ADVERTISEMENT
StarCraft
From StarCraft 2 Wiki
StarCraft is a science fiction RTS game developed by Blizzard Entertainment set in the 26th century were humans and alien lifeforms do war, create alliances and break them. The game is also called "SC" for short.
Contents |
[edit] Description
The game was released Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998, has sold 10 million copies over the years, and is both one of the best-selling games for PC as well as one of the most popular games of all time. A Mac OS version was released in March 1999, and a Nintendo 64 adaptation was developed together with Mass Media Interactive Entertainment for a release 13th June 2000. While the Mac OS version is one of the more popular Mac OS games, the N64 version never acquired much in popularity.
The story line has been expanded through bonus maps, novels, an expansion and two map add-ons from third party developers. A much anticipated sequel is also expected to be released in late 2008 or early 2009, which is currently in late development.
The game revolves around three species of the Protoss, the Terran and the Zerg in the "Koprulu Sector" of our Milky Way Galaxy, located hundreds of light years away from Earth. The Protoss are a seclusive race with highly advanced psionic and technological abilities that primarily wants to be left alone, and prevent the Zerg from overtaking the universe; the Terrans are human descendants from prisoners of Earth who were exiled and try to make a living in this new, hostile world; the Zerg are a race of hyper-evolutional insectoids, whose goal is genetic perfection and universal domination through assimilating other species DNA. In the background is the mysterious Xel'Naga, who in ancient times helped both the Protoss and the Zerg to evolve beyond themselves, but now only exists in the sector through their old ruins and forgotten technology.
The game has been praised and received many awards for the gameplay and the (by the time of release) groundbreaking use of unique factions in RTS gameplay. Many journalists and industry experts have praised StarCraft as one of the best and most important video games of all time. The game's popularity has its peak in Korea where gaming tv channels send live competitive multiplayer StarCraft matches, and where the best StarCraft gamers are treated like superstars and accumulate fanatic followers. Professional players and teams participate in matches, earn sponsorships, and compete big tournament events that are broadcast nationally.
[edit] Gameplay
StarCraft was the first widely played game to use three distinctly different races in a RTS game, and single-handedly revolutionised the genre. The units of each faction are unique, and require vastly different tactics to use efficiently. Some rough comparisons can be drawn between specific units, but the difference in race mechanics is dominant. The Protoss are the classical "high quality" race, where the production time and cost are high, but also produces units that are made to withstand more damage as well as dealing it in turn; the Zerg is the opposite, where the main mechanic is to produce a "swarm" of weaker units that are cheaper and will be produced quicker; the Terrans use a middle ground tactic, where they have both cheap units as well as higher quality ones. Although each race is unique in its design, there is no distinct advantage over the other. The faction balance has been tweaked on numerous patches from Blizzard, who has keept on patching the game (albeit infrequently) throughout the years.
The battlefield environments vary depending on the planet a mission is taking place on, and can be anything from volcanic wastelands, lush jungles or a space platform.
[edit] Races
Protoss "warp" in buildings and units from distant worlds, showing the advanced technology they have acquired, and also manages to use their psionic powers shield both buildings and units. If these shields are damaged, they will regenerate over time. Their main focus is psionic power and technology, showing in that all units that are humanoid or directly piloted by one are of quite high value, and as assistance they rely on advanced robotics, to enhance them or perform less important tasks such as gathering resources or scouting.
The Zerg creatures mutate from small Larva into all units and the Zerg "structures" that is in fact large living organs. Their attacks are often claws or shooting spines, and rely on biological ways to gain the upper hand, such as infestation and mutation. When damaged, their accelerated metabolism and flexible DNA will heal wounds at an alarming rate, regenerating damage within a few minutes. Claw attacks, spine assaults, throwing spines, shooting living organisms, poison, acid, disease, infestation, life form incubation and spores are used to inflict damage upon enemies, and bring victory to the Swarm. Their uncanny ability to burrow, and become cmpletely hidden for the average person enables them to create horrible ambushes for unprepared foes.
The Terrans rely on their machines, and their guns. They have some quite advanced technology, and use their few psionically talented individuals as efficiently as possible. Augmented by mechanical NeoSteel suits, mechas, tanks and aircrafts, they try to carve out their place in the universe with firepower. Their ability to fly out buildings to safe locations, or a safer expansion with ready-made buildings is also a great strength of the Terrans. Most of their focus is the use of guns, rockets, ballistics and cloaking. No opponent wants to be the receiving end of a Terran nuke. They are versatile and flexible, and can take on Zerg or Protoss head on with sheer willpower and explosions.
[edit] StarCraft AI
While there is no way to set the difficulty in the game, instead StarCraft uses a range of different AIs for different parts of the single player campaign. The single-player campaign consists of thirty missions, split into ten for each race. These AIs can be accessed for any mapmaker through the map editor, and are named "easy", "medium", "hard" and "insane". The AI used in multiplayer is a script that is quite hard for any new player to beat, but as it is a tad predictable, becomes easier with experience. It's closer to the experience of a regular multiplayer match with a human than it was in the old WarCraft II.
While they can indeed be hard to beat, they don't work with the same rules as a real player, and the computer player is assisted by resource allocation within the script. That means that the workers doesn't actually need to harvest resources, as its added with the script. The AI is designed to simulate gameplay, a great difference to the AI in StarCraft II, where the computer player actually has to accumulate resources.
[edit] Resource Management
Regardless of what race a player uses, he relies on two resources to sustain their game economies and to build their forces: minerals and gas. Minerals are needed for all units and structures, and are gathered by using workers to harvest the resource directly from mineral nodes that can be found on the map. Gas is required to construct advanced units and building, and is gathered by building (or mutating a Drone, or warped in) a Refinery (or Assimilator or Extractor) on top of a geyser and using workers to extract the gas from it. A player also needs to produce supplies in order to create units, but this mechanic differs between the three races:
- Terrans use physical supplies (food, spare parts, oxygen refiners) in depots.
- Protoss use psionic energy called "Psi" supplied from Pylons that taps into the Psionic Matrix of their home planet Aiur.
- Zerg must have control of their units in order to create more spawns. They get their through the use of Overlords.
In addition to this, the races also have different means to build new structures. Terrans can build any structure they wish on any location, Protoss players needs to have their buildings connected through the Psionic Matrix in fields created by Pylons, and Zerg needs to generate nutritious creep on the ground in order to mutate into a "structure" on top of it. Terrans are even more flexible, as they can lift off their buildings to relocate them.
[edit] Multiplayer
StarCraft have excellent multiplayer properties, and was in fact first designed as a balanced multiplayer game, and second the single player experience, something Blizzard also pioneered in game design. The main power to the multiplayer aspect is Blizzard's online gaming service Battle.net, which is available for West America, East America, Europe and Asia. It's also possible to connect to play multiplayer through dial-up connections, IPX and TCP/IP networking. While not all of these options were available by the time the game launched, the game was already easier to connect to play than competing titles.
Through the multiplayer game, a maximum of eight players (only 2 in dial-up) can compete in a variety of game modes, from simply destroying all other players on a level, to King of the Hill and CTF-based games.
Multiplayer in StarCraft is powered through Blizzard's Battle.net Internet service. Through this, a maximum of eight players can compete in a variety of game modes, from simply destroying all other players on a level, to king of the hill and capture the flag objective-based games. Through the use of the Use Map Settings game setting, players can play Blizzard-created maps that have been designed to have vastly different game mechanics than the original game. "Madness" and "Defense" maps are two types of user created maps that have been, and are popular. This user-created mapmaking has spawned the use of game types such as Chess, or Risk inside the StarCraft game.
The StarCraft CD also has the ability to create a "Spawn" installation on a PC. It enables a person who owns the game to play multiplayer with the "spawn" installations of his CD. These installations can not play single player, or multiplayer without the "spawning" player's installation, but enables people who have not bought the game to legally play with each other, an enticement to buy their own copy of the game.
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] Setting
- See also: Story
Chris Metzen of Blizzard created the StarCraft universe, which takes place in the early 26th century. The story presented in the game's manual tells the story about an overpopulated Earth that in the early 23rd century exiled "undesirable elements" (criminals, the cybernetically enhanced and genetic mutants) of the human race to colonize the far reaches of the galaxy. The exiles' ships loses control, and they stay in cryostasis for much longer than intended, and crash on planets in the Koprulu Sector. The exiles rebuild their technology, calling themselves "Terrans" and form several governments, but quickly fall into conflict and one government, the Confederacy of Man, eventually emerges as the strongest faction. However, its oppressive nature and brutal methods of suppressing dissent stir up major rebel opposition in the form of a terrorist group called the Sons of Korhal.
Just before to the beginning of the game's story line in December 2499, an alien race of advanced technology and psionic power, the Protoss, makes first contact with humanity by destroying a Confederate colony world without any prior warning. Soon after this, the Terrans discover that a second alien race, the insectoid Zerg, has been infesting the surface of several of the Terran colonies without being noticed prior to this, and that the Protoss are destroying the planets to prevent the Zerg from spreading. With the Confederacy threatened by two alien races as well as a large rebellion, it begins to crumble.
[edit] Characters
- Main article: Characters
The player assumes the role of three anonymous characters of some military officer rank over the course of the game. In the first campaign, the player acts as the Confederate governor of an outlying colony named Mar Sara that is threatened by both the Zerg and the Protoss. The player becomes forced to join the rebel Sons of Korhal through events in the story, and help its leader Arcturus Mengsk to overthrow the Confederacy. Joining in together with Jim Raynor, a moral law enforcement officer from Mar Sara, and Sarah Kerrigan, a psychic espionage agent (Ghost) that is second-in-command to Mengsk.
The second campaign sees the player as a newly hatched cerebrate of the Zerg Swarm, ruled by the Overmind, the manifestation of the collective consciousness of the Swarm and the game's primary antagonist. The player follows the bidding of the Overmind with advice from other cerebrates of higher rank and status and leads his small brood.
In the third and final campaign of the single player game, the player is a newly appointed officer within the Protoss military, reporting to Aldaris, a representative of the Protoss government.
