StarCraft II is a real-time strategy video game made by Blizzard Entertainment. It was first released in 2010 and is a follow-up to the original StarCraft game, which came out in 1998. The game is set in a future where military power plays a major role. The story follows a battle for control among different alien races across the galaxy.

The single-player story of StarCraft II is divided into three parts. Each part focuses on one of the three main races: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010), Heart of the Swarm (2013), and Legacy of the Void (2015). A final story pack called StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops was released in 2016.

The multiplayer mode of StarCraft II led to the creation of a new esports competition. This competition interested companies other than Blizzard and gained attention in South Korea and other regions, much like the original StarCraft esports. Since 2017, the multiplayer mode, co-op mode, and the first single-player campaign have been available for free.

Story

The story of StarCraft II continues the story from the original StarCraft games, involving the races and characters of StarCraft.

Wings of Liberty takes place four years after the events of StarCraft: Brood War. It focuses on the conflict between Jim Raynor’s rebel group and the Terran Dominion, which is ruled by Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. The Zerg return as an ongoing threat, but Raynor eventually rescues Sarah Kerrigan, the Zerg queen who was captured and disabled.

Heart of the Swarm follows the Dominion attacking Raynor and Kerrigan. The story mainly focuses on Kerrigan’s actions against Mengsk’s forces and the new Protoss-Zerg hybrids that have appeared.

Legacy of the Void features the Protoss as the main characters, led by Zeratul and Artanis. They fight against Amon, the evil being who created the Protoss-Zerg hybrids. After the events of Legacy of the Void, a short epilogue shows all three factions working together to face Amon inside the Void.

Nova Covert Ops happens sometime after Amon is defeated. It follows Nova, a ghost operative, as she investigates a secret plan that endangers the reformed Terran Dominion.

Games

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released in 2010. It takes place four years after the end of StarCraft: Brood War. Two expansions, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void (both currently stand alone games), were planned from the beginning. Heart of the Swarm was released in 2013, and Legacy of the Void was released in 2015.

All the games in the main series are real-time strategy games. In these games, the player views events as a military commander for each of the three species.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the official sequel to StarCraft. It was released for Windows and Mac OS X by Blizzard Entertainment on July 27, 2010. The game was announced at the Worldwide Invitational in South Korea on May 19, 2007, with a pre-rendered cinematic cut scene trailer and a gameplay demonstration of the Protoss. Further demonstrations of the game’s new features were shown at later BlizzCons and other game conventions. The game uses a new 3D graphics engine and includes features such as the Havok physics engine. StarCraft II also uses DirectX 10 level effects on Windows. Originally planned as a single game, StarCraft II was divided into three parts during development, each focusing on one of the three races. The base game, Wings of Liberty, follows the Terrans. Two expansion packs, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, were released to expand on Wings of Liberty and continue the story from the perspectives of the Zerg and Protoss, respectively. The story of Wings of Liberty begins four years after the end of Brood War and follows Jim Raynor’s struggles against the Terran Dominion.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is an expansion pack for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. It was released on March 12, 2013. It is the second part of the StarCraft II trilogy. The expansion includes new units and multiplayer changes from Wings of Liberty, as well as a continuing campaign focused on Kerrigan and the Zerg race. It includes 27 missions (20 main missions and 7 side missions).

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void completes the StarCraft saga. It was released on November 10, 2015. Legacy of the Void is a stand-alone game that adds new units to all three races and changes existing units. It also introduces major changes to the game’s economy system. The story follows the Protoss race as they work to reclaim their homeworld and shows Kerrigan defeating the greatest threat to the universe. The game is divided into a 3-mission prologue, a 19-mission main story campaign, and a 3-mission epilogue that concludes the story.

At BlizzCon 2015, during the "Future of StarCraft II" presentation, Blizzard announced plans to release additional mission packs to keep players engaged. The Nova Covert Ops mission pack includes three episodes with nine new missions. It does not require purchasing StarCraft II and can be played with the Starter Edition. The first episode was released on March 29, 2016. At the same time, Blizzard announced new commanders would be added to the Co-Op mode in Legacy of the Void as DLC. Karax was the first addition and was given for free.

Development

StarCraft II was announced on May 19, 2007, about 10 years after the original game, during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea. The game was developed under the name Medusa and was planned to be released at the same time on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X. Blizzard later announced that the game would be released on July 27, 2010. Work on the game started in 2003, shortly after the release of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

Music

The soundtrack for StarCraft II was created by Derek Duke, Glenn Stafford, Neal Acree, and Russell Brower. Russell Brower, who is Blizzard's Director of Audio, explained that the music in StarCraft has two purposes: the music played during gameplay is meant to be quiet and not distracting so players can focus, while the music in movie-like scenes can be more unique. Brower also noted that some musical themes in StarCraft II are linked to specific characters, a method used by composers like John Williams and Richard Wagner.

The original music for the Wings of Liberty expansion includes about four hours of music. Brower mentioned in interviews that his team aimed to create a style similar to movie scores for StarCraft II. In a short comment for Blizzard, he described how the orchestral music for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was performed by 78 members of the San Francisco Symphony and Opera. The music was recorded at the Skywalker stage at the Lucasfilm Ranch in Marin County, California, under the name "Skywalker Symphony Orchestra," with Eímear Noone conducting. He also mentioned that a 32-voice choir was used in Seattle, Washington. Both recording sessions were mixed by John Kurlander, who had previously worked on The Lord of the Rings and Abbey Road. The Terran country and blues music was recorded at Dreamland studio in Woodstock, New York, by members of Peter Gabriel's band, including bassist Tony Levin and drummer Jerry Marotta. Other pieces were recorded at Blizzard's studios and performed by musicians such as Laurence Juber (formerly of Wings) and Tommy Morgan. The soundtrack also includes the hymn Eternal Father, Strong to Save (1860), composed by John Bacchus Dykes and William Whiting.

The orchestral music for Heart of the Swarm was also recorded in Marin County, again with Kurlander and Noone, and featured 80 performers from the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra.

In a 2013 interview, Brower said he planned to continue using musical themes linked to characters in Legacy of the Void.

Reception

The release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty did very well in sales and received good reviews. It sold 1.8 million copies within the first 48 hours, which made it the best-selling strategy game ever. It had an average score of 93% from many reviews and was named "Best PC Game of 2010" by GameSpot. By the end of 2012, Wings of Liberty had sold more than 6 million copies. This success continued with the release of the first expansion pack, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, which had an average score of 86%. The expansion sold 1.1 million copies in the first two days of its release on March 12, 2013, and was the best-selling PC game that quarter. The third expansion, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, was also well received, with an average score of 88% and more than 1 million copies sold worldwide on its first day of release.

By the end of 2015, the StarCraft and StarCraft II series had sold over 17.6 million copies of games and expansions. By the end of 2017, Blizzard Entertainment reported that the combined StarCraft franchise had generated over $1 billion in total revenue.

Multiplayer game modes

StarCraft II includes several multiplayer game modes in addition to the single-player campaigns from its four expansions. The most common modes are "versus" and "co-op."

In the "versus" mode, players can compete in teams of 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4. The 1v1 format is the most popular and forms the foundation of competitive gaming events. Players earn experience points and achievements, but these do not directly influence future gameplay. As players improve, the game's difficulty increases based on a system that matches players according to their number of wins and losses. The ranking system, called the "ladder," is organized by geographic region and includes levels called leagues. These leagues range from the lowest, bronze, to the highest, grandmaster.

As team sizes grow, the maps used in the game often change. Players can also participate in tournaments for each team size, where teams either win or are eliminated. The "versus" mode also includes the "Archon" option, where matches appear to be 1v1 but involve multiple human players controlling one side.

The "co-op" mode allows two human players to team up against an artificial intelligence (AI) using special hero characters. Earning experience points in this mode helps players level up, which affects future gameplay. The heroes are based on characters from the single-player campaigns but have added abilities. This mode includes "mutations," which are special challenges that change game rules to increase difficulty. There are 18 co-op commanders available, with six from each of the three races. While the co-op mode uses heroes from the main storyline, not all 46 heroes are playable.

Professional competition

Since its release, StarCraft II has been played professionally around the world. Like its earlier version, StarCraft: Brood War, the highest level of competition has mostly been in South Korea.

After StarCraft II was released, many tournaments were held in Korea and other countries, including the Global StarCraft II League (GSL).

The game was considered the biggest esports competition globally during its early years. It helped spread esports worldwide, similar to how the original game introduced esports to South Korea. Over time, its popularity decreased, but it later grew again when it became free to play.

In 2012, Blizzard created the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) as the main official tournament for StarCraft II. Starting in 2013, both Korean leagues like the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) and international events such as Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) and Dreamhack were added to the WCS. These events gave players points and ensured spots in the Global Finals, which happen every year at BlizzCon.

In 2020, Blizzard changed the WCS format by forming a three-year partnership with esports organizers ESL and DreamHack.

Use in artificial intelligence

In November 2016, Alphabet's DeepMind team announced a partnership with Blizzard. They aimed to create a helpful testing platform for AI researchers.

StarCraft II has been used in the area of multi-agent reinforcement learning for two reasons: