport, with the top players revered as much as Football stars in other parts of the world.
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