Finally, the news i’ve been waiting for many years now… StarCraft II is officially announced. This one’s shocking. Naturally Blizzard has not announced an official debut date yet, but some sites (unofficially) claim that the game will come out on the 20th of November.
I’ve seen the images, i’ve seen the trailer movie, and all i can say is that just as WarCraft III, or rather say, just as all Blizzard strategies as of yet reformed the RTS genre, StarCraft II will also follow that path and become a game everyone knows about, in the matter of seconds after it’s debut.
On the game’s IGN page, one can find 30 high quality pictures and a three minute long (!) video of the game, and a report from the scene. How to say, it’s… well, to quote Monty Python, “it’s…” Or if you want me to continue the sentence so badly: it’s perfect. A new, 3D graphics engine displays the game. Everyone knows, that i’m not very sensitive about the graphics of a game, but this one really rocks. I couldn’t say anything bad about it. The explosions, the battles, the units, the nukes, everything is designed in the quality expected from Blizzard.
There are also new units in the game, in addition to the good old ones everyone knows well. On the Protoss side, for example, Carriers and Corsairs (if they will be still present) welcome their new brother, the Warp Ray, which will most probably become one of the most used fighter ships alongside Scout (which may be replaced by the Phoenix) and the above mentioned two. There is also a new, huge flying unit for the Protoss, most probably named the Mothership. The Phase Prism is able to enpower units and buildings just as Pylons and transporting and/or teleporting units. New addition to the ground force will be the Immortals, who seem to be a worthy companion to the Zealots and Archons. The warping sequence also looks dead good, as the Protoss “construct” their buildings.
Naturally the Zerg and the Terran has new units too, but my all-time favourites were the Protoss. The Zerg swarm is also designed very well, it’s simply shocking as they are… umm… swarming all around the place with all their fangs and other “built-in accessories”. It seems their countless numbers will become an useful weapon once again.
The battlefields will be just as varied as in the first game, but due to the development of the graphic engine, they look loads more like they were real places (i intentionally didn’t use the “realistic” word, since how long can something remain realistic with Zerg on the screen?): it’s enough to look at the orbital battle on the images i linked in.
To sum it up once (but not “and for all”): i can’t wait to get my hands on this game.
Edit 11:13
Since then, the official site is up, with loads of info. Check it out. The artworks rock too.
Edit 13:35
There is a new video.
