History VideoGame / StarcraftIIWingsofLiberty

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Wings of Liberty'' had several oddities in how its campaign mechanics functioned compared to ''Heart of the Swarm'' and ''Legacy of the Void''.
** The player's tech options are permanent and not all of them can be acquired in the same playthrough, while the other two games let the player change up tech choices between missions and most options were accessible, save for ''Heart of the Swarm's'' evolved Zerg strains.
** Missions in ''Wings of Liberty'' (with the exception of the first and final mission chains) introduce a new unit which the mission focuses around, and the player purchases upgrades for it on the ''Hyperion''. ''Heart of the Swarm'' and ''Legacy of the Void'' put more emphasis on introducing variants of units with different abilities that players switched between rather than upgrading a base unit.
*** In the same manner, most units in ''Wings of Liberty'' are identical to how they function in melee play, be they new units for ''Starcraft II'' or returning ones from the first game, and their upgrades were mostly passive stat buffs. ''Heart of the Swarm'' and ''Legacy of the Void'' had more units with unique abilities not seen before.
** The player is free to do missions in any order with only story continuity linking them. ''Heart of the Swarm'' would make each mission (with one exception) part of a three-mission chain, and ''Legacy of the Void'' scaled it back to two-mission chains, sometimes with a third standalone mission before or after. ''Wings of Liberty'' also has branching mission paths, which the other two games didn't. This feature and the ability to complete the game ''without'' finishing every mission also can lead to [[ContinuitySnarl story continunity errors]] and [[EasyLevelTrick levels becoming trivial]] from using advanced units that some missions weren't designed for. This also has the effect of allowing the player to recruit all possible crew members onto the Hyperion as quickly as possible, whereas ''Heart of the Swarm'' and ''Legacy of the Void'' require each mission arc to be completed in order, necessitating missed dialogue from certain characters.
** The player's research in the Lab culminated in powerful tech advances that were just part of the arsenal, while ''Heart of the Swarm'' and ''Legacy of the Void'' gave Kerrigan and the Spear of Adun powerful screen-wiping attacks unlocked at the top of their advancement.
** The Mercenaries mechanic, which let the player call in a small number of EliteMook units each mission, has no equivalent mechanic at all in the other two installments.
** There is no Master Archives when you complete the campaign, so if you want to replay a mission with different tech options, you need to load an earlier save from the campaign or play it through again. WordOfGod is that this is because the later two campaigns organize missions into chains, so the player will always have the same handful of tech options for a given mission with only a few differences, but ''Wings of Liberty'' with its total freedom in the order you do missions, there are way too many variables to account for.
** This is the only campaign that has a mini campaign for another race; the Protoss Prophecy missions presented in {{Flashback}} format. This storyline gives Raynor strong motivation for the final missions like it's integral, yet isn't required for completing the campaign.

* EliteZombie: Infested Marines, which have a ranged attack as opposed to the standard Infested Colonists claws, and the above-mentioned Abberations (which fit into the '''Brute''' subtype of elite zombie), which are massive, centauroid infested terrans with huge zits all over them. Due to the Zerg HealingFactor, all three also count as '''Regenerators'''.

%%zce * DownerEnding: Invoked by Zeratul on the consequence of killing Kerrigan.

* HarderThanHard: The [[NintendoHard aptly-named]] Brutal mode, which is higher than Hard Mode, comes with an explicit warning that it should only be attempted by Starcraft experts. Besides the obvious changes such as enemies using [[EliteMook mercenaries]], larger forces, and higher tier units (such as a siege tank on the second mission), there's also a hidden mechanic where enemy units do 25% more damage to your units than they normally would, meaning even identical units are guaranteed lose if the player isn't careful.

* NeverTrustATrailer: A sizable chunk of the trailer/commercial footage for ''[=StarCraft II=]'' happens out of order in the campaign. For example, [[spoiler:one trailer has Matt handing Raynor his badge and this apparently motivating Raynor to take back up the fight: in the game Raynor ''has'' been keeping up the fight, just laying low for a bit, and the scene of Matt handing him his badge is much later in the game. In the trailer Matt's line "vengeance doesn't factor into this, our revolution is about freedom" is directed at Raynor. In the game he's actually talking to Tosh...although he could also be gently reminding his commander, given the context of the scene. A commercial trailer shows a hologram of Mengsk telling Raynor he's way in over his head. Mengsk is actually talking to his son, though Raynor is also present and when he announces his presence, Mengsk directs a similiar line to him.]]

* FiveManBand
** TheHero: Jim Raynor
** TheLancer: Matt Horner, also functions as TheHeart.
** TheBigGuy: Tychus
** TheSmartGuy: Two of them, [[TheMedic Egon Stetmann]] and [[TheEngineer Rory Swann]].
** TheChick: Ariel Hanson, [[spoiler:though one way or another, she doesn't stick around]].
** TheSixthRanger: [[spoiler:Gabriel Tosh, who joins the crew for good if you help him out.]]

** The Planetary Fortress upgrade for (Orbital) Command Centers tends to get passed up for Perdition Turrets due to the later's ability to be built for cheap across multiple locations, but the Planetary has its merits for being very durable and effective wall at key points for your forces to take cover behind. In short, instead of using the Planetary to protect your mining bases, you build it at stretegic points to absorb enemy abuse while your army deals the real damage.

* GoodPaysBetter: one of the first missions involves fleeing Mar Sara. At certain points in the mission, stranded survivors will call for aid. If you go to retrieve them with enough forces, you can end up with a positive net gain in saved resources. Similarly, in the mission where you bail out Narud, it is almost impossible to win the mission on hard mode if you don't bother to search and save the surviving mercenaries scattered around the map. This happens again when you fight in the underground caverns on Char where rescuing lost terran units (especially the firebats) is almost a must. In-universe, helping Tosh and Ariel Hanson will free many dissenters and intellectuals who opposed Mengsk and help humanity in its search for a cure for infestation respectively.
** Siding with Tosh and Ariel Hanson are the canon choices.

%%* HarderThanHard: The [[NintendoHard aptly-named]] Brutal mode.%%Is an example how?

** The player's tech options are permanent and not all of them can be acquired in the same playthrough, while the other two games let the player change up tech choices between missions and most options were accessible, save for ''Heart of the Swarm's'' evolved Zerg strains. Additionally, every mission in ''Wings of Liberty'' (with the exception of the first and final mission chains) introduced a new unit, which had upgrades purchased from the ''Hyperion'', while ''Heart of the Swarm'' and ''Legacy of the Void'' had more emphasis on introducing variants of units with different abilities.

* RousingSpeech: Raynor gives one to the surviving Terrans on [[spoiler:Char]] in a cutscene prior to the final mission (may have been unintentional, but the marines chose to listen to him anyway). Also, in the side-mission "In Utter Darkness", [[spoiler:Artanis]] gives an epic one when he arrives on the battlefield [[spoiler:prior to [[KillEmAll everyone getting killed]] by the zerg and the Hybrids in an apocalyptic BadFuture]].