I finished playing Timeline, a custom campaign made by RoughRider in 2022. Here’s a little review.
Mission 1 - “Takeover”: A compact, simple map. I was surprised by the number of units and buildings I destroyed (415 kills 107 razings). What’s interesting of this map is that it pushes to the limit the use of space, and the AI doesn’t get stuck. Enemy units can move around the buildings and the cramped terrain, so this map shows a good job testing the functionality of the AI. It was entertaining from beginning to end.
Orumyl’s voice is a bit saturated sometimes making it unintelligible. Danimoth on the other hand, has a clean voice, resulting in a clear speech.
Mission 2 - “Foreshadow”: Enemy units get a bit stucked now. I had to restart this mission because when I first attacked, the AI sent a lot of units to my base. At least the enemy reinforcements were very scattered, albeit a lot, killing my Probes, buildings… This mission is completely different to the first one. The first mission was linear, this second mission is exactly the opposite, you can choose anywhere around to attack. And you have to keep an eye to the crystal.
Mission 3 - “Forgotten Trail”: Now the enemy units get stuck really often. Reavers are particularly good in this mission, taking advantage of the possibility of cloaking them. This map includes a large group of Marines dying to my Scarab.
Mission 4 - “Path of Time”: I liked the setting. Although it didn’t take me too much completing the mission (around 15 minutes), it felt a bit slow paced. The fact that I had to wait for the explosions to see where to stop and when to move forward, significantly slowed me down. Time Doors should have different colors indicating explosions (provided it is the Time Door that is shooting you), but unfortunately they can’t change color. If there were indicators of the positions where the explosions will occur, you could constantly change the location of the explosions to add more difficulty. Anyway, the difficulty of the map was fine the way it was.
Mission 5 - “Butterfly Effect”: I restarted the mission because I attacked too late and then found the Zerg had level 2 upgrades. I almost never make two Robotics Facilities, they are expensive, but for this map it is a necessity to have two of them. Both Zerg are strong. There are a lot of Spore Colonies, so it is certainly needed a lot of Shuttles.
Mission 6 - “Errors of Yore”: This one was easier than the previous mission. A lot of air units attacking my Assimilator (then I remembered DK’s playthrough) and I had to rebuilt it. I used both ground and air units to eliminate the Zerg. Nice ending for the story.
This campaign develops very well the main concept in the title (the same happens with Wingman and Migration).
Considering the scale of the universe, and the scale of StarCraft events, the mere presence of the Time Stone is impossible. However it doesn’t represent a problem as it is science fiction. This campaign is in good terms in relation to science fiction standards.
The campaign has minor issues, I can mention the cramped terrain, the spelling sometimes, Orumyl’s voice during Briefing 1, but the campaign is outstanding in gameplay and story.
Score: 8 out of 10.