That’s right, 20 years ago today on March 31, 1998, one of the world’s most iconic Real Time Strategy games came onto the scene, and changed the landscape forever. For 20 years, the legacy of warfare in the Koprulu Sector has become the stuff of legend. Terrans (Humanity), the borg-like Zerg, and the eldritch Protoss have etched their names into the stars, and people all over the world are still enthralled by their story. I wouldn’t be right to pass this anniversary, so it was only right to give not just the original game a look, but it’s sequels as well.
One caveat though: to make things a little more easier, I’m strictly going to be talking about the singleplayer experience in this post. I think by now we all know how the multiplayer works, regardless of which game it is. Even casual Starcraft fans probably know what’s going on, and because of that the multiplay is getting cutout. Anyways, let’s celebrate Starcraft’s 20 birthday, and have a little fun. Spawn more overlords!
Starcraft (1998)(Trailer)
“Blizzard Entertainment began planning development on StarCraft in 1995, shortly after the beginning of development for Diablo. The development was led by Chris Metzen and James Phinney, who also created the game's fictional universe. Using the Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness game engine as a base, StarCraft made its debut at E3 1996. The game's success led to the development of two authorized add-ons, which were both released in 1998. However, neither of the two add-ons were particularly well received by critics. StarCraft also marked the debut of Blizzard Entertainment's film department. Previously, cinematic cut scenes were seen as simply gap fillers that often deviated from the game, but with StarCraft and later Brood War introducing high quality cinematics integral to the storyline of the series, Blizzard Entertainment is cited as having changed this perception and became one of the first game companies to raise the standard regarding such cut scenes.
StarCraft's success also inspired third-party developer Microstar Software to release an unauthorized add-on, entitled Stellar Forces, in May 1998. Blizzard Entertainment consequently filed a lawsuit against Microstar for selling the add-on, arguing that as the product was unauthorized and created using StarCraft's level editing software, it was a breach of the end user license agreement.
“We believe that we must aggressively combat the sale and distribution of unauthorized add-ons associated with our properties. In our opinion, Stellar Forces meets neither Blizzard's standards nor our customers' expectations. As gamers ourselves, we feel obligated to prevent the sale of unauthorized add-on products that do not add value to the StarCraft experience.”
—Blizzard Entertainment
In November 1998, Blizzard Entertainment won the court case against Microstar Software. In the settlement, Microstar agreed to pay an undisclosed amount in punitive damages and to destroy all remaining copies of Stellar Forces in its possession, as well as to formally apologize to Blizzard Entertainment.
After the release of the first two add-on packs, Blizzard Entertainment announced the official expansion pack to StarCraft, entitled Brood War. Most of the team at Blizzard Entertainment responsible for StarCraft returned to work on Brood War. Development on Brood War began shortly after StarCraft's release, and Blizzard Entertainment were assisted by members of Saffire Corporation, who were contracted for a variety of tasks consisting of programming and design for levels, visuals and audio effects.”
Best Aspect? The atmosphere is definitely something of a different creature when compared to Warcraft & Diablo, and that’s a plus. Whereas Warcraft was a battle against orcish invades, and Diablo is an action packed hack-n-slash, Starcaft is a gritty science fiction epic. Though there are some moment for more lighter material, the story is setup so each of the game’s 3 races (More on that in a moment) eventually come together for a battle royal that turns into a war for the safety of the sector. It’s never overwhelming with how serious it’s story & setting, and instead goes for a balancing act that never really falters in any way. You really can’t say that about a lot of modern gaming’s stories, now can you?
Next up are the races, and this is what helped make Starcraft so recognizable. For starters you have the Terrans, aka humanity. They occupy a middle ground: not too fast, not too slow, they’re capable of a variety of attack strategies. They can repair their buildings, do radar sweeps of the map, and to end it all, produce & use devastating nuclear missiles. Then there are the zerg: an organic borg-like race, they are perhaps the fastest of the 3 races. From their hatcheries, they can produce a biological army within just a few short minutes, and thoroughly maul anything in front of them. On top of that, but their structures & units can regain health overtime, and while it’s a slow process, eventually they come back good as new. Finally, there are the Protoss: a race that’s been around for a longtime, what they lack in speed, they gain in sheer technological & psionic might. Every unit & building in the Protoss army has shielding, and similar to the Zerg’s biology, can regenerate overtime. The production of even a small squad of Protoss soliders might take a little bit, but even then they could overwhelm a small bass. Each race is balanced perfectly, with strengths & weaknesses that complement not only themselves, but that of the other races as well.
3rd aspect that makes Starcraft so good is the gameplay. The missions are designed wonderfully, and require you to understand your race’s attributes (There’s a training mission that helps you learn how each work). As the campaign goes further in, you’re given newer buildings & units to help complete the tasks you’re given, and by the time you’re done with that part of the story, you have the full armament of whatever race you’re playing. In an interesting twist, if you select a race before you finish the current one you’re playing, the difficulty has been ramped up considerably so it discourages you from discovering a part of the story prematurely. Gotta give Blizzard respect in that regard.
Lastly, a plus for Starcraft it’s it’s bonus content. Titled Brood War (Intro), it was released later in 1998 on November the 30th. Taking place sometime after the ending of the main game, we saw the arrival of new characters set on changing things in the sector, and older characters doing all they can to protect or destroy the universe. New units are added, while some of the older units have received upgrades. There are brand new campaigns for each race, and the challenge factor has been amped up from that of the main campaign. Pretty cool if you ask me!
Worst Aspect? To be perfectly honest....nothing! This game has aged incredibly well over 2 decades, and while the graphics are archaic by today’s standards (Almost looks like an overhall of Warcraft’s engine), and the A.I. can cheat in some missions (More so in Brood War than in the main game), there’s nothing in the game that I would consider to be bad. Even 20 years after it’s release, nobody really has anything bad to say about it, and that’s impressive if you ask me.
Starcraft. A classic RTS, and one that’s held it’s own against the passage of time. If you have not played it yet, it’s recent re-release & re-mastering for a new generation is the perfect excuse to try it. Next game!
Starcraft II: Wings Of Liberty (2010)(Trailer)
“The development of StarCraft II was announced on May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea. According to Rob Pardo and Chris Sigaty, development on the game, though initially delayed for a year by the temporary reassignment of Blizzard's resources to World of Warcraft, began in 2003, shortly after Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was released. StarCraft II supports the DirectX 9 (Pixel shader 2.0) software, and it is also fully compatible with DirectX 10 as well. The development team had decided not to add exclusive DirectX 10 graphic effects. The Mac version uses OpenGL. The game previously featured the Havok physics engine, which allowed for more realistic environmental elements such as "debris rolling down a ramp" which has since been replaced with a custom physics engine. Additionally, there are plans to implement VoIP into the game.
At the June 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, Blizzard Executive Vice President Rob Pardo announced that development of the single-player campaign was approximately one-third complete, as well as that Wings of Liberty would be followed up by two expansion packs – StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, which would focus around the Zerg and StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, which would focus around the Protoss. On February 25, 2009, Blizzard announced the Blizzard Theme Park Contest, where prizes would include two beta keys for StarCraft II. The updated news and updates page of Battle.net for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne stated that the top 20 players from each realm was to be given a StarCraft II beta key.
Blizzard posted a release date for the game's first beta of Summer 2009, but failed to release a beta during that time. Since May 6, 2009, it was possible to sign up for the beta phase of the game. In November 2009, the game's producer Chris Sigaty confirmed there would be no public beta for the game taking place in 2009 but assured fans that it would happen next year. In February 2010, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime announced that a closed beta would open later that month. On February 17, 2010, StarCraft II began closed beta testing, as promised. The beta was expected to last for 3–5 months. Beta keys for the initial release were sold on eBay for prices as high as $400. Blizzard also released a map editor for the beta as part of Patch 9. According to the company, they had planned to release a major content patch towards the end of beta testing. As of July 23, 2010, eighteen patches had been released for the beta (only seventeen on European servers), including a patch which provided access to the Galaxy map editor. On May 12, 2010 Blizzard released the beta client for computers running Mac OS X, for the users who had signed up. On May 17, 2010, Blizzard announced that the first phase of the beta test would be coming to an end in all regions on May 31, but it was later extended to June 7. The second phase began on July 7, 2010, and ended on July 19, 2010.
In an interview held in June 2009, Rob Pardo indicated that LAN support would not be included in StarCraft II. Removing LAN requires players to connect through Blizzard's servers before being able to play multiplayer games, causing gamers to voice their dissatisfaction online. Further controversy was sparked when Blizzard confirmed that the game would not support cross-server play out of the box, restricting gamers to only play against local opponents—for instance, US gamers against those in the US and Europeans against Europeans. The company originally explained that Australia and New Zealand servers would be located in Southeast Asia, pitting them against combatants from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. However, starting from patch 1.1.0, it was announced that the Southeast Asia/Australia/New Zealand version of the game would not be strictly region-locked, with gamers able to play on both the SEA/ANZ servers and the North American ones.
Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard, announced during the opening ceremony of Blizzcon 2009 that StarCraft II and the new Battle.net platform would both be released in 2010, with an approximately one-month gap between releases. As of March 2010, Blizzard had stated that the new platform was being tested outside the beta and was planned for release in early July 2010, for both StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, with a later upgrade for Diablo III. On May 5, 2010, it was revealed that StarCraft II and Battle.net 2.0 would be integrated with social networking site Facebook, "linking the world's premier online gaming platform with the world's most popular social platform"—a move that allowed gamers to search among their Facebook friends for StarCraft II opponents. Wired Magazine, in its annual Vaporware Award, ranked StarCraft II first among the delayed technology products of 2009. StarCraft II was finally released on July 27, 2010, with launch parties in selected cities of countries around the world. Customers and reviewers who received the installation DVD before the July 27 release were greeted with an error screen, telling them to wait until the release date. There was no known workaround and some reviewers had praised the action for limiting journalists to playing and reviewing the game with actual players.
Compared to the original StarCraft, StarCraft II was designed to focus more heavily on the multiplayer aspect, with changes that include major improvements to Battle.net, a new competitive "ladder" system for ranked games, and new matchmaking mechanics that are designed to "match-up" players of equal skill level. In addition, the replay function, which allows players to record and review past games, was improved. Blizzard also stated that they incorporated changes to the game that were suggested by fans. StarCraft II continues its predecessor's use of pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes to advance the plot while also improving the quality of in-game cut scenes within the levels themselves, which are rendered on-the-fly using the same game engine as the graphics in the game proper. Blizzard stated that, with the new graphics engine that StarCraft II uses to render the gameplay, they "can actually create in-game cut-scenes of near-cinematic quality". Improvements include advanced scenery allocation and more detailed space terrain, such as floating space platforms with planets and asteroids in the background. Small cliffs, extensions, and even advertising signs were also shown to have been improved and refined.”
Best Aspect? The first thing that make Wings Of Liberty so good is it’s graphics. First being shown in 2007, it was far more advanced than anything that Blizzard has done to that point. In fact, it was kind of a preview to what Diablo 3 was going to use. Improved textures, lighting, and greater usage of color are just a couple of the plus made because of the new engine. It’s aged quite well since the game’s release in 2010, and while there are some small things that people might nitpick at, it’s still a wonderful sight to look at. Coupled with the improved sound system, and it might just be timeless.
The races & story off Wings Of Liberty are it’s second plus. The Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss have returned to the Koprulu Sector, changed by the events of Brood War in the 4 years since that game’s story. The Terran Dominion is still under the tyrannical thumb of Arcturus Mengsk, and Jim Raynor leads a rebellion against him. The Zerg, perhaps more ravenous than before, are led by the new ruler of the Swarm, Kerrigan (Now called the Queen Of Blades). Traversing the sector in a parade of destruction, newer strains of Zerg entities are being spotted across multiple planets. Finally we’ve got the Protoss, who may have fallen harder than any of the other races. After the loss of Auir, they have been adrift among the stars, trying to recuperate their losses & dreaming of getting their homeworld back. All of the races & the chess pieces within have gone through thick & thin, yet they still stand tall.
New characters are another plus for Wings Of Liberty. Though not flooded with new characters, there’s definitely been a bunch that have been added that supplement the established cast. There’s Raynor’s old friend Tychus: a drunk marine with a minigun, he’s just as likely to piss you off as he is to fight by your side. You also have Valerian Mengsk, son of the current emperor of the Terran Dominion. Unlike his father, he actually has a heart and a conscious, and wants to be a more efficient ruler than his dad. These are just two of the characters you’ll encounter during the campaign. Speaking of which......
The campaign is the last positive point for Wings Of Liberty. Focusing exclusively on the exploits of Jim Raynor and his ragtag group of rebels (With a side glance at the Protoss), you see the evolution of a small group of outcasts, to a force to be reckoned with by the end of the game. Just like the original game, you gain access to new buildings & units, but this time around you gain credits from completing main missions & side missions, which you can use to upgrade said buildings & units so they have additional benefits on top of their normal abilities. On top of that, the missions are considerably more detailed than the original game. Case in point is the mission called Outbreak: You’re sent to a mining colony to help out with the people that live there, but you discover that they’re all infected a Zerg contagion. During the day it’s safe, and you destroy infected buildings. At night, your base is constantly assaulted by the infected inhabitants of the colony, and you have to hold out until morning when the inhabitants burst into flame. It’s absolutely eery, but a hell of a lot of fun at the same time. Check out the link below to see what I mean.
Outbreak
Worst Aspect? In comparison to the next two games, Wings Of Liberty isn’t quite as interesting in terms of story or characters. Which isn’t to say that nobody is interesting or likable. Far from it, in fact. My issue is that this games plays it safe with it’s characters & story, and in turns makes everything less unique than it should be. Given that Wings Of Liberty is more of a war story than anything, I shouldn’t completely complain.
The only other thing I would say is a fault would be the exclusion of singleplayer units from multiplay. The campaign of Wings Of Liberty not only had new units, but returning ones like the firebat & the vulture fought alongside them. It was really cool that the nostalgia factor came in, but to see them missing from online battles really was a little disheartening. This occurs not only in this game, but the accompanying expansions as well with their respective classic units.
If I wanted to be exceptionally picky, I would complain about Starcraft II being split up into 3 games. I recall when it was first announced that Blizzard would split the game into 3 separate releases, people were livid, and I can’t deny that I was one of then. After playing each release, perhaps separate releases were a good idea after all.
Wings Of Liberty. Maybe not as wild or out-there as the next two games, but it’s a hell of a way to kick off a damn good trilogy. Older Starcraft fans will love this, newer players will like it, and Terran players will enjoy it. Next game!
Starcraft II: Heart Of The Swarm (2013)(Trailer)
“The development of StarCraft II was announced on May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea. At the June 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, Blizzard Executive Vice President Rob Pardo said that StarCraft II was to be released as a trilogy of games, starting with Wings of Liberty, focused on the Terrans, followed by Heart of the Swarm, revolving around the Zerg, and finally Legacy of the Void, devoted to the Protoss. Blizzard's storyboard team was already working on Heart of the Swarm in early 2010 while Wings of Liberty's gameplay was refined. Wings of Liberty was released July 27, 2010 to much critical acclaim.
A few updates will be made to the game's graphics engine, including upgrades to the look and behavior of Zerg creep, as well as some improvements to the rendering of game environments. However, the expansion will have the same hardware requirements as Wings of Liberty.
On April 30, 2012, Blizzard announced that the latest multiplayer build of Heart of the Swarm would be playable at the MLG Spring Championship (June 8–10) ahead of a planned beta release. No actual release dates were specified.
As of June 15, 2012, the game was primarily complete. The only unfinished thing is "tuning and polishing".
On August 15, 2012, Blizzard announced that the multiplayer beta would be beginning soon. As of September 4, 2012, Blizzard began closed beta testing of the multiplayer beta, releasing it to select Pro-gamers, members of the press, Arcade contest winners, and shoutcasters. The beta testers were not under a non-disclosure agreement, so they were free to stream their games, release pictures, etc. The Heart of the Swarm beta closed on March 1, 2013.
Blizzard officially released Heart of the Swarm for PC and Mac systems in multiple countries on March 12, 2013.”
Best Aspect? Once again I gotta give it to the story. While some of the characters have been changed in some bad ways (More on this below), it’s really interesting to see how things have changed since Wings Of Liberty despite the short amount of time between both games. Old characters return, new ones reveal themselves, and revelations are exposed that could change the fate of the Koprulu Sector forever. I especially enjoyed the new bits, facts, and lore that were added to the Zerg (The obviously primary focus of this expansion). It’s cool to see Blizzard enhance the background of an establish character/group of character, while at the same time never necessarily losing sight of what they are.
Next is how different Heart Of The Swarm feels. While Wings Of Liberty was akin to a traditional RTS experience, this game feels oddly similar to Warcraft III. There’s a bit of RPG-like mechanics in this outing: by gaining essence & doing side quests, you level up Kerrigan overtime, gaining more health, damage, and abilities to use in missions. This doesn’t just apply to her, as units are similarly upgraded as well. You can pick one out of 3 upgrades, and they alter the unit in some way. On top of that, there are side “Evolution” missions that let certain units gain the ability to evolve into a 2nd form. Even more interesting, you can change up what abilities Kerrigan uses & what little upgrades your units have anytime you’re in your commander center. I do admit that when something worked for me I rarely changed things up on subsequent playthroughs, but it’s nice that Blizzard gave us this.
Worst Aspect? If Heart Of The Swarm had 1 main issues, it just how much some of the characters changed....and not necessarily for the better. Kerrigan starts off strong, but shortly after the beginning turns into a petulant child, and one she becomes Queen Of Blades again, is almost a Mary Sue (Outside of 2 situation). Arcturus Mengsk, one of the most iconic villains in all of Starcraft’s history, became a shadow of himself in Wings Of Liberty, and in Heart Of The Swarn he’s nothing more than an old-timey villain that twirls his mustache. It’s incredibly pathetic, especially to those that have played the original games.
Heart Of The Swarm. An improvement over Wings Of Liberty, and while the characterization might have lapsed, it’s a much more engaging game. Fans of the Zerg will get a kick out of this. Next game!
Starcraft II: Legacy Of The Void (2015)(Trailer)
“As of 2008, little to no development was going into Legacy of the Void. Work had started on Legacy of the Void story, scripts and missions by March 2013, as Heart of the Swarm neared release. Dustin Browder, the game director of StarCraft II, stated that "we will certainly do our best to reduce the time between expansions", while noting that "efficient and quick game development is not something we have traditionally been great at." As of February 2013, James Waugh is serving as lead writer on Legacy of the Void.
By August 2013, the story for Legacy of the Void was written, much of the cinematics were completed, and voice actors were in the studio recording dialogue for the game.[19] Dustin Browder announced in November 2013 he was satisfied with the game's story, but felt the missions and campaign mechanics needed more work, to make them "feel" like Protoss missions.
In November 2014, Blizzard released additional information for the game. As opposed to earlier information, the expansion won't require the original game, and will be released as a stand-alone expansion. Blizzard also announced the new cooperative game play modes Archon Mode, and Allied Commander. Additionally, new units and unit redesigns for the multiplayer part of the game were showcased. The beta testing started on March 31, 2015 and ended on November 2, 2015. On September 13, 2015 at the WCS Season 3 finals in Kraków, Blizzard announced that the release date will be November 10, 2015.
On June 16, 2015, at E3, Blizzard announced the upcoming release of a prologue to Legacy of the Void titled Whispers of Oblivion consisting of 3 missions. The prologue is available to anyone who pre-purchases the game. After the October 6, 2015 update to Heart of the Swarm, it was made available to all players. The mini-series is intended to bridge the storyline between Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void.
On October 13, 2015, Blizzard announced a free digital prequel comic book with Artanis being the main protagonist. Titled Artanis: Sacrifice, the comic was written by Matt Burns and James Waugh and illustrated by Edouard Guiton and Emanuele Tenderini. It was released on October 20, 2015.”
Best Aspect? Yet again, the advancement of the story is a plus for Legacy Of The Void. In comparison to Wings Of Liberty or Heart Of The Swarm, this expansion is considerably darker in terms of vibe & tone. Things are going to crap not only for the Protoss, but for the rest of the Koprulu Sector as well. With the emergence of Amon, his plans to return to the universe in a physical form have caused a chain reaction of chaos & destruction the likes of which the universe has never seen. Thought at times this darkness is a little overwhelming (More on that below), it’s strangely refreshing when you compare it to the previous two expansions. The Protoss are trying to regain Auir, the Terrans are recovering from numerous battles, and the Zerg are trying to throw off their ancient Xel’Naga shackes. Nice job setting the mood Blizzard!
Next positive aspect is the Spear Of Adun. An ancient Protoss ship you acquire early on in the game, it’s just as much of a character as the rest of the cast. While it obviously isn’t a playable unit like Kerrigan was in Heart Of The Swarm, it can still help you in missions: as you go through the singleplayer, you slowly unlock subsystems within the ship, and gain abilities you can use like summoning additional unit & pylon drops, a laser bombing run, and many more. To power these abilities, you need to acquire Solarite. You can find Solarite typically in side quests, but some main missions give you some as a reward. To further manage this power, you have to a lot your Solarite throughout the various subsystems. This let’s you control what you can use, and manages the cooldowns. It might get tedious at times, but it makes for a neat little twist to the typical RTS formula.
Rounding out the positive for Legacy Of The Void are it’s units. Similar to how Heart Of The Swarm played out, you gain access to newer units overtime, and are capable of upgrading them with newer abilities. Only this time, you’re actually swapping between full unit subtypes, and each subtype have new & various abilities. As with Heart Of The Swarm, you can change between unit subtypes on the fly when you’re inside the Spear Of Adun, and as with the previous game, you change things up less with subsequent playthroughs. Still a fun little feature Blizzard!
Worst Aspect? The only real fault with Legacy Of The Void is just how oppressive everything is. Given how things escalated from Heart Of The Swarm, I’m not exactly surprised. That being said, there’s plenty of times where the bleakness of the story & mood seem to be trying to be a little too dark, and in the process comes off as hokey. Again, the concluding story in Starcraft’s end is understandably serious, but it sometimes needs to lay of the bleak so to speak.
Legacy Of The Void. The darkest story in Starcraft’s history, but acts as a fitting conclusion to this science fiction epic. Those who enjoy the power of the Protoss would do well to play this game. Definitely recommended!
So that was my look at the iconic Starcraft. I was hooked way back in the late 90s, and I’m still hooked today. It’s definitely one of the best RTS series out there, and if you’re a fan of Blizzard, it’s your duty to play it if you haven’t already. Well, tomorrow is the first of April, and it just so happens to be both April Fools Day & Easter. I have a nice silly treat for all of you, so see you tomorrow!
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If you’re curious about what my favorite Zerg & Protoss missions where, then check out the links below:
Shoot The Messenger (Zerg)
Sky Shield (Protoss)
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