StarCraft 2 Beta Preview

19 Feb 2010 at 15:28:50 by Deirdre Hollis

If you've played StarCraft before it's quite easy to explain the feeling of StarCraft II; it feels like a much improved second game in the same series. However, I assume people want to have more details than that, and there is a whole generation of gamers who never tried the original cult classic. So, let's start with the basics:

StarCraft II is a real-time strategy (RTS) game set a couple of hundred years in the future, where the government of Earth sent off thousands of criminals and unwanted elements in gigantic arks to be exiled from earth. Something went wrong. They went further than they should have done and crashed into what they would call the 'Koprulu' sector, an unknown distance from Earth. They rebuilt their technology and made a living in the sector, rediscovering space flight and FTL travel. They call themselves 'Terrans.'

The original game starts here, with humanity believing itself to be alone in the universe. All of a sudden an insectoid life form - the Zerg - appears on a fringe world causing panic and then, without warning, the entire planet is scorched by another alien race wielding advanced technology (Protoss). Millions of humans die. The game follows reluctant hero Jim Raynor as he overthrows the corrupt Terran government (which ends up replaced by another), befriending both sides of the split Protoss civilisation and temporarily defeating the Zerg onslaught. StarCraft II starts four years after the last conflict, and people have started to believe all is well...

The beta does not include a single player component, however, and we don't yet know much about the game's story. Nonetheless, the game was always designed with multiplayer as a big focus and the multiplayer-only beta gives a good impression of how it will all play out at launch.

When I first played the original game I was struck by how different the game was from each race's perspective, with the differences in the sides making it feel almost like three completely different games. There are no shared buildings or units, and a nice balance between the three factions is achieved. The sequel is trying to expand on this even more, and lead designer Dustin Browder told us the team discounted a fourth race as they decided they wanted to differentiate the three races even further instead.

Contrary to popular belief, StarCraft had no rock-paper-scissors design between the three races. Each had strengths and weaknesses and, at most, there might be strategies and counters that work in a similar way. However, the many possible tactics made the game truly skill based. This is the reason it became so massive in Korea, where players have scores upon scores of fans screaming as they sit down by their PCs and play in live TV matches.

The game has, more or less, been ready for beta for a year now. It was delayed due to the new Battle.net (read our Battle.net preview on Monday) and the team has had plenty of time to polish it. For the most part, there are no glaring balance issues, and of those few 'issues' players inevitably find, there is often a viable counter they just have not used yet.

All races have retained some units from previous game, but even these have been changed in some way. Work has been put in making sure all units are somewhat viable, so there will be less units that are never used. Zerg are creepier than ever before, the Terrans are rougher and the Protoss are more techie.

Comment