Well solved difficult task

I would not like to put into the skin of Blizzard put in the development of this game. Let's make no mistake about it, the task was enormous:
-There Is a sequel to one of the most successful games of all time has to be presented, that is still a vibrant community and enjoys one of the most perfect balanced strategy games ever true after 12 years.
-With Every year grows the pressure of expectations.
-The Game should be just as interesting for those who have never heard of Starcraft, as for those who know the original.
-The Game should be just as playable for those (semi) want to play professionally in eSports leagues, as well as those who want to try for a change a strategy game with a good reputation only once and have never previously made multiplayer games.

Against this background, Blizzard is the task succeeded substantially.

In Starcraft 2, the wheel is not reinvented. The game fits seamlessly from gameplay to its predecessor and the Warcraft series one. Here, too, in "real time" raw material is promoted and thus built up a base, recruited units and, ultimately, war played against other human players or computer. The three factions are the familiar from Starcraft and many units are in one form or another there again.

The story is more or less continued ... I think. Because I've played the original is about 11 years ago. Since I have Starcraft dug since at most 1 or 2 times for a LAN session, I can barely remember honestly say to detail of the original. However, the protagonists are roughly the same and it's views about fighting the Zerg in turn substantially. In addition, there a few backgrounds, here and there a bit of intrigue, betrayal, love, etc. Relatively straightforward the whole.

Oh here Blizzard must of course use those who still know the story from the first part and Brood Wars and the bulk of those who have the history either forgotten or have not played the original. In addition, the story a little victims of non-linear mission design, which is why stories and events sometimes seem thrown together. But things are not dramatic, there are rock-solid food from the Starcraft universe is overwhelmed without anybody, but nobody from the stool is also carved.

There is a small tutorial that introduces players to the basic functions of a real-time strategy game. But anyone who has been frequently played such games can then confidently do without, especially because there is a viable in-game help, which explains a lot of game concepts and illustrated by small videos.

The campaign is ebwechslungsreich and makes (mostly) fun. I have "normal" choose the difficulty level and have done well in most cases. For people like me, pure chance players is the game to buy mainly from nostalgic reasons I think this is the most reasonable variant and still leaves room for improvement. The campaign is beatable in this difficulty, even if you have to because there is a blunder in individual cases, even rebooting. Also nice that it's the same not always, there are quite repeatedly to solve different tasks.

The downside is, as has often mentioned that Wings of Liberty contains only one campaign for Terran and not, as the original and one for Zerg and Protoss. Can without too much to spoilen I betrayed that you have to not only play in the Terran campaign. Nevertheless pity. Especially when you consider that the next addon should appear with the next campaign until early 2012, which at today's practice is rather the end of 2012 and thus still more than 2 years. And appears to be the last part will then move into the country probably another 2 years.

Nevertheless, overall the campaign is a round thing, a lot of fun and is -For my taste not too short. That is, at least for players with my performance profile okay and provides about 20-25 hours of playtime.

Graphics and sound are ok. Again, one must consider that Starcraft has a wide audience and therefore must remain playable even for people with average PC and you have a multi-year development time behind them. Therefore, the graphics in 2010 will certainly cut down anyone anymore, but it is not bad. The soundscape is nice and does not disturb, probably an admission to the pro-gamers, which means on the other hand, it has failed a little unspectacular. Seis drum, since Warcraft has always been more progressive than its sci-fi counterpart.

The gameplay has been solved very well. Beginners can control the game easily with the mouse. Anyone who has already played such a game is to find their way quickly. Who is playing, however, is ambitious not get around without the mass of hot keys, the game offers. For me personally overkill, but I think it's like in football: There are just Kreisklasse and there is the Bundesliga and both has its raison d'être. As long as a player does not have to speak at least 30 hotkeys to play the game, which I think is fine. (I play with your mouse!) ;-)

About Multiplayer (in particular the absence of a LAN mode) is already much has been written, as well as on the registration procedure and the approval of all possible efforts to be reported by Activision. This is the main reason for the drawn-off star. Short to the latter: Everyone must know what he is willing to accept and what not. I suppose at least for myself to complete. However, the muzzling of Games clients through the Publisher already takes on whimsical trains. Until I could actually play elapsed between unpacking and start the first mission 45 min. A considerable part of it was around it owed the registration of an account at the portal Battle.net and the fuss. I have to accept a total of at least 3 end-user, user, license or other agreements. Quite a burden for a computer game. The online registration for each game sucks. The game publisher must not be surprised if they have to accept migration in the casual games sector when playing a game is becoming a legal guerrilla war, including forced gagging via online activation.
This is not to sound arrogant, but: Adult people as I have the money to buy a game if they want, but they have not the time and the pleasure with hundreds pages of agreements in which to hide all sorts of negative clauses (eg data transfer to employ or to grapple with online activation portals third parties). So if Blizzard wants, I your games to buy in the future, because my Starcraft 2 has indeed always liked, then you should consider ways to protect the game against piracy, and without honest players to consoles, Flash Games, Browser Games Co. distribute.