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 two expansions, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, occurring before them chronologically.

The Wings of Liberty beta is expected to launch some time in 2010.

The final release has been pushed back to at least the first half of 2010 to give adequate time to develop Battle.net.

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.

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 if 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.

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.

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

The Battle Report screen allowed missions can 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 probe 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.

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. Dustin Browder is currently unsatisfied with the available upgrades, believing them to be too weak. Blizzard is thinking of using "research points" collected from miscellaneous protoss and zerg relics instead.

The scientist Stedman spends his time here. In such spaces, such as the cantina, new characters can be found, and news reports can be watched.

Mercenaries will be available in the campaign. They can be hired from Graven Hill for short-term contracts.

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.

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.

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 (Mining Your Own Business); 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 (Tooth and Nail); a mission in 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.

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 just one mission.

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

Storyline
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.

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 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.

List of Missions

 * Main article: Wings of Liberty missions

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.

OnNJQcc7Brw

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)
 * Stedman (scientist)
 * Rory Swann (chief engineer)
 * Gabriel Tosh (arms dealer, ghost)

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 favourite moments out of all the work he's done at Blizzard Entertainment.

Videos
Y-9Ms9Jr9jQ