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Back in 1998 Blizzard released a strategy game off of the success of their highly popular WarCraft called StarCraft, it combined three races; the Terran, Protoss, and the Zerg in a finely crafted strategy title which to this day is still one of the best and most played strategy games out there. It's not surprising then that a sequel has been released, but 12 years after the original is a long time. With the beta fully underway we managed to get some hands-on in the exclusive closed beta which people around the world are awaiting for that precious email inviting them to play what could very well be the best strategy title of 2010.
The beta is a multiplayer only affair, while using the new Battle.net interface shows that there will be a singleplayer campaign included, as to what it entails is largely unknown. Yet StarCraft has always had a big focus on its multiplayer component, with the game being mostly completed apart from balance issues between the three races it's no surprise that Blizzard wants to get things right before releasing one of the most anticipated sequels ever.
Ultimately they have decided to keep the three races from the original instead of creating and balancing new ones, if you've played the original StarCraft before and got on ok with it then this sequel is pretty much the same in how it plays, quite a few of the same units and buildings fans have come to love have been left untouched. But a sequel wouldn't be any fun without new units and there are plenty available, these new units have replaced existing ones and to list them all would be a feat in itself. What Blizzard have tried to do however is remove some of the units that weren't used and made them more viable as forms of attack and defence, instead of something that isn't used at all.
The Terran have gained quite a few new units and abilities in StarCraft II one of which is the ability to submerge your Supply Depot. The Supply Depot is what you build to increase the population cap for more units, the more you build, the greater the army. At the later end of a game in the original it was a struggle to find places to put them without blocking parts of your base off, it ended up becoming a jigsaw puzzle of base building. While you still need the room to build them you can now submerge them underground and units can walk over them, another great use for them is now being used as a defensive line for your base to stop any start-of-the-game rush tactics. Units wise, and what you may have seen from various screenshots is the mighty Thor, the Thor is a giant behemoth of ingenuity, steel, and big guns, it towers above nearly everything in the game and is a site to behold, not only does it have various cannons on its arms, its special ability allows it to fire the huge weapon placed on its back, a few of these and you can kiss goodbye to any opposing buildings standing in your way. The powerful Battle Cruisers are still in and still have access to the upgraded Yamato cannon, but they've also been given the ability to generate shields or use area-of-effect attacks instead. The Firebats are gone and replaced with the heavily armoured Marauder now, and a unit called the Reaper can really turn the tide in battle with its dual wielding pistols and jetpack, capable of traversing usually inaccessible terrain. It's these types of subtle changes that keeps the core of the Terran race intact while still offering new units and abilities for fans of the game to enjoy.
The Protoss, the futuristic race with technology far beyond that of their rivals have been given the same treatment but with some very unique abilities. Teleporting was only gifted to a few units throughout the original StarCraft but the Protoss have been given Warp Gates and a Mothership. The Mothership as the name suggests is a huge floating fortress which can not only defend itself with a variety of weapons, but it's cloaked as default and can teleport units to it from anywhere on the map within a limited size targeting reticule. A new unit called the Stalker is more of a mid-range unit but also has access to teleportation, this unit can be used to great effect if used in an offensive strategy, firing, teleporting back, rinsing-and-repeating. Fans of the Protoss will no doubt welcome the new changes, but players who prefer the other races may think they're new abilities, mainly teleport, give them a rather large advantage, which using a teleporting Mothership to invade someone's base can be, but it's easily overcome if you use the correct units to counter it and take it down before it reaches your base. Another new unit which is more akin to something from War of the Worlds is the Colossus, similar to the size of the Terran's Thor the Colossus is a giant four legged war machine which can walk up and over any hills, mountains, and raised platforms with ease, they're extremely powerful but can easily be taken down, unfortunately they don't make the same shocking noise as the walkers from War of the Worlds do.
Then we have the Zerg, true aliens which don't use technology, instead they're biological abilities allow them to compete with the best and can have the largest army in the game. One of the main changes with the Zerg is the 'creep' which can now be spread by the Queen, allowing a very offensive tactic, the Overlords which were simply a carrier and population raiser can produce it as well making it easier to spread. All of the Zerg units now move faster on creep and each creep tumour that is made is cloaked. The Zerg originally revolved around evolving your units into more powerful beings depending on the circumstances, while this is still roughly the same, a lot of the units have been removed and some replaced. The Roach which is one of the new units has a ranged attack with regenerative abilities, they're fast, well armoured, and can attack both ground and air units. Infestors on the other hand can burrow, an ability from the original game, yet they don't just burrow, they can move while underground providing they don't get seen, this can make for some great flanking opportunities. Of particular interest is the Baneling, a suicidal unit which evolves from the Zergling, the Baneling is mainly used for taking out masses of troops, and to great effect considering you can take out an army of marines with just a few of them, they're weak however and trying to get them in before being killed is a task upon itself.
The main element you'll notice with StarCraft II isn't its new units or abilities, it'll be its graphical prowess, something which Blizzard have worked hard on to keep the same look and feel of the original but bring it into the current generation. All the buildings and units have been overhauled, as well as some of the classic StarCraft maps like Lost Temple, everything has been slapped with a new lick of paint but it still keeps that StarCraft feel. There are plenty of graphics options to make the game run on the majority of systems and thankfully you don't need a super computer to run the game, even on low settings the game still looks extremely good and far better than its 12 year old predecessor. No longer will players be kept to the 640x480 resolution of StarCraft, StarCraft II supports resolutions bigger than most monitors and playing in the 1920x1080 plus ranges of resolutions really brings the game into a new light on a large tv/monitor.
You may be wondering how you can try the game yourself, well unfortunately Blizzard have made the closed beta fairly exclusive, not many have it and many people want it, if you do want to be in with a chance of trying it then you'll need to do two things, one of which includes heading over to your Battle.net account page and filling in the details about your computers specifications, the other is to cross your fingers and hope you get given the opportunity to participate.
What Blizzard have done with StarCraft II is a shining of example of how such a high profile game should be treated in a sequel, they haven't changed everything, but what they have is certainly for the better, it still looks and feels like the original StarCraft yet has enough new content to satisfy fans of the original game. You'll have to wait for our full review of StarCraft II when it releases towards the later end of the year, for now, just hope you can get into the beta and play one of the most anticipated strategy sequels of all time.
