STARCRAFT II is the sequel to the hit 90’s PC RTS (Real Time Strategy) game Starcraft, which takes us to the future of humanity where we have starships and advanced medical/military technology. The game brings back old protagonists like Jim Raynor, Zeratul, Matt Horner, Sarah Carrigan, and many others. The game also brings back the old faction of the alien threat known as the Zerg, which were thought to be eradicated in the first game.

Those of us who have played the first game will get a new kick out of the controls and the major graphical upgrade compared to what they had back in the first one. Those who are new to the game will get a bit of a challenge, especially if they have never played an RTS before.  Do not worry though, it is really easy to get the hang of and requires some thinking. So if you do not like to think much, then do not play it.

The game itself is pretty straightforward. You have a base, you can collect resources, build an army, defeat the enemy, and win while completing bonus objectives to give you more money for unit upgrades and to earn achievements for bragging rights.  Sounds simple enough. However, you have to consider unit types and their counters like how air beats vehicle, vehicle beats infantry, and infantry beats air. It’s like rock, paper, scissors.

With the rock, paper, scissors format in mind, it makes you plan accordingly on what kind of units you will be needing when you are building your army or defending it from the enemy.  That does not really guarantee a victory or a defeat in a game, though. That is where strategy comes in. If you know how to move your troops to

where they are needed and time the attacks effectively, you will have a better chance at winning.

That means that you should probably start with the campaign so that you can practice, since in multiplayer you will get wrecked. The campaign has some challenging missions, obviously, that force you to try new strategies that you may have never thought of before.  The story itself is amazing due to the fact that you are trying to liberate the colonies from the dictator, Arcturus Mengsk, who you actually helped get into power in the first Starcraft because he lied to you.

As you are trying to free the colonies from the grasp from the dictator, the Zerg also launch their assault on humanity. This is led by Jim’s lover, Sarah Kerrigan, who was turned into the “Queen of Blades” after the Overlord was destroyed in the last Starcraft. As you play through, you can see how stressed Jim gets as you reach the final battle in where he has to choose whether to try to save her, his love, or to eliminate her for the sake of humanity but live with guilt.

Once you decide on what choice is the right one, the campaign ends with different cutaways depending on the choice you made.  After that you can hop on to multiplayer or go back and hunt for achievements. Multiplayer is pretty fun because you can choose which faction to play as. You can be human, Zerg, or Protos– an alien race that inspired the creation of the Covenant in the Halo series.  You have to go through another annoying tutorial though.

Keep in mind that the upgrades that you purchase in the campaign are not transferred over to multiplayer because it’s multiplayer, it already has everything you need.  You can choose to play a simple 1v1 up to a total war of 3v3 with you and 2 friends or 2 randoms if you like playing like that. The community is not really as toxic like those of COD, Halo, and League, because most of the players are people who enjoy to play for fun and not to compete.

However, there are times that you will encounter a toxic player but that is because they got wrecked in their last game or the game finishes faster than they thought it would.  That’s all there is to know about the multiplayer. If you want to know more about the game you are going to have to play it or watch gameplay.