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

Mike Morhaime stated he expected the Wings of Liberty beta to launch in summer 2009. and he expects the game to launch by the end of 2009, although he also notes that it will only ship once the game is done.

Recently, Gamespot reported that the financial website Market Watch has stated that StarCraft II, as well as a host of other games, will be delayed till 2010. According to the report, StarCraft II beta will begin in Q1 2010 and the retail game released in Q2-Q3 2010.

The game will contain a method for learning how to play the other races.

A collector's edition will be available.

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.

Wings of Liberty will have its own starmap. The starmap is used to access missions.

Unit and Upgrade Availability
While some units will enter the campaign through missions, the player can also gain access to some units and upgrades for them 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.

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.

Mercenaries will be available in the campaign. They can be hired, although only one can be used in a mission at a time. After the mission, they will be "regenerated".

Raynor's Raiders will have access to some older technology, such as Wraiths, goliaths and medics; Raynor's been around for a while and would likely use the older technology.

Sets and Character Interactions
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.

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).

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 if concluded, a new character, Ariel Hanson, will be added to the roster of Raynor's Raiders. 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.

In such spaces, such as the cantina, new characters can be found, and news reports can be watched.

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.

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 focussed on acquiring credits and equipment. one mission consists of a series of train robberies. 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; 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; a mission where opposing terran and zerg forces seek a goal within a hostile protoss base; a mission in mission in which a lone ghost must influence a battle; a mission on ancient forbidden platforms where the very space damages units where Raynor must steal artifacts from protoss fanatics; 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 will focus on Zeratul.

Storyline
The terran campaign will focus on Raynor's Raiders, which has become a mercenary force based in the Hyperion.

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 Möbius Foundation.

The campaign will have a clear cut resolution.

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 Kerrigan.

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

First Missions
The campaign starts at Mar Sara, site of the start of the original StarCraft.

Jim Raynor returned here as he fought a losing battle against the Terran Dominion. As Raynor was having a drink, his old friend Tychus Findlay walked in, commenting that, for the Dominion's most wanted, he was easy to find. Raynor was surprised, since Findlay had been "put on ice" for a "life sentence", but Findlay claimed he was a "model citizen" now. Findlay offered Raynor a business deal. He had a contact who would offer much money for each artifact they "liberated" from the Dominion.

Findlay and Raynor discussed how Findlay broke out of prison. Findlay claimed to have escaped while being transferred to New Folsom's prison, killing several guards with his bare hands in order to escape... Raynor clearly didn't believe him.

Raynor's Raiders "liberated" an alien artifact from a Dominion base, and discussed their new employer -- the Möbius Foundation. Afterwards, a massive zerg invasion targeted the same site -- as was reported by Dominion media -- and were moving against civilian areas. The Raiders defended the site. Matt Horner arrived in the Hyperion, rescuing the Raiders.

While in space, Raynor, Findlay and Horner discussed the zerg attacks. News reports showed the zerg striking at core Dominion worlds, and confirmed that the invasion was being led by the Queen of Blades. The Dominion fleet retreated to protect the core resource centers as the Fringe Worlds were abandoned.

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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.

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Mini-Campaigns
Wings of Liberty will include a protoss mini-campaign based on Zeratul, focusing on the "greater threat".

Other mini-campaigns will also feature. However, Raynor will remain as the main character of the installment.

Characters

 * Jim Raynor (leader of Raynor's Raiders, Hyperion commander)
 * Dr. Ariel Hanson (scientist)
 * Tychus Findlay (marine)
 * Matt Horner (second-in-command of Raynor's Raiders, captain of the Hyperion)
 * Rory Swann (chief engineer)
 * Gabriel Tosh (arms dealer, ghost)