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Starcraft 2: A first look at Starcraft II

By: Mark Cheben - Published May 19, 2007 at 10:48 PM EDT - Writer Archive
GotFrag Editor in Chief Mark Cheben is in Korea for the Blizzard World Wide Invitational Tournament and was able to get an advance look at Starcraft II. Cheben breaks down the units shown in the advance look.


Seoul, South Korea - The long wait is over, Starcraft 2 has been announced and will be on hard drives around the world sooner rather than later.

While everyone has had a glimpse at the promotional material, let me breakdown the units that appeared in Blizzard's presentation. The following units were mentioned and let me describe what they do for you. The majority of the units were of the protoss race, with only one new Terran and Zerg unit mentioned.

immortals attacking siege tanks
Immortals
These are the protoss' tank busters. They are equipped with a shield that is activated when they take massive amounts of damage from a single target (ie. a siege tank). The Immortals are the answer to the rain of fire created by terran heavy artillery but are vulnerable to lighter infantry such as the new Terran unit, the Ravager, a dual pistol wielding jump pack trooper.

Stalker (Dark Dragoon)
These units look very similar to the original Dragoons from Starcraft. However, their back story and special abilities differ from the originals. The largest change is their "blink" ability that allows them to bypass difficult terrain and quickly close on slow moving units.

Phase Prism
A Protoss transport and portable pylon. In the case that a Pylon is destroyed, the Phase Prisim can power Protoss buildings and keep the base functioning. In addition, within the power field, a Protoss player can instantly create units. A very cool unit, and opens up a myriad of stategic options for a skilled player.
colossus units attacking a terran base


Collossus
Think war of the worlds meets Starcraft. These giant walkers have the ability to step down cliffs and shoot a ray that sweeps across waves of enemies. In the demonstration video the Collossus units are shown trying to stop a mass of zerglings.

warp rays and phoenix aircraft
Phoenix
A flying unit which specializes in air to air combat. Great versus weaker units like mutalisks and wraiths, but fares poorly against battleships (as was seen in the demo).

Warp Ray
When the Phoenix craft were destroyed by the Battleships, in came the Warp Rays. They fire a concentrated beam designed to take out very powerful units, like the Battleship. In addition their strong rays excel at taking down buildings. The downside? Their weapons are so powerful that they cannot deal with large groups of weaker troops like marines.

mothership using planet cracker
Protoss Mothership
A protoss superweapon. This unit will break the bank but has some insane special abilities.
+ Time Shield: slows time and prevents the ship being attacked. In the demo turrets were shooting missles at the mothership only to be frozen in midair. Once the shield was deactivated the missles fell harmlessly to the ground.
+ Planet Cracker: Devestates ground units, think Independence Day. This power was used to take out several waves of terran troops in the demo, simply by flying over them.
+ Black Hole: Sucks in enemy air units, extremely powerful. In the demonstration this power took out multiple battleships and wraiths.

Ravager
Dual pistol weilding jump pack troops. They were used in the demo to take out Immortals because of their "light damage." Also, Ravagers are able to bypass difficult terrain and make for excellent base raiders because of their speed.

Bilings
Suicide troops that mutate from zerglings. Similar to the fanatics from Command and Conquer these units sacrifice themselves in order to take out the enemy. Beyond this very little of the zerg race was shown in the demonstration.

User Comments

1
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COOL!!!
2
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its gonna be sweet
#soulfriends
3
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seems like the protoss benefit the most? :S
She calls me her doughnut. I call her my glazing.
4
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It doesn't look like like sc anymore but still looks way fun.
-Chadillac
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#4

How so? Looks like it to me.
#afterwind all day
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#3

That's just what was announced the first 12 hours. We got a couple years worth of announcements to go through.
#afterwind all day
7
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It's like the CS:S of SC. Can't wait for the game, but we'll see if it's just as good as the original.
8
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looks simple.

looks win.
9
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I wanna buy it already
10
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going to be the best game ever
do drugs kids
11
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#7 You mean far superior graphically with minimal changes to the origional with the exception of a physics engine? Yes, I agree.
Marky "atdt" Ochoa, Head of World of Warcraft, Fnatic.com
12
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unlike cs, starcraft needs change, not drastic, but new units and playstyles yes.
if you watch and sc matches, the strategy and gameplay are perfect but theres absolutely no variation, almost every player runs the same build order and end goal as far as units.
13
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Oh man it looks good
14
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maybe ill actually learn to play the regular game this time unstead of playing only UMS games
15
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FINALLY :-D
16
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not likin the looks of this
You'll live, only the best get killed
17
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nice
18
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#14 Like DOTA?

I hope they transfer DOTA to sc2 that would rock. A lot.
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"Hell, It's about time." -Blizzard.com
the post below me is a lie
20
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looks impressive, but i believe it will be different from SC1...i will miss sc1 interface :(
peace.
21
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Oh man, looks explosive.
I loved the first starcraft and im gonna love this :)
22
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wow imma get back into SC once this comes out
23
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I've never played SC before, but I think I'm gonna go out and buy SC1 and understand the game
24
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Oh man, those screen shots make this game look bad ass. Wonder if it's going to play like the old Starcraft or have heroes like Warcraft 3.
25
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I'm feeling like #16, I'm not so sure about this. New units and all this other stuff seems to replace the reason why Starcraft was so good in the first place. As long as it doesn't feel more like Warcraft than Starcraft, I'll be happy. But it seems like SC2 will not be what is "Starcraft".

I'd be fine with Brood War with updated graphics.
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yeah looks good, wondering if the graphics are really that good, after a few years of making it they should have better graphics then any other game but graphics arent that good as gameplay so
very nice
cant wait.
27
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#5 The units dont look anything alike even the buildings. I think they tried to make it like wc3 all 3D and stuff. With wc3 all the units look mostly alike from wat it used to be.

That seige tank is nothing alike from what it is now. Hopefully some of those units arent the final productions. But like I said it still looks fun other than the graphics.
-Chadillac
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gonna feel like warcraft
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looks tops can't wait :)
30
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#27 i dont see how the siege tanks look that much different. I look at these graphics and can easily see how it evolved from starcraft. The colors are the same, except its ... 3D? lol

Blizzard is not like Valve; their games always meet the expectations and still exceed them.

But where are the dark templars :(?

Reading this makes me want to play SC again :D
#team.essence
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I think theyve taken some (not necesarrily good) ideas from c&c3 and I dont like it as far as the units go.
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Interesting.
Please idle #syncline
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#14 lolol same
- get my frag on -
34
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Well, Starcraft is cool. But these graphics look straight out of 2001. Come on, Blizzard.
35
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ignore the graphics, chances are the final product will look a lot different to those pictures we see there. what we see is a Warc3 engine with starcraft art, expect a heavily modified and updated version of the Warc3 engine.

and lol @ the people saying it wont be "starcraft" well, no it wont really, but it will be starcraft re-invented, have some faith in Blizzards ability to make a great game, they know the expectation for StarCraft 2 will be high, they know they will have to make the best game ever just to meet that high expectation.

i dont think they have any intention of failing

This comment was edited at 05/20/2007 5:05 AM
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#12,
"unlike cs, starcraft needs change, not drastic, but new units and playstyles yes.
if you watch and sc matches, the strategy and gameplay are perfect but theres absolutely no variation, almost every player runs the same build order and end goal as far as units."
Starcraft has changed drastically just over the last two years. Everyone moves in styles, the professionals define everything. Boxer, Nal_Ra, savior and yellow have all changed the way everyone plays.

In Counter-Strike, for example, people will do whatever works best. If you get a 12/3 spawn PvZ on LT, you're going to 2gate zeal rush, just like if you get a B spawn T side on D2, you're going to rush B.

#34, these graphics are absolutely amazing for a demo, I don't know what you're talking about.

#Gotfrag, the Terran unit with jump jets is a Reaper.

This comment was edited at 05/20/2007 4:29 AM
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#36 wins.


Also, I have been waiting for this moment for a long time :D Looks ace and I hope the gameplay is just as good. LEt us keep in mind that Blizzard dominates the field in competitive RPG, as well as MMORPG, so you can expect good things ;)
38
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cant wait !!!!!!!!!
39
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and ppl stop saying it will be like wc3, cos it won't. Maybe only the graphics, but you won't have a hero, instead you'll have A LOT of units + their new dynamic way of building units anywhere on the map will bring the game to a whole new lvl. My opinion^^
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it brings a tear in my eyes like the good old days :D
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AWSM, next: diabloIII
42
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all ive got to say is...

Serve the Hive
I control the groove.
Serve the Hive
I control the groove.
Serve the Hive
I control the way you move.
How ya like my groove, Daggoth?

Well done.
turn it up!

and a marine demonstration with no firebats or medics...blasphemous. here's hoping that sc2 has really been in devlopment since the release of war3 as stated so we don't have to wait another 2-3 years for greatness.
43
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This game looks soooooo godly. I hope it is just as good or better than the original. I can see a lot of hype coming from this game and than the best competitive RTS game. Some people may think of this game being like the CS-CSS story but really, Blizzard has made many good sequels and I highly doubt that this one will be an exception.
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i think blizzard knows what they are doing and they have so much information out there to base their unit balancing on that i cant see anything but the best game to date being released
Alpha Team Clan Shabba Krew Gaming Royalty Syndicate Two Thousand | Pie Squadron | Face Guild
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Looks good, if it even comes close to the original it will be a great game. SC is the best game ever IMO.

I've played sc on and off for 7 years. Haven't really played it much within the last year. New units, strats, campaign, special abilities, and graphics will really spice this up. I cannot wait.
46
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awesome
Visit and register on www.idle-gaming.com
47
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Thank god they didn't make World of Starcraft. :P
48
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id play WOS :D
hell id kill to play a hydra or templar in a mmo

This comment was edited at 05/20/2007 11:12 AM

blizzard made starcraft 1 and now starcraft 2 but for counter-strike 2 people made it then for source valve made it thats why blizzard will succeed always cause its the same company with same die hard fans not split like the cs community
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protoss ftw!

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