A General Look

You'll be seeing more low-tech units than an armada of Battleships in the current multi-player beta.

After much begging and pleading, GameAxis managed to secure an invite to the early multi-player beta of the upcoming Starcraft 2 that was released last February. After tinkering around practicing against the A.I, we brave into the wilderness of competitive multi-player and emerge scathed with bruises and broken pride. Apparently having one of the cushiest jobs in the gaming industry does not automatically make you a pro in resource-management and Actions Per Minute clicking skills.

But I digress; we came looking for info and have a hands-on, and deliver it to you loyal readers we shall. If you remember your RTS training from Starcraft 1, you’ll fit right in with the controls of Starcraft 2. Hotkeys for building specific structures and units are more or less the same, and switching views is like how it was before. The new Battle.net interface and hub look sleek and polished. Searching for players is as easy as just creating/joining a match. Though I had to wait for about 5 minutes for a Free For All, 1v1 matches are made quicker than getting backstabbed by Kerrigan.

The graphics, well, look nice. We’re not talking mind-blowing “Uncharted 2″ here, but it’s colorful and serviceable. Odds are, pro players will turn down the details for a better frame rate, but the details on each of the units and their portraits add character to their respective factions. From the way they move and behave to their sleek and standout design of each of the units, getting a huge army amassed and causing structural damage while watching the fireworks and explosions never looked more epic.

Even in its beta stage (balancing issues and whatnot), Starcraft 2 seems pretty much done. Blizzard is still mum about its official release, but all signs point to the game being a worthy heir to its predecessor. True, it hasn’t reinvented the wheel too much, but does it need to?

This Land Is My Land

Before doing a breakdown on the new units for each faction, let’s take a look at the battlegrounds you’ll be conducting your sieges on online. In addition to the normal maps, we have new Novice versions of maps that have added terrain and barricades so that really early rushdowns are stalled exponentially. With that said, let’s take a look at the most popular maps at this time of writing. Think of this as a guide to prep you RTS fans out there for the next wave of invites of the beta:

Kulas Ravine

The Kulas Ravine is a four-player symmetrical map with a lot of high ground to navigate around and narrow passages for players to create choke points at. While one entrance point of a starting site is exposed, there’s a high ground site with extra minerals blocked off by destructible rocks. Xel ‘Naga watchtowers are located at the centre, and the north and bottom parts of the high ground points (the ones that look like two battleship-shaped platforms pointing away from each other) are blocked by destructible rocks

If you’re quick, you can create another entry point of your own at the north and bottom parts. I emphasize on the word “quick” because logically you’ll be destroying the nearby barricades with the extra minerals first, and that can take a short while.

Don’t forget about the west and east gold minerals you can use as expansion mid-game, though I suspect that in a four-player game, one player will wait out until he or she comes across two opponents fighting over the gold minerals spot, then strike at the unwary fools.

Blistering Sands

The epicentre of conflict.

Another commonly-played  two-player map in the current closed beta, each of the starting bases will have a back door guarded by highly-armored rocks in addition to a narrow entrance (which players will quickly build choke points upon). The blocked path is a much more direct path for enemies to attack, though a player with rushdown in mind would just take the tinier entrance. As long as you monitor both entrance points, you’ll be safe constructing your units and base.

There will be two watchtowers at the centre. It’s highly recommended that you place a unit or two to turn them on so that you can cover more ground. The centre part is filled with a lot of high ground; perfect for ambushing enemies with ranged attacks.

If you want to take a huge risk, you can go to either the northwest or southeast side of the map to harvest gold minerals for more resources. When you get your opponent distracted, just send a SCV/Drone/Probe or two (cloak them if possible) and mine away in secrecy. Though if you focus on being practical, you should just go to the closer mineral cache (slightly north from the southwest base, and slightly south from the northeast base)

On my end, I manage to scrap a victory by pushing out five Reapers as fast as I can and send them to the centre of their base (between the barricaded entrance and the narrow entry point), under the assumption that the Protoss opponent I’m facing blocked his lone entry point with warp gates and gateways. This is one tactic players should be wary of in their games.

Steppes Of War

This lush two-player map’s kind of being used, but not as frequent as the other two. I did manage to get a match or two started here. Being that it’s small and compact, players are expected to be aggressive with rushdown tactics. Since there are two entry points (one is where a player starts, while the other is barricaded with rocks and has extra minerals) you can safely create two expansions and defend them from the path of origin. From the barricaded site, there’s another entry point leading up to a Xel’Naga watchtower which you can activate.

As the gold mineral spot can be easily accessed (specifically northwest and southeast), players should at least have a fast-moving unit or two check out those spots before doing an all-out rush. Chances are, your opponents might have placed a base on the spot mid-game.

Just remember that if you’re not planning to rush on this constricted map, be prepared for one. If the first wave of rushing is defeated, both players can opt to go defensive thanks to the aforementioned connection of the two entry points.

Scrap Station

While not getting a lot of receptions when compared with the first two maps on this list, that’s not to say that this outer space map has a few tricks of its own. There’s a nice point on the northeast, northwest, and southeast part of the map that the Protoss Stalkers can Blink to, meaning that it’s a nice ambush point.

As a Terran, provided that you have ample time to construct another Command Centre, you can lift it off to said ambush points. Just make sure to have a Missile Tower or two ready, as in that amount of time to create a second Command Centre, your opponents would have created an air unit or two. Scrap Station also has spots where grey gas sprays around the area; you can use this to hide your non-cloaked/non-burrowing units if you’re planning the low-tech rush route.

That’s all for the current maps mostly used in multi-player. Stick around later as we talk about new units. If you have any other tactics we’ve missed and yet to try out, do point them out either at the comments or on the boards.