Zerg Rush! Blizzard finally announces StarCraft 2

Everyone expected it, but it's been confirmed at last: Blizzard has announced that it has started work on the heavily-awaited RTS sequel StarCraft 2.

By Eugene Huang

What has been speculation for the better part of the last month or so has now become fact. Blizzard, during its Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, Korea last weekend, announced the development of StarCraft 2, the long-awaited sequel of one of the most popular real-time strategy games of all time.

Although GamePro had previously reported Blizzard's intent to announce a new title during the event, speculation over Blizzard's plans ranged from an MMORPG based on the StarCraft universe to a porting of the immensely successful World of Warcraft series to next-gen consoles. Neither turned out to be the case, as Blizzard rolled out the big guns by announcing the return of the beloved StarCraft races, Terran, Protoss, and Zerg, in all of their strategic and balanced glory.

Following the announcement, Blizzard launched their StarCraft 2 promotional site at www.starcraft2.com, which has leaked only limited information pertaining to the game so far, but has specific details regarding some of the new units and structures that will be available to Protoss forces. In addition to the stalwart zealots that will once again bear the brunt of the Protoss' gruntwork, the site has announced a handful of new units, including the Immortals (upgraded Dragoon units), Stalkers (Dark Templar equivalents of Dragoons), and Phase Prisms. Resembling upgraded Arbiters, these new Phase Prisms serve two purposes. The first is the ability to instantaneously teleport Protoss units when used in conjunction with a Warp Gate. The second is to act as a temporary power source to surrounding Protoss structures in the absence of a Pylon or Nexus.

Although the site is bare at the moment, Blizzard plans to update it in the near future to report on the changes made to both the Terran and Zerg races. Although it had been rumored that a fourth race, based on an amalgamation of both Terran and Zerg, would be introduced to the game, nothing has been revealed at this point. Due to the game's early stage of development, Blizzard has also remained tight-lipped about several of the other game's details, such as release date, system requirements, and the possibility of a beta test. However, the company has confirmed that, while the Battle.net service will be updated to accomodate this new game, servers for the original StarCraft will not be affected, despite previous rumors claiming that the original servers would be shut down to motivate gamers to buy the sequel.

As the game is still an early work-in-progress, GamePro pledges to take you through the game's development by offering you more information as it becomes available.

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