It's been a long time coming, but Blizzard Entertainment finally released the StarCraft II beta last week. Wired.com got hold of an invite and proceeded to put the game through its paces.

I expected to have a rough time of it, considering StarCraft's reputation for incredibly complex high-level play. Released in 1998, the original StarCraft is one of the most influential entries in the real-time strategy genre and one of the best-selling PC games of all time. It's still so popular that it's played by professional competitors in Korea and elsewhere. Blizzard's stated goal is to make the sequel, 12 years in the making, much more welcoming to real-time strategy newcomers.

That's exactly what it's done. And I know, because that's what I am. I have almost no experience with StarCraft and very little experience with the RTS genre in general. My lack of RTS experience can be explained entirely by the fact that I always felt the genre was beyond me, because of the ungodly speed at which players need to react to events and carry out strategies in order to succeed.

But Blizzard is aware that there are players like me out there: Players who are interested in getting into an RTS game, but keep getting scared away. Blizzard has completely revamped its ubiquitous online gaming infrastructure, Battle.net, and come up with a system that welcomes RTS newbies with open arms.

The new Battle.net, which will be carried over to Blizzard's upcoming games World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and Diablo III, is linked to every single part of StarCraft II in a manner similar to Steam or Xbox Live. As soon as you start the game, you're prompted to log in to Battle.net. From there, all your gameplay stats, like the amount of time you've spent playing or your win/loss ratio, are constantly tracked and kept up-to-date. You can also check the profiles of friends you've added and check how they're doing.

The first time you start StarCraft II, you are asked to choose which skill class you fall into, ranging from novice to veteran. The game then puts you through five placement matches, using the data from these to match you up with players of similar skill level. This alone alleviates a lot of the stress that comes from getting in over your head against an opponent who is much better at the game than you are.

Furthermore, whenever you finish a match, a video replay of that match is automatically saved, and you can view it anytime you wish. These replays allow you to view the match from your own perspective as well as your opponent's, allowing you to get a comprehensive view of how the match went down. If you are not very good at the game, the replays are a great tool to see where you went wrong. However, the fact that you can only view replays while the game is running is a bummer. Uploading videos to YouTube or another video-sharing site requires a third-party recording application.

The StarCraft II beta does not include a tutorial, but the basics are easy enough to learn. When you're in the middle of a game, you can bring up a Tech Tree and a list of units. These let you learn about the different units found within the game, as well as what upgrades they can receive. The game features quite a few new units, too, so StarCraft vets will likely appreciate this just as much as newbies will.

The new units seem to be the only area in which experienced and beginner players are on the same page, mainly because no one has yet learned how to use them effectively. So far, clever usage of the Zerg Baneling, a unit that can be thought of as exploding Zerglings, has been proven to produce hilarious results.

One of the most exciting features of the new Battle.net is its excellent custom map support. When the editor becomes available, anyone will be able to make maps and upload them to the servers, where they can be downloaded by anyone. Right now, only official maps made by Blizzard are available, but if the process currently in place is any indication, then getting player-made custom maps will be quite simple.

Blizzard has gone to great lengths to make sure StarCraft II is accessible to newcomers while still appealing to the professional gamer. Judging from my experience in the beta so far, I'd say they've succeeded in at least half that.

Screenshots courtesy Blizzard Entertainment

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