StarCraft II

Back in 1998, Blizzard released the real-time strategy game StarCraft. Despite its technical primitiveness (especially if you look from the "now", the era of ray tracing and shaders of the latest generations), the game instantly won the hearts and minds of millions of fans thanks to its thoughtful gameplay and well-developed factions.

Moreover, the well-balanced balance of power of the warring factions made StarCraft a popular esports discipline. Even now, championships are still held on it. Mostly in Asian countries, it is true, but nonetheless.

In 2007, Blizzard announced the continuation of the strategy - StarCraft II. And I worked on it for a long time. The first part of the StarCraft II trilogy, called Wings of Liberty and dedicated to Terrans (a race that looks like a human), was released only in 2010. Now it was tailored for multiplayer, but the story missions have not gone anywhere either.

Chronicles of the Second Galactic War

The plot of the first StarCraft revolved around the fight against the zerg - a biotechnological race that tried to take over all the planets in the vicinity. In addition, terrans, descendants of earthlings, and protoses, something like space elves with psychic abilities, appeared on the maps. Each of the races had their own goals and wishes, and as a result, they began to openly conflict with each other.

At the end of the storyline campaign, the terrans and protoses temporarily team up and destroy the zerg. Four years pass. There is no news of space insects. Apparently, they were destroyed. Therefore, the rest of the races can breathe easy and do what they love - their own political "graters".

StarCraft II begins with a Terran commander rebelling against his superiors. From his friend, he learns that people are now busy looking for ancient space artifacts. They even managed to find one such relic, but then old acquaintances - zerg - appear out of nowhere. And the Second Galactic War begins, which will expose all that political tension and bring all three races to the battlefield.

StarCraft II Races and Factions

StarCraft II features the same three races as in the first part:

• Terran. Descendants of humans, an incredibly technological and militarized race. There are two options for development - or to pump first of all the infantry, which is distinguished by its low cost and high speed; or invest in "mechanics" (tanks, flying ships), slow, expensive, but powerful and capable of turning the enemy base into smoking ruins with one strong enough blow.
• Protoses. Technological race with psionic abilities and an emphasis on the use of energy weapons. The army is represented by powerful units, but the cost of their production is very high. Therefore, the game is played mainly in small squads. In addition, protoses have a variety of special skills, but their use requires dexterity and thoughtful tactics.
• Zerg. Biotechnological race of space insects, "hive". The troops are weak, but cheap and numerous. The most famous tactic of playing as a zerg is rush, when huge waves of space insects attack the enemy base. Members of this race thrive best on surfaces covered with creep, the biological tissue that appears around buildings. Zerg move as quickly as possible on this material.

Despite the radically different approach to the peculiarities of the races, the balance between them is admirably observed. Each creature has its own pros and cons, weak points and virtues. For example, a zerg lurker inflicts huge damage on the surface, but only when buried, so you need to constantly order him to get out of the ground, walk a little, go deeper again, and so on until blue in the face. Protoss disruptors will still be able to detect it in any condition.

StarCraft II Trilogy

Back in 2008, Blizzard announced that StarCraft II would be a trilogy. Indeed, three parts came out:

• Wings of the Liberty - a campaign for the people, in which an old acquaintance Jim Raynor starts an uprising against the Dominion and unexpectedly meets with the once beloved Sarah Kerrigan;
• Heart of the Swarm is a campaign for the zerg, in which Sarah Kerrigan begins to take revenge on humanity, destroying its ships and uniting the remnants of the zerg into a Swarm. From it, much becomes clear about the origin of the race and the future of the entire cosmos;
• Legacy of the Void is a protoss campaign in which the world is slowly being destroyed by an invasion of protoss and zerg hybrids. Now all three races will have to unite against an interesting new enemy - "Fallen" or "Dark Voice".

The first part was released in 2010, and the third - already in 2015. But the differences between them are at least - it's just three chapters of one story.