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Behold my brethren, the game we fondly know as StarCraft®! Your mission is simple: play as one of three different sci-fi races to complete the missions set before you... usually to crush the enemy army.
This may sound relatively straightforward, but you’re in for a challenge: The single player campaign can get rather brow-furrowing as you need to micromanage personnel and resources while navigating your troops to victory and making your base an impenetrable stronghold – not forgetting the completion of your mission objectives...
Such is the draw of Real-time Strategy or RTS games – where suddenly you’re playing Commander – and effective resource management, combat tactics and the satisfying swarming of the enemy happen in real-time (literally, in the case of the Zerg species). It’s exciting, it’s challenging, it’s rewarding and hey, there’s actual research done that shows it improves your life as well as grandpa’s mental skills too! Another draw of this offering by Blizzard Entertainment is the extensive work put into developing the story as well as focusing on making each race unique yet balanced. The back stories of each race tell like the histories of entire civilizations, spawning swarms of spinoffs which include an official expansion Brood Wars™, authorised add-ons, tabletop games, soundtracks, publications and even a cinematics DVD.
 StarCraft on the fabled Walk of Game, located outside the Metreon, San Francisco
Source: StarCraft Wiki In fact, the StarCraft franchise has garnered a long string of awards, including the “Greatest Game of All Time” from GameSpot, and has been lauded with many “Game of the Year”s. It also went on to snag Blizzard a cool “Best Director of Animation: StarCraft” in the 1997 World Animation Celebration in the developer awards department. Awards aside, cold hard sales figures hit 9.5 million within the decade of its release, becoming a staple in the gaming scene of South Korea. Check out this cool blog post.
Set in the 26th century, the tale is fraught with tales of treachery and uncertain alliances – which makes it all the more exciting. Although a lot of it is pre-mission briefing banter, it’s akin to being privy to a grand plan that will help save the universe and acting as an agent of change. Blizzard certainly did not stinge on character development, and playing as each race provides the player with a three-dimensional viewpoint.
In this great fan-made video, the Protoss may be badass, but they still cannot wipe out the Zerg infestation...
In the first campaign, you are a human – a Terran Magistrate. The Protoss species, which are highly evolved phychic aliens, have been destroying whole Terran colonies in order to contain the infestation of the Zerg – murderous, giant space insects that breed like cockroaches.
You may work for the Confederate, but to your horror you uncover a plot that your own government has been harbouring these insectoids and eventually calls for your arrest which forces you to team up with extremist faction Sons of Korhal and Protoss heretics who call themselves the Dark Templar. However, driven by megalomaniac ideals, Sons of Korhal leader Mensk lures the Zerg to destroy the Confederate and installs himself as emperor of the new government. In the process he sends his right-hand woman, phychic soldier Sarah Kerrigan, to her death.
The Zerg terrorize a Terran scouting team on a space station
In the second campaign, you play a Zerg Cerebrate – a field commander of the Zerg. Kerrigan is not dead, but infested and reborn as the Zerg Queen of Blades. Meanwhile, the Protoss managed to kill a Zerg Cerebrate through linking up of minds for a moment. At that moment, Dark Templar leader Zeratul and the Zerg Overmind exchanged thoughts, which revealed the secret location of the Protoss homeworld Auir to the Zerg. Cue carnage!
In the third campaign, Executor Protoss you are. The Zerg has overrun your homeworld Aiur, but your leader Tassadar seems to have gathered substantial information from the Dark Templar outcasts to defeat the Zerg. Thus begins a struggle to save your kind against the stubborn Protoss government, who refuses to work with the heretic Dark Templar and even hunts you down. But in a last-dtich battle, you manage to destroy the Zerg Overmind and perhaps end their menace.
In the same year, the expansion Brood Wars was released. The story continues with Kerrigan making a comeback, with news of a new Overmind growing on the planet Char. The race for survival from the haphazard Zerg underlings continues, but there’s much civil strife, betrayals and sabotage for the already weakened Protoss and Terrans. Thus follows missions to recover special crystals and protect an anti-Zerg device that comes to naught when you play the final but most badass campaign – taking down the Terrans, blackmailing the Protoss and eventually helping Kerrigan achieve her aim as Queen of the Zerg and the known galaxy.
Protoss hero Zeratul searches ancient ruins for a way to defeat the Zerg, but someone is expecting him...
This intergalactic RTS not only spans light years across alien terrain, but 12 Earth years since its debut in 1998. Finally, on July 27 this year, StarCraft® II: Wings of Liberty™ will make its much-awaited appearance to the joy of many SC fans worldwide.
Expect more missions, more variety of gameplay (how does RPGing as the lovely Queen of Blades sound?) and enjoy the awesome graphics and story! Of course, many unanswered questions still remain: Will the Xel’Naga make an appearance? Will Raynor ever reunite with Kerrigan? Will the Zerg infest all? Who REALLY is fighting on your side? Till then, En Taro Adun!
One more awesome video: commentary on StarCraft II's single-player storyline and gameplay footage. Yes... you can experience all this in July... |
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