Editor’s note: This review was written by Leo Rayz, a student at Full Sail University. Leo’s family immigrated to the United States in 1990 from the former Soviet Union. For his first birthday in the United States, Leo’s parents bought his brother and him a Nintendo Entertainment System. He accredits his initial culture emergence and language efficiency to Mario and Link. For more than 20 years, Leo has been a fanatic of videogames and consoles. Although playing and researching videogames is his favorite way to spend his free time, Leo has a passion for most technology and tries to stay up on the global tech scene. His professional background is in the telecommunications industry and recruitment. Recently married, Leo has decided to shift his career path to the track he has always fantasized about — gaming. In 2009, Leo finished all the upper-division requirements for his bachelor’s degree in business management. With an additional bachelor’s degree in game design from Full Sail, Leo hopes to get his foot in the door of a top videogame developer. Leo really looks forward to meeting and networking with excited and talented classmates, faculty and innovators throughout the program.

The highly anticipated sequel, StarCraft II. is Blizzard’s attempt to deliver on a franchise that has spanned over a decade and over many continents. In some countries, the release of StarCraft II had so many people running home to play the game that entire economies were affected by the absence of workers and customers. With record-breaking launch day numbers, it is no questions Blizzard and its parent company Activision will be counting the piles of money for a long, long time. But what about the game itself? Has Blizzard delivered a new fan-favored staple in the real-time strategy genre? Has it successfully continued to build the StarCraftuniverse and develop the characters in a rich, captivating story? Read on as I, Orbital-Death, review this year’s most popular PC game, StarCraft II.

For those of you new to StarCraft II, one thing to note about Blizzard and its games is the constant focus on letting massive stories drive the games. The first thing players will see once they begin to install StarCraft II, even before the first in-game opening cinematic, is a thorough telling and showing of the original StarCraftand StarCraft: Brood Wars stories. As a fan of the original game and expansion, those stories were not new to me. However, I found the summary and voice-acted narration of those events to be very captivating right off the bat. It was hands down the best use of “install time” I have ever experienced.

Experience is a word I find myself wanting to use frequently when speaking or writing about this game. If StarCraft II was attempting to draw players into a universe where they would suspend their notions of realism and believability to allow themselves to journey with a group of characters fighting for survival and willing to die for their convictions, then it undoubtedly succeeded with me.

The story begins with and follows with a fallen hero. Jim Raynor is our protagonist who had helped General Mengsk, our antagonist, fight off the Zerg invasion. Raynor was quickly betrayed and had to stand by watching while Kerrigan, the woman he loved, was left to die by the hands of the Zerg. The opening cinematic in StarCraft II has the familiar voice of General Mengsk speaking — no, more like proselytizing of what was and what will be. With his voice as the backdrop, we see the coming together of a prisoner being turned into a space marine, and after minutes of futuristic engineering and construction eye candy, Tychus Findlay is revealed as the prisoner turned space marine. We see the wheels of war and hear the maniacal rant of Mengsk planning for dominance in one scene, and then we are whisked away to a very different experience.

Alone in some rundown space bar during midday, we find our hero seeking comforts in the bottom of a whiskey bottle. Everything moves slowly as the dreary Western saloon style music helps paint a mood of “nothing much going on.” Visually breathtaking, we see remarkable uses of shadows and lighting effects to apathetically shroud our hero’s face in sorrowing darkness. The scene quickly picks up as we learn from a background TV prompter that Jim Raynor is considered to be an enemy to the very people he helped save. Considered as a rebel outlaw, the bounty on his head would make anyone jumpy when they hear the clunking of marine boots as someone approaches from behind. After a gripping and tense moment with Jim reaching for his pistol, a familiar voice emerges, and Jim’s cautious awareness subdues. The dialogue between Jim and Tychus is only one of many truly prolific voice-acting performances that will be almost constantly heard throughout the game. The story unfolds in that bar, as Tychus tells Jim he escaped from prison and has a lucrative opportunity to make piles of space bucks, while sticking it to the Dominion led by General Mengsk. This is an offer Jim cannot refuse.

Not wanting to reveal or spoil much of this amazing plot, this was just a taste of the rich and enthralling experience created by the StarCraft II story. As Jim fights his way to bring down the Dominion army and General Mengsk, his love interest Kerrigan, now a re-morphed leader of the Zerg known as the “Queen of Blades,” works to end all Terran and Protoss life in the universe. The single-player campaign will take players through many unique and fun missions. Straying a little off the beaten path, some of the missions feel less like standard build a base then attack/defend missions and almost like an action game, adding to the experience. The variety of gameplay and unique uses of mechanics is not overwhelming, though, as the player is always given a great explanation to what they are doing, why they are doing it and the weight of their actions on the overall story.

Even if the successful completion of game-changing missions is not enough to immerse players in a world they feel they are a part of, decisions the player is asked to make effects the story and, consequently, the experience the player will have. During one such choice, I was asked to decide whether to side with a doctor I had rescued who wants me to save her Zerg-infested people at the risk myself, my men and the possibility of the virus spreading while we are fighting or side with the Protoss, who wants to eradicate the entire infected planet. I felt the weight of this decision and found myself asking questions about the outcomes in such ways that, when looking back at it, engaged me more into the story and my role as Jim Raynor.

On the premise of single-player campaign and story alone, StarCraft II is well-worth the $60 price tag. It combines the use of beautifully rendered cinematic, in-game cinematic, voice acting, musical score, sound effects and uniquely playable mission mechanics to create a one-of-a-kind experience. StarCraft II is a must-have and must-experience for any gaming aficionado and just someone looking to experience an interactive and very fun story.