Single Player

StarCraft II single player story line is split into three campaigns, the first of which will be included when the game ships. The second and third chapter of the game will be released as expansions, each expansion as big as the complete campaign of the original game. The reason for this split is that the story became too big for each main character to be contained in one game, so Blizzard decided to split them up in order to give each of the main characters a sufficient space to tell their tale. The "Story Mode" of the sequel also demands the use of many maps to allow the player to pick their own way through the campaign, which made it absolutely impossible to release the game with three campaigns without causing massive delays to the development.

About 30 missions will be included when StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is released but the with Story Mode choices, you can expect each player to find their own way to the end, and not necessarily completing all 30 missions . Rob Pardo told us there would be about 30-60 hours worth of gameplay if the player is a "completionist", and perhaps 20 hours gameplay for someone with "world speed". Each mission will take about 30-60 minutes to complete.  

Single player is not a tutorial for the purpose of teaching you the game mechanics.  The game will instead ship with pre-recorded tutorials for players to watch according to Sigaty. A new feature called "Challenges" will also be added; small missions training a player for certain tasks like efficient resource gathering, smarter build orders and similar aspects of the game important for multiplayer games.


Battle.net

Both multiplayer and single player aspects of the game will feature Achievements according to senior vice president of game design, Pardo, but in order to receive them in single player, the game must be connected to Battle.net. The connection will have other advantages too, like easy access to your friends regardless of what sort of game you're playing. The entire user interface of the game will be made to make login to Battle.net more natural than the original, but an internet connection will not be a requirement to play the game.

For the first time Pardo has also revealed that the development team "don't have any plans to support LAN" (Local Area Networking), and clarified saying "we will not support it." Blizzard wants the fans to enjoy multiplayer - on Battle.net. This is an interesting statement, since the easy LAN functionality of the original game is one of the reasons it became so big in the first place. Current communities like iCCup, using StarCraft mods to host games are considered "pirate servers" by Blizzard, and Pardo wants to see those services shut down.

But Blizzard is making sure 90% of fans will be able to play the game online, making internet connection requirements "as low as we can make it," said to Pardo and claiming players would "certainly not going to require broadband".

You see, Battle.net 2.0 is just nickname given to Blizzard's updated Battle.net by the fans, but is still a good description of the project. Blizzard has a dedicated development team working on Battle.net, aiming to revolutionise online gaming with technical solutions as well as community features.

Most features have not been revealed, but the new network will be more user-friendly and community-focused than the original. Personal avatars, friends lists with added functionality, clan-making, replay database and other ideas are on the table, but exactly what features will be available at release and what will be added later through expansions has yet to be announced.

Gaming networks like Steam and Rupture, as well as general social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook, and "plenty of others" have helped shape Battle.net according to lead producer Chris Sigaty. Sigaty clarified that Blizzard is "very aware of technology" around them, implying it's on top of the latest social networking as well as gaming-related networks. Much of the content from the Battle.net web page will also be available directly from the game client.

Battle.net will be free to use for anyone buying StarCraft II or other titles using Battle.net, but further plans for how to implement service charges to keep the service running has not been made. Blizzard recently signed a big ad deal with Microsoft, but Browder said that the current mock-up of Battle.net doesn't even have a place for ads in it. Pardo mentioned that we might see micro-transactions for added value services similar to WoW might be implemented. In WoW a player can pay for a server transfer, gender change of character and similar things. He didn't give any examples of what a Battle.net value added service could include.


Closing Words

The overall experience I got from seeing the "shoutcasts", talking to the developers and actually playing the game was that StarCraft II has been ready for beta for a long time now. It's polished, feels great, and only needs a little bit more tweaking in terms of balance. Blizzard is known for great quality, but the game is not even in the closed beta stage yet and still better than most other developers' finished products. We'll likely see more of both Battle.net and single player before the beta finally starts; some time this summer, so make sure to come back here for all the latest.

If you are interested in StarCraft II, also check out our developer interview, videos, screenshots/art and head over to IncGamers' StarCraft channel for more detailed information and further reports from Blizzard.

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