The StarCraft II Beta Report

Here's what Blizzard had waiting for us: a specially made, no-frills build of the multiplayer game as it currently stands, with all the units and balance for all three of the game's factions included. That means we could tech all the way up to the craziest units in the game, like the Protoss' one-off mothership--assuming we could survive that long, that is. That's another way StarCraft II reminded me of the first game: a lot of the matches I played were decided in the early game, with basic tier-one units like zealots, zerglings, stalkers, marines, hydralisks, and banelings deciding the important conflicts. Yes, the zergling rush is live and well here, at least till you figure out how to counter it.

Having not played StarCraft seriously in almost a decade, and having always been pretty lousy at it in a competitive sense, I can at least tell you that playing StarCraft II feels a little like riding a bicycle for the first time in a while. Your Zerg hatchery still spawns three larvae at a time that you can turn into drones (which turn into buildings) or combat units. Protoss bases still need to be built within pylons' spheres of influence. You can still get into a lot of shenanigans by lifting off Terran buildings and making them fly around. Using workers for scouting is still a good idea. Ditto blocking choke points with farms. This stuff will come right back to you, and luckily it's all still important and useful.

Rather than getting the barest sampling of all three races in the time I had, I decided to spend almost all afternoon focusing on the Protoss, and I got at least a basic grasp of what they're like by the time I had to relinquish the mouse. Zealots are even burlier than they used to be, especially with the dash upgrade that lets them launch at nearby enemies and cover lots of ground quickly. The stalker and immortal provide a good one-two punch of ranged offense against air and ground, respectively. My favorite thing about the Protoss, though, was researching Gateways into Warp Gates, which lose the ability to queue up units but instead let you almost instantly warp any Gateway unit into any area on the map where you have a pylon. The warp-in is on a short cooldown, so if you have the cash and build say, eight Warp Gates at once, you can pump eight new units onto the battlefield every 15 or 20 seconds. This proved to be an unstoppable strategy against other press members who were still trying to learn the game's ropes.

All the zealots and stalkers in the world didn't save me, however, when I went up against a Zerg player who actually took the time and effort to ascend up the tech tree and intelligently counter my throngs of simpler units. Like I said, not that good at StarCraft.

At least I got a good sense of what high-level StarCraft II play is going to be like while watching lead designer Dustin Browder commentate a few matches between members of the balance team, who are so good at the game already I got a little dizzy watching them play. The game may still be about making bigger and better armies than the other guy, but all the units in the world won't save you when you're up against opponents who have such an intimate grasp of the finer strategies and counters. The balance is of course subject to change; Browder offhandedly commented at one point about not liking the way resources are reallocated when you cancel a building's construction, indicating that Blizzard will be tweaking plenty of variables as the impending beta progresses towards the game's release, which the company is hoping will happen this year.

Speaking of the beta, let's talk about what Blizzard didn't have ready for us when the press came to visit. There were no announcements about the beta: no talk about how many players will be invited, how long it will last, or, most importantly, when it will start. We also didn't get a single look at any of the features in the revamped Battle.net, though at least Blizzard is saying the matchmaking will be more accurate in terms of skill level than any of its previous RTSs. And don't even ask what's going on with the single-player campaign, which the team is still polishing and refining before it's comfortable letting anyone outside the company get near it. We had expected some or all of these features to be on display during the visit, and while it's disappointing that none of the remaining big questions about the game were answered, getting to play for an afternoon was an acceptable consolation prize.

In lieu of the new Battle.net, we at least got a quick look at StarCraft II's slightly insane statistics reporting, which seems geared toward the hardcore competitive community but looks like it will give players of any skill level a lot of ways to improve their game. After a match is over, you'll be presented with a dizzying array of stats and metrics, showing you everything from your per-unit army size to your unspent money and the number of workers you built. You can get a timestamped timeline of your entire build order, and the game will rate your combat efficiency--that is, the number of units you made versus the number that were killed. There are line graphs all over the place breaking down exactly what happened, when, and by whom. People are going to study this stuff endlessly.

That ludicrous attention to detail extends to match replays, too, which now have VCR-like controls that let you pause and fast forward recorded matches. You can even scrub through quickly with a slider, as if the match were a video. Observers can also join live matches and get an impressive amount of data and control. You can view real-time displays of each player's production rate, current tech researched, army size, and even how fast they're clicking. And now you can set your camera to mimic a specific player's perspective, so you can see just how jumpy and frenetic the camera gets as they hit their hotkeys at a zillion miles an hour.

As much as StarCraft II plays like StarCraft, it sure as heck looks and sounds like StarCraft, too. The art style is unmistakable, so the real visual improvements are in the fine details, like the way Protoss buildings implode in a storm of blue psionic energy when you destroy them, or how Zerg buildings start out as a roiling translucent cyst undulating on the creep with a tadpole-like larva darting around inside. The maps also have random weather effects built in now; I saw a rain and lightning storm start up during one match that looked nice. Most of the unit voice samples and music seem to be included now, as well, and it all sounds entirely appropriate to the three factions based on what was included in the first game. Also, I'm pretty sure Blizzard hired the same guy who did Col. Campbell in Metal Gear Solid to do the announcing for the Protoss, so I kept hearing this voice saying "You must construct additional pylons... SNAAAAAAAAAAKE!" all afternoon. It was really weird.

OK, yes, StarCraft II is very clearly the sequel to StarCraft, but it's a sequel that Blizzard seems to have made with a decade's worth of lessons and experience under its belt. To be fair, when you're building on one of the best games ever made, you don't exactly need to go and reinvent the wheel, which is why I'm not complaining that this sequel essentially looks to be a very pretty 3D version of StarCraft with a ton of new units, features, and balance thrown in. I've seen enough to know I'm most definitely going to play this; the only information I really require from Blizzard now is when we'll get to do that.

You could pass a few minutes of the wait watching me grill Mr. Browder about the beta, matchmaking, and how custom games like DOTA will work.

    
 
Blizzard also tossed out a bunch of new media for the game, including screenshots.


Here's a bunch of units and buildings and stuff.


Lastly, we've got the current tech trees for all your obsessively nerdy needs.