No
Surprises, All
StarCraft
By Benjamin J. de la Durantaye,
style="font-style: italic;">
Managing Editor,
Community Sites
style="font-weight: bold;">
Blizzard’s big announcement this month was that
StarCraft II would not be released as a single game, but rather href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/46213">three
complete “epic” games; one for each of
its three
races – the Terran, the Zerg, and the Protoss. This was
pretty big news, and I was looking forward to getting my hands on the
game to try it out, even though I hadn’t been much of a
StarCraft player in the past.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/46287">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 145px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/46287">
A Zerg zerg
I approached the demo computer and I hastily selected my species. I was
no expert to the game, but having lived with several roommates years
ago who emptied their college tuition funds at the Internet
Café so they could have a nightly war in StarCraft, I knew
that it wasn’t going to matter which selection I made. I was
going to get creamed no matter what I chose, so I selected Terran. Soon enough I was in a familiar setting. The game had obviously been
updated, but it still had that same, very identifiable StarCraft feel
to it as soon as the screen loaded. I had spent enough hours watching
my friends play the original years ago, that I was very well accustomed
to the graphical style.
I noticed immediately a very familiar soundtrack playing in the
background, along with the mechanical whirrs and buzzes that were
unmistakeably StarCraft. It was like listening to the soundtrack of
Super Mario Brothers played by the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. It
was obviously the same sounds, but the auditory experience was brought
up a notch with new technology and composition.
Sound wasn’t the only thing that received an update. The
graphics, while still the same style, were much brighter, cleaner, and
interactive than the original. It seemed as if Blizzard had realized
that while it’s important to keep a franchise updated for
modern technology, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. The
result: a nice, crisp environment, with more 3-dimensional activity.
Scrolling was a bit smoother. Since the game has taken on an actual 3d
world with fully rendered models and environment, the screen scrolling
options now reacted a little more realistically. The camera zoomed in
and out slightly in response to the geographical variations of
mountains and chasms. Simply put; it felt smooth, but
‘springy.’
While fumbling with the controls a bit to try to figure out how to
build my defense against the impending army that was surely
encroaching, I scrolled my mouse wheel to see if there were any options
that I had overlooked. While there were no hidden buildings or units to
be displayed in this fashion, I was nicely surprised to see the entire
playfield scroll inwards and down so that I had a nice, close, side
view of my army and structures. This was not only unexpected, but very
much welcome. While StarCraft’s appeal has always been for
its game-play and not necessarily its graphical immersion, it was nice
for a guy like me to see things a little closer with a bit of an
“RPG” angle. I can’t imagine
this feature will be too much use in multiplayer, as it was a little
constricting, but I know I’ll be using it almost exclusively
once the game launches and I start in on the single player game.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/46276">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 150px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/46276">
New makeup
on an old gal
Apart from the graphics, sound, and new camera angles, I was unable to
see much of a difference from the first game. This isn’t a
bad thing though. StarCraft in itself has become a widely celebrated
title, and with a game like that, there’s no real need to
change it dramatically, apart from some cosmetic upgrades.
That being said, it is also entirely possible that there are new
buildings, new ships, and new types of personnel to bring to the
battlefield, but nothing obvious to a StarCraft rookie. What I can say
though is that players of the first game will feel very much at home
once they boot up StarCraft II. The interface is intuitive and
familiar. Everything looked to be where I remembered it being, and it
didn’t take me long to figure out how to start harvesting
minerals and constructing buildings.
No surprises here. The game feels and plays the same as the first. Even
though very few aspects have been changed much at all, I doubt
StarCraft fans will be crying shenanigans. After all, they did cheer
after Blizzard told them they’d be charging them three times
as much to own the trilogy.
