Starcraft II Gameplay Screenshots

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!

These screen captures are from the Starcraft II gameplay video. You can download the avi format video from the official website at  http://www.starcraft2.com/movies.xml#m3. It’s 449mb for the high-res one and 268mb for the lower res one. You’ll also need the Divx player to run them which can be downloaded at  http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/.

As the narrator states, all the game features you see below are at the testing stage, and subject to change for the final release (which, following Blizzard’s usual style, will probably be just in time for your children to enjoy while you work 12-hour days to afford the graphics card and ram to run it).

For a bit more on Starcraft 2, including links to info sites, see my post Starcraft II.

It took a modest amount of determined work to prepare the following screen captures. Captions by me follow each pic. The white words on the screenshots are the narrator’s. Click to enlarge any pic. Enjoy!

Protoss Zealots will automatically Charge the last distance to engage enemy units. You can see one slightly blurred on the left as it Charges.

Protoss Immortals are like souped-up Dragoons. Their strongly damage-resistant special shields only activate against large attacks, like those of these Terran Siege Tanks they are engaging.

Terran Reapers are light infantry with dual pistols that can jump-jet across cliffs, gaps and other terrain of differing height that normal units cannot bypass.

Terran Reapers engaging Protoss Immortals. The light weapons of the Reapers do not activate the Immortal shields, thus making it a much easier fight than the Siege Tanks experienced.

The Protoss Phase Prism is a flying unit that can convert to a floating Pylon, providing energy for Protoss buildings such as Photon Cannons in a jiff.

The Phase Prisms above are extra useful, since the Protoss can now warp in units to any place where there is Psi energy. It takes but a few seconds to accomplish. Four Stalkers are warping in now.

Protoss Stalkers are ‘Dark Dragoons’, with the Blink ability (short distance instant teleportation) introduced in Warcraft III. You can see their moment-ago teleportation shadows left behind above.

The Dune-ish worm on the left is a Zerg Nydus Worm. It pops out of the ground and allows Zerg units to port into the area around them, much like the Nydus Canals of the original Starcraft. It’s pretty tough to take out, from what the gameplay trailer shows. A bunch of Zerglings are pouncing the Zealots here.

Protoss Zealots fighting Zerg Zerglings.

The Protoss Colossus is huge! Just look at those 725 hitpoints! Its long legs can step over different terrain heights, while its beam attack sweeps around massacring enemy units.

In a few seconds, the Zerglings have mutated on the spot to become Banelings, filled with explosively corrosive chemicals. Think mini-Infested Terran suicide bonbers.

Pow-splat! Even the Colossus succumbs to the Baneling suicide attack. The Banelings move by rolling like wheels, btw.

The Protoss Phoenix is a new air unit. It moves slowly, but has the Overload ability which, as you can see above, launches attacks at all nearby enemy units. The drawback is that after the Overload, the Phoenix is powered down for a while, leaving it exposed to attack. Here three of them are Overloading at Zerg Mutalisks, while the two Phoenix on the left are simply attacking normally.

Protoss Warp Rays can attack air or ground targets. Their beam damages more the longer it focuses on a target, which makes them suitable for use against buildings or big units, like these Terran Battlecruisers.

Ahh, the Protoss Mothership. A massive, expensive unit that you can have only one of at a time. With 850 life, 350 shields and a basic attack that consists of 8 shots that can home in on multiple targets, it’s as much superweapon as you get outside of the Command & Conquer series. Here it is using its Time Bomb ability, which slows all enemy movement in the effect’s radius. The Terran Missile Turret missiles are actually slowed down until they almost stack, never reaching the Mothership. And when the field runs out, the missiles just fall harmlessly to the ground.

The Planet Cracker ability of the Mothership continually damages every ground unit under it. Just activate it and move its AoE damage around over units.

Finally, the Mothership can create a Black Hole which, according to the narration, is dangerous to air units. See the Battlecruiser being deformed as it is sucked into the hole.

And the gameplay movie finishes off with a mass battle between Protoss and Terran, with all the recently shown units duking it out. Until…

*Beep* Nuclear launch detected! Tebabom!!!!

And we finish off with some Banelings forming the ‘good game’ Leetspeak. Starcraft 2 can’t come soon enough!