Intro And Mission One- Liberation Day
khan2012
Very Tired.
- Location
- North Carolina
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
Hello to the people who are reading this (I don't know why you would, there's probably better things you could do with your lives). This will be a Let's Play of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. Before we dig in, a few setup-related things:
1. This is not a blind let's play. I've played Starcraft 2 several times before, and in fact, Starcraft 2 was the first game I ever really played. In fact, I'll probably be reminiscing on my experiences the first time I played the game as I go through.
2. I'm not good at Starcraft. I've never successfully played through the game on hard, and I sometimes struggle at certain points on Normal. Expect a good amount of fails in this.
3. I'll probably talk about how Starcraft leans into several problematic tropes and ideas of toxic masculinity and sexism (which is to be expected, given that this is a setting inspired by 40k), as well as how it improves somewhat over the course of HoTS and LoTV.
4. I hope to go on to do Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and the Covert Ops mission packs, but knowing me, I might not even get all the way through Wings of Liberty. Expect updates to be irregular at best.
So, I'll be playing this on normal.
And now, let's begin!
We open with an epic pre-rendered cinematic. Tychus suits up in his suit of armor, although as I watch this, one thing bugs me: Tychus was taken prisoner before first contact with the Protoss and Zerg. That means that he was taken prisoner by the Terran Confederacy. The Terran Dominion is in charge now. So, he couldn't find a way to escape during the presumably massive amount of chaos that comes with a violent coup and a change in government (see the events of Starcraft 1)? I mean, this guy is a huge badass, we see that at several points in the game. Did they literally put him in cryogenic stasis in prison?
The camera focuses on Tychus' crotch for a remarkably long amount of time.
No comment necessary here, it's just awesome.
We then move to a in-game rendered cutscene of Raynor at Joeyray's Bar on Mar Sara. Raynor's listening to a broadcast of Arcturus Mengsk holding a press conference. We get several key pieces of information here. First, Raynor's referred to as a 'has-been' rebel, telling us his rebellion has fallen on hard times since Starcraft 1. However, Mengsk, true to form, is still hyper-obsessed with Raynor. Eventually, Raynor snaps and shoots the screen.
Property damage won't help your cause here, buddy.
Then, he opens a case and activates the hologram of his adjutant. As far as I can tell, adjutants are most similar to Mass Effect VIs- not truly sentient, but pretty damn smart. He asks the Adjutant if his troops are ready. The adjutant replies in the affirmative, and he orders the troops to move out and prepare to liberate Mar Sara.
It's not Skynet I swear.
Side note before we start the actual mission- I love the cutscenes made in the game engine. It's such a great way to save time if you use your engine instead of going to another software and everything, and thanks to the editor, all the models in here are available to modders. Now, let's begin!
Our first mission briefing screen. Another awesome detail that characterizes Blizzard games- the planet on the screen slowly rotates.
Our first mission is a 'commando' or dungeon mission. We don't get a base, and only have a set number of units. I personally dislike these missions, as micro is by far my worst area of expertise. Thankfully, this is the very first mission, so the game babys you through most of it, so you basically can't fail unless you're on brutal or something.
Vikings look cool, a point I will be fanboying about at several points in the tuture.
We begin with Raynor and 5 Marines. Raynor is a hero unit, basically just a marine with black armor and better stats. As you move into the town after a dropship delivers you into the area, the Adjutant pipes up.
Get used to the adjutant saying stuff like this.
I remember being moderately annoyed with this even the very first time I played this game, despite it being my first RTS and having played for all of five minutes up to this point, because I'd literally played the tutorial five seconds before starting this campaign and the tutorial videos added literally nothing that wasn't covered in the tutorial. Not that big a deal, but it bugs me.
Anyways, we begin to move deeper into the town, and we come across the first bit of Blizzard's amazing background detail.
1984 much?
There are a bunch of details like this all over every map, and I just love it. Expect a lot of this fanboying and detail focus throughout this LP. While I'm gawking over the details, my troops run into a pair of Dominion Marines and massacre them, although one of my Marines gets hurt in the process. Then we run into a massive holographic statue of Mengsk spouting propaganda. Unsurprisingly, we blow it up. This is our first bonus objective for the mission. Later bonus objectives will give us special bonuses or even just straight up extra troops.
Mengsk's ego is out of control.
Another detail, this time one that makes me laugh- the porta-potties of the year 2504 look identical to those of the year 2018.
We continue advancing into the town, until we run into a large dominion roadblock with too many marines for us to handle.
That may be a problem.
In response, Raynor calls down a bunch of drop-pods filled with marines right into the middle of the Dominion base. A bunch of your reinforcements get slaughtered immediately, but they break the back of the Dominion force. I'd have called them down outside the Dominion perimeter and then moved in as a united force, but the shock value aspect has its worth too.
My reflexes weren't good enough to both take a screenshot of the drop-pods landing and control my troops at the same time, so here's the aftermath.
With that done, we move on and take out a couple more holo-statues of Mengsk.
A somewhat disturbing detail.
Moments later, we finally find the Backwater Station colonists, who have been conspicuously absent for most of the mission. The Dominion is herding them into an Armored Personnel Carrier, taking them to a dig site.
I really like the APC design, feels actually kinda real. Wish we could build them ourselves. I know they wouldn't be useful in any way, but it's a fun design.
One of the civilians turns to run (apparently his brother went to the mine last week and disappeared), and the Dominion marines kill him. In response, we move in and take out the Dominion forces. With the dominion forces killed and a dozen power-armored giant marines backing them up, the oppressed and downtrodden of Backwater Station rally behind their former marshal and start producing thousands of molotov cocktails out of nowhere, somehow.
Insert triumphant music here. Also, the thing that pops up when you hover over the Raynor must survive mission objective makes me laugh.
At this point, the mission is basically won, as you've got seemingly endless numbers of civilians armed with molotov cocktails that somehow do as much damage as military-grade gauss rifles backing you up. It's time to move in on the main Dominion headquarters.
Good luck with that.
1. This is not a blind let's play. I've played Starcraft 2 several times before, and in fact, Starcraft 2 was the first game I ever really played. In fact, I'll probably be reminiscing on my experiences the first time I played the game as I go through.
2. I'm not good at Starcraft. I've never successfully played through the game on hard, and I sometimes struggle at certain points on Normal. Expect a good amount of fails in this.
3. I'll probably talk about how Starcraft leans into several problematic tropes and ideas of toxic masculinity and sexism (which is to be expected, given that this is a setting inspired by 40k), as well as how it improves somewhat over the course of HoTS and LoTV.
4. I hope to go on to do Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and the Covert Ops mission packs, but knowing me, I might not even get all the way through Wings of Liberty. Expect updates to be irregular at best.
So, I'll be playing this on normal.
And now, let's begin!
We open with an epic pre-rendered cinematic. Tychus suits up in his suit of armor, although as I watch this, one thing bugs me: Tychus was taken prisoner before first contact with the Protoss and Zerg. That means that he was taken prisoner by the Terran Confederacy. The Terran Dominion is in charge now. So, he couldn't find a way to escape during the presumably massive amount of chaos that comes with a violent coup and a change in government (see the events of Starcraft 1)? I mean, this guy is a huge badass, we see that at several points in the game. Did they literally put him in cryogenic stasis in prison?
The camera focuses on Tychus' crotch for a remarkably long amount of time.
No comment necessary here, it's just awesome.
We then move to a in-game rendered cutscene of Raynor at Joeyray's Bar on Mar Sara. Raynor's listening to a broadcast of Arcturus Mengsk holding a press conference. We get several key pieces of information here. First, Raynor's referred to as a 'has-been' rebel, telling us his rebellion has fallen on hard times since Starcraft 1. However, Mengsk, true to form, is still hyper-obsessed with Raynor. Eventually, Raynor snaps and shoots the screen.
Property damage won't help your cause here, buddy.
Then, he opens a case and activates the hologram of his adjutant. As far as I can tell, adjutants are most similar to Mass Effect VIs- not truly sentient, but pretty damn smart. He asks the Adjutant if his troops are ready. The adjutant replies in the affirmative, and he orders the troops to move out and prepare to liberate Mar Sara.
It's not Skynet I swear.
Side note before we start the actual mission- I love the cutscenes made in the game engine. It's such a great way to save time if you use your engine instead of going to another software and everything, and thanks to the editor, all the models in here are available to modders. Now, let's begin!
Our first mission briefing screen. Another awesome detail that characterizes Blizzard games- the planet on the screen slowly rotates.
Our first mission is a 'commando' or dungeon mission. We don't get a base, and only have a set number of units. I personally dislike these missions, as micro is by far my worst area of expertise. Thankfully, this is the very first mission, so the game babys you through most of it, so you basically can't fail unless you're on brutal or something.
Vikings look cool, a point I will be fanboying about at several points in the tuture.
We begin with Raynor and 5 Marines. Raynor is a hero unit, basically just a marine with black armor and better stats. As you move into the town after a dropship delivers you into the area, the Adjutant pipes up.
Get used to the adjutant saying stuff like this.
I remember being moderately annoyed with this even the very first time I played this game, despite it being my first RTS and having played for all of five minutes up to this point, because I'd literally played the tutorial five seconds before starting this campaign and the tutorial videos added literally nothing that wasn't covered in the tutorial. Not that big a deal, but it bugs me.
Anyways, we begin to move deeper into the town, and we come across the first bit of Blizzard's amazing background detail.
1984 much?
There are a bunch of details like this all over every map, and I just love it. Expect a lot of this fanboying and detail focus throughout this LP. While I'm gawking over the details, my troops run into a pair of Dominion Marines and massacre them, although one of my Marines gets hurt in the process. Then we run into a massive holographic statue of Mengsk spouting propaganda. Unsurprisingly, we blow it up. This is our first bonus objective for the mission. Later bonus objectives will give us special bonuses or even just straight up extra troops.
Mengsk's ego is out of control.
Another detail, this time one that makes me laugh- the porta-potties of the year 2504 look identical to those of the year 2018.
We continue advancing into the town, until we run into a large dominion roadblock with too many marines for us to handle.
That may be a problem.
In response, Raynor calls down a bunch of drop-pods filled with marines right into the middle of the Dominion base. A bunch of your reinforcements get slaughtered immediately, but they break the back of the Dominion force. I'd have called them down outside the Dominion perimeter and then moved in as a united force, but the shock value aspect has its worth too.
My reflexes weren't good enough to both take a screenshot of the drop-pods landing and control my troops at the same time, so here's the aftermath.
With that done, we move on and take out a couple more holo-statues of Mengsk.
A somewhat disturbing detail.
Moments later, we finally find the Backwater Station colonists, who have been conspicuously absent for most of the mission. The Dominion is herding them into an Armored Personnel Carrier, taking them to a dig site.
I really like the APC design, feels actually kinda real. Wish we could build them ourselves. I know they wouldn't be useful in any way, but it's a fun design.
One of the civilians turns to run (apparently his brother went to the mine last week and disappeared), and the Dominion marines kill him. In response, we move in and take out the Dominion forces. With the dominion forces killed and a dozen power-armored giant marines backing them up, the oppressed and downtrodden of Backwater Station rally behind their former marshal and start producing thousands of molotov cocktails out of nowhere, somehow.
Insert triumphant music here. Also, the thing that pops up when you hover over the Raynor must survive mission objective makes me laugh.
At this point, the mission is basically won, as you've got seemingly endless numbers of civilians armed with molotov cocktails that somehow do as much damage as military-grade gauss rifles backing you up. It's time to move in on the main Dominion headquarters.
Good luck with that.
As my base gets set up, I throw down another barracks, so I can build stuff faster. I also start building medics, which required me to build the tech lab add-on to my barracks. Medics heal my biological infantry, keeping them alive.
