Starcraft II Beta Gameplay Review

Blizzard has done it once again. I have to say that after a much awaited Starcraft 2 beta launch they have most definitely lived up to their reputations as one of the leading video game companies in the world. Now if you're not already "giddy" at the idea of the release of Starcraft II and have never played the original, then this is a highly strategic RTS (Real Time Strategy) game. Basically SimCity, Chess, and that movie Starship Troopers had a baby and Starcraft was born.

Initially you start out with your main building and some workers (who construct offensive and defensive buildings, and gather gas and mineral resources.) You start with one base and you expand and build all over to consume more resources for more units. Now all of the three races have been slightly changed with units added and taken away, but all-in-all they've done a great job following up on quite possibly the best RPS of its time. Terran, is the human race, and like in Terminator Salvation, they have some Cyborg advanced Aliens coming after them Called Protoss, throw in a little Aliens insect cross-breed and you got your Zerg race.

Blizzard has made many user-friendly changes to the game which makes the game play smooth, stylish, and much easier to multi-task with units, and constructing buildings and units. You can now rally point your workers to a stack of minerals or gas and they will automatically star their job. Though the game is still in beta and has a few issues that need to be addressed--so far my experience has been with very little problems, no more than a crash or two. Although I must say they do need to fix a little something in the programming because when I got to 13^th place it said I was in 13rd, same with 11^th and 11st. So there's a heads up Blizzard.

The new maps are much more balanced, especially for team play. Every ladder map has a ramp and each ramp is easily block-able for you terran players. This isn't only due to the stylish map design but even the buildings are much more detailed and easier to place than before. If you're a previous Starcraft or Broodwar player you know that building placement is key, especially in the early game. Now the way the game is played is exactly the same. And there are expansions everywhere. There are now two gas mines in each base, but they put out about as much as one did in Broodwar. There are neutral buildings that can let your allies see in a large radius (this is a great way to find out when the other team is moving to attack or expand) and blockades that need to be destroyed to access certain parts of maps, for either expansions, or surprised back-door attacks.

There are new units, abilities and skills. For instance the terran command center has a tier 2 upgrade that not only lets you scan your enemy, but you can also call on a worker who takes in extra minerals, or stack up a supply depot for extra supply--comes in hand those times you forget to build one and that annoying (not enough supply depots) is screaming in your ear. You can also upgrade your Command Center into a self defending turret center. Another cool little tool is the sentry tower. It creates a large radius where you can see your enemy's movements; the only downfall to the sentry is that the enemy can see the radius on their mini map. The new starting Barracks units are a marine and a marauder. A marauder requires a tech lab upgrade, but these are devastating to armies because their missile slows the target for a short amount of time and does a nice chunk of damage. The Reaper a fairly inexpensive, easy to kill unit, but they've become very popular in the beta because they can jump cliffs; and are usually used to attack workers. They got rid of fire-bats and vultures and pretty much merged the two. Now we have bike riding flame thrower guys which has been fun to play around with I have to say, they are faster than much of the ground units so it makes for a good laugh. Siege tanks are pretty much the same accept they now shoot faster and do less damage, so it evens out in the end. Thor is the new Goliath only ten-times bigger. He's is a very expensive Mechanical unit with an ability similar to Yamato cannot, (they could be buffed a little they move very slow) Ghosts have gotten a little better. They now have a snipe ability and EMP, so goodbye Protoss shields! Also nukes are now built at the ghost academy and have a nice new graphic! Starports and Factory's got new units and did away with some of the old. The first unit you can build is a Viking, now these have two modes. Air to air, and they can land on the ground and attack at range. The Medivac is a drop-ship that heals, how exciting for terran it seems to be their best unit thus far. Banshee's are airships that only attack ground, they can cloak and if your opponent isn't ready for them they can do some real damage. Ravens took place of Science vessels as detectors but the abilities are quite different. Battle cruisers now attack faster but do less per shot so it evens out, and yes Yamato gun still owns.

Protoss, at least so far in this beta, seam to still be the most powerful race. One helpful skill that the Nexus actually has is an ability to cast on any building and increase unit build time by 50%. Zealots are still great and now you can upgrade them to move faster and they have a charge ability. Stalkers replaced Dragoons and now they can be upgrade to blink, yeah that's right they can teleport a 3^rd of the way on the screen. Gateway you can summon a sentry who has a couple of interesting spells that really help during a rush or rush defense of a rush. Gateways can now be upgraded to warp gates. Warp gates make it so the unit you wish to create literally warps in to any place that has pylon energy within seconds. Carriers are still much the same. The units built from the robotics facility have changed. There is still an observer and a drop-ship, but now there's a new unit called an Immortal which resembles Starcraft Broodwar's Dragoon, but it only attacks ground units and it's very good at what it does. One of the most devastating units in a Protoss arsenal so far has been the Colossus. This replaced the Reaver and it looks like a giant robotic spider that attacks groups of units at once doing massive damage. Colossus can walk over cliffs right into an enemy base and destroy units/buildings quickly. The only downfall to the Colossus is that it can be attacked by anti air units as well, and it's on the ground.

Zerg has gotten some significant improvements. The defensive structures no longer require you to create a creep colony. Queens are now made from the Hatchery right after your spawning pool. And this is mainly a defensive unit that attacks air and ground. It also has the ability to heal unit/buildings, and can also spawn extra larva so more units can be built. The overlord no longer automatically has detection it must be upgraded. And overlords can now spawn creep anywhere they fly making Nydus canal something to watch for earlier in games vs. Zerg. Now Zerglings are the same but the next unit on the tier 1 list is the roach. The Rouch is like the Hydralisk of Starcraft Broodwar accept they attack ground only, and they can burrow and move around underground (which can be quite annoying on the opposition) Hydralisks have been taken to tier two and are much like what they used to be, they seem to attack faster and resemble a machine nail-gun in battle. Banelings are a pretty scary sight, they're a bunch of scary little suicide bombers that pretty much demolish themselves with their enemy. Mutalisks are still good even though you can't use the overlord trick everyone oh-so-loved to use to mass their twenty four units into one. Zerg's new air to air unit is now the unit that upgrades into what used to be the guardian (now called brood lord). These guys are intense. Not only do they have the long range and high damage output from air to ground. But they spawn little units on every attack. Some people are arguing their over powered, but they aren't easy to get and I've seen few of them in my hundred or so games.

I have to say that I love what Blizzard has done with Starcraft II and I hope the game is released to the public soon. I know I'm buying it, even though I wasn't myself given a Beta key (thanks Mr. Anonyms). The graphics have greatly improved and the units move with finesse. This will be the number one RTS of its time. What more could we expect from Blizzard Entertainment.