PLATFORMS: PC AND MACINTOSH
GENRE: REAL-TIME STRATEGY
PC Recommended Specifications:
- Windows Vista®/Windows® 7
- Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
- 2 GB RAM
- 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better .
Mac Recommended Specifications:
- Intel® Core 2 Duo processor
- 4 GB system RAM
- NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT or ATI Radeon® HD 4670 or better
In StarCraft II, it's still the Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss clashing against each other, and you're still mining minerals with SCVs, Drones, and Probes and pulling Vespene Gas from the ground to fuel production. It's a classic style of real-time strategy play, one old-school RTS gamers should be very familiar with. Compared to the changes Blizzard made between the traditional gameplay of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and the hero-based leveling elements of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, StarCraft II feels like a relatively safe play; a game designed to slide in and discreetly supplant its predecessor instead of ruffle the feathers of longtime StarCraft devotees and risk rejection. While it's not a revolutionary game, it is one of the most fully featured, expertly designed, and impressively refined real-time strategy experiences on the market. Having units that can move between different levels of terrain adds a ton of tactical options that make multiplayer games more dramatic. This can be especially brutal in a skilled Terran player's hand that manages to get a group of Reapers together and uses their jump jets to vault past an opponent's defenses and directly assault their resource gatherers to disrupt economic production. If the player's micromanagement skills are good enough, it's then possible to direct the fast-moving Reapers away from defenders, then hold off just long enough to fire a volley of shots, pecking away at pursuers as they themselves stay out of harm's way. For those playing against Protoss, there's perhaps no feeling more disheartening than establishing a huge army and setting up elaborate defenses only to have a giant group of Colossi waltz up a cliff at the unprotected back of your base and incinerate all that's been built with their devastating twin lasers. For whichever strategy you come to think is best in StarCraft II, there's a counter. It's just a matter of who can scout and react the fastest to changing conditions. Blizzard wasn't trying to do anything drastically different with StarCraft II. Much of the core gameplay of the original has been preserved, yet with plenty of tweaks, additional units and new abilities for veteran players to toy with and devise new approaches to competitive battles. Anyone intimidated by the notion of playing against live opponents will find a lot to enjoy, with a fantastically presented single-player campaign featuring impressively varied mission design supported by a memorable, though often cheesy, cast of characters. Then, if you're feeling courageous, the notion of venturing online is made more appealing by battle.net's automated ranking system that frequently matches you up with opponents of similar skill level. It's not a step forward for the genre, exactly, but StarCraft II is still one of the most polished, finely crafted and well presented real-time strategy games available.
