If you have been, for some unfathomable reason, waiting to get your hands on Starcraft 2, first of all… what the heck have you been waiting for? And second of all, here’s your chance.

Blizzard is going to be taking Starcraft 2 over to a free-to-play model from 14 November 2017, meaning that players are going to have greater access to the real-time strategy title than they did with the previous Starter Edition (which was also free but very limited – think a demo with some multiplayer). But that doesn’t mean that you’re going to get full access to the multi-instalment RTS. That would just be silly.

No, free-to-play in this sense means that players will have full access to the first release, 2010’s Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, as well as full access to ranked multiplayer – if you manage to get a total of ten unranked or AI wins (one each on ten different days). If you’ve already paid for Wings then you’ll get the second outing, Heart of the Swarm, instead. Not a bad deal.

Blizzard has to make money out of this deal somehow, though, and they’re doing that by selling Co-Op commanders. Raynor, Kerrigan and Artanis are free and the others can be used, but only up till Level 5. After that, if you want to play with them, you’re going to have to shell out some cash. There will also be other items available for sale, which seem to be mostly cosmetic. Plus, there are extra story campaigns for sale if you decide that you really want to know what happens next.

It might be time to look into Starcraft 2, especially since the original version is still going and there is a remastered version of the original Starcraft out as well. The series is going to be around for a while and you can’t get much better than free — even if it comes with terms and conditions.

Source: Battle.net