So, having played StarCraft II...

[Shocked2]

I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the game. Based on the gameplay demos and screenshots back when they announced the game, I was rather worried about the graphics, but after having played the game myself I think they work out alright.

So far here at Blizzcon I've played two multiplayer sessions (which are divided into 2v2s, only Terran and Protoss playable) as Terran... the first game was mostly fooling around with stuff. Because of the twenty minute time limit it wasn't terribly decisive I would say we generally had the upper hand (ran the other team dry after cutting them off from their expansions).

You learn pretty quick how much the units have changed. I initially mixed up the Predator and the Banshee, because the Predator uses the old Wraith unit voice - but it's a lot like the Valkyrie in that it's an air-only unit. The Banshee is like a Wraith, essentially, at least in being able to cloak.

Battlecruisers have somewhat changed as well. You now specialize them - meaning, instead of the Yamato ability being a building upgrade, you spend something like 50 minerals and 50 gas to upgrade each one individually. But the thing is you have the option of that or a new, area attack (which I used a few times against a group of Marines, seemed to work quite nicely).

I could go over more units, but I want to get back out there relatively soon. I'm guessing the new gameplay demo will be on the web anyway.

Anyway, second game, I built a forward and rear barracks. The forward was forced back to base by Zealots early on, and by then I decided to go straight for Starports. Started massing Banshees - which suppressed enemy forces early since they didn't have any detectors accompanying their forces - and then Battlecruisers and some Predators. My ally went Stalkers, Immortals and Carriers. It was a fairly easy fight, we'd wiped one of them out (except for two random buildings) by the point our time was up.

The multiplayer demo stations were fairly nice. G15 keyboards, MX518 mice, and what looked like 20" WS displays. The game itself ran very well, but being there was no mousepad, the mouse didn't exactly glide over the tablecloth well.

The singleplayer stations were a different story. They were set up on Macs with larger displays, but it was fairly choppy in places, and it looked like the resolution was too small for the respective display size. The actual game on the singleplayer stations was technically a scenario, but in practice it was just a skirmish game with pre-built bases.

I really haven't even fooled around with everything yet. I'm sure to go through the lines at least a bunch more times yet. I would say, from my initial impression, it seems and feels like StarCraft, but I still have a lot yet to play around with. After only three games a lot of it is still very foreign, and I think I can say the game is definitely not just a simple rehash with some better graphics and a few new units.

[oblisk]

Sounds good.

Now steal a beta!

[Dibrom]

Originally Posted by oblisk

Now steal a beta!

2nded.

[Setsuna]

why bother writing it all out, just rate it

was it 11/10 or 9000/10 ?

[Shocked2]

Originally Posted by Setsuna

why bother writing it all out, just rate it

was it 11/10 or 9000/10 ?

I don't know, I don't feel comfortable rating it quite yet.

Anyway, I don't know if the new gameplay demo is on the web yet, but I figure I'll outline some of the new Terran stuff.

Building add-ons are handled a bit differently now. You can build either a reactor, which gives the structure an additional unit production queue, or a tech lab. They're also interchangeable between building types now. Among other upgrades, you can actually upgrade the Command Center into a fortress, which I'm guessing is supposed to be ideal for protecting workers (I didn't play with it much, I'm not sure if it's even capable of attacking air units).

Supply Depots can lower themselves into the ground, allowing forces to pass when needed. There's also a new defensive structure, if I remember correctly the Sensor Tower, which detects cloaked units, and, when upgraded, lets you see the location of any enemy unit within range through the fog.

The Viking seems pretty much like an all-purpose hit-and-run unit. You can see it on the features page on the official SC2 website, but it's basically a factory-produced unit that can transform between an air unit and ground unit.

Ghosts now have a snipe ability, as well as the means to call down drop pods of marines. Reapers can lay explosive, time-detonated mines that are mostly effective at taking down buildings due to the time delay. Firebats are gone, but Medics are still around.

That's about it for the moment, long day and I'm off to bed.

[Morell]

Originally Posted by Setsuna

why bother writing it all out, just rate it

was it 11/10 or 9000/10 ?

Ratings means sod all compared to a properly written impression. Maybe that's why.

[LLCoolJD]

Thank you for the write-ups.

[livingelf2]

thanks for the write-up as well. One thing that bothers me is the expansion thing. I loved starcraft when the mucho money maps started pouring out, this way you could create a huge protective barrier and mass produce units and not WORRY about expansion, something most people including myself took to. In fact if blizzard failed to at least incorporate this sort of gaming strategy in the game and instead went the way of warcraft3 i think that is ignorant. Can you please tell me that they are at least going to allow a type of play in which expansion isn't necesssary? i know war3 tried to make mucho maps and it just did not work right.

[Mantis]

hey, thanks for that writeup. Sounds like lots of interesting developments. It is VERY interesting to me that the zerg were left out... I think they have some big surprises in store for them. I like the marine pod ability of the ghost unit, sounds like an appropriate function and it will add to the gameplay quite a bit. Sounds like they are doing their absolute most to keep sc2 a true successor to sc. Sounds good! :)

[Shocked2]

Originally Posted by livingelf2

thanks for the write-up as well. One thing that bothers me is the expansion thing. I loved starcraft when the mucho money maps started pouring out, this way you could create a huge protective barrier and mass produce units and not WORRY about expansion, something most people including myself took to. In fact if blizzard failed to at least incorporate this sort of gaming strategy in the game and instead went the way of warcraft3 i think that is ignorant. Can you please tell me that they are at least going to allow a type of play in which expansion isn't necesssary? i know war3 tried to make mucho maps and it just did not work right.

I can't really say much for sure. I always found myself expanding at least once during a game, but mostly for the vespene geysers. There was one game I had my main base and expansion overflowing with SCVs, and producing out of eight starports I was seriously hurting for gas but minerals coming out of my ears (more than I could effectively spend, anyway).

That said, they made it very clear that this isn't exactly representative of a final build and a lot of things are going to be tweaked / overhauled, and this might very well include the economy. Though I don't think ladder games will exactly be BGH style.

(EDIT: Another note on the economy, if I had to guess I would say I typically ran my main base dry of minerals around the 15 minute mark)

Anyway, I had my final game as Protoss today, allied with a Terran against two other Terrans. Thanks to having a competent ally we actually won this one with about a minute to spare. I pumped out Zealots, Stalkers and Warp Rays while he went Marines and Siege Tanks. I can't remember exactly what the enemy did but they had a lot of Marines, Reapers and Vikings.

They actually tried to wriggle their way out of the loss by flying their buildings over to various island portions of the map, but splitting the Warp Rays into groups made short work of that plan.

I have to say, the Zealot rush is still pretty popular. With Firebats gone I'm not sure exactly what Terran players can do except bunker up with Supply Depots. Might be able to produce enough Marines by equipping a few barracks with reactors for another production queue, but I honestly didn't try that early.

Oh, they changed the graphic of the Siege Tank. It no longer looks nearly as much like a tonka truck when deployed.