14 DAY TRIAL // Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is without a doubt a success story. It's a real time strategy title which is launched exclusively on the PC and forms only the first part of a trilogy that Blizzard will create over the coming years. It managed millions of units since it first appeared on shelves at through Battle.net a little over a week ago. Despite the fact that Blizzard would not allow critics to review it before the official launch date it got mostly positive coverage and here at Softpedia it got 9 out of 10. For those wondering why a game like this did not get a perfect score the answer is that it's all because Blizzard odd choice not to move forward the genre of strategy gaming in any meaningful way.
And a company as capable as Blizzard should really try to aim higher for their next Starcraft II product, Heart of the Swarm, which will be built around the Zerg and Kerrigan. In Wings of Liberty they added the Hyperion as hub, they offered some single player units that do not appear in multiplayer matches and made sure that each mission is built around more than the idea of wiping out the base of the Zerg or Protoss that the player fights. The enhancements were made by working on the fringes of what Starcraft is, without meddling in the core elements.
Heart of the Swarm needs to take some chances. The ending of Wings of Liberty suggests that the Zerg might look entirely different from how we know them, with a new Overmind and new Cerebrates a distinct possibility. These opens the way for mutations in the unit tree and maybe new mechanics for the entire race. If they change Terrans need to change and the Protoss need to react. Blizzard was safe in the first non World of Warcraft game in launched in years but to continue the success story of Starcraft II it need to move beyond familiarity and into some unexplored real time strategy waters.