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No Surprises, All StarCraft
By Benjamin J. de la Durantaye,
Managing Editor, Community Sites

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Blizzard’s big announcement this month was that StarCraft II would not be released as a single game, but rather 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.

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.

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.

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