LIVE from Blizzcon: Starcraft 2 Single Player Impressions

Blizzard VP Rob Pardo takes GamePro on a tour of Starcraft 2's single-player campaign at Blizzcon 07.

All of Blizzard's RTS games have followed more or less the same formula as far as their single-player campaigns are concerned: you'll progress through a series of linear missions, unlocking new factions' campaigns as previous ones are completed. Well, expect that formula to shift dramatically with Starcraft 2. As demonstrated today at Blizzcon 2007, the new system seems like it will engender a much more serious feeling of investment from players by means of its not-quite-linear structure, and the amount of choice it grants them. Forget all about briefing screens and voice-acted mission descriptions. In Starcraft 2, it will be all about honest interaction. Today's demo took place within a Terran battlecruiser, with Blizzard's Vice President Rob Pardo directly controlling well-known Starcraft personage Jim Raynor through ship's decks. Apparently, you'll there will be plenty to do outside of the game's RTS battles; indeed, much of the game revolves around your interactions with ship's crew, as well as its various systems. You'll buy access to units, for example, from the engineering deck's technology console, and you'll travel through the game's universe by means of a star map.

Money will be earned by completing missions, which you can spend to increase the size of your army, or to gain access to new technologies. The former are expendable, but any technologies you research will remain with you throughout the entire campaign. All of this only applies, of course, to the single-player campaign; skirmish matches will adhere to the same rules you'd expect them to.

One interesting question: is it possible that some of these elements will find their way into the game's multiplayer elements? It certainly would be cool if there were a mode of the game on Battle.net that incorporated some of the cool ideas from the single-player campaign, and applied them to some sort of persistent environment. Think Shattered Galaxy meets Starcraft. Blizzard has said that they have some tricks up their sleeves in regards to how the Battle.net will factor into the game. Perhaps this is something that shouldn't be ruled out completely.

In any event, the brief taste we got for the Terran campaign was both surprising, and enticing. Personally, I can't wait to see the Protoss and Zerg equivalents.

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GasTankKiller

I lost hours and hours to the first game. I like StarCraft but its been a long time since I have played games on my PC. I wish they would have come out with this game like I don't know a few years ago. I may just have to wait until GTA4 gets old before I pick this game up.

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