What To Expect From Starcraft II
May 18, 2007 - A day to remember, especially if you are a PC Starcraft-fan. On this particular Friday, Blizzard announced the long awaited Starcraft II video game for PCs.
If you watch the official video trailer it doesn’t reveal much, so I went the extra yard and did some research and here is a list of what fans of the video game Starcraft can expect:
- Unlike Warcraft III, Starcraft II will be true to the prequel game. The units will be “movers and shooters”, rather than requiring the micromanagement known from Warcraft III. This means the units are mostly autonomous forces that lack special abilities, but will do their own thing in large control groups.
- Resource management is much more central to the gameplay.
- Full-on early-game rushing (making an all-out assault at the beginning of a new game session) will be much more viable.
- Instead early-game scouting will be more important. There are two reasons for that:
- Starcraft II will offer more early tech-trees with different development paths by building different structures and researching different upgrades.
- Early-game rushing will require a deeper and more diverse strategy.
- More nuances will seperate beginners from skilled players, and good players from great players. Don’t expect a match to last longer than 20 minutes.
- An example: You can hide in the “fog of war” - shooting units without being seen and even from high grounds and gain a bonus. (Yet another reason to go scouting early in the game).
- Blizzard promises to make the three factions (Protoss, Terran and Zerg) distinct. Some units will be able to counter other units.
- An example: A protoss templar unit uses his psi-storm ability to annihilate a swarm of zerg infantry.
- A protoss immortal, a ground-based tank unit, is extremely tough but slow (I think we all know how this will end) and possesses a powerful energy shield when hit by heavy-duty fire. This unit will be good against the terran siege tank due to the shield, but it will quickly succumb to a swarm of zerglings, since they don’t deal enough damage to activate the shield, and are too quick to outrun.
- There are no plans of naval battle in Starcraft II.
- The clever reader will propably remember that Kerrigan’s zerg army destroyed the terrans in Starcraft - The Brood War, so how come they are back? Well, a few companies survived, but none of the good guys. So expect to be a part of the evil empire of the Terran Dominion.
The release date is still to be announced, but stay tuned and I will keep you updated. I am pretty sure you haven’t heard the last about Starcraft II.
There are no news on the PC requirements, but judging from the screenshots it shouldn’t require any video card or PC system upgrade. When I first saw the PC screenshots, I thought it was from the first game, but they are genuine, and are actual PC screenshots from the sequel. There aren’t any news of a Xbox360 or Playstation 3 console-version of Starcraft II either, but if EA Games can make Command & Conquer for Xbox360, Blizzard can make console-versions too.
So did I wake your appetite for Starcraft II? Maybe the video trailer will help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBzRNQFCTVA
Are you a Warcraft or a Starcraft video game fan? What did you enjoy in those games? Will you miss the micromanagement from Warcraft III or do you enjoy letting your units think for themselves, while you build even more units?
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Comment by keith watkins on 28 June 2008:
The screen shots of starcraft 3 look a little similar to an updated version of an older nintendo shooter game…i will try and look up the name of it… so that you guys can compare it anyways it looks great… I wonder if warcraft will have an updated version of there pvp server to regulate the level 20’s and up that kill you as soon as you spawn http://www.level3securities.com
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