To start off with, StarCraft II is pretty much identical to the original in gameplay mechanics; gather resources and expand, macromanage and build up a base, and build units and micromanage them into obliterating your opponent. Of course, that’s the bare bone basics of the game; the depth that StarCraft goes into when it comes to tactics, unit counters, build orders, scouting, harassment, economic management and about 50 other things is pretty astonishing. The mechanics work off the ‘less is more’ philosophy, where understanding how to play the game is easy, it’s just mastering it that requires an incredible amount of practice.
So we’ve established that StarCraft II doesn’t necessarily innovate or revolutionise the genre like the original did. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. While the game doesn’t deviate from its tried and true gameplay mechanics, it has added in a plethora of new units, strategic options and features that propel it forward a large amount, where though the core game feels very similar to the original, diving into its depths reveals an entirely different beast all together.
Kekekeke.
We’ll start off with the Protoss race, which is our personal favourite to play as online. The Protoss in the original were powerful, highly advanced but awfully expensive. This hasn’t changed much in StarCraft II, in fact one could argue that their expense is even higher now, but this is easily balanced out by many of their newer units, which are insanely powerful. The Stalker and Sentry are the new additions to the tier 1 units, with the Stalker replacing the Dragoon unit from the original as a ranged attacker. While the Stalker isn’t quite as powerful as the Dragoon was, what it lacks in firepower it makes up for in verstality; it’s a fast moving ranged attacker that can later be upgraded to ‘blink’ across areas and into enemy bases, which adds a whole lot of oomph behind their weaker firepower because it’s a nightmare to get away from them. The Sentry on the other hand acts more as a support unit, where its attack power isn’t very strong, but its defensive capabilities are unquestionably useful. Sentries can cast forcefields on the ground, creating a temporary barrier that blocks off units from progressing; this is especially useful in walling off your base temporarily, or trapping enemy units. It also has Guardian Shield which acts as a damage nullifier to all units within the shield, and finally Hallucination, which is a returning ability from StarCraft, but has been given to the Sentry instead of the previous owner, the High Templar.
Next up are the heavier and costly units in the later game, such as the Immortal, Colossus, Phoenix, Warp Prism, Void Ray and Mothership. The Immortal is designed to be the Protoss equivalent of a tank, where it has reinforced shields to repel heavy hitting units, all the while countering with its own powerful cannons. The Colossus is the replacement to the Reaver from the original, in that it acts as a anti-ground unit, firing hot beams of death War of the Worlds style; The Phoenix is the new air-superiority fighter, replacing both the Scout and the Corsair from the original. It’s a fast, but fairly fragile fighter that can move while it shoots, and also has the ability to lift ground units up temporarily for harassment purposes or support in combat. The Warp Prism is essentially the new dropship, allowing you to drop units off anywhere across the map, but also acts as a mobile Pylon, which essentially allows you to warp units and building in right under it, without requiring a Pylon nearby. Finally we have the Void Ray and Mothership, who are both air units. The Void Ray is a surgical strike craft that fires a plasma beam that multiplies in damage the longer it stays on a target, which gives it devastating power when massed, and the Mothership is essentially a replacement to the Arbiter from the original, in that it allows you to cloak all units around you, cast a vortex that temporarily disables entire armies for a few seconds, and can ‘mass recall’ armies from across the map, instantly teleporting them to the Mothership’s location.
While all the new units and such have definitely changed much of the tactics behind the Protoss race, many of their minor improvements in the macro management area are arguably the biggest changes. Protoss can now ‘chrono boost’ their buildings, allowing them to temporarily increase production time by 1.5x. Not only this, but Gateways (the basic ground unit building) can now be researched and turned into Warp Gates, which allows Protoss to warp their units in at any location, assuming there’s a Pylon or Warp Prism nearby. Ultimately, though Protoss are still quite expensive, their new abilities have allowed them to be much faster and also far more mobile, which has added a whole new dimension of play when it comes down to it.
We require more vespene gas!
Next up are the Zerg Swarm, who have always been seen as more the race where it’s quantity over quality, and are noted for their fast rush tactics, ability to ambush and ridiculous amounts of units on the field at once. On the most basic level, they haven’t changed much; Buildings can only be built on creep, (which is now created through creep tumors placed in the ground or Overlords ‘excreting’ it) all units are spawned through the Hatchery from an infinite and constantly refreshing supply of larvae, and their units are the only ones in the game that can burrow into the ground.
But with all these mechanics come a lot of refinements and additions. The Zerg Queen, which in the original was a flying caster unit, is now a ground unit spawned very early into the game, and acts as a base defence unit and also a support unit. Queens can use the transfusion ability, which quickly heals up a building or unit nearby; the creep tumor ability, which places a creep tumor onto the ground in order to spread creep, and finally the spawn larvae ability, which is her most important trait. Spawn larvae essentially increases unit production rate by a tonne by adding a few extra larvae to the Hatchery. It can’t be spammed obviously, as that would create some nasty imbalances, but it’s an essential part of the Zerg now which allows them to spawn more units at twice the rate when it’s needed.
Apart from the Queen, the Zerg also has new units such as the Roach, which acts as somewhat of an early tanking unit and can move while burrowed, the Infestor, which is considered somewhat of a replacement to the original Defiler unit (although they both have fairly different spells) and is capable of mind controlling units and slowing them down, and replacement air units such as the Corrupter, Broodlord, and Overseer: The Corrupter acts as the anti-air unit of the Zerg, the Broodlord, which is a purely ground attacking unit that spits out parasites from a distance, and the Overseer, which is an upgrade from the Overlord unit and acts as a detector and scouting tool. Apart from these new additions/replacements, Zerg remain largely unchanged and are the most familiar race in the game. We do personally lament the loss of some of the older units such as the Lurker, but nonetheless what is there is excellent.
You require additional Pylons!
And last but certainly not least, we have the Terrans. Though feeling very much the same as the original, Terrans are arguably the most different in StarCraft II, as they are now far more versatile and quicker, while retaining a lot of fire power. Many of the older units such as the Firebat, Vulture, Goliath, Valkyrie, Wraith and Science Vessel have all but been removed, but are thankfully replaced by some new hybrid recreations and entirely new units all together.
The Vulture and Firebat are both now replaced by a new unit called the Hellion, a fast moving vehicle that spews fire out, allowing it to decimate worker lines and works as a great harassment unit. The Goliath has been switched over for the new Thor unit, a massive mech that does plenty of damage to both air and ground, and acts very much as a heavy support unit. The Valkyrie and Wraith have both been replaced by the Banshee and Viking; The Banshee acting as a flying air-to-ground unit that can do massive amounts of damage, especially with cloak, and the Viking, which acts as an air-superiority unit but can also transform and fall to the ground, becoming a fairly strong ground based unit as well. The Science Vessel abilities have been given to a new unit called the Raven, which acts as a detector and as a supporting caster unit; The Medic has now been merged into the Dropship as a Medivac, acting both as a transport ship and a healing unit, and finally we have the brand new Marauder; an early game unit that is essentially a Marine in a mech suit, acting as early anti-armour. Ultimately, Terran players have a lot of relearning to do, as many of the new units serve completely different purposes from the original, and macro management wise there are many changes in research, build times and overall economic control.
Carrier has arrived.
So now that we’ve outlined all the bigger changes in each races unit and macro composition, how does the game play so far? Exceptionally well, to say the least. We’ve put about 30 hours into the Beta so far, and most of the time we’ve had little to no problems in playing, and most matches have felt very balanced and even, with player skill deciding the victor. It’s still not a very easy game to play online; the learning curve to take on some of the better players is steep, and the fast paced gameplay can make it extremely difficult for newcomers to adapt. Nonetheless though, the game still remains very enjoyable and highly addictive, and the new Battle.Net system has proven to be very intuitive and easy to use, with complete matchmaking setups and custom game listings available from the get-go.
So with all these new additions, removals, spits of polish and total redesigns, has the 10 year wait been worth it? It’s hard to tell. Right now from what we’re playing, the Beta is very, very polished, and the gameplay mechanics though tried and true, have been refined to such a high level that it’s somewhat hard to believe it’s still in Beta, and it still manages to feel completely new and not just a carbon copy of the original game. The game is looking very good from a visual perspective and runs buttery smooth as well, and the music/sound effects are excellent and bring about a LOT of nostalgia for older fans. So with all this, can Blizzard live up to the legacy of their first game? We can’t really say for sure, as we haven’t seen what they have in store for the Single Player, but if it’s as polished and responsive as the Multiplayer component, then we’re just going to go with a big, fat yes. Welcome back StarCraft, we’ve missed you.
Loading...
