StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is as close to a sure fire hit as they come. Its predecessor is still played heavily online, was revered as the best game of 1998 by many outlets, and has been called one of the greatest games of all time by some fans. Despite all of this pressure, Blizzard has painstakingly creating a follow-up that the company believes will ring true to the franchise, while also changing enough to be considered its own title.

After firing up the demo, I was briefed on the current situation surrounding Raynor, a favorite character from the original Terran campaign. A beautiful cinematic cutscene sets the stage, with Zerg popping up everywhere as we enter the bridge of Raynor’s ship. SC2 ditches the disembodied talking heads of the original game, instead substituting fully rendered characters that roam the bridge. In the new briefing room, players can chose to converse with shipmates for added story or tips, or can dive right into the mission select screen to pick their poison. No longer are we limited to a completely linear path, as StarCraft II allows players to choose missions freely using the same inventive system that Relic Entertainment employed for Dawn of War II, a boon for storytelling in the genre.

The mission objectives in the demo were varied, offering two vastly different paths. As a Terran ship looking for funds, we could either aid in evacuating a colony from the approaching Zerg threat, or attempt to swipe some precious Xel’Naga crystals from behind the collective back of the Protoss and Zerg armies. The former is a glorified escort mission - slow moving units included - while the later is a time-limited collection mission.