StarCraft
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Another game created by Blizzard. It is a RTS game of similar style to the earlier Warcraft games, but set in a futuristic space setting. Unlike Warcraft or Diablo, Starcraft is set in a future version of our own universe, most of the action taking place in the 2499 and early 2500s. As well as a single-player storyline, it also has a multiplayer option playable over Battle.net.
It consists of three playable races:
- Terrans: the descendants of hackers, rebels and other undesirables exiled from Earth.
- Zerg: a swarm of vaguely insectoid, completely biological beings bent on assimilating or eradicating every powerful species they come across.
- Protoss: an empire of psionic, near-humanoid beings who maintain their corner of the galaxy with honor and advanced technology.
The original StarCraft was released in 1998. Its expansion pack, Brood War, was released later that year and introduced new units and expanded the storyline. Blizzard was developing StarCraft Ghost, but it was put on hold in March 2006 indefinitely to focus its efforts on next-gen console games. Blizzard did not answer questions relating to StarCraft 2 until Saturday the 19th of May 2007, when they officially announced its release.
For information on the rest of the StarCraft universe, namely the novels and expansion, see StarCraft franchise.
Contents |
Plot
Rebel Yell
The game starts on the 12th of December, 2499 CE, four days after the destruction of the Terran colony on Chau Sara by a Protoss war fleet. Unknown to the Terrans, the planet was infested with Zerg, prompting the swift reaction of the Protoss. From this point, the player assumes the role of Magistrate of the neighbouring colony on Mar Sara. The Terran Confederate government ignores the gradual infestation of Mar Sara by the Zerg, and the player then allies with a rebel faction. The remainder of the campaign deals with the activities of the rebel group.
Overmind
The player is then thrust into the role of an insidious Zerg cerebrate, designed to guard a very special chrysalis for the Zerg "Overmind" the hive mind of all the Zerg in the galaxy. Over the course of this campaign, we meet the Queen of Blades, voted #2 in Gamespot's top ten villains of video game history.
The Fall
Assuming the role of a Protoss Executor, the player must learn how to control the most advanced (technologically, at least) species in the game while fighting back a Zerg invasion and helping to alter the course of his people's history.
Parallels to WarCraft III
Several gaming elements first introduced in StarCraft were later adapted for use in "Reign of Chaos" and "The Frozen Throne."
Plot Progression
Previous WarCraft games offered two campaigns, Orc and Human, which essentially dealt with the same events through different eyes. With three races, Blizzard decided to stack the campaigns to deal with different events, told in chronological order in one combined story arc. Essentially, you were dissuaded from playing the Zerg or the Protoss, because you didn't learn the plot details of the Terrans. This was adapted for WarCraft III with a minor difference: you no longer had option to defy the chronology. Additionally, the campaigns for both games proceeded similarily (For the original game, the Human campaign went first, then the Evil campaign second, and finally, the "Neutral" party third. For their expansions, the "Neutral" party went first, then the Human campaign second, and the Evil force third).
Specific influences
In the final mission of the game, the player commanded two armies, one Protoss, one Terran, in a last-ditch effort to save the universe by defeating the insidious Overmind of the Zerg, which is hell-bent on assimilating the Protoss and Terrans as the next step in the Zerg's unnatural evolution. Similarly, in the final mission of WCIII, the user commands a Night Elf army reinforced by Orcs, Humans, Trolls, Furbolgs, Tauren, High Elves and Dwarves, to stop Archimonde from ascending Mount Hyjal. The two Antagonist/Anti-Hero characters, Arthas Menethil and Sarah Kerrigan are similar to one another.
Non-Blizzard Influences
Like many science fiction stories and games, Starcraft is heavily influenced by Robert Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers, from both a storytelling and technological perspective. Particular examples include:
- Terran Military Doctrine & Hardware
- Emphasis on mobility (movable bases)
- Powered Armor Suits
- Races
- Protoss (similar in profile to skinnies)
- Zerg (xenodiverse race, social caste system similar to the arachnid race)
Unequal units
WarCraft I and II were completely balanced: for each human unit or building, there was a corresponding Orc unit or building with similar damage, armor, and requirements. The only differences occurred with spells. In Starcraft, no such perfect equality existed.
Example
The basic Terran combat unit, the Marine, is a fairly durable ranged unit, capable of attacking both ground and space units. By contrast, the first fighter unit available to the Zerg was the tiny, brittle Zergling who could only attack ground units and whose usefulness came mostly from its low cost, speed, and that two spawned from one larva. Finally, the Protoss Zealot, though only attacking ground units, is extremely durable, in addition to shields. Similarly, the central Zerg building, the Hatchery, evolves into a Lair and later into a Hive, while the Terran Command Center and Protoss Nexus do not evolve.
In WarCraft III, the races are balanced from the perspective that they all have infantry, ranged, cavalry and spellcasters, with similar-type production facilities, but feature different specific abilities and traits.
Other
Terran Connections
- Certain Terran buildings were mobile; the could leave the ground, hover, and fly to a new location. This was borrowed for the Night Elf Ancients, who can uproot and walk to a new location.
- Terran Space Construction Vehicles may halt building in the middle of the process, then resume later, a style used in the new Human Peasant. The orc used a similar process in WarCraft II; however, in WarCraft III, peons are protected by the building under construction.
Zerg Connections
- All Zerg buildings are giant organs, so a Hive Cluster is a single living organism. Similarly, Ancients are trees, and Night Elf villages are groves.
- Zerg buildings are constructed by mutating a drone worker into the organ/building, in much the same way that wisps become Ancients.
- Zerg buildings can only be built on Creep, an organic mass spread by the construction of Zerg buildings. Similarly, the Scourge can only build on Blight.
- Felhunters bear a stark resemblance to zerglings, in appearance and movement.
Protoss Connections
- Protoss Probes may open a "Warp Gate" for a building to be built, then may go about other tasks without continuing to oversee the warp. This technique is also employed by Acolytes.
Misc. Connections
- Night Elves and Undead must entangle or haunt a gold mine to harvest gold. Terrans could only harvest Vespene Gas by building a refinery over it, the Zerg needed to mutate an Extractor, while the Protoss must warp in an Assimilator.
- In terms of lore, the Titans behave in a similar, though far more altruistic, manner to the Xel'Naga, the mysterious race who engineered the Protoss and the Zerg.
- Terran Marines, Zerglings, and Zerg Hydralisks all have WarCraft III models. A hydralisk can be found in a corner of the map in one of the Eternity's End missions, and all of them can be placed in custom maps using the WC3 World Editor. Also modeled was a "Space Fel Orc," a Legion-loyal Fel Orc equipped with the armor and weapons of a Terran Firebat.
- Artanis, a Protoss hero, says, "This is not Warcraft in Space!" when you annoy him too much. If you click on him right after, he says, "It's much more sophisticated!"
- One of the Acolyte's gag quotes is "My life for Aiur! ...Uhhh, I mean Ner'Zhul." Protoss zealots proclaim this upon emergence from the Gateway.
- In StarCraft 2, the Protoss Stalker unit has an ability identical to Blink.
- One of the musical themes in Starcraft has a section of music from Warcraft II.
- One of the gag quotes from the Dwarven Mortar team in Warcraft III is "Clearly, Tassadar has failed us...You must not!" This is a direct quote from the briefing for the first mission of the Protoss campaign in Starcraft.
More about starcraft
In-jokes in World of Warcraft
- A Zergling can be summoned as a pet if the player has purchased the Collector's Edition
- Lord Marshal Raynor (based upon Marshal James Raynor, one of the major characters in the game) is found during the Burning Crusade portal event
- A picture of Sarah Kerrigan, one of the main characters in Starcraft, can be seen in the cockpit goblin shredders.
- Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer is an epic DPS-caster staff that drops from Illidan Stormrage in the Black Temple. The staff looks like a zergling. In the some levels and the Map Editor you were able to add a zergling hero called "Devouring One".
