You may have heard of StarCraft, it's a wee niche game played by a few million people competitively worldwide, 24/7. Professional StarCraft gamers have earned six-figure salaries and are rock stars in some parts of the world, most notably Korea.

Three years ago StarCraft II was announced - predictably in Seoul, Korea. There has been an unending flood of hype, speculation and interest following the development of the game since then.
12 years is a long time between releases. The RTS genre has hardly been asleep in the period, most notably with entrants like Dawn of War and Company of Heroes challenging for the throne with slick visuals and lauded gameplay evolution.

In response Blizzard has finally opened the gates, with a limited open beta, and we've got the inside scoop - does the game live up to the hype? Is it a worthy successor to the original classic? Do you need to be Korean to play it? All this and more is answered below




First Impressions

There can be no doubt that this is StarCraft.

From the interface layout to the core gameplay mechanics, you can't confuse the title's pedigree. There is a clear determination not to diverge from the fundamentals that made the original game such a massive hit.

WarCraft III - the latest offering in Blizzard's other RTS franchise - was in some circles criticised for diverging from the base economy management and macro mechanics of the series. The addition of hero units and items radically changed gameplay and formed the basis of the DOTA franchise.
For some, these changes detracted from the game, while others lauded the innovation.

Unlike WarCraft III, there are no significant changes to core economy management or tech trees. There are no hero units in the multiplayer beta we have been given access to - although we are assured that Jim Raynor will be back and raging against Mengsk and Kerrigan in the single-player campaign.

This is a pure build 'em up, smash 'em down RTS.




Gameplay

This is what you've been waiting for, right?

In typical Blizzard style, the game builds on the success of the original title, refines everything that worked in the first game without striking out into too much new ground. For some this will be welcome, providing an immediately accessible and enjoyable game. It adds new life to the StarCraft experience for players who (like me) would probably still be regularly playing StarCraft: Brood War if it had up-to-date graphics.

Other players may have fallen in love with some of the genre's innovations in the twelve years since StarCraft was launched and find them indispensible. While there are still the original terrain benefits (line of sight, higher ground, cover for infantry from trees etc) the game lacks the more modern implementation of these elements. Anyone who has played a lot of Company of Heroes will probably be looking for walls and objects to take cover behind and feel the lack.

Combat at the default "holy crap this is fast" Fastest setting is extremely quick. Depending on the units involved, it can be literally resolved in a few short seconds.

This lightning pace rewards the player with ninja reflexes allowing for micro-management and tactics, while the player with slightly less APM (actions per minute) will probably find encounters dizzying, at least to start with - Actions Per Minute will definitely separate the men from the boys.

Tech trees are familiar and comfortable to veterans. For example, as a Terran player your Barracks pumps out your Marines, you need a Factory to acquire tanks and a StarPort for air units. The learning curve for old dogs returning should be minimal.

There are some improvements and enhancements to economy management, with a "lazy peon" indicator, and the ability to assign rally points for peons to resources to mine straight away.

Unlike in the original, when directed onto a specific mineral node with a right-click, peons won't queue on it and will instead try to get an open one. For those who have spent years micro-managing their first four peons this is very welcome. Combined with the returning ability to hotkey buildings you can manage your worker production without actually needing to return to the base at all.

You can assign significantly more units to a single control group now, up to 255 for programmer reasons. Depending on your race and game settings, this is probably more units than you can make.

At least for me, the "single file" pathfinding stuff is still apparent so you'll still need to keep an eye on troops travelling long distances to avoid being fed into a grinder one by one like lemmings.

While Blizzard clearly decided not to mess with the core mechanics, there are significant changes to units and combat abilities. The ability to conquer terrain obstacles manifests relatively early, bringing more attack vectors through the abilities of units like Terran Reapers and Protoss Stalkers.
The upshot is that scouting - a core tactic in StarCraft - is even more important in the sequel. Advance knowledge about your enemy's plans and deployments is crucial to success. There are even more ways to harass your enemy which has always been a core part of StarCraft's appeal (and frustration if on the wrong side!).

Perhaps in place of heroes there are new high-tech singleton units such as the Protoss Mothership. While these are certainly very powerful single units they appear to be tuned to be enhancing rather than defining like WarCraft III heroes.

The game appears to require significant balance work, especially for competitive play. StarCraft II has already been tuned for balance several times and will require ongoing tuning no doubt following release as new tactics and strategies evolve.




Ranked Matchmaking

The game plays fast and furious on the fastest setting, and ranked (think ladder) matches are played at this blinding pace.

One of the big features we are being sold is the new Battle.Net. We'll cover the features of this in more detail later, focusing for now on the matchmaking elements.

The Battle.Net improvements and matchmaking system work quite well, even with the limited player base in the Beta I have always had an easy time finding an opponent waiting to obliterate me. While the pace of the game is astonishing (and even confronting for newer players) after your initial trial by fire 10 games you are placed in a band of players to suit your skill levels.

The system works quite well and should - in theory - provide challenging games once you find your water level - bringing both new and gosu players a whole lot of "gg".




Battle.Net v 2.0

The new Battle.Net has been touted as a core feature, and it really shows. The interface is slick and easy to navigate, with an integrated IM-style friends list. Matchmaking is flawless, and the ability to form a "party" for team games works very well.

For now, there is a distinct lack of life on Battle.Net 2.0 as there is a complete absence of chat channels. However, we are quite comfortable in assuming that these will be added prior to release - without them BNet 2.0 is a very shiny IM and matchmaking client.

The issue has been raised ad nauseum on the beta forums so we expect it to be addressed.




Graphics and Sound

As you would expect from Blizzard, these are unassuming but highly polished, even in a beta stage.
Indeed, the overall level of polish is astonishing and rather than a beta, this feels like a finished game from other developers. The game sounds are great and the music soundtrack is to Blizzard's usual high standard.

At the highest game settings at 1920x1080 screen resolution, the game performed flawlessly on my relatively modest test machine. Some of the destruction and explosion animations felt a little contrived somehow, but this is purely a personal observation and taste matter.

I would have liked to be able to zoom out just a little more, but these settings are constrained to maintain a level playing field competitively. Similarly, the user interface is a bit in your face and takes a lot of screen real estate for a game that most experienced players will run almost completely out of hotkeys. A simple toggle to bring it up and down would be very, very much appreciated.




Conclusion

StarCraft II is very clearly a successor to the original rather than a divergence from the game's lineage. It builds on the strengths of the original without straying into dangerous innovation. This will be welcomed or derided depending on your hopes.

The longevity and competitive success of the game remains to be seen, and will in the author's opinion depend on whether the more subtle gameplay changes breathes significant life into the game. Those who have fallen in love with the squad-based architecture of some modern RTS games may find the ability to select 255 zerglings a poor substitute.

The game plays well and is as expected extremely well polished. It is almost assuredly a worthy successor to the original classic, and I'll be parting with my hard-earned without hesitation.