StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty


 * Zeratul: "I bring tidings of doom. The xel'naga return, the cycle nears its end, the artifacts are the key."
 * Jim Raynor: "The key... the key to what?"
 * Zeratul: "To the end of all things."
 * ―Zeratul delivers a warning to Jim Raynorsrc

Wings of Liberty is the name of the StarCraft II terran campaign and episode. It has a tentative release date of July 27, 2010.

It will be the first StarCraft II product and will be released separately from the two expansions, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, occurring before them chronologically.

Wings of Liberty is expected to have 29 missions (though a maximum of 26 are playable in a single playthrough) 13 minutes of pre-rendered cinematics and 32 minutes of in-engine on-the-fly cinematics.

A collector's edition will be available.

Development
The Wings of Liberty beta launched on February 17, 2010.

The final release had been pushed back to at least the first half of 2010 to give adequate time to develop Battle.net. Development of the game itself is currently focused on polishing the singleplayer, specifically briefings, newscasts, outros and videos for unlocked technologies.

As of March 2010, all missions are in, dialog is in, and all game mechanics are working. Its storyline has been fully solidified, and the team who developed it has since moved on to Heart of the Swarm.

Dustin Browder expects StarCraft II will have a day 1 patch.

Campaign Overview
The terran campaign will focus on Raynor's Raiders, which has become a mercenary force based in the Hyperion. The campaign starts at Mar Sara, site of the start of the original StarCraft.

Jim Raynor is "the central hero and character of the campaign," which focuses on his fight against the Terran Dominion as well as his relationship with Infested Kerrigan.

Raynor's forces are out of money and morale, but Raynor has been trying to reverse this by acquiring alien artifacts and selling them to the mysterious. The arrival of Kerrigan kicks off all the events of Wings of Liberty.

Zeratul and Kerrigan will both make appearances in the campaign and have a major impact in it.

The campaign will have a clear cut resolution.

Mechanics
The campaign is expected to take 20-60 hours to complete, depending on how "completist" the player is.

In the terran campaign, players will be able to choose their own missions in the middle part of the campaign rather than progress through a set series. The missions are designed to emphasize player choice, such as which technology to buy and missions to play. The choices will be made obvious, and may affect the fate of some characters.

Mission replays can be viewed and data displayed. Missions can even be played again in order to get achievements.

Character Interactions
Jim Raynor will be the main character, and the player will direct him, determining to some extent who Raynor will become based on their choices. This is different from the "vague" player character from StarCraft. The player will have the choice of bending Raynor towards good (by taking missions from certain characters such as Ariel Hanson) or evil (by taking missions from characters such as Tychus Findlay and Gabriel Tosh).

Interactions in briefings will also change, as Jim Raynor can interact with those around him (e.g. he can walk around the Hyperion, talk to characters like Tychus Findlay and his second-in-command Matt Horner and even play around with his armory's crane). The player can choose which characters to interact with.

Often missions will be associated with different characters. For instance, after fleeing Mar Sara, Jim Raynor can choose between rescuing the abandoned Fringe World of Agria or retrieving an artifact from fanatical protoss on Monlyth. If the former mission is concluded, a new character, Ariel Hanson, will be added to the roster of Raynor's Raiders.

In addition, Blizzard wants players to understand the universe as a whole, so they will visit planets, get a sense of the geography, learn who the major players and characters are and find out about political factions.

Sets
Numerous between-mission set pieces exist, such as the bar on Mar Sara where Tychus Findlay was reunited with Jim Raynor, and includes features such as a jukebox (which enables music to be turned on or off), a bulletin board containing useful information (such as wanted posters) and nostalgic pieces (such as a picture of Raynor and Findlay in the Heaven's Devils), and a TV set which showed newscasts informing Raynor about events affecting the Terran Dominion.

Hyperion Sets
At least some parts of the Hyperion's interior will be used in the terran campaign of StarCraft II.

Armory
The Hyperion's armory is the favored hangout of engineer Rory Swann. It also contains a simulator to test new units and a construction crane.

In StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, players can buy new upgrades here. Players will be able to "customize" their selections which suit their playstyles, for instance buying defensive upgrades for bunkers would suit a defensive playstyle. When a new upgrade is bought, a short video of the unit or ability is shown.

Bridge
The bridge of the Hyperion is where mission briefings take place. Matt Horner is usually stationed here.

The Battle Report screen allows missions to be "replayed". Furthermore, alternate missions can be played, but will not affect the plot of a particular run through Wings of Liberty. Battle Reports of each mission are generated with stats ranging from SCV count to the actual build order.

Views of outside planets and star systems can be seen by selecting the "viewscreen".

Cantina
The ship houses an on-board cantina, where Jim Raynor has been known to drink.

The cantina features TV sets (to watch the news) and a jukebox stolen from a bar on Mar Sara. Newly-introduced characters often congregate here, and news reports can be watched.

The game Lost Viking can be played here.

Graven Hill Mercenary recruiter Graven Hill hangs out here.

Gabriel Tosh Gabriel Tosh hangs out here. He is an arms dealer.

Lab
Players who delve deeply into the storyline can finish research objectives, a type of quest. Completing enough of them will grant access to new technology. This is separate from upgrading tech at the Hyperion's armory. These are available in the lab.

Upgrades are available through spending protoss and zerg research points. Upgrades come in pairs, and a player can only select one from each pair of researches.

Dr. Ariel Hanson and Egon Stetmann spend their time here.

Unit and Upgrade Availability
Units will become available in the campaign through missions. The player can also gain access to upgrades for them which are purchased outside actual missions in the Hyperion armory. Players will be able to "customize" their selections which suit their playstyles, for instance buying defensive upgrades for bunkers would suit a defensive playstyle. In addition, other upgrades that will never be seen in multiplayer, such as area-of-effect increases or the ability to add both a tech lab and a reactor to a barracks will be included in the system.

Each mission completed gives access to a unit or upgrade to a unit. Each unit has two upgrades. There are only enough credits to purchase approximately 80% of upgrades in the campaign.

Raynor's Raiders will have access to some older technology, such as Wraiths, goliaths and medics; according to lead designer Dustin Browder, "The rationale is that Jim Raynor's been around for a while and a lot of this older technology is cheaper and would be the kind of thing a guy like him would have access to."

Protoss Mini-Campaign
Wings of Liberty will include a protoss mini-campaign based on Zeratul, focusing on the "greater threat". It must be unlocked. It will consist of a series of missions, and will include other protoss forces. However, it will not include all units, buildings or upgrades, as its purpose is to tell a story, not to prepare a player for multiplayer. The mini-campaign is not separate from the main terran campaign; rather, there are missions where the player plays as protoss.

The mini-campaign will be presented as a "flashback" of Zeratul's actions.

Mission Types
Blizzard intends to create varied interesting missions, each with an interesting gimmick or unique strategy.

The mission types will be varied; early missions are focused on acquiring credits and equipment. One mission consists of a series of train robberies (The Train Job). The third mission will be a hold-out mission.

Other missions described include one where lava rises every five minutes, killing anything that isn't on high ground (Devil's Playground); a mission where infested terrans emerge at night and force the player into a hold-out situation, but they become dormant during the day, during which the player tries to kill as many as possible (Outbreak); a mission where opposing terran and zerg forces seek to steal an alien artifact from within a hostile protoss fanatics base (Smash and Grab); a mission in which a lone ghost must influence a battle; a mission on ancient forbidden platforms or spaceship where the very space damages units, a mission on a scrap planet where there are no traditional resources and scrap must be collected, the "Thor" mission and one mission will have walls of fire burn across the map and the player must complete the mission before being consumed by a nearby supernova. A few missions are based on the concept of "search and destroy."

Storyline
Zeratul encountered hydralisks (which he killed) and then Infested Kerrigan while investigating xel'naga mysteries. She had expected his arrival.

Mar Sara
Jim Raynor was present on Mar Sara, fighting against a Terran Dominion takeover of a local colony.

Traveling back to Joeyray's Bar, he met up with his old friend Tychus Findlay. Findlay offered Raynor a business proposal; "liberating" alien artifacts from the Terran Dominion. The Dominion had recently prohibited transportation of such artifacts, and began digging them up on planets such as Mar Sara. The artifacts would be sold to his contact, the formerly legitimate. Raynor and Findlay's forces teamed up to steal one such artifact from the Dominion.

The zerg invaded Mar Sara en masse, starting at the location of the dig. The Raiders defended a town until the Hyperion could rescue them. The zerg had, in fact, struck many Dominion worlds. Afterward, Raynor had to choose between rescuing the colonists of Agria or retrieving an artifact from protoss fanatics at Monlyth.

A Chilling Warning
While seeking a drink in the Hyperion’s cantina, Raynor was surprised by Zeratul, who warned him that the "xel'naga return" and that the artifacts were the key.

List of Missions

 * Main article: Wings of Liberty missions

Characters

 * Jim Raynor (leader of Raynor's Raiders, Hyperion commander)
 * Tychus Findlay (marine)
 * Dr. Ariel Hanson (scientist)
 * Graven Hill (mercenary recruiter)
 * Matt Horner (second-in-command of Raynor's Raiders, captain of the Hyperion)
 * Egon Stetmann (scientist)
 * Rory Swann (chief engineer)
 * Gabriel Tosh (arms dealer, spectre)
 * Zeratul (Dark Templar prelate)

Collector's Edition
Wings of Liberty will have a Collector's Edition, selling for $100 US and will only be available through retail stores.

Bonus items include:


 * The Art of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
 * A USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor's dog tag, which will include StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War
 * A behind the scenes DVD.
 * The official Wings of Liberty soundtrack CD, with 14 game tracks and exclusive bonus tracks.
 * StarCraft: Issue 0, a prequel to the StarCraft comic
 * A World of Warcraft mini-thor pet.
 * A different thor model for in-game use.
 * Exclusive Battle.net downloadable content, including special portraits for your Battle.net profile, decals to customize your units in-game.

Trivia
Such is the scale of Wings of Liberty's storyline that Chris Metzen believes that it would take at least three novels to tell it were it in written form, though nine would be the preferred number. He considers the ending of the game to be one of his favorite moments out of all the work he's done at Blizzard Entertainment.

In conjunction with Blizzard Entertainment, SteelSeries has developed a custom Wings of Liberty keyboard, specifically designed for macromanagement and with labeled commands on the keys.