Well, I got carried away and wrote a wall of text, but here is my take on
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty.
The game is great overall and has vast and obvious improvements over Starcraft I.
Price at the moment is
$59.99 and maybe subject to change in the future, who knows.
I think that the cost is justified, given that most games are around this price range now a days anyway.
The many Pros:General:Great graphics, shiny textures, new maps, and smooth controls.
Have not encountered too many glitches or bugs.
Has easy party creating functions for you and your friends.
Patches promise to bring new functions such as improved voice chat, clan creating functions, and chat channels.
Lots of achievements to earn and lots of rewards to unlock such as portraits and custom decals.
Tons of players online allows custom games and ladder games to be very quickly.
Has a built in friends list interface that allows you to talk to your friends even while playing the single player content.
Can link up to your Facebook account to find other people who play Starcraft 2.
Even allows you to talk to your friends if they are playing WoW.
Single Player (Campaign):4 levels of difficulty for the campaign: Casual, Normal, Hard, and Brutal.
Lots of achievements for the campaign, multiplayer, computer AI, and cooperative play.
The cinematics are well made, scripted, and voiced.
A fairly wide cast of characters ranging from ex-convicts to futuristic aliens.
Tons of units old and new to utilize and tinker with.
Lots of missions to complete, I think around 26 in all.
Secrets scattered around the campaign.
Can purchase upgrades for your units/buildings, hire mercenaries, and research different and new buildings/units.
A sweet little bullet hell game built into the campaign named, The Lost Viking.
Achievements give the campaign a good replay value.
Challenge/Versus A.I.:Many challenges that test your knowledge and skills of the Starcraft universe.
Has three ranks of Copper, Silver, and Gold.
Challenges range from unit countering to your micro skills.
Tons of fun and will definitely make you think and refine your skills.
Achievements for the challenges are aplenty.
Versus A.I. allows you face computer opponents of varying skills from Very Easy to Insane.
Insane cheats, nuff said, they're just flawless at micro to macro.
Multiplayer Ladder:The multiplayer ladder is divided into copper, silver, gold, platinum, and diamond.
There is 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 modes.
Three races to choose from Terran, Zerg, and Protoss.
The matchmaking system is very streamlined as is the custom games interface.
Many new maps to choose and play from.
Lots of players of varying skill, but majority are very experienced especially in the gold, platinum, and diamond league.
Custom Games:The custom games are a bit lacking at the moment given that the game has only been out for a few weeks.
There are still a few out such as Nexus Wars, Tank Defense, Spine Crawler Defense, and many others.
The interface is a lot more fluid and finding custom games is incredibly easy.
Custom maps being created and released every day... week?
But I am sure the map making community will come out with more amazing custom maps down the line.
The Cons:No chat channels available at the time.
No official clan creating functions at the moment.
Adding friends is a bit confusing and hectic.
Many of the online players are very boring and impersonal.
Not too much communication within the game.
Finding friends is a bit difficult, since no one really talks other than: GL HF, U2, GG.
The voice chat is pretty bland and crappy.
No LAN functions... except for tournament owners.
Patches are quite small and don't seem to be fixing much at the moment, but hopefully will pick up soon.
Other random notes:I myself personally have finished the campaign achievements to entirety, being the achievement whore I am
I got placed into the diamond league and... am finding it quite difficult to keep a 1:1 ratio.
If anyone has the game and wants to add me:
Character name: Entonox
Character code: 125
Yup... well that concludes my review of
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. Hope you enjoyed.
-GamerX