The anticipation for Starcraft II has grown immensely this month, with the news that the upcoming single-player campaign is going to be split into three separate products.

“The original game was three campaigns with one story, and we tried to make them as in depth as possible,” says Samwise Didier, Blizzard’s art director. “With this one we’re trying to push it even more. We started off doing three campaigns, but the farther along we got, the more we saw ourselves trying to chop back on some things in the Terran campaign to make sure we had time to work on those for the Zerg and Protoss. We had a team vote and decided to do it right instead of cramming it all into one game and losing lots of cool ideas.”

Just to give you an idea of the scale, the Terran campaign map consists of 23 planets, and although the exact number is unknown, each will have multiple missions. With two more full campaigns to come over the following two years we’re looking at over 60 planets to explore.

This time round the developers are focusing on the single player experience, making it more in-depth and involved.

“It’s not only a linear campaign where you just go down a straight line,” Didier notes. “You can choose your path of adventure, and we have a whole cast of characters for you check out; some new, some old.”

Decisions were made to keep classic units like the space marine and siege tank for example, however the medic was cut out, amongst others in order to make room for new additions.

“People don’t want to buy Starcraft II and have it be the exact same game. Its 10 years in the future here, and we want to make something new,” Didier says.

Thanks to the new 3D engine, characters have a much wider breadth of animations and you can zoom in, out and round the levels. In addition, a big leap forward has been the introduction of in-game cinematics. Also adding to the immersion, you’ll find yourself becoming more attached to the characters and also get to interact with their world in new ways.

But don’t despair, although single-player is getting a big workout, the team hasn’t forgone the multiplayer experience.

“We’re really trying to keep what made Starcraft cool - great multiplayer, great story, which is evolving it to be a little bit more in depth, and a bit more immersive experience,” Didier enthuses.

Still a challenging RTS, the game isn’t kind on its players, yet its accessibility means everyone can give it a go. Controls are simplistic in that you just need to use a mouse and once you get to grips with the tech tree and gameplay tactics it’s a matter of jumping in and surviving! Sure, if you want to be a master you’ll need to spend a lot of time playing and mastering techniques, however Blizzard’s got the balance right as those new to the game can jump straight in.

Release may well be way off yet, but the excitement for this game is already ramping up. With gamers queuing for hours to experience the game at Blizzcon, the reception has been great.  Asking Didier how he felt the game was coming along, he told us this.

“Multiplayer is really solid, we’re not in our beta yet, that’s coming soon. What we’re focussing on now is single player and getting it as cool as we want it to be. It’s coming along really nice, we had some demos in the main hall, and everyone seemed to really be into it. It’s definitely a different direction for an RTS, to have an adventure game within it,” he concludes.

Info box
Name – Starcraft II
Publisher – Activision Blizzard
Developer – Blizzard Entertainment
Heritage – The Diablo and Warcraft Series’ of games
Website – http://www.starcraft2.com/
ETA – Wings of Liberty – Terran campaign – ‘09
    Heart of Swarm  - Zerg campaign – ‘10
    Legacy of the Void – Protoss campaign – ‘11

Verdict box

Percentage complete – 75/80%
First impressions – 85%

A hardcore game on a much bigger scale, this may even take E-Sports to a new, higher level…