Three races. Three storylines. An epic tale of love, heroism and extermination. Blah, blah, blah – the important question is what units are we going to get to blow stuff up with?
While several important units from the first StarCraft will be returning, most notably the Terran “ghost” unit (I mean, who doesn’t love humans with mild psionic powers and fanatical devotion to their training? It worked out pretty well for Sarah Kerrigan), and the ever-popular Hydralisk, what is Blizzard going to give us that’s new, exciting and even more destructive when SCII drops?
Let’s start with the Zerg. Masters of the overwhelming rush attack – the term “zerg” is still used as a verb in gaming to describe a flood of enemies in a short time – a new mutation of Zerg has recently been “spotted on the battlefield”, according to the official SCII website. This new unit is called a “Baneling”, and the official word states it is a mutation of the most abundant type of Zerg unit, the Zergling. Mutated by the Zerg queens, the Baneling is a small, ungainly little unit with a fluid-filled rear end that causes it to roll forward rather than walk. When targeting another unit, the Baneling will roll in, cause a self-induced chemical reaction, and explode, unleashing massive damage and dumping acid on any nearby units. According to Blizz, the Baneling will be effective against both structures and ground forces, and, like all Zerg units, can burrow, making any ground force a potential target for a sudden rash of exploding, acid-filled pus-pods. Lovely.
In Command and Conquer: Generals, there is a sort of “terrorist” unit which strapped dynamite to itself and would run in and explode other units. Likely, the Baneling will be similar in that it will not take much to kill if it is noticed early enough, but if not, the player will be picking up the green and dripping remnants of their army.
The new Terran units are, not surprisingly, focused on a blend of technology and simple functionality. The Banshee is good example. According to the SCII website, the Banshee is a re-designed Wraith specifically intended for planetary air-to-ground combat. It has no air-to-air weapons, but instead has a powerful missile cluster attack that can be devastating to ground targets.
The Banshee can apparently garner the ability to also use old Wraith cloaking technology, making it a versatile weapon even in hostile air space, or if you simply want to go in and cause some trouble just for the fun of it. The lack of any air-to-air capabilities is a bit worrisome, since if the thing de-cloaks to fire in a hostile and well-populated zone, it might get completely destroyed before even having the chance to file a salvo.
Not to forget our Protoss friends, Blizzard has also released the “Phoenix”. Although Protoss units tend to be on the side of heavy cost and heavy damage – such as the much-loved Archon – even they have felt the need to develop lighter, more versatile units to conduct the day to day business of patrols. Enter the Phoenix, a light air-to-air fighter that is used for general recon, aerial combat and some light ground strafing. It also likes long walks along the shores of Auir and killing mindless Zerg, according to its personal ad.
While quick and maneuverable, even the lower cost of the Phoenix for the Protoss cannot match the sheer numbers of units turned out by the Terrans, much less the Zerg. If outnumbered, the Phoenix can use an area of effect attack by “overloading its warp field through the ship’s ion blasters”, or so says the SCII units page for the Phoenix. This is just designer tech-speak for “the thing that will kill all enemies around really fast”. Almost every RTS comes with a unit equipped with such a weapon, and honestly, they’re always fun.
The trade off for this ability is that the ship is rendered powerless for a period of time after it is used, making it unable to fire and move slower than a Terran Siege tank.
These are just a few of the new units that Blizz has so far let slip, and most are a variation on the original unit, or a variation on a time-honored RTS template. That being said, it doesn’t limit their coolness. Coolness is, after all, how wars are won.
