Featuring a unique single-player campaign that picks up where StarCraft: Brood War left off, StarCraft 2 will present a cast of new heroes and familiar faces in an edgy sci-fi story filled with adventure and intrigue.

The story-mode campaign will also offer some unique aspects for players who enjoy single-player content. For example, here's a brand new character: Selendis, the Protoss Templar Executor. Selendis was a student of Artanis and is today an Executor. That means that she has many new weapons and robotic fighting machines at her command to help preserve Protoss lives in battle. And you can bet she is eager to take the battle to the Zerg and reclaim Aiur. Selendis represents the best and brightest of what the Protoss can be - fiercely loyal to her race's ideals, completely dedicated and focused beyond any mere human capacity.

Daggoth is dead, along with the rest of the Cerebrates, and Kerrigan is the sole power behind the Swarm now. Also, after Judicators were eliminated from the Protoss power structure, the arbiters quickly fell into disuse. When the Protoss fled to Shakuras, all arbiters were lost along with Aiur.

The Protoss have new shield-equipped units (the Immortals) who prove resistant to heavy weaponry, making a problem for units like Terran Siege Tanks. However, their shields are not activated by the relatively weak guns of the Terran Reapers, putting them in disadvantage.

The Terran firebats were permanently replaced by Reapers. The Reaper is definitely one of the most powerful units in the hands of a skilled player, as its hit and run ability is unmatched in early game. The mines that they drop also do significant damage to buildings. Anyway, Reapers can do a lot more than simply annoy the enemy: they can be efficient scouts, base raiders, hit and runners and they can make use of the terrain to their advantage, firing with ranged weapons from above cliffs.

To deal with the even growing swarms, the Protoss have the Colossus, massive tripod-like units that can wipe out the Zerglings with a laser beam. Again, however, the system is balanced in that manner that the Colossi are vulnerable to airborne attacks and to mutated suicide Banelings. The Colossi are really strong; one of the representatives said "Once you get Colossus, it's good game." Also, because of the Colossus's height, it will be susceptible to Anti Air defenses like the Terran Missile Turrets. It is possible for the Colossus to be hit by ground and air attacks at the same time. Hmm... interesting!

Other new addition to the Protoss: teleporting Stalkers. While they do have a cooldown on Blink, their ability to teleport anywhere on map costs no energy, but must be researched. If you are being chased by Zerglings, run your stalkers to a cliff and blink to the top of it and the Zerglings have to run around to kill them.

The Zealots' new Charge maneuver significantly reduces their weakness to ranged units. The ability will close the distance between the Zealot and its target, which will be a significant advantage in many situations, compared to a Zealot without the upgrade, but will not actually give it more attack power or an initial stronger attack.

Protoss motherships are mighty vessels that were constructed centuries ago during the golden age of Protoss expansion. They were intended to act as primary command ships to lead vast armadas of Protoss explorers into the darkness of deep space and bring them safely home again. After the loss of Aiur, however, the motherships were called back into service from the far corners of the galaxy. They can do everything from slowing down time to firing deadly salvos at ground targets. Protoss Mothership concept is based on the giant Protoss ship that fired a wide-"planet-cracker"-like beam in the original StarCraft cinematic. You can have multiple mother ships, but the black hole was taken out of the game. What a relief!

The Bunkers have been increased in size (to 3x3) and given added hit points, making it a more viable defensive structure for the Terrans. The Thor's role compared to the Siege Tank, is more of an assault unit rather than a siege unit. Thor is much more exposed when attacking an enemy location, while the Siege Tank has a much larger range and is able to hit the enemy at a larger distance. The range of the Siege Tank has also been increased since the BlizzCon. Battlecruisers can now be upgraded individually with either a Yamato Gun or Plasma Torpedoes, but not both. The Command Center can be upgraded to be a Planetary Fortress, but it can no longer lift off or be changed back.

Carriers are back in the game and they function the same way as in Brood War. Interceptors are automatically manufactured and serviced inside the carriers' bays. The Phase Cannon is the new version of the StarCraft Photon Cannon. The Hallucination ability is back, but not as a High Templar ability, but rather a Star Relic ability.

The Ghost nuke beacon will remain as big as presented at the World Wide Invitational. Even more, any Ghost can launch either a Nuke or a Drop Pod, making the Ghost highly effective at responding to multiple battle circumstances. There are plans to have the Drop Pods be manually loaded with units created by the player, to better allow the player to adapt to their current tactical needs.

The Nydus worm can pop up anywhere... it doesn't have to be on creep. But it works like the Ghost nuke, you place a beacon and a few seconds later it pops up.

Blizzard has decided to add something unseen in their games before: special, different colored resources that cost more per harvest. These minerals will be placed at specific locations, further encouraging expansion and aggression, and discouraging turtling. Also, you can now set a rally point to a mineral or gas field to have your workers auto-gather. The selection limit is currently unlimited. Players will definitely be able to select and build from multiple buildings at the same time. With Multiple Building Selection and auto-mine in the game, the producers will have to think wisely how to implement the micro options so characteristic to the original StarCraft.

Auto-cast was in the game. The only unit we know that has it is the Medic and it isn't game breaking. We can turn it off and used it manually. The abilities cannot be activated while inside a bunker, but you can activate them before entering a bunker. For example, if you activate Stim Pack on a few Marines, then enter a bunker, they will attack at the higher rate of fire from inside the bunker.

Despite many changes, in the end you will look at StarCraft 2, and right away you will feel comfortable, because Blizzard never failed to rise to fans' expectations. There are still various unannounced abilities that are being added to both the Terran and Protoss sides. There is not much known of the Zerg though... Anyway, you are far from seeing a final version of this game. Nonetheless, feel free to speculate...

Veri Seth teaches Game Design and Digital Arts. You can visit his website here: http://www.rageofwar.net