Gamer Blast

There are a lot of mods (or “custom maps”) available for Starcraft 2, and a lot of them can be quite fun. But most of them have a feeling of amateurism and a lack of polish that fails to allow them to take full advantage of the mechanics they put into play – however innovative those mechanics may be.

Smashcraft is a mod that gained popularity the other day, when popular Starcraft 2 caster TotalBiscuit put up a 42-minute video of him being introduced to the game by one of it’s programmers. The “Smashcraft” chat channel in Starcraft skyrocketed in popularity over night as more and more users discovered TotalBiscuit’s video, and it has now reached quite a wide audience.
I started playing it two days ago, and let me tell you… It is by far the best custom map for Starcraft 2 that I’ve played yet. I’ve not played any arena fighting-style games before this, so I don’t have much to compare it to, but it has a wonderful presentation and awesome gameplay that make it feel like a game of it’s own, rather than a mod.

The idea is this — you’re on one of two teams, each comprised of up to three people. (Believe me, it’s much more balanced if you have a 3v3 match, so hop on the “Smashcraft” chat channel and gather a team.) When you load the map, you have to choose a character out of the sixteen available. There are four character classes –

Guardians, which are high-damage characters who have a large amount of health. They’re your brute-force characters, able to deal a good bit of damage to the opposing team while staying alive long enough to inflict even more.

Assault characters, which are primarily used to put pressure on the other team while dealing a good bit of damage. They can’t take as much damage as the Guardian characters, but they’re very powerful.

Psions, which have the lowest HP, but can deal unbelievable amounts of damage if used correctly. More finesse is required to use a Psion character, due to their inability to take a lot of damage, but in the right hands they can turn the tide of the battle in an instant, dealing out immense damage before retreating or repositioning in order to stay alive.

And Support characters, which are designed primarily to help your team, rather than to inflict great deals of damage upon the other team. A good Support character is always great to have on your side, especially if you have a Guardian character such as a Pyro, who can deal a lot of damage, but has to get close in order to do so. Because of this, a healer is very good to have by your side.

Inside of each of these classes are four characters, making, as I said, 16 total. Each of these characters have unique attacks and abilities, allowing for an insane amount of strategy when it comes to team composition. Some characters use guns, others use melee attacks or magic attacks… And while these are the general classifications for the means of attacking, they are broad terms, in that no two characters have the exact same attack. One character could have a shotgun, while the other has a rifle — both very useful in very different situations.
There are both hit-scan attacks and “wave” attacks. An example of a hit-scan attack is gunfire. While attacking, you have to keep your mouse cursor pointed in the direction that your opponent is in… It won’t automatically find them for you, and you can’t just click on them once at the beginning of the attack. Depending on the gun, the game’s engine draws lines for the trajectory of the bullets. If your opponent is directly within this line of sight, they will be damaged accordingly. A pistol or a rifle has a single line drawn directly from the barrel of the gun to the direction your mouse is pointing, whereas a shotgun has several different scattering lines, each with their own potential for damage. A physical object, such as a pillar or a tree, can stop a hit-scan attack, so it’s always smart to make good use of your environments. The height of your target can also be a factor… If you’re far back from the edge of a cliff and attempt to shoot somebody down below it, you won’t hit them. However, if your’e close to the edge and can conceivably see that person, your chances are much higher.
A wave attack is kind of hard to describe in text… It’s a magic attack that affects enemies in front of you, and as such, you must aim at them, as with a hit-scan attack. However, a direct line of sight isn’t as necessary. Where a hit-scan attack would fail from atop a cliff, a wave attack will still hit your enemy, as long as your aim is accurate. They still cannot penetrate trees or pillars, however.

Each character has some common abilities that are shared throughout, such as the ability to quickly dash in one direction in order to avoid an attack, or to slowly heal yourself if your HP is low and there’s no healer on your team. (This should, however, be used very sparingly, as it takes forever to recharge. Because of this, in many games, you’ll only have the opportunity to use it once.)

Each character also has a “Fury” attack. If you’ve ever played mostly any fighting game, you’re probably familiar with this idea… You have a Fury meter, which fills up a little bit whenever you deal or take damage. In some situations (such as when you successfully block an attack), you’ll gain extra Fury. Once your meter is full, you’re able to unleash a devastating attack on your opponents. Each character has a different Fury attack, and all of them have to be performed just right in order to be very effective, but it can be the deciding factor in a match.

A game is a best three out of five battle, and in order to win, you have to kill the entire opposing team. However, I’ve had rounds that have lasted an hour or two with the same group of complete strangers, as we just kept rematching. (My team kept losing, but it was a good time with good people, so we kept playing.) This is a game that can certainly be picked up for short amounts of time, if you only want to play a match or two, but it can easily be entertaining for long periods, especially if you’re playing with a fun bunch.

Speaking of the players, the community, or what I’ve seen of it so far anyway, is fantastic. Everybody is generally very nice. I’ve yet to see any bad-mannered players. At this point in the game, a lot of the players are new to it, so there is a very high tolerance for beginners. As such, I don’t think that your inexperience with Smashcraft should prevent you in any way from dipping your toe in it. The community has been incredibly helpful to me in learning how to properly play, and how to construct a team with the best strategy in mind.
The complexity of this mod is outstanding, and I very much look forward to playing it a lot more. For more information, watch TotalBiscuit’s video, and visit the Smashcraft forums. It can be intimidating at first, but it doesn’t take long to learn the basics, and from there you’ll likely be hooked.