BlizzCon 2017 has come and gone but so now it’s time to discuss some fun announcements, the first relating to StarCraft 2. If you didn’t already know StarCraft 2 has had a free version for quite some time that allows players to play the community arcade maps for free, custom games with friends, fight against the A.I., and play co-op mission with the standard commanders. In BlizzCon blizzard announced updates to StarCraft 2’s free version and are officially calling it “Free-To-Play”. Since the announcement they’ve provided more details in an official post on Battle.net.
On November 14th the FTP begins allowing users access to Wings of Liberty, the original StarCraft 2 single-player campaign. You’ll also be able to play every co-op commander, before you only had three choices and they continued to release new ones you’d need an expansion to play. There is a caveat though, you can play all co-op players to level five which is still a good change but you can only level the original three (Raynor, Kerrigan, and Artanis) to max. I personally play Artanis.
But wait, there’s more. Now you can actually play ranked multiplayer ladder matches which was previously restricted. I think this will increase the competitive player base which is always a good thing. So does this mean the entire game is now free? Well no, although Blizzard has greatly increased the free-to-play content available to users there are still a few expansion packs available for purchase. So if you like single-player co-op and want to continue the story you’ll have to purchase expansions but if you’re solely a multi-player individual you won’t be spending anything.
Have you been a StarCraft 2 fan for a while and already have certain parts of the game? Well if you just have the base game then you can log in between Nov 8 and Dec 8 and you’ll unlock the Heart of the Swarm for free. If you currently own all expansions then your gift becomes an exclusive Ghost skin and three new portraits! Not necessarily a free expansion but at least they kept you in mind.
