WoL's missions ranked (by me)

So I thought I'd make a list of the missions in Wings of Liberty, and order them. The list is completely personal. The criteria are mostly from a gameplay perspective, as most of the story happen between the missions, in cinematics or on the Hyperion and the likes. I judged from originality, atmosphere, fun factor and general feel.

29. Maw of the Void

There are positive aspects to Maw of the Void. The inclusion of rip fields is an excellent game mechanic, as it's similar to the way third person games have water and toxic areas where there is a bar that slowly decreases your life the longer you stay inside, which naturally puts some time pressure to the situation. Unfortunately, that's the only kind of momentum the mission gets, as it's mostly a slower ordeal, and easily the mission of the game I spent most time on. Part of that is because the main unit is the battlecruiser, a crafty ship that moves slowly and has little room for micromanagement. In addition, the limitation in using other units means the macromanagement loses out too, so all you are left with is making a lot of battlecruisers (which takes a lot of time) and then attacking the Tal'Darim base (which also takes a time). There is redemption for the mission with the use of Dark Templars, and the tileset (a Xel'Naga warship), but mostly, it's simply one that could easily have been removed, as we want to get to Char already.

28. Haven's Fall

Haven's Fall is mostly only better than Maw of the Void because it's shorter. Though its tileset is nice, there is not the same atmosphere as on the warship. However, the viking is a much more interesting unit to use than the battlecruiser, and the idea of having to put out the fire before it spreads too much (metaphorically speaking) is interesting. What do you do - attack early with a smaller force, before the infestation gets time to root too much, or do you wait longer so you can get a bigger army, but risk getting overwhelmed by too many units? Unfortunately, the mission is far too easy, even on brutal, as the infestation never really pose too much of a threat. It is more interesting from a story perspective, as you have to kill fellow humans to save other ones, but gameplay-wise, Safe Haven is superior. This is a moral challenge more than anything else.

27. The Outlaws

As seen from a relative perspective, The Outlaws isn't that bad. It's a small and simple mission, and there is nothing wrong with having a kind like that this early in the game, as the thrill of getting more interesting missions later on is enhanced when you have play through more generic missions earlier in the game. Still, compared to the other Mar Sara missions, it falls behind. Liberation Day has a better feel and more atmosphere, and Zero Hour is naturally more intense. Sure, the drill is a cool doodad, and Tychus' remark that the inhabitants should be ignored is an interesting play-off to a moral conflict between he and Raynor (that unfortunately never takes off), but had this mission not been placed this early, it could easily have been considered filler.

26. Shatter the Sky

Shatter the Sky is one of the two penultimate missions you can choose from, and it's easily the least interesting. It has some cool effects, and there is some fun in blowing up space platforms, but there is little challenge, little nuance, and although Char looks great from a distance, Tychus does have a point when he questions going back into space after having made the effort to land on the surface. Still, the leviathan is a cool boss, and I'd rather face Nydus Worms than fliers in the final map, so there is some merit to the mission, I guess.

25-21 coming later.

I read this and then went :( when I saw the '25-21 coming later' message.

I always like reading people's opinions on things like this.

Haha... well, it's not all written yet. But here is the next part, at least.

25. Echoes of the Future

The least interesting of the Protoss missions, Echoes of the Future takes us back to Aiur, where it's clear that things are not what they used to be. The mission doesn't pose much of a challenge, and there are no cool gameplay mechanics, but the Overmind in the middle makes for a great design, and the dark lighting helps strengthen the mood. In addition: the Colossi coming up from the water is a nice little detail. However, the mission is important because of story, not gameplay.

24. Media Blitz

Media Blitz is somewhat of a retread of Engine of Destruction, with the Odin once again taking the lead. This time, however, we get to control it ourselves. This is one of the few missions with no time limit or other restriction. You are free to take the time to build up an army, if that is your cup of tea. Personally, I drank enough of that in the first game. However, the mission's intro is quite cool, as you have four minutes to wreck havoc while your base is set up. Dramatically speaking, having a unit as powerful as the Odin in your arsenal may not be interesting as being the underdog, but I can't the deny the fun in using something as humongous as it and smashing up Dominion bases.

23. Safe Haven

Easily the better of the two final colonist missions, Safe Haven pits you not only against the Protoss, but also a grand Purifier with a shield that is powered by several Nexii, the latter of which you have to take down in order to destroy the former. Tension is high as the ship makes it way throughout the map, coming closer and closer to its targets. As if it weren't enough, smaller fleets are also warped in an attempt to take out other smaller colonies (technically, destroying them is optional, but for people wanting an extra challenge, they're just what's needed). The final fight poses quite the challenge, especially as the Purifier not only uses its Vortex ability on you, but also warps in additional air units to defend itself. Also: the map itself being almost completely aerial-based is an interesting twist, and the absence of Protoss bases in favor of fleets is also welcomingly realistic.

22. Zero Hour

A variation on the classic Desperate Alliance mission from the first game (which I am ashamed to say once I struggled with), Zero Hour justifies its existence because of the updated mechanics of StarCraft 2. It feels much more atmospheric than its older sibling, particularly because of the map design, but also because of the various drop pods that appear every once in a while (they can only be seen on hard and brutal) and the creep that begins spreading closer and closer. And yes, those Nydus Worms at the end are definitely an upgrade from the old Canals. Small details such as the artefact being rolled in and trapped unit groups pleading for your assistance also help.

21. The Dig

Starting out as an explorer's assignment, The Dig is eventually turned into a variation on Zero Hour, only with a key difference: you decide the time. Technically, it's not that simple, as you can't choose any time you like, but you have to make crucial decisions on when to use the Drill on units or not. While focusing the fire on the various Archons, Immortals, Colossi and Warp Prisms eases your time against the Protoss, it comes with the cost of having to wait longer for the temple door to breach. On the higher difficulties, you really have to be careful, as the Tal'Darim prove a worthy foe. A macro mission if there ever was one.

I agree, as much as Zero Hour was a re-hash of the Desperate Alliance mission from SC vanilla, I very much enjoyed the new design to it. I loved how the bridges were actually the points to defend (rather than the 'complex') and that there was a secondary position to fall back to if the poo hit the fan with the bridge defense. Yes, I also agree that the mood was altered in a good way with the creep spreading and the spine crawlers advancing, plus the Zerg drop pods falling with reinforcements. In all I would have ranked that mission higher, but to each his/her own. I am interested to see the rest of this analysis!

20. The Evacuation

Blizzard really gets the intimidating nature of the Zerg across in the game (until The Gates of Hell, we don't face them head on), which is shown very well in the evacuation of Agria. Here, their merciless tactics are mirrored with the innocence of the colonists, who were left there by the Dominion without assistance. It is your job to escort them to safety. If there is one word that describes why this mission is good, it's "delicacy". Whereas other missions have you engaged in battle, often sacrificing lives and taking chances, this one urges you to take care of the colonists and put their lives before yours. That being said, you still have to be tactical, as the Zerg have several entrances to the main road, and while Bunkers can be positioned to fend them off, you might spend yourself having to ponder on whether some of your escort troops have to stay behind or head out in front to make sure the tip of the battle is balanced the wrong way, or if they should keep escorting the colonist. The fact that you can do both is a testament to the mission's greatness.

19. A Sinister Turn

Depending on whether you played this before or after Piercing the Shroud, A Sinister Turn represents the first or second look at the Hybrids. Sure, Zeratul seems to have forgotten about Duran, but apart from that, the mission is really awesome. Zhakul is a killer tileset, and it's amazing what some black color can do to make the enemy Protoss more intimidating. The highlight, though, is Maar, who will not be stopped, even by death. Him becoming stronger for each time puts quite some pressure on you (Blizzard luckily resisted the temptation to make him too big to fit the bridge).

18. The Moebius Factor

This is a "sweeping mission". You get in, get what help you can get, do what you have to do, and get out again. And don't you dare do anything else. As has been mentioned before, you don't really face the Zerg head on much in the game, which really helps to build up their reputation as the galaxy's strongest race. In addition, the Queen of Blades personally makes a visit here. Thankfully, she is too occupied with the Moebius datacores to attack you. Before she has found what she needs, you have to fly around and burn down the correct data cores to stop her from getting the artefact coordinates. It may not be the most difficult mission in the game, even on brutal, but navigating through patrolling Zerg (yes, patrolling Zerg) against the clock while your arch nemesis come closer and closer to her goal means it's full of dreaded atmosphere.

17. Liberation Day

This is the first StarCraft mission since Brood War's Omega, and needless to say, it has quite a few expectations. Luckily, it meets them all. From the moment the dropship unloads Raynor and his men, to the first encounter with the many propaganda holograms of Mengsk, to the final liberation of the colony, the mission reeks with atmosphere. The details are splendid: vehicles lie abandoned and smoked, colonists warn of the trouble waiting ahead and unit pods drop from the sky (evening the odds in the process). It's a short mission, but it does exactly everything it should do as a first mission: introducing core game mechanics, teasing us with the coming plot (while not revealing too much) and leave us wanting much, much more.

16. The Gates of Hell

The Gates of Hell represents the first time we go head to head with the Zerg, and it's hell indeed. The Char surface sets the atmosphere, and the mission itself is made up of pure chaos. The Zerg swarm in at every opportunity, the space is extremely limited, and unit pods drop by every now and then (and you have to rescue the teams). In addition, the mission also turns out to have a second act, with Warfield crashing (which a Battlecruiser must always do in a Terran campaign), and you having to rescue him. When it's finished, you're thinking, "So, if this is the first Char mission, what are the others like?"

I'm enjoying reading this so far. I'm not certain why, but it would probably be a bit difficult for me to formulate my thoughts in this way. Glad to see how you feel about these missions, and I hope to see more!

15. Smash and Grab

There aren't actually that many missions where all three races appear together. Even fewer where two of them are not allied against the third. Luckily, there's Smash and Grab, which has a simple, but effective game mechanic: there's an artefact that two races wants, and the third is guarding it. First to it wins. Of course, obviously, one of the two first races is stronger than the two other combined, and has the resources and the army to defeat them both. The concept itself may be almost arcade-like, and yet it works like a charm.

14. Cutthroat

This mission has what is easily my favourite tileset. Murky and poisonous, Dead Man's Port is exactly the kind of place you'd expect mercenaries to hang about, and the last place you'd expect Matt Horner to find his bride (which only adds to the joke). It may seem strange to rave on about something that essentially is trivial, unless you don't consider it to be trivial at all. If it was, all missions could easily have taken place on Mar Sara, and that wouldn't be any fun, would it? Cutthroat combines the racing aspect of Smash and Grab with the resources gathering of The Devil's Playground, and make it all the more fun as you can choose to sabotage the enemy, getting a sweet return as a prize. By the time you sign with Mira Han, the mission is essentially over, but as shown with Media Blitz, sometimes there is fun in being the upperdog, especially after having been the opposite for so long.

13. The Great Train Robbery

People seems to be debating all over whether or not SC2's story lived up to the original, but the consensus on the gameplay itself seems to unanimously favoured to the sequel, and The Great Train Robbery is the perfect example of that. Openly referencing the 1903 film with the same name (the first ever to have a plot), it takes us back not only to Tarsonis (now a graveyard), but also the Wild West. This might very well be the most blatant cowboy/redneck allusion of the game, and yet, somehow, it works. One of the reasons why is that it's just so simple; you could just imagine one of the designers saying, "Hey, you know what would be a cool thing to do? Robbing trains!" And it is a cool thing. To do in a game. I don't condone it in real life.

12. Supernova

Technically, Supernova is a timed mission, but not in the same manner as Zero Hour, as the map in that mission doesn't decrease in size the closer the countdown comes to finishing. Just as the Raiders are going for the 4th artifact on Typhon, the planet's star goes into a supernova, and things start to heat up, literally, as the planet begins to get incinerated. The designers of the game really were on a roll when they thought of ideas for their missions. If anything, this is the micro mission to end all micro missions. On the brutal difficulty, you not only have to take a lot of care of which units you build, but also how you use them. I must admit I struggled some with this one, but I had fun struggling with it, as it truly rewards fast fingers.

11. All In

Making final missions is a difficult thing to do. You want the game to end on a high note, but you also want to challenge the player to make the victory seem earned. All In does both of those things. It may not have gameplay as good as the final mission in, say, The Frozen Throne, but on the higher difficulty there is still much fun in going against not only a ton of Zerg, but also Kerrigan herself (Blizzard wisely saved any direct confrontations with her until last). In itself, it really is only a hold-out mission, which is arguably more realistic (and enjoyable) than going against the main hive cluster, but there is a plus side in that you can essentially choose which version you want to have a go at: the one where nydus worms are disabled, or the ones where air units are. Personally, I prefer the second one.

10. Welcome to the Jungle

This is a really tricky mission. The objective is to obtain seven canisters of terrazine gas, while trying to stop the protoss from sealing of any of the alters containing them. It is so arcade-like, you could almost expect a multiplayer game of it to be released. To complete the mission, you don't necessarily need good macro or micro, but you do need a good sense of timing; do you wait until you have a big force built up, or do you begin early to get a head start? Do you stop the protoss from sealing of an altar, or do you just take a different one for yourself? This way of thinking, or to be fair to the genre, strategizing, really makes the mission not only a good one, but also one that is unique. It gets even better if you try to go for the achievement where the Protoss can't seal of any of the altars.

9. Whispers of Doom

The second greatest of the Zeratul missions, Whispers of Doom sees the Dark Templer having to navigate himself through a dark, blue cave. Thanks to the sequel's updated mechanics, it all feels so much more alive than it would have in the original game. Scourges fly frantically through the sky, Ultralisks burrow up from the ground, and the Protoss get to show off their strength when Karass shows up with his Zealots. The ending is one of true desperation, as Zeratul has to run to his Void Seeker while a ton of Zerg, many of which come by Nydus Worms, try to kill him.

8. Engine of Destruction

This might very well be one of the funnier missions in the game. There are no Zerg here, nor is there any impending threat of doom. Instead you get Tychus in the Odin, wrecking havoc on Dominion bases. What could have been a run-of-the-mill mission is turned into something greater, as we are unable to control (or, for that mater, contact) Tychus, instead being forced to aid him as he goes from one base to another, dispensing righteous fury. Sure, Tychus having stuck the communicator on transit is not as good an excuse as simply having to finish the mission quickly due to the bases trying to contact the Dominion, but it's a minor detail in what is also the most difficult mission on Brutal difficulty, at least in my opinion. Bonus points for starting it as an infiltration mission.

7. Outbreak

I could just imagine someone in the writer's department coming up with the idea for this mission. The "zombie scenario" is of course one that is quite familiar to movie buffs such as yours truly, though when you think about it, it's not a natural inclusion in an RTS. Truth to be told, on paper it would be more suited for an FPS, but Blizzard wisely ignored that and made what might be the game's most original mission. Yes, it's not the most difficult one, even on Brutal (the multiplayer version is way harder), but that doesn't really matter, because sticking in it to infested colonists at night and trying to keep them from coming back at day is just plain fun.

6. The Devil's Playground

This is the second (and arguably better) of the two missions that require you to gather a certain amount of resources for you to be victorious. The twist is here is of course that all the minerals are on low ground, which is flooded with lava every 4 minutes, a mechanic that will test the skills of the player. The idea itself is simply fantastic, and Blizzard sprinkles the map with a ton of details, such as the small animals running to safety when the lava starts to rise, the craters running on full at the same moment, and even a little Diablo hidden at the bottom of the map (he actually seems to be the one who is controlling the lava). Blizzard seems intent on carrying the weather mechanic idea over in Heart of the Swarm, specifically on the moon of Kaldir, where flash freeze winds put the Zerg on ice and forcing the Protoss to shield up to protect themselves (even better is the fact that the Zerg can assimilate Yetis to adapt to the cold, giving them an advantage over the Protoss).

I've really enjoyed reading this. Great job man! I want to see the rest!

<3

~LoA

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LordofAscension

I've really enjoyed reading this. Great job man! I want to see the rest!

<3

~LoA

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I completely forgot about this thread.:D Time to reread it from the start.:D