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Before wee actually got our hands on the game, wee sat through a short presentation by the Blizzard guys. It was brief, but it gave insight into the core philosophy behind the single-player mode of the game. Unlike the previous game, which was entirely linear, the design idea behind the campaign mode in StarCraft II is 'choose as much story as you want.'

When I asked him about how the story was designed, Andy Chambers described it as a football. There's a definite beginning and a specific end, but how you get from start to finish may vary from player to player.

What exactly does this mean? It means that the single-player experience you remember from the original StarCraft has been replaced with something much more ambitious.



Let's talk about how exactly the single-player works. After you complete your first mission, you find youself in a bar on Mar Sara looking at Jim Raynor. For the first three missions, the bar serves as your home base. You can click on Raynor (or whoever else happens to be around) to hear some dialogue and watch Raynor pound down booze; look at a bulletin board, which has a whole bunch of newspaper clippings and photos about Raynor's exploits in the past and missions you've just completed; click on various trinkets around the bar, like a giant Zerg skull, to hear Raynor tell little stories about how he acquired him; or click on your control unit to launch the next mission.

This really adds a lot of character and flair to the world. Sure, it's stuff you can ignore, but I found myself spending tons of time clicking on every single thing I could between missions, just to try to find more tidbits about Raynor's backstory. Even nicer is that Raynor will say different things after every mission, and if there are other characters in the bar with you, clicking on the news clippings will make those new characters talk and joke with Raynor about all the various stunts he's pulled in the past.

For the first few levels, you're confined to the bar on Mar Sara, but quickly you gain access to a starship, and this becomes your new home base. It's similar to the Mar Sara bar in that there are lots of things to click on, but it's much, much bigger and has way more people to talk to.



There are four main areas in the ship. The bridge is your main control point -- it's where you select your missions. If you want to play a new mission, you'll head here. If you want to replay an old mission, you'll go here too. You'll very likely be replaying old missions, since StarCraft II is going to have achievements unique to each mission. From what I saw, every individual mission will have 4 achievements tied to it -- some are completing each mission in a certain amount of time on a certain difficulty; some are completing them without losing any units; some involve getting a certain number of resources before you complete the level. There was a decent variety, and it'll be enough to motivate you to go back and replay the missions you've already done before.

Why do you need the ability to choose from new missions? Here is where the 'football-shaped story' comes in. At any given time, once you acquire the ship, you have a variety of missions to choose from -- some advance the main story, while others are more like 'side quests' you can do when you feel like it. The side quests all contain interesting story elements, but none of them are vital to the main plot.

So what's the point in doing them?

Every mission you complete gives you access to new units. Want to be able to use Marauders? You have to complete the mission that introduces firebats. You can very easily skip the mission if it's non-essential to the story, but it means you won't be using firebats at all for the entire game.

Also important is that completing the missions gives you cash. No, not minerals -- real, actual cash. Also new to StarCraft II is the ability to buy upgrades and hire mercenery units. While on your ship, you can go to the second main area: the armory. At the armory, you can buy a wide array of specific upgrades for each of your units, and in some cases even unlock buildings. Want your medics to heal more quickly? There's an upgrade for that. Want your marines to do more damage? Upgrade.



The third area in your ship is the Cantina. Here you can chat with various people on your ship, watch the latest television reports (which usually have something to say about the mission you most recently completed), and hire mercenaries.

The mercenaries function kind of like Hero Units from the Warcraft games. For a large fee, you can contract with various groups of mercenaries. Once you've contracted them, you can then use them in battle by constructing a Merc Compound and then buying them like any normal unit. You can only build each mercenary once per battle, but even if they die, they'll be available in any subsequent maps. The build that I played on had a group of four elite firebats that was particularly effective in taking out the tons of Zerg that were getting thrown at me.

The final area on the ship is the Lab. Wee were told that this was the least polished section, and that it may be in a drastically different form in the final product. The lab is basically for side quests that you'll get as you work through the game. The examples wee got to see were two collection quests -- one for Zerg eggs and one for Protoss artifacts. In many of the maps (mostly the side-quest maps), artifacts or eggs are hidden in out-of-the-way places and guarded. By collecting enough of each item, you could unlock various upgrades -- getting enough Zerg eggs allowed your scientists to better understand their biology, and let them create firebat ammo that did more damage. I liked the addition of these quests because it gave you a reason to really explore the entire map area, and rewarded you for going out of your way and not just focusing on the basic mission parameters. I was told they were still heavily involved in fleshing this idea out, so when the final product ships, don't expect to just see a bunch of collection quests.



In terms of the actual single-player level, what wee saw was a really nice collection of very differse gametypes. While the first few levels are fairly standard (mostly to introduce newcomers to the game), as soon as you get the ship, the levels become very different. Gone are the missions from the first StarCraft where you just start with a command center, build up a big base, and kill the enemy. Of the levels I got to play, one had you protecting a convoy trying to shuttle civilians to a starport while being constantly attacked by Zerg, another one had you trying to harvest crystals on a volcanic planet where lava would flood low terrain every five minutes, and there was even a very clever level where you were trying to 'borrow' an artifact from the Protoss. The catch was that Kerrigan was also trying for the artifact, and the Zerg were making a push toward it from a different area of the map. You had to sneak through the Zerg without starting a fight and kill the Protoss guardians to grab the artifact before the Zerg were able to complete their push.

My favorite level, though, was one that basically amounted to a zombie movie. You arrive on a planet to find tons of abandoned buildings, all infected, and no signs of life. You start to go exterminate the buildings, but suddenly, night falls, and all the infected Terrans come out of hiding and start attacking you. You have to set up a base and barricades and defend them at night, and then use your limited daytime to clear out all the infested buildings. In a word -- awesome.



As Chris Sigaty said in our interview, this is the full Terran story they wanted to tell. While you can blow through the game, ignore all the optional missions, and just get the core story, careful players will find all sorts of information that really flesh out the StarCraft world and, more specifically, exactly what Jim Raynor has been up to since the first game.

The upgrading system, the quest system, the ability to pick your missions, the uniqueness of each level, and the much heavier story focus should push the single-player mode of StarCraft II far past that of the original. For those of you who thought you were getting cheated by not getting all three races in one box, trust me -- the Terran single-player mode by itself has at least as much stuff to do as the original game's campaign, if not more. If you're not excited yet, you should be.

source:  http://www.destructoid.com/preview-starcraft-ii-single-player-144445.phtml#ext



Wow, I'm really liking where this is going.  Not only are they going to let you have some WC3 elements like heroes, but they are allowing RPG elements like leveling up units, and just plain a more varied experience than in SC1.  This could truly become a masterpiece.  Let's just hope Blizzard doesn't screw it up in the final parts of development.

the only downside of starcraft 2 is the removal of lan connection between more than 2 players, and you will now require to connect with the improved battlenet. ( and i think most of blizzards new game will require battlenet for multiplayer modes)

but anything else, i will purchase the final product once its out in the market

.....


Do want! NAO!!

It apparently doesn't have good LAN............


Meh! Whatever.. I want it only for single player as no chance I'll ever play this online, anyways.

Some more info that released today:

Here's an article about the use of Heroes in SC2

Quote:The military camp was filled with anticipation. Squads of marines formed near abandoned defensive structures - there won't be anyone to defend the base from after this one final push. Having spent most of the previous skirmishes crammed into the tiny bunkers, they were looking forward to the coming battle. Field factories were buzzing with activity as the last few war machines came from conveyor belts, pilots already in place, hurrying not to miss the big fight. Scouts kept a good view of the remaining Confederate buildings, some of them still burning since the last raid. Their mining operation was going strong, but it will do them little good without proper defences. Capitan Raynor himself surveyed the preparations from the seat of his custom-made hovercycle, using the last remaining minutes to further motivate his Rangers.
"This is it, boys! The Confederates' defences are broken, their production is crippled. This is gonna be a walk in the park. The planet will be ours!"
A cry of excitement filled the air. The only person who was not cheering was a young marine, fresh out of the academy, who approached Raynor's Vulture instead.
"Captain Raynor, sir!"
"Call me Jimmy," Raynor smiled. "What do you want?"
"Captain Jimmy," the young Marine's eyes stared at the ground. "Will you lead us to battle yourself?"
Raynor's smile suddenly disappeared.
"I... have to remain here. Defend the base, you know?" he replied quickly and hit the pedal. As the young marine watched the flash of ion thursters in the distance, he thought to himself, is this really the hero I used to admire? He heard a couple of veteran Firebats chatting nearby.
"Where is that Kerrigan chick anyway?"
"The ghost? I haven't even seen her since the fighting began!"


Who are these "heroes" anyway?

There are numerous "hero" units in the original StarCraft's single player campaign. A new set of sounds and a new portrait, sometimes a unique model, but usually just a different team colour, and significantly boosted stats - bang! Suddenly you're commanding a brave hero (or villain) instead of just an army of nameless soldiers. Heroes play an important role in the story and have personal stakes in the conflict. While the player may send dozens of units to certain doom without blinking an eye, it's not the same with heroes. They are your friends, fellow warriors. They might be powerful, but why risk that something bad will happen to them? Also there's the fact that their death means game over for you.

Despite their powerful stats that can help turn the tide of battle, hero units spend most of the missions hidden safely at the back of your base, far from any potential harm. To make sure that this won't be the case in StarCraft II, Blizard has introduced a couple of new features to make heroes more fun to play with. But first let's have a look at the evolution of hero units and their roles in Blizzard's earlier games.


A brief history of Blizzard heroism

Heroes were present even back in 1994 in WarCraft: Orcs & Humans, the first of Blizzard's RTS games, though they were few and far between. They debuted in "dungeon maps" that were lacking base-building. The objective was either to rescue a captured hero or to kill one belonging to the enemy.

Since you gained control of the heroes only after most of the map has been cleaned from enemy units, heroes saw little to no action and their role was thus purely to provide objective for the mission. The dungeons were populated by units not belonging to any of the race's techtrees, such as Ogres or Slimes. While these units were essentially the same thing as hero units, they eventually matured into creeps in WarCraft III.

Campaigns in WarCraft II: Tides of Blood (1995) saw more use of unique hero units (called NPC's in the editor), though they lacked their own sound sets and still served just as objectives in many cases, rather than the motivators of the whole story. Still, their presence made each mission a little more memorable. No longer were you trying to raze another random enemy village to the ground, instead you aided the legendary paladin Uther the Lightbringer in his struggle against the Orcs, or hunting the powerful warlock Gul'dan.

Even the players who would skip mission briefings (would you believe I couldn't understand English back then?) could feel that something important and epic is going on in the campaigns, thanks to the presence of hero units. The expansion set Beyond the Dark portal (1996) evolved the role of heroes further, making them stronger, giving them their own unique sounds and focusing more on their endeavours.

Hero characters rose to a greater prominence in StarCraft (1998), due to the change of narrative perspective. Mission briefings were no longer presented in the classic block-of-text style, but through dialogue of the main characters. Player was still representing a nameless Commander/Cerebrate/Executor, but was addressed directly by the characters on a few occasions.

    "Don't let him control you, Executor. The Judicator have long since steered the actions of the Templar to their own ends. It's time wee acted of our own accord."

    - Tassadar

    "You begin to annoy me, Cerebrate, but don't think that I need you. Should you become a nuisance I'll kill you myself!"

    - Kerrigan


That said, the invisible player character always stayed loyal to some in-game character. Jim Raynor, Kerrigan, Fenix and Tassadar all offered the player someone to identify with and consider them their avatar in the game.

Heroes had their distinct motivations and relations, that were felt to some degree even during gameplay. Therefore they were present in majority of missions. Out of the ten missions in the Terran campaign, only two of them lacked heroes, and in one of those - Norad II - you had to protect the downed Norad II with General Duke on board - a unique "hero" building. Sometimes the heroes had to face dangerous odds supported only by a small group of troops, most of the time, however, they were cowering at the back of your base.

Blizzard tried a different approach to heroes in WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos (2003). The whole gameplay was centred around heroes, even in multiplayer. There were no separate briefings, all story elements were moved to the Full Motion Video (FMV) sequences, cinematics made in the game engine and the actions of the player in the missions themselves.

The story was now narrated only by the characters and an invisible player-controlled commander was no longer present, allowing the player to fully identify with the heroes. These gained experience levels with each mission and thus remained the most powerful unit at the player's disposal. The amount of standard units was also reduced, to make sure heroes played a critical part in any battle. Heroes, of course, no longer needed to fear death. What used to spell defeat was now just a minor setback.


What does the future hold?

As Artanis pointed out,* StarCraft is not WarCraft in space, and StarCraft II will remain faithful to its roots. Mission briefings are back, transformed into the new story mode reminiscent of the old, now almost extinct, adventure games. Players will be able to decide whether to jump into next mission right away or to witness character interactions, watch galactic news, and immerse themselves deep into the story and StarCraft lore.

Story mode is where you'll get to know the heroes such as Jim Raynor or Tychus Findlay closely, thus their presence in actual maps will be more scarce. You'll still be able to control them in missions where they can make a difference, but they will stay off-map in great battles, where the ground trembles under the stampede of Ultralisks, the sky is filled with Battlecruisers, and Yamato bolts are vaporizing the very air that is sparkling with Protoss psi-storms.

In such situation a single marine isn't going to be a lot of help, no matter how badass he is. Death of a hero will mean instant defeat as before, but new mechanics will come to play to make sure players don't leave them to rot in safety of their base. For example, Chris Metzen mentioned a gimmick, where instead of dying right away, your hero will drop to his knees and wait for a medic to revive him.

The regular units won't be alone on the battlefield, though. You will be able to hire a variety of mercenaries in between missions and then subsequently recruit them from Merc Haven. These unique units will boast improved stats and will therefore fulfil the role of heroes from StarCraft I, with one important difference: they are expendable. If they die, tough luck (for them). You'll have to finish the mission without them, but you'll be able to hire new mercs for the next mission.

The mercs don't gain any experience or upgrades, so there's no point to keep them sitting in your base. Let them go in a blaze of glory! That's what being a merc is all about, after all. Their role will probably be very similar to the Zerg "hero" units in StarCraft and Brood War, such as the Hunter Killers.

Blizzard has time and time again proven that they can learn from their past, return to interesting mechanics and use them in a new, innovative ways. From the recent interviews wee know, that they've put quite some thought into the role of the hero units. One of the strongest parts of Blizzard's games has always been story and with StarCraft II wee can look forward to really deep characters and relationships between them developed both on and off the battlefield. These characters may bot be present on every map, but when they do, they will lead the action and show that they are really worthy of being called heroes.

http://starcraft.incgamers.com/articles/...eros-work/

And here is some footage of the single player campaign that just released yesterday, as well.  The lava part looks so badass!

Source: YouTube