Young Underpaid Professionals

Ever since Blizzard announced that they will be developing the long, long awaited sequel to StarCraft, I’ve sworn to replay the original game and the expansion, Brood War to refresh my memory. I just finished the replay and I was blown away again. It’s been a while since I first finished the real-time strategy game, and it’s also been a while since I last wrote about video games so please bear with this fangirl. Anyway, on to the replay.

StarCraft was originally released back when your Pentium II was state-of-the-art (and back when state-of-the-art was state-of-the-art, have you noticed you never hear that term anymore?) and it mercifully ran on system requirements that were minimal. If you were from my generation of gamers, you’d have been very impressed with it quality-wise. I’m one of those gamers who get lured in my video games because of their plots – that’s why I’m mostly a role-playing game person, and suffice to say Blizzard Entertainment didn’t skimp on StarCraft’s plot either, not one bit.

The Players

StarCraft basically has three races, the Terrans, the Zerg, and the Protoss. The story campaigns revolve around the player (you) controlling each of the three races, sometimes two at a time, through the story.

Terrans are humans who’ve taken their wanderlust (and bloodlust) to the frontiers of space. They’re perpetually stuck in a vicious cycle of overthrowing each other to take control of various planets. The Zerg on the other hand are insectoid/mutant-like aliens who spawn like crazy and are controlled by blobs called Cerebrates and the giant eye called the Overmind. They have one goal, assimilate stuff into their genetic make-ups and decimate whatever stands in their way. The Protoss are another race of aliens with psychic abilities and superior technology. They have strict traditions and are bent on eradicating the Zerg off the face of the universe.

The Replay

What I can I say that won’t sound incredibly fangirlish? Arguably, the amount of time between my first playthrough and this StarCraft replay made my memory of what when down fuzzy at best so the impact the game gave (again) me was like the first playthrough.

What’s to be expected in StarCraft II

I last played the game way, way back (has it really been ten years?) and really, the recent replay made me want to bang on Blizzard’s doors to demand the sequel. There were a lot of things I wanted to know and it didn’t help that I knew exactly who were not coming back. Barring any new resurrection technology in StarCraft II, I knew I wasn’t going to see Tassadar, whose epic demise included commandeering a carrier into the Overmind to kill it. Fenix was already resurrected once and he died again, so I doubt he’d be making any appearances in the sequel. I think I’ll even miss prissy Aldaris.

The Terran race suffered heavy losses with the deaths of the Dominion’s General Duke (killed) along with the United Earth Directorate’s Admiral DuGalle (committed suicide). The Zerg lost two Overminds (one killed via carrier crash, the other one assassinated), though it’s hard to get really attached to talking giant eyeballs.

With those heavy losses, only the really formidable survive. According to StarCraft: Brood War’s epilogue, Artanis goes back to rebuild the Protoss’ formerly magnificent civilization while Zeratul disappears with the Dark Templar. Jim Raynor, the ever resourceful Terran commander, also disappears. Vice Admiral Stukov, originally murdered, was resurrected in StarCraft’s Nintendo 64 version though what happened to him after the events there is unknown. Arcturus Mengsk goes back to Korhal to rebuild his empire – probably to try and conquer the Terran planets again. Kerrigan, the Queen Bitch of the Universe (her term, not mine), settles with her Zerg broods.

Lastly, what/where is Samir Duran? What happened to his experiments to Hybrid Protoss-Zerg? What will happen in StarCraft II? Where’s StarCraft II, Blizzard? Whoops, sorry.

For StarCraft fans, Blizzard’s “when it’s ready” mantra when it comes to game releases can be very frustrating. Activision Blizzard, however, released a ballpark guesstimation of “first half of 2010” as an ETA for SCII. We’ve waited 12 years for the damn thing and all portents point to StarCraft II being more epic than the original. Let’s hope “it’s ready” this year.