10.) Historical Event
Missing out on something everyone is talking about is never fun. You feel like an outsider and you’re not able to easily relate to what other people are discussing. The release of Starcraft 2 will be an epic moment in the history of the RTS timeline of events. No RTS title has been as anticipated (or expected) as the second coming of Starcraft. While you can always get into Starcraft 2 at any time, there’s nothing like playing a new game from the start. Starcraft 2 might very well be your only chance to play a new Starcraft game at release for quite some time.

9.) Accessibility
The challenge of any RTS game should be in fighting against your opponent, not fighting against the gameplay mechanics. Starcraft 2 is not going to be an overly complicated game. While the legendary reputation of Starcraft’s best players can make the franchise seem like it’s overwhelmingly hard to play, it’s really not. There’s a difference between complexity and depth, and Starcraft 2’s mechanical simplicity, but strategic and tactical depth, will make it enjoyable at every skill level.

8.) Replayability
Starcraft is arguably the most played RTS game in history. The reason is simple: downright good gameplay, which is something Starcraft 2 will have plenty of. Combined with good support and a strong community, playing Starcraft 2 will never get old. Each game will offer something different, and even the most common strategies will still be fun to use and fun to try and overcome. If you want a game that will stick with you as much as you stick with it, Starcraft 2 is your best bet.

7.) Strong Competitive Environment
For those that play RTS games competitively, you can feel confident that Starcraft 2 will be very well received by every major competitive gaming establishment throughout dozens of countries. The original Starcraft created the most competitively saturated RTS environment ever. There will be an abundance of local, national, and international LANs and tournaments to play in. There will be online competitions and leagues offering prizes and rewards for being the best. Essentially, there won’t be a shortage of competition or ways you can earn a little something extra for doing what you love to do: play games.

6.) Unique Factions
As elementary as this sounds, it’s something a lot of games simply get wrong. Unique factions do two important things: they add depth, and they add replayability. Depth comes from the fact that the strategies you use to beat one faction will not be the strategies you use to beat another faction. It will require different build orders, different unit mixes, and different uses of those units from one faction to the next. It adds replayability because the strategies you’ve learned for one faction, will not be the same for the other factions. Essentially, once you’ve mastered one faction, you still have two other factions to master. In games where the factions are almost identical, once you’ve learned one, you’ve basically learned the whole game. Starcraft 2’s truly and fundamentally distinct factions will keep the game feeling fresh for a long time.

5.) Unit Abilities and Micromanagement
Part of what real time strategy is all about is being in control of your army. What’s important is for that control to have an impact on the outcome of a game. Otherwise you’re just wasting your time. Many of Starcraft 2’s units will have secondary abilities that allow them to be used in interesting and creative ways. Essentially, these abilities provide a player with the means to extend a unit’s effectiveness beyond its default behavior so that being out numbered doesn’t necessarily mean being beaten. Moreover, these specialized abilities will help to contribute to each faction’s unique identity and playstyle. It will simply feel fun and rewarding using your units as you try and use them to their greatest possible extent.

4.) Huge Community
A large community of players is arguably the most important part of a game, even for singleplayer. For starters, Starcraft 2’s community will more than likely have a very low depreciation rate, meaning it will stay strong for a long time. But even as it starts to decline, the player-base will be so large to start with, that by the time the next Starcraft comes out, you’ll still always be able to find a good game. There’s nothing more frustrating than waiting to find a match against someone who is worth playing against, only to wind up with an opponent or team that just ruins it for you. A shortage of players means a shortage of good games. Starcraft 2 just won’t have that problem. Outside of the game, a strong community means active forums, and more resources available, such as technical help, strategy help, mission help, maps, and replays.

3.) Balance and Polish
These two words are part of Blizzard’s namesake. The game will be polished quite well at the start, and there will be tons of little features that Blizzard thought of. Everything from the way the ladder works, to the communication system, to replays. Balance will of course, be continuously fine tuned as new balance problems emerge from the vast amount of strategic depth that Starcraft 2 will no doubt have. Excellent balance will minimize any frustration of losing due to factors outside of your control, and will put the responsibility to win squarely on your shoulders.

2.) Strategic and Tactical Depth
What is the purpose of real time strategy game if not to have amazing strategic and tactical depth? While all RTS games have their own flavor of strategic and tactical depth that sounded good on paper during development, Blizzard will have made it a point to make sure the implementation of gameplay elements works in practice. The strategy and tactical depth will feel real, and provide almost tangible results. The bottom line is that the game will be fun and rewarding to play. Everything will feel like it has a purpose and everything you do will feel like it matters.

1.) Blizzard and Battle.net
It would literally be enough to say “‘nuff said”. However, this is the number one reason because it’s the only reason why the other nine reasons are reasons at all. Blizzard commands the same sort of market reaction to its products that Apple does. The driving force behind this is simply Blizzard’s commitment to quality and support. Blizzard is the reason why Starcraft 2 will have phenomenal gameplay. Battle.net is the reason why Starcraft 2’s multiplayer is going to be so substantially better than virtually every other RTS game. If Blizzard settled for being average, this list would be pointless.

Moreover, Blizzard will take the time to deal with cheaters and disconnectors. The amount of money and effort Blizzard puts into this goes above and beyond what’s expected of a gaming company. At a minimum, people just want some form of passive anti-cheat capability built into the game or server system. Blizzard recognizes that this isn’t good enough, and takes an active role in fighting cheaters.

It’s also a company with a sense of humor and personality. The idea of World of Starcraft was a classic. It made some people laugh, it made some people cry. In the past, Blizzard has released bogus (but temporary) patches or patch notes on April Fools, just to mess with people. You just don’t really see that in other development companies. Blizzard is simply a company for gamers. They just get it.

The second day of Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational 2007 in Seoul, South Korea shed light on some of the artistic efforts that went into creating StarCraft 2’s units and environments. On hand during a panel discussion were Sam Didier, Senior Art Director for the game, Rob McNaughton, Lead Technical Artist, Trevor Jacobs, Senior 3D Artist, Allen Dilling, Senior 3D Artist, and Dave Berggren, another Senior 3D Artist. Didier started off the discussion, which was first a powerpoint-style demonstration from all five panel members followed by a question and answer session from fans in attendance. All these guys with the exception of Allen Dilling (considered a “youngster” at Blizzard, having only worked there for eight years) contributed to the art design for the original StarCraft. Dilling contributed to the visuals for WarCraft 3 and its expansion, The Frozen Throne.

Emphasized was Blizzard’s commitment to creating exaggerated, stylistic characters, something indicative of the company’s visual form. When characters are so small onscreen, they need “bold and saturated colors,” along with “strong silhouettes” according to Didier.

Rob McNaughton then took the stage to speak briefly about creating units. Blizzard is using Photoshop for texturing, 3D Studio Max, and StarTools to integrate custom art into the game. StarTools is planned to be made available to the public along with ScummEdit for map creation. McNaughton went on to say the map editor will feature new scripting and trigger mechanics, and be a more powerful version than that found in WarCraft 3. In terms of fancy technical effects, StarCraft 2 is built on a DX9 engine and uses per pixel lighting, normal mapping, high dynamic range bloom, rendering and tone mapping, as well as integrated havoc physics. Using their engine, Blizzard is hoping to have up to 300 units on screen at once.

Also detailed was the process of creating the actual models in the game. McNaughton showed a Protoss Zealot as an example. The base wireframe model was comprised of 1500 polygons, given the normal mapping treatment, textured through Photoshop, and through the process emerged as a pleasantly detailed, furious Zealot face with moving eyebrows, glowing blue eyes, and a metal goatee. Trevor Jacobs spoke next to briefly relay how models had to be adjusted from the concept art phase to final. He singled out the Protoss Immortal as an example, describing how the shoulder pads had to be enlarged and facial angle tilted to adjust for StarCraft 2’s top-down view.

With so many Zerglings, Marines, or Zealots crowding the battlefield, Blizzard is focusing on “personality, life, and emotion with animation,” says Allen Dilling, “we’re not really worried about being realistic.” Each unit will have three variations of animation to make the screen more interesting when multiple units of the same type occupy the screen. Protoss Phase Prisms, for instance, have differentiated effects for transformation between mobile mode and phase field mode. Dilling also described how the Protoss Mothership’s Planet Cracker attack, which drills three rings of rotating concentric lasers into the ground, was originally designed as a large single laser blast. It was changed to the present state because the single beam obscured too much of the action behind it. “[We] try to be fast and quick with effects and make sure they don’t interfere with gameplay,” says Dilling. He repeated the phrase “tight and concise” when referring to animations, and said the art team was focusing on eliminating clipping between units. Exceptions are made for special cinematic effects, such as the elaborate warp-in animation for the Mothership.

Next Dave Berggren took the stage to comment on StarCraft 2’s environmental design. Three environments were shown, including a Protoss forested temple world called Bel’Shir, the Terran space platform shown in the demo videos, and the fierce Zerg world of Char. Demonstrated were a number of “doodads,” apparently Blizzard’s term for environmental objects. For Belshir this includes stone arches and rocky structures. Heavy industrial structures, energy pipes, generators and exhaust vents were used for the space platform, and bone finger structures extending from the earth, fleshy fins, and lava canyons on Char. Berggren continued with his process of creating ground tiles, focusing on the brick floor featured on Bel’Shir. He starts out with a line drawing of brick tiles, adds light and dark areas for texture, overlays an actual picture of dirt, adjusts a few details by hand, the drops in a normal map and imports it into the game. The result, for better or worse, looked like a dirty stone floor.

After the prepared comments, the floor was opened to fans. The art panel had to field some rather strange questions, including one asking whether there’ll be a StarCraft-based movie. Of course there’s been no announcement yet, but Didier enthusiastically responded, “we never put anything off the table.” Another crowd member asked if we’d ever see a StarCraft-based RPG or MMO, to which Didier said, “that sounds awesome, I would love to play it, but at the moment we have nothing announced.”

Starcraft 2 gameplay and review

Starcraft has been a favorited game since its beginning. With the follow up of the brood wars expansion pack, many have enjoyed the strategic online gameplay with multi-player battle. But now game maker Blizzard is introducing a much anticipated Starcraft 2.

The new game yet to be released has been receiving a lot of attention. The gameplay videos for starcraft2 look great. The same 3 races, the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg from the original will be included, but with new abilities, quicker gameplay and better graphics including the background of the maps being played on, as well as new maps being added.

With the original Starcraft the battle.net servers seemed to have some issues, however with the advancement of technology and upgrades the Blizzard team is making, gameplay should be no short of great.

Some of the features the makers of Starcraft 2 emphasize are, Full multiplayer support, with new competitive features and matchmaking utilities available through Battle.net. Full map-making and scripting tools to give players incredible freedom in customizing and personalizing their gameplay experience. Plus, vibrant new 3D-graphics engine with support for dazzling visual effects and massive unit and army sizes.

As we all await the new game release, Starcraft 2 looks to be one of the fun games to play for many years to come.

About the author

1)What is the role of heroes in StarCraft II? Will they be the same as in StarCraft?StarCraft II campaign heroes will fulfill roles similar to what appeared in the original StarCraft single player experience, but they will have even more unique abilities from standard units, and will be more innovatively integrated into the story campaign. Heroes will not be buildable in multiplayer.

2)What is the max unit count population for each faction?

Unit population count for each faction will be very similar to the original StarCraft.

3)Will there be an in-game option to change hotkeys around?

Currently it is planned to have this feature, though much testing has yet to be done on it. We are looking into several innovative ways to make the UI customizable to players, to allow flexibility in their style of game play.

4)Is Karunes Battle.net Forum Avatar a Protoss High Templar?

Yes it is.

5)Will the Robotics Facility have a similar upgrade to the Warp Gate allowing it to warp units in?

There are no plans for this at the moment. Currently Warping technology is limited to the Warp Gate. Of course, we are still testing and balancing this, and nothing is set in stone.