GC: Starcraft 2

As the years pass, Starcraft still remains one of the best strategy games. The Blizzard masterpiece continues to be played at major games competitions and is considered one of the most balanced RTS games ever created. With so many "best of", Blizzard dared to continue the series and started working on Starcraft 2.

The game's announcement made lots of people happy and the hype machine started to create even more hype with every bit of information posted on the Internet.

As we attended Games Convention 2007 in Leipzig, we had the chance to both test the game and talk with the game producers. Several videos were posted on the Internet, videos taken on the BlizzCon 2007, and the game showed a similar gameplay with its predecessor but with renewed graphics and new units.

Until this moment, Blizzard showed only the Terran and Protoss factions and kept silent about the Zerg. We don't know their reason for this silentio stampa regarding the Zerg but either they will revamp this race or something else is going on.

As we said, the gameplay is almost similar to the original Starcraft. New units have appeared and some disappeared as the developers wanted to keep the number of units for each race equal to the the previous version. So you will have the same number of units but the strategies have changed. As you probably saw in the videos (or not), Blizzard introduced new units for the Terrans. The Reapers are able to use their jetpacks to find the weakest point in a base defense and create havoc.

The Protoss also received new units, both on the air, as well as on the ground. The Cyclops are very powerful against small but numerous enemies, and can also deal with buildings. On the air, the Warp Ray is devastating against heavy, big units. The longer they concentrate on an enemy unit or building, the more damage they do. This is why against the Battleships they are hell on earth. Not to mention the enemy buildings who can do nothing to escape the wrath of the Protoss. Because any unit has a weak spot, the Warp Rays are very vulnerable against rapid fire. This is why they can resist the heavy firepower that Battleships posses but can't defend against Human Marines.

The Protoss ultimate weapon is the mothership. To build such a monster a lot of resources are required, but once built, this can be a devastating tool in the right hands. In the videos presented by Blizzard at BlizzCon, the mothership possessed three attack modes. It seems that from that time until GC, the black hole was taken out so we are left with only two attack modes. And of course the most powerful if not also the most spectacular is the Earth Cracker.

I won't review each new unit because you will surely understand them better by watching the videos.

Regarding the buildings, Starcraft 2 has some aces into the sleeve as well. The Humans have a new radar station which has a pretty big range and gives you time to prepare as you will be able to see where the enemy has its units placed. You won't be able to see what type of units but it is still something. The drawback is that the enemy can also see the radar and its range so it can stay out of it. The radar can also be used as a decoy. You could place it near an enemy base and make him believe that you are about to attack him while you could sneak in from behind and take him by surprise.

The Protoss also received some goodies. For example they can move their turrets anywhere on the map where there is a pylon. So if the enemy decided to take you by surprise and sneak on behind, you could redeploy the turrets and decimate the attacking forces.

We were allowed to play the game for 10 minutes and we decided to play the Protoss. Unfortunately, we weren't able to test the Protoss to the full extent but I must tell you that the Starcraft feeling still exists. You have new units, new buildings but the gameplay remains almost the same.

Regarding the singleplayer, Stacraft 2 received a dose of RPG as the old acquaintance, Jim Raynor, will have to take some story decisions. The decisions will regard the course of missions, the upgrades that will be purchased with the money made on the previous missions and much more. You will be able to travel through the ship but after a while you will get bored and go straight to the action.

At this moment of development, the game is still under construction, many things will change, and some things that were implemented now will disappear while some will emerge from the developer's creation mists.