BlizzCon: SC2 is amazing!

GosuGamers Head Administrator Jonathan "Mazor" Littke was invited to play the game. We get to know that many things are the same, and that it has a Starcraftish feel to it. Read on for this exclusive round-up on StarCraft 2!

The game really is amazing. It has a very strong Starcraftish feel to it, and at the same time it is totally new and fresh. It looks impressive and, most importantly, it is extremely fun.

Played a 2on2 tournament - lost to Manifesto and Meat

We came there when BlizzCon was still being set up but the StarCraft 2 computers were up and running. All the representatives of the fan sites (14ish or so) got to play and together with Karune and Stephanie from Blizzard, we quickly started up a 2on2 tournament. I was playing with LordofAscension and we got beaten by Manifesto and Liquid`Meat the first game. Suprise?

All the players of the three tournaments (SC1, WC3, WoW) were there gaming too, I saw Grubby + Cassandra facing Tasteless and Testie in a long game that ended in favor of the couple (I believe at least).

Anyway, I will stop beating about the bush and get down to the juicy details of the game.

The same hotkeys on basically everything

I will say again: the game is amazing! I loved it from the very first second. I started out playing the Terran campaign. There was a stable and strong Starcraftish feel to it and I got comfortable immediately. The same pattern of building with SCVs, (Normal/Advance buildings) and the very same hotkeys for basically everything. Things were really looking similar - everything from three SCVs on the gas to Supply deports (supply is now called 'food') and barracks, the factory, starport, academy, engineering bay, it's all there.

Salvage - sell your Terran buildings

Of course there are new things too, though, such as a sell-function on the Terran buildings, called 'Salvage'. It takes you some time but after initiated, the building will sell and refund to a 100% and simply be removed. This offers the potential for many new and exciting tactics. One, for example, is a bunker rush/push which can push by building/selling, building/selling offensively. We discussed that very issue with Dustin and I mentioned that it was dangerous if it came to look like the famous previously imbalanced Tower rush in WC3 by Orc, but he said that he was aware and they're looking into whether or not to keep the Salvage function.

Other differences were some of the new units, which you've seen several of, the new tank (very beautiful), StarPort's ability to upgrade and become a flying StarPort (with a new name that I've forgotten) and the ablitiy to produce untis while actually lifted off and moving.

In the current balance it seemed Terran was just a little too weak against the Toss (the two available races in the pre-alpha or whatever stage it is in now) as they had to rely on their tanks a lot, but those things will change too.

As for Protoss there's a new unit called the Statis Orb I believe, who slows the opponent's units. The Carrier is also back in the game with Interceptors, and the Tempest is removed. Colossus (picture) and all the other Protoss units look amazing and I'm really impressed by the look of it. It's really fun to micro and play the game with the new things but still having the old feel to it.

Ingame upgrades such as idle workers

There's some other ingame upgrades too, many from WC3 like the pinging functionality is looking a lot better and easier to use, there's an "Idle Workers" feature at the bottom left of the screen, there's also a small overview of what hotkeys you've designed to what things, there's a building timer when producing a unit (measured in seconds). The mothership, for example, takes 140 seconds to build. Max limit of unit in production is the same. Supply depots have a nice ability to be lowered so that units can cross over it, but I think that was announced earlier.

Wall-ins work to prevent Zealots only if you use SCVs with it. Otherwise they're always getting in. Zealots seem somewhat strong right now and rushing a T is very easy and marines are quite weak. I briefly tested out the medics but they didn't seem to help out too much, but then again I'm not the most skilled player around.

I was hoping to be able to at least compete with some of the pro gamers but there was no chance. I saw Creolophus, currently one of the best WC3 gamers, play, and he was extremely good and beat every Blizz employee easily. He seemed to like the game very much too.

The other GosuCrew members will be able to do more reports on the ingame features, this is just a first write up. I'm heading down to BlizzCon now for the official opening and will try to take good pictures for you guys, get interviews published, see the Panels. And oh, also, the new game is a WoW Expansion and not Diablo 3, but I guess y'all know that already since it was leaked the other day.

Once again please tell me what things you want to see more of and I'll get right to it. Also feel free to read » my blog post from the first day (I know this news post was kind of bloggish too but there were just so many details, I'm sure the Editorial Staff will help me to edit it up and polish with headlines and pictures).

Links
GosuGamers.net - Mazor blogs about the first day