Starcraft II – The Secret to Blizzard Success Lies in Jim Raynor's Sweat

The first mission of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty tasks the player (there are minimal spoilers ahead but nothing you could not get from watching trailers and reading news) with commanding a small squad of Marines, complete with one Jim Raynor special character, on an rampage on Mar Sara, taking out some Confederate guards and then helping the crowd of angry citizens in destroying a Dominion building. The loss is supposed to weaken the grip which Emperor Mengsk has on the planet while helping the manpower and cash strapped insurgency of our long friends Jim Raynor.

As far as challenge goes the mission is simple. As far as innovation in real time strategy goes the mission would have been perfectly at home in the original, about ten years ago. One could complete it by issuing an attack order to the building that is the missions objective and leave the pathfinding to the Artificial Intelligence. But Blizzard pays enough attention to the small stuff that can create a game world and makes players play, watch and enjoy this simple missions because of all the extra detail that it throws in.

There are animals running around, actually showing the player where he needs to go. There are billboards encouraging citizens to watch their neighbors, not too subtle clues that show the true nature of the Dominion. There are holograms of the Emperor that further show his aims and his ideology. The simplicity of the task assigned to the player allows for time to be spent on actual immersion in the Starcraft II world and story.

And the detail does not stop there. I've never seen sweat as well represented virtually as on Jim Raynor. The bar where the narrative initially takes place is full of small objects, shadows and suggestions about the history of the characters and possibility their future. Detail is one of the biggest weapons Blizzard has and with Starcraft II the company wields it to actually make simplicity something attractive.