Units, Units Everywhere
The key that unlocks any strategy game is an in-depth understanding of its units and how to best use them. Browder relates that his team began StarCraft II’s development with a ruthless overview of the game’s units. “Looking at the unit list from StarCraft,” he recalls, “we were originally looking for ones we could do away with, which was traumatic for us, as fans of the game. But we were also looking for units we could do more with and make changes to, as well as new ones we could add.”
The game’s ever-loyal fan base played a key role here too, Browder adds: “The fans told us which units were key, so we left those alone and swapped out the in-between units, so we could help the gameplay balance and let players create new strategies. The whole goal was to make the three races the same in terms of structure, but have them completely different from each other with the strategies and tactics players must use with them.
“For example, the way each race transports troops has been drastically changed from StarCraft, and now it’s very different for each one. Also, the way each race assaults, sieges, and uses air forces, among other things, is much different. So if you’re playing Protoss versus Zerg, that’s going to be much different from Protoss versus Terran, or even Protoss versus Protoss.”
Open the Dropship Bay Doors, HAL
But what about the single-player campaign, where the computer controls the opposition? Greater complexity requires deeper artificial intelligence, and Browder notes that Blizzard put resources there too: “We had a couple engineers dedicated to the artificial intelligence,” he explains. “It’s competitive without resorting to any cheating. I’m a top 10% player, but I still have to sit up and pay attention when I take on the AI at the hardest levels; if I don’t, I’m in trouble.”
Once again, looking back helped point the way forward, Browder acknowledges: “Our original AI cheated with map knowledge, where it knew more about the map than it should have, to compensate for some of its shortcomings, but this AI doesn’t cheat on anything: it knows as much as a player would in the same situation. That means now you can, for example, hide technology and try to force the AI into mistakes if it doesn’t know what you’re really up to, which is a key strategy to employ when going up against human players.”
StarCraft II plops you in the midst of an ongoing drama, as Browder notes: “The StarCraft: Brood War expansion pack had a resolution, but it also left us in the middle of the story, in a sense.” It’s a story that begins with an ancient race known as the Xel’naga, which arrived in the Milky Way galaxy tens of millions of years ago and began meddling with the beginnings of life on various worlds, including the Protoss on Aiur and the Zerg on Zerus. However, humans apparently came about on Earth without any Xel’naga influence.
The Protoss and the Zerg rebelled against their Xel’naga masters, who fled both worlds. The Xel’naga seemed to disappear, but they left behind temples and artifacts on many planets; given the race’s psionic abilities, such objects are alive, in a sense, and can be dangerous. As StarCraft II opens, there are hints that the Xel’naga may have returned.
Races Clash
After the Xel’naga left Aiur, the Protoss descended into a civil war that eventually ended with a unified culture. The Protoss then expanded to other planets, taking over many that had once been controlled by the Xel’naga. The Zerg suffered no such infighting, thanks to the Overmind that the Xel’naga had put in place to establish a hive mentality. Unfortunately for that ancient race, however, the Overmind began thinking for itself and decided to attack the Xel’naga ships in orbit above Zerus.
With its masters gone, the Zerg Overmind began rummaging through the Khaydarin Crystals that had been used to store Xel’naga data and memories, becoming aware of the Protoss in the process. The Overmind decided that the Protoss’ powerful psionic abilities would make the Zerg stronger, since the collective was rather weak in that area, and it led the Zerg Swarm away from Zerus, absorbing other races along the way.
During this time, the Protoss and the Zerg both came into contact with the Terrans, which had long since left Earth and begun populating other worlds. The Zerg Swarm attacked frontier planets controlled by the Terran Confederacy, but the Protoss arrived and began purifying those worlds, which involved wiping out all life on them to halt the Zerg infestation.
Terran Squabbling
The Terran Confederacy was not the only Terran organization, however: the Terrans had, and continue to have, a history of infighting. A major insurrection happened on the planet Korhal, where Senator Angus Mengsk formed The Sons of Korhal after the Confederacy tried to murder him. They eventually succeeded, but only after Mengsk had built up an army of millions of soldiers, passing on his hatred of the Confederacy to his son, Arcturus.
One of Angus Mengsk’s assassins was Sarah Kerrigan, who was later used by the Confederacy in a series of scientific experiments involving captured Zerg. Arcturus Mengsk learned of Kerrigan’s involvement in his father’s death, but he decided she could be of use to him and rescued her from a research facility. Scientists had implanted neural inhibitors in Kerrigan’s brain, keeping her from remembering past events and allowing Mengsk to persuade her to join his cause.
By this time, the Great War had begun, with the Protoss and Zerg fighting each other and the Terrans caught in between. Arcturus Mengsk used every opportunity he had to strike at the weakened Confederacy, which was putting all of its resources into fighting an ever-losing battle against the Zerg Swarm. Mengsk even directed Kerrigan and another of his top commanders, Jim Raynor, to defend the Zerg Swarm on the Confederacy capital planet Tarsonis, hoping the aggressive aliens would finish off his enemies.
Raynor and Kerrigan objected to Mengsk’s orders even as they carried them out. Raynor survived the battle on Tarsonis, but he was forced to leave Kerrigan behind, despite his best efforts to save her. That incident led Raynor to break away from Mengsk and form his own paramilitary group. Kerrigan, however, was not killed by the overwhelming Zerg Swarm, which turned her into one of them; the Zerg Overmind dubbed her the Queen of Blades. The defeat on Tarsonis spelled the end of the Confederacy, and Mengsk formed the Terran Dominion in its aftermath.
In the Previous Episode…
The Zerg Overmind was later destroyed by a Protoss High Templar named Tassadar, who sacrificed himself in the process. Daggoth, the Overmind’s second in command, created a second Overmind, leading to the Brood War, during which he and the new Overmind were opposed by the infested Kerrigan and the Zerg under her control.
During the Brood War, another Terran faction known as the United Earth Directorate (UED) arrived and aligned itself with half of the Zerg forces by capturing the second Overmind. The combined UED/Zerg troops attacked the Terran Dominion, leading Mengsk to agree to an uneasy alliance with Kerrigan and Raynor, who had already teamed with the Protoss. The UED and split Zerg forces eventually succumbed and the second Overmind was destroyed. Kerrigan assumed complete control of the Zerg and the Dominion found itself in a weakened state.
Raynor also found himself demoralized after the Brood War. He left Raynor’s Raiders under the control of his second-in-command, Matt Horner, but an old friend, Tychus Findlay, brings him back into the action at the beginning of StarCraft II. “Tychus is the guy who helps Jim get the job done, but where is he coming from?” Browder asks. “Will he ultimately be a help to Jim, or will he betray him?”
The groundwork for StarCraft II’s story has been laid in the years since the first game’s release, says Browder: “We’ve been working for years to keep the story going, and keep the StarCraft universe consistent, between games, thanks to tie-in novels and comic books. The events found in them predate StarCraft II and hint at what’s to come.”