The starter version of StarCraft 2 is free and offers curious players plenty of gameplay material: access to the first four missions of the Wings of Liberty Terran campaign, the Terran race in skirmishes and multiplayer battles on a fixed assortment of maps.

Additionally, starter version players are also allowed to try out a round dozen of the mods and maps offered in the in-game “StarCraft 2 Arcade” mod workshop. This is set to change with Patch 2.1, which is due to be released for StarCraft 2 very soon: the game will thus take a big step further in the direction of Free2Play.

Most of the mods and maps in the StarCraft 2 “Arcade” mod workshop are still only playable for owners of the full version. This is supposed to change with Patch 2.1.

All mods and maps from the Arcade will thus become accessible to players of the Starter Edition, and in multiplayer mode they will also be allowed to play Zerg and Protoss. We have taken a look at the selection of arcade mods that are already free to play, among which there are impressive projects for single-player and multiplayer games.

We present the ten best ones here. The maps are easy to find: simply change the selection tab in the arcade to “Starter Edition”; all the displayed maps are playable for free.

Blizzard maps

Three custom maps in the StarCraft 2 arcade come from the Blizzard developers themselves:

StarJeweled

Almost like chess boxing, StarJeweled is a dueling combination of tile-sorting puzzle gameplay and single-lane combat.

On a long, narrow map, our own base is located opposite our opponent’s. Just like in the Match 3 classic Bejeweled (and its countless imitators) we sort colorful crystals in the right half of the screen. As soon as we have pushed three or more stones of the same color into a row, they dissolve with a satisfying “pling” and points rattle into our account.

StarJeweled: Fighting on the left, sorting colored stones on the right: Multitasking talents are in demand here.

At the same time, our main building spits out a marine for every successfully resolved crystal triple pack, which trudges independently in the direction of the enemy base. With the earned points we activate additional better units like banshee fliers, hydralisks or even protoss colossi, so that the marines don’t have to fight their way alone to the enemy headquarters, which is additionally protected by proton cannons.

Clever planning alone won’t allow us to crumble the enemy resistance – while keeping an eye on our advancing troops, we must simultaneously sort crystals in a chord with flying fingers so that the supply of points and marines doesn’t break off. Starjeweled can be played not only against human opponents, but also against variable AI opponents.

Left2Die

Left2Die is a co-op version for one or two players of the “Outbreak” mission from the campaign of Wings of Liberty. Our base is overrun by hundreds of mutated zerg zombies whose only weakness is daylight. At night we bunker down and hold the fort, while after sunrise we send out a mobile strike force to burn down the nests of the undead.

In contrast to the campaign version of “Outbreak”, we have a research lab available in our base, where we research additional tech upgrades such as fire-eater infantry, siege tanks or reinforced bunkers – this costs us “zerg biomass”, which we get credited when torching infected buildings.

In addition to the normal zerg zombies, the Left2Die variant of Outbreak also has particularly strong zerg monstrosities that – like the special zombies Tank, Witch, or Smoker from the co-op shooterfest Left 4 Dead– have special abilities with which they neutralize our defenses.

The “Aiur Chef” competition is a not entirely serious parody of numerous TV cooking duels.

Cooking duel on Aiur: Armed with psi noodle sticks, up to eight Protoss berserker master chefs set out to win the title of “Aiur Chef”. The event is set up like a television cooking show, complete with host. The cooking itself is the easy part – the real chef shows up when collecting the ingredients on the menu.

Harmless vegetables like carrots can be harvested without resistance, but some of the recipes in later rounds of combat require ingredients guarded by biting Zerg. The cooking berserkers are not allowed to attack each other, but they can spoil each other’s soup by playing special abilities: Whoever forces his colleague to perform a little dance has gained a valuable advantage.

Aiur Chef can only be enjoyed with human players. The winner at the end is the player who can bring in the most points with his cooked dishes.

Follow us and check out our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook & YouTube ►

● on Twitter ► esport.directory
● Facebook ► esport.directory
● Youtube ► esport.directory

StarCrafttips, StarCrafttricks, StarCraftcheats, StarCrafthacks, StarCrafthacks2022, StarCrafttipspro, StarCraftpaidcheats, StarCraft, StarCrafttipsandtricks, StarCrafttipsandtricks2022, StarCrafttipsandtricksforbeginners, StarCrafttips, StarCrafttricks, StarCrafttrickshots, StarCrafthacks, StarCrafthacksfree, StarCrafthacksfree2022,