“StarCraft II” Hits Stores Today

There may be a lot of hard-core gamers struggling with sleep deprivation tomorrow.

That’s because, at long last, “Starcraft II” hits shelves today.

The long-awaited sequel from Blizzard boasts movie-quality cinematics and cut scenes and three-dimensional game environments and characters.

“It almost seems a different era of gaming,” Blizzard’s Rob Pardo tells USA Today. “The special effects are really over the top. It’s just a very stunning game in comparison to the previous one.”

The original game sold over nine million copies and is still popular among gamers today. It featured three different races, the Earth descendant Terrans, the alien Zerg and the technologically advance humanoid Protoss and it has often been cited as the gold-standard for real-time strategy games.

The three races are intertwined in the game’s continuing story line, which players can explore on their own beyond multiplayer matchups. Hero Jim Raynor continues fighting a rebellion against a galactic empire, the Terran Dominion. Another threat comes from the Zerg, now led by Sarah Kerrigan, Raynor’s ex-love interest. She was betrayed and has mutated into the Medusa-esque villain the Queen of Blades.

“There’s a very small calm in the middle of the storm right at the beginning of the game, and then things heat up pretty quickly,” Pardo says. “Kerrigan hasn’t been seen for four years, and she’ll suddenly appear very early in the campaign and then, as they say, ‘It’s on.’ ”

The game is one of the first of a planned trilogy for the “Starcraft” universe.

You can pick up your game today in stores.