Starcraft 2

Stand back for the mighty Terra-tron. In Starcraft 2, the whole Terran base comes together at the hour of need in order to create the uber unit – Terra-tron.

See Blizzard’s April Fool’s joke for 2008 – Tauren Marine.

In the latest BlizzCast (#6), Bashiok goes through a bag of questions from Starcraft fans. One of the more interesting one concerns the role of the anti-armor units in Starcraft 2.

Bashiok: Cool. The next question comes from gamer-source.com. With the all the anti-armored units like the marauder and the hydralisk – is this meant to counter the end game units? And also what role do you think end game units will play on the battlefield?

Dustin Browder: I’m not really sure what an end game unit is, I guess it would be like a battlecruiser or a carrier or a thor or ultralisk, I guess it’s what we’re talking about here. But the hydralisk has always been anti-armor, even in the original Starcraft had a strong anti-armor role.

The marauder of course gives the Terrans some additional anti-armor capability from the barracks which we felt was very important since we moved the ghost back so far allowing the ghost to fulfill more of a core role on the battlefield for the Terrans. We didn’t think that the ghost made a lot of sense as fundamentally anti-armor with his sniper rifle. If he’s going to be anti biological and sort of taking head shots and taking out individual targets then we really needed the Terrans to have some way to deal with stalkers and immortals and to a lesser extent siege tanks and roaches. So that’s really what the marauder is pointed at, the marauder is pointed more at stalkers and roaches and you’ll see marauders used in that role. They also can tear apart a colossus or thor which is an added advantage for the Terrans from the barracks again.

If you think the billions that Blizzard makes on the back of World of Warcraft have made them less greedy, think again.

They have just announced (at Blizzcon 2008) that Starcraft 2 will not be a single game but in fact a TRILOGY. There will be three separate campaigns: the Terrain will come out first, followed by Zerg and Protoss.

Tell you what – I never cared for single player. I want a game that will allow me to choose a race and fight human opponents. It looks like I’ll have to buy three games – each will probably be around $40, so that’s over $100!

This is the panel discussion regarding Stracraft 2 gameplay at the WWI in Paris (where Diablo 3 was announced). The video is a bit long but worth it!

There’s still nothing on Starcraft’s release date though – I hope it’s early 2009!

The Terran are desparate! They’ve recruited Tauren to replace dead Marines.

Now, I admit this has to be an APRIL FOOL’s unit. It’s awesome though, just check the gameplay video below:

The only downside is… Blizzard have forgotten about Diablo 3!

Starcraft2.com has come out with a Terran gameplay video. The whole thing is about 600MB but it’s worth it because it’s HD (1280×720). You can download it here.

Here’s a low-res version to keep you occupied while you wait:

This is the follow-up to the Protoss tech tree that was exhibited at Blizzcon. Text comes from Gamespot.

Of course, basic units like the marine and the medic are back, though you’ll immediately notice the firebat is missing. Other units haven’t been completely removed so much as replaced by new, improved versions. The old goliath mech has given way to the new viking, which acts just like a goliath–until you research and enable its transformation ability, which turns it into a jet that can get it across otherwise impassable barriers. Another unit which has no respect for variable elevation is the reaper, which you hire from a bar with a female night elf dancing on top of it. These mercenaries build almost instantly, since you’re just hiring them instead of training them, and in addition to being able to jump up and down to higher and lower terrain, it can now throw a timed bomb and escape the area before it explodes. We saw a large group of these reapers all throw out bombs at the same time to do massive damage to an enemy base before beating a hasty retreat.

The terrans have quite a bit of air support in Starcraft II, at least as it stands right now. The predator is a new flyer that can only attack other aerial units, but it can also take on an intercept mode where it will attempt to shoot down incoming enemy fire (presumably things like missiles). Everyone’s favorite the battlecruiser is here again, but this time it won’t simply default to the incredibly powerful, single-shot Yamato cannon like it did in the first game. Sure, the Yamato is still here, but this time you’ll get to choose how to specialize each individual cruiser, between the Yamato and the new plasma turrets. The latter will produce a flurried cluster of beams that can decimate ground units, from what we saw of them.

Blizzcon first day is over but not before the Terran marines get their much awaited debut.

Personally, I’m not a Terran player. I’ve played Protoss for years and later switched to Zerg (to counter arguments that the Protoss were the “twinky”-est race of the three!). However, let me tell you – I’d love to sink my teeth into some prime Marine ribs. I meant if I were a zergling.

OK, besides the Marines, we have the whole Terran infantry marching: Marines, Reapers, and Ghosts. In the screenshot above there’s even the first infantry support vehicle – the Viking THOR. It’s an improvement of the Goliath (much needed one) and has a much more MECH feel to it.

Compared to the review of the Protoss units, the details are still a bit sketchy with things very much being subject to change. Nevertheless, I’ll try to review each of the new Terran units separately.