The Original StarCraft Retrospective: A Fantastic Universe (Original + Brood War)

… Damn I gotta play StarCraft again.

The way I always viewed the beginning of Brood War is the reason the Zerg were there on Shakuras was a manipulation of Kerrigan or The UED. Kerrigan is an extremely powerful psychic so it makes some modicum of sense. Though yeah the later bits of Brood War makes more sense.

Edit: I feel you are a little harsh on Brood War's story. It was made in the mid 90's for an largely pre-teen to teenager audience. RTS games were never known for their stories, especially expansions. Brood War was especially well written for the time. Is it a bit obvious and janky for an adult? Sure. But for what it was it was better than most games back then.

The Confederacy is explained in the OG manual, a lot of the lore is explained there too

Funny thing with Starcraft back in the day was, that it got an agerating of 12+ in my country and came without any censorship while the other big RTS Command & Conquer was censored in a sense (no blood and troops were labled as cyborgs who made crushed tincan sounds on death) and got a 16+ rating.

played it a ton on mini LAN parties (4-15 people) but didn't really start to play it online before Broodwar came out, where i also got into making custom maps. Sadly the other Kids weren't really that much of a challenge at LAN parties so they often instisted on playing half life / counterstrike and the likes instead.

Oh god, how did i never see the girlpower thing of sc2 before?!

Looks like Brood Wars borrowed a lot from Starship Troopers

I was in high school when it came out. We had three computer labs supplied by some Microsoft executive that went to our school. I don’t remember who. So we had huge LAN parties on some weekends. Just huge Starcraft and Counterstrike tournaments. Great memories.

The enemy of my enemy is tomorrow's me problem.

To be honest, I didn’t really understand the story until I read Liberty’s Crusade

my first obsession. I was a big sports kid but when I broke my collar bone when I was 13 my dad got us a new family computer and the guy at best buy recommended starcraft! I was never the same LOL. I bet my Dad regretted buying that damn game after I healed and continued to hog the family PC LOL

My favorite Starcraft memory...well, it got me started in writing. I wrote a story and actually sent it to Blizzard. I still have their reply letter.

PC Bang is pronounced "pee-shee bahng" by the way.

I was always a bit confused on how Artanis looked in Brood War. Like his outfit looks nothing like any protoss we've seen so far and even Zeratul has more clothing than him. Why does a vaunted templar and newly promoted Praetor look like a caveman. Also the warp gate on Aiur to Shakuras seems like a plot hole. There was just a warp gate to the homeworld of the Conclave's most hated enemy on Aiur and they never found it for hundreds of years? Also why was there even a warp gate on Shakuras if it could be connected to Aiur, only Nerazim have ever been there so only they could have built it? The only plausible explanation I could think of is the warp gates being able to 'connect' to any other warp gate built but requires coordinates or something so Zeratul just used a warp gate on Aiur to link to another warp gate on Shakuras

I'm pretty sure the overminds goal was always to pass the swarm to kerrigan who was much more mobile n not stuck to a planet I could be wrong but that's how I remember it 😂

The sc2 vs mount quip holds up to 0 scrutiny or rational thinking.

Honestly, I kind of see the final mission of Brood War as having dropped the ball the most in the story. Kerrigan, after all her scheming and betraying, finally had the consequences of her actions show up at her doorstep, and she was completely bailed out without a scratch. She then gloats about it when she actually had nothing to do with her victory. Her cerebrate (you) just took care of all the nasty stuff for her.

I think the final mission should have gone like this: Kerrigan realizes she's bitten off a bit more than she could chew. The only way to survive is to retreat within the endless nydus network inside Char, and you need to buy her enough time in a last stand so she can burrow. In essence, it would have played out like In Utter Darkness from Wings of Liberty, with the mission ending when the cerebrate is eventually overrun and slain, but Kerrigan is now safe. From then, she could talk about rebuilding the swarm, and how she had to sacrifice everything to secure her "crown," even her loyal cerebrate, that she's completely alone now.

Idk, I thought it would've been cooler that way.

On pacing - I don't mind building up the base every time, it's starting with only like four workers that's a real pain. The first five minutes of every mission is basically just sitting around building workers until you can actually start playing the game. There's a reason that, over the past decade of SC2, they've constantly given you more and more workers for every mission / ladder game

Starcraft was a game I watched my father play from over his shoulder. Before I could properly articulate my wonder and awe over the beauty of the setting. Twenty-seven years later, I am still obsessed. All hail the old golden age of Blizzard Entertainment.

The UED is my absolute favorite sub-faction in StarCraft. It and the Terran theme they added with BW was such a clash from the "space frontiersmen" of the vanilla SC Terrans that I couldn't help but fall in love with them. Even if they are utterly cursed, but that's all SC factions.

I actually liked that it started as a "small" event and grew bigger as longer you played until it became lovecraftian huge story.

My all time favorite game. Was given to me by my dad at random when it came out, cause his friend gave it to him and he to me, dad doesn't play games lol. But eventually got the battle chest. Have played it off and on since. Online gaming b4 it was a thing.

Why did you slow it down? To make it longer? I played at 1.25 speed. It sounds correct.

I have now completed watching this series backwards. Give me more.

Kerrigan is a badass and smokin hot. Even as a Zerg mommy

Duran and Dr. Narud are the Same. His placement in Broodwar was a good Idea, and his All Knowing Personality is also Mysterious.

I really wonder how well the Terrans at their Full Power could fight the Covenant from Halo.

I remember the chrysalis more than anything, guess i wanted her to have her payback more than anything. I played this alongside diablo 1 and dune, man its a long time ago.

ahhh. 3v3ZCNRMM

I think my favorite way to enjoy SC1's story and setting is to play the Mass Recall campaign for SC2 with the real scale mod and the old style of models rather than the SC2 ones

The setting was and still is incredible, I'd play a mmorpg themed around it in a heartbeat

Starcraft was also massive in Latam, with millions of players... under the pirate flag ofc xD.

Protoss Probe: STOP POKING ME!!!

Me and my cousin would sneak off to the den where the computer was at like 1:00am in the morning, he had StarCraft on if watch him play hours , now we play SC2 together and log 5-6hrs play throughs each being just as fun and nostalgic as the last 🫶

Kerrigan played a huge part in helping me figure out that I'm in fact a woman. I've wanted to be like her ever since I was a little kid. Unhealthy model for a child, probably, but I didn't care, she was so cool with her wings and mannerism.

I never did beat UMS, Haunted Vacation, man, what a fun map that was

I introduced my aging dad to Starcraft 2, and we both had a lot of laughs at how spaghetti-western the story is. I was always more of a Star Wars man myself, being religious, in my youth so I never touched Starcraft until I was an adult. I found it to be a good universe with a ton of squandered potential. 40k always appealed more to me though, up until its recent subversion.

You went through all the trouble of making a "complete" retrospective for a 25 year old game and didn't bother to read the lore that comes in the game manual? That can't be hard to find....

The game manual lays out the extensive backstory for all three factions.

I miss the era of game manuals.

Just so everyone knows, broodwar is still alive and thriving today. Asia and u.s. west servers

the protoss campain is my least favorite campaing from sc 1.. like the protoss as characters are so dumb and their lines of dialog are so cringe it pains my ears...it is like Listenning to Anakin talk about sand...and when kerrigan said "Touching" to Zeratul and Artanis stroking eachother's egos made me giggle ...also when Kerrigan said that she isn;t the mindless murderer that they knew...she is right tho....considering few details in the first game that are easy to miss she is indead being manipulated/mindcontrolled even if the Overmind says she tecnically has free will..what is free will to a being who's armies do absulutely everything to the tea and never question him...she was more like a dog on a leash, she could do what ever she wants within the constraints of her leash ...tecnically i feel like she mind controlled Rashagal cus she didn't really have a choice the protoss have always been trigger happy, are dumb idiots, kill first and then ask question and she knowing that she killed a bunch of them while being under the overmind she probably knew that the protoss woudn't listen to her and probably out right kill her..she she needed someone to stand up for her.
also "crimes against our race" Atanis my guy...the fuck you mean...yeah she killed a bunch of protoss on char....but to be fully fair... she was a puppet at the time and they SHOULD fully understand that she was.. And also those protoss came to Char on their own ...she didn;t go out of her way to go chase them though the universe ....that is like trespassing into someone's house and crying cus the guard dog of the house bited you ...Kerrigan in original sc 1 didn't even leave char...all the people she killed in that game were idiots who came to fight her or the zerg and she just so happened to be one of the guard dogs of the planet...
also when artanis is like "this entire chain of events has been mastermind by Kerrigan" HUH ???????????????.....THE PLAN WAS YOURS TECNICALLY ???? Kerrigan said she would just help..she came to make you go fight the Overmind . Zeratul was like oh no we first save the planet...kerrigan was like alright lets do this fast then (also Zeratul WAS RIGHT THERE ON CHAR COULD HAVE GONE DOWN KILLED THE OVERMIND AND THE WHOLE BROOD WARS WOULD HAVE BEEN OVER BEFORE IT BEGAN AND THEN GONE BACK HOME TO CLEAR THE PLANET...i am starting to understand why Kerrigan genosided them the protoss are dumb trigger happy idiots who do what ever they want and justify them by saying "it was for the greater good ") ...YOU CAN argue that since Sarah controlled Rashagal, she made Rashagal send the protoss on this wild goose chase and so on...But to be fair Kerrigan has been mindcontrolling Rashagal for what...a week or two...Yeah she diffinately had the time to go though allllll the memories of Rashagal who is old as fuck...learn that this temple can destroy zerg...and then how it works to MaStErMiNd this whole bullshit. If anything i think this is kinda the same mindcontroll the the Overmind had over Kerrigan...Rashagal is kinda free to do as she wishes for as long as it helps Kerrigan in some way...And also Rashagal suggested this BEFORE Kerrigan ever came into the picure....so like...THIS WAS NOT MASTERMIND BY HER ...yeah when they banished her she did say she did what she came here to do and that she insured that the cerabrates will die...but like...THAT WAS THE WHOLE PLAN ? AND THE PROTOSS WERE ONBOARD WITH IT BEFORE ? EVEN WOSE THEY HAD BEGGAN EXSECUTING THE PLAN BEFORE AGAIN KERRIGAN EVER CAME... but now somehow that was a treatury ???? wut ???....YOU CAN argue that Kerrigan somehow managed to find the information she needed to mastermind this bullshit in Rashagal's mind, made Rashagal start the quest, and then Sarah came around later so that it looks like she had nothing to do with the plan....BUT IN THAT CASE KERRIGAN IS A DUMB BITCH TO SAY I USED YOU PROTOSS TO DO MY DIRTY WORK cus that just gives away that you had some manipulation on Rasagal and considering how vital it was the protoss not knowing that Rashagal was mindcontrolled later on THIS SEEMS LIKE THE DUMBSTEST THING TO SAY HERE....MIGHT AS WELL LET ALDARIS SAY WHAT HE HAD SAID AT THIS POINT...and also the protoss then ARE EVEN MORE DUMB cus Kerrigan gave herself away and they didn't even caught on WHAT she had actually done..... also also that line sounded more like what every woman does when she gets angry prety much you do something that one ups a woman and she goes "OH YEAH ? well i slept with your best friend /brother, so fuck you too "
....this whole plot point feels like 2 people were arguing what to do.
ONE wanted Kerrigan to be still be like her human self who finaly was free from the slavery of the Overmind and wanted help from the protoss to ensure that she will never be a slave again but since Kerrigan has a bad rep with the protoss needed to mind controll one of their liders so that she can ensure her own survival. then Alaris ruins the plan by descovering what she had done and since if he had said the Rashagal is mincontrolled the protoss would instanly check if it is true and proseed to kill Kerrigan so Kerrigan was forced to kill Aldaris which intern got her banished and now with no allays she was forced to work with Duran who is bad news and considering some of the horible things she does were actually HIS idea would mean that she got manipulated in slowly becomeing more and more monstress and with the hostail behaviour everyone had towards her she eventually snaped and fucked everyone over
AND THE SECOND one just wanted Kerrigan to be a disney villain
and those two argued and argued but cus they were good friends they desided to do both and in turn half assed her whole arc, but it wasn't as notisable cus nobody at that time expected actually good story from a video game and this was the best you got, and the problems in the writing of Kerrigan in sc 1 translate into sc 2 where the character fully dies
blizzard should have desided weather they want Kerrigan to be fully villain with no redemtion ever...or a gray character that did horrible stuff out of nesessety
cus the books like Liberty's crusade and Flash point would have you have this view of Kerrigan that her whole life she was a victum , who was never given any choise in what to do but always trying to do the right thing... and the only time she did had some free will she at this point was so broken and twisted by what the zerg and everyone had done to her and the surcumstanses where horrible as well and the desition she took was absolutely devistating ...desitions that she can't forgive herself for and can't stop dreaming of the bilions who she has murdered drowning her in the sea of corpses she created ....
AND THEN YOU HAVE BOOKS LIKE THE SHADOW OF THE XEL NAGA WHERE SHE IS JUST A 2D Villain with no remorce for anything she does...

FInally Kerrigan might have murdered bilions...but lets thing what could have happened if she didn't...if she had fucked off or just killed herself afther gainning her free will afther the death of the Overmind ( even tho i dont think she can cus if the overmind can reincarnate cerabrates what is stopping him from reincarnating her or worse in sc 2 we are constanly showned and told that Death is meaningless to the zerg and also Kerrigan: she literally says I AM BEYOND DEATH) but still lets say she killed herself by allowing Zeratull or some other dark shit kill her cus that is the only thing that stops reincarnation of the zerg
the protoss would have learned tht there is an Overmind much much later...and probably too late...cus if the Overmind was left to develop he would have just rebuild the armies and since zerg reproduce and rebuild much faster then the protoss , the protoss would be fucked in the ass...
worse the UED would have had no problems in actually securing the Overmind. and the UED we are constanly told is very bad news...even without the Overmind they fuck the Dominion in the ass, they fuck Raynor in the ass and THEY FUCK THE PROTOSS in their non exsisting ass ...now imagen they get also the Ovemind on their side...they would be unstopable....IMAGEN IF DURAN/NARUD A FUCKING XEL NAGA worked with Kerrigan just to make sure those idiots don't come into power HOW FUCKING PROBLEMATIC THE UED must be ( also people being like oh kerrigan killed bilions...where the fuck did she even find those billions when the UED cleared the entire army of the dominion ...the only living squadren afther the UED was done with the dominion was alpha squadren...and even that was not at full man power...kerrigan just murdered what was left afther the UED...so if Kerrigan really did killed 8 bilion people, then the UED must have killed atleast 3times that)
also lets not mention that the zerg can mutate in hours/days and are resistant to poison/drugs...and even when they aren't resistant to something they just mutate so that they are....so how the fuck did the drugs of the UED even keep the Overmind under controll ??? i am conviced that the Overmind was just pretending or letting itself be controlled till it matures cus the UED was prety much free guards from the Kerrigan and the protoss...so what happens if Overmind had matured ?... it would have probably infested the UED...considering Infested terrans that aren't mindless zombies are clearly possible (Kerrigan) what is stopping it from making a bunch more that can operate the weapons and shiips of the UED. and using both it's zerg armies and the infested UED to concer the entire Universe ?
in a very FUCKED UP way Kerrigan WAS RIGHT in what she did...and actually saved the sector ...yeah she isn;t good person at all and she did it so she can stay free and not a slave to anyone...but she is deffinatelly the less of 3 evils

A lot of Xel'Naga related lore was delegated to the Starcraft 1 manual, which was expected pre-reading at the time. It's a pretty good read if you haven't done so already.

Anyway I do agree Brood War's plot is really dumb in retrospect because it required people to trust others that are clearly overly shady. That being said, I think the first game's Zerg campaign being 50% "Pick up the Chrystalis and move it to another part" was a bit of low point, but the Terran was quite the high point and the Protoss campaign ended with the biggest bang in sci-fi story history.

Been obsessed with starcraft since I was like 5 , that and diablo 2 were a huge part of my childhood. The early 2000s was a dope time to grow up in

I dont velieve it sold less. Asside from becoming a staple game of theirs and putting them on the map. There is also inflation. Money around that time was not as useless as it is now.

Our own StarCraft experiences? Very well. Back in high school, I used to have a pirated version of StarCraft with no cinematics or voice acting, and I had an absolutely brilliant idea to install it on a pendrive. Turns out if you do that, you just need to update the register the first time you plug it into a new computer and it runs *anywhere*. I took it to school and played the campaigns on school computers when no one was looking. Of course, my school friends quickly realized what I had and had me share it with them, and we played multiplayer matches at school together. It was awesome.

Of course, nowadays, having my own income and being able to afford games, I own both StarCraft Remastered and StarCraft 2 with all of the expansions. But I still look back fondly on those days of playing LAN matches with StarCraft ran from a pendrive. You couldn't do that anymore with all the company launchers and online synchronization that modern games have.

the game has zero QOL

Listening to this brings a tear to my eye, it is almost as if I had a Ganthridor in the eye. Oh FUCK!!!

This was not a well researched or well made retrospective

Too bad the interesting story was watered down into space Jesus in the sequel

greatest game ever hands down

This game is what made me adore stories when i was a child. I have autism, and seeing these characters come alive and experiencing this hell with them when i was 6 or 7 made me want more stories as a whole. Seeing people i worked so hard to keep alive, my marines id regularly restart if i lost, die was heartwrenching. I was always so scared of what else would come next, and i think thats in large part due to the sound and graphic designs. Playing the zerg felt taboo at first, like fundamentally wrong to play and it was amazing. The protoss felt so freaking amazing to play, everything golden and filled with light it really felt like i had a chance to help this war from the zerg i had just helped spiral out of control and then fighting the protoss as the protoss i really felt like I was damning us all right up until tassadars death. I loved this game as a kid, and as an adult i really just want to play it coop now. It has its flaws, some stupid story writing and dumber decisions made by characters. Starcraft 2 is even worse on those notes. And i wouldn't have it any different, because its just.... Starcraft. Aside from the epilogue being the end theres nothing i want different.