39,327
edits
StarCraft: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (trope=>work) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 15:
<!-- %% -->
<!-- %% -->
{{quote|''"[[Suspiciously Specific Denial|This is not]] [[
A [[Real Time Strategy]] franchise by [[Blizzard Entertainment]]. It's composed of two games...
* [[
* [[
...and several tie-in novels and books. There's also a board game, which was released October 2007.
Set in the "[[wikipedia:Koprulu Sector|Koprulu]] Sector" of space, tens of thousands of light years distant from Earth, the story unfolds between three playable races. The Terrans, human beings descended from outcasts, criminals and [[wikipedia:Confederate States of America|political dissidents]] who were exiled from the Sol system centuries earlier, boast a [[Used Future]] society with a military based around cybernetics, heavy artillery, and "Ghosts" - covert operatives with latent [[Psychic Powers|psychic abilities]]. Their principal adversaries are the zerg, an [[Big Creepy
''StarCraft'' was one of the first games to become popularly used in professional gaming competitions, [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|particularly in South Korea]], where ''StarCraft'' matches are played out ''in sports arenas (occasionally jumbo jet hangers), with [[Serious Business|giant televisions displaying the action and simulcast on nationwide networks!]]''
There was also ''StarCraft: Ghost'', a [[Third-Person Shooter]] set [[Gaiden Game|a few years after Brood War]] (but some before ''[[
Also, [[Rule of Cool|sheer awesomeness]] demands that we mention here two [[Fan Film|fan animations]] of [[Visual Effects of Awesome|very high quality]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOxfIapsrJs StarCraft: First Contact], released in 2009, and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kAJSswZPvI&ob=av3e StarCraft: Final Metamorphosis], released in 2011.
Line 53:
* [[A Villain Named Zrg]]: The Zerg.
* [[The Bad Guy Wins]]: It happens quite often in the Starcraft universe, mainly because [[Crapsack World|they represent the vast majority of characters]] and because "the bad guy" is usually ''playable'' in that race's campaign, so the bad guy wins [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|because the player wins]].
* [[Base
* [[Bizarre Alien Biology]]: Protoss and Zerg can survive in hard vacuum unprotected, apparently.
** According to the second book in ''The Dark Templar Trilogy'', Protoss are photosynthetic.
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: The ending of the original [[
* [[Brainwashing for
* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]: The Zerg were forcibly changed from a race of peaceful worms low on their world's food chain to the [[Assimilation Plot]] driven [[Horde of Alien Locusts]] with [[Psychic Powers]] we all know and love by the Xel'naga {{spoiler|and the Dark Voice}}.
** Note that some strains of Zerg are actually derived from various species that the Swarm encountered and consumed throughout the Galaxy. The Hydralisks were once the herbivorous Slothien herd animals, the Mutalisks were Mantis Screamers, and the Leviathans used to be peaceful [[Space Whale|Space Whales]].
Line 63:
* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]: Magma tiles in the [[Lethal Lava Land|Ashworld tileset]] (e.g. Char) act exactly like water tiles on any other tileset, and no units take damage from being nearby. This may be justified though: the Terrans are all either in vehicles or wearing [[Powered Armor]] (which we know can survive hard vacuum, so being heat-resistant isn't much of a stretch), the Protoss have shields and probably other applicable phlebotinum, and the Zerg originally evolved on a similar planet.
* [[Crapsack World|Crapsack Universe]]: The individual factions all suck one way or the other, the only genuinely nice, trustworthy people are the individuals with no real power.
** Terrans act somewhat like locusts, moving from world to world to drain the resources and most of their standing military consists of mind-controlled convicts. Of their governments, the Confederacy was corrupt to its core, the Dominion is slightly better but compensates with its Emperor's extreme narcissism, and the UED are [[A Nazi
*** The lesser governments are the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate. The Kel-Morian Combine has been compared to massive criminal organization, and is said to practice slavery. The Umojan Protecorate is apparently the only good government, but it is undeveloped and supposedly has a large spy network.
** The Protoss are fairly nice, but they're [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]] and have enough trouble keeping peace among their own tribes without involving the other races. [[It's the Only Way
** The Zerg want to achieve perfection... by absorbing every other being they encounter, until they're the only race left.
* [[Critical Existence Failure]]
Line 74:
* [[Data Crystal]]: The Protoss use these.
* [[Deflector Shields]]: Personal type. Every protoss unit has them. In some of the games, some Terran units can create a Defensive Matrix for friendly units or create their own.
* [[Doomed
* [[During the War]]
* [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]: The Protoss doctrine for dealing with a Zerg-infested world goes something like "[[Kill It
* [[Easy Communication]]
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: If Zamara is right, Duran's hybrids are these.
Line 82:
* [[Energy Ball]]: Numerous units can fire these out.
* [[Evil Counterpart]]: The Zerg were deliberately engineered by the Xel'Naga to be an opposite of the Protoss as part of their experiments. The Protoss have "purity of form" while the Zerg have "purity of essence." The Protoss use a telepathic link that connects all of them, the Zerg are a [[Hive Mind]]. The Protoss are graceful and intelligent, the Zerg are bestial and driven by instinct. Even in battle they use opposite techniques, the Protoss army consisting of [[One-Man Army|singular elite soldiers]] who have spent years [[Training From Hell|training for]] [[The Spartan Way|war]], against the Zerg army consisting of [[Zerg Rush|lots and lots of expendible units]] evolved to be killing machines.<br /><br />Of course, this is only a superficial interpretation. The ''Dark Templar'' novels reveal that {{spoiler|the "[[Turned Against Their Masters]]" gig is a Protoss fabrication. The Zerg and Protoss were created in order to unite with each other and create a new iteration of the Xel'Naga ([[Blue and Orange Morality|it's just how those guys worked]]) as part of their life-cycle. The Zerg got corrupted by an [[Eldritch Abomination]] before that could happen, however, and were made to attack their makers and the Protoss}}.
* [[Evil Is Visceral]]: Aspects of the Zerg that do not fit neatly into other tropes: the way that buildings pulsate when they are being constructed, their sound effects (especially if liquids are involved), the Overmind's influence is represented by a big eye. Then there's the growing tissue sample in ''[[
* [[Expanded Universe]]: In the form of paperback novels and graphic novels.
* [[Explosive Breeder]]: The Zerg seems to be this.
Line 95:
** Judicator: A high-ranking government official, Aldaris held this rank.
** Prelate: The Dark Templar equivalent of either Praetor or Executor. Zeratul was addressed as such in ''Brood War''.
** ''[[
* [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]:
** The Protoss and Terrans have FTL Warp drives, while the Zerg Overmind can use its ''massive'' [[Psychic Powers]] to tear [[Our Wormholes Are Different|warp rifts]] in spacetime.
Line 118:
* [[Horde of Alien Locusts]]: Zerg
* [[Humans Are Special]]: Deconstructed. The Terrans of the Koprulu Sector are only a few generations away from becoming a psionic species. Instead of indicating that humanity is on the verge of becoming something greater, this just means they drew the attention of the [[You Will Be Assimilated|Zerg]], who view their psionic potential as the key to fighting their ''real'' target, the Protoss, on equal grounds.
* [[Humans
* [[Hufflepuff House]]: Both the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate get no screentime in the original game, beyond a blurb in the manual. The Combine was later elaborated on in Brood War, but Umoja still has yet to make an appearance.
* [[Instant Win Condition]]: In the multiplayer; you win the game if you destroy every building the enemy player controls, even if your own base is in shambles and you're on your last unit. There is a reason for this: During the beta for the first game, a very common dirty trick was for a losing player to hide a very difficult to spot unit such as a burrowed zergling in an obscure part of the map in hopes that the opponent would give up and cede the game in frustration.
Line 124:
* [[ISO Standard Human Spaceship]]: The whole Terran Navy.
* [[It Got Worse]]: Repeatedly in the original. It never gets better in ''Brood War.''
* [[Kill It
* [[Lego Genetics]]: The [[Hand Wave]] for how the Zerg can have unit upgrades.
* [[Magitek]]: Protoss vehicles and structures, as well as Ghost cloaking devices, are powered by psychic energy.
* [[Magic
* [[Mana Meter]]: Energy is used for both technological and psi abilities, and also for units with a limited lifespan such as Hallucinations.
* [[Meaningful Name]]:
Line 144:
** The UED just made ''everything'' worse.
* [[No Mouth]]: The Protoss.
* [[Not Playing Fair
* [[Old School Dogfighting]]: Happens during some cutscenes in space.
* [[Organic Technology]]: Zerg buildings are grown out of a certain kind of Zerg.
Line 156:
* [[Psychic Powers]]: The protoss have them, and the potential for them is why the Zerg are interested in humanity.
* [[Puppeteer Parasite]]: The Zerg.
* [[Putting
** The uniforms worn by United Earth Directorate officers resemble Nazi uniforms, right down to the grey overcoats and hats. Oddly, their bosses are a Frenchman and a Russian.
** The UED gets bonus points for using the same interior decorators as Nazi Germany. Both have red flags with similar symbolism; the UED shows an eagle atop the Earth, echoing the Third Reich's eagle atop the swastika.
** How about their predecessor, the United Powers League, who rounded up all cyborgs, mutants, punks and "undesirables" from Earth and either killed them of shot them off into space?
* [[Recycled in Space]]: Many of the elements were reused in ''[[
{{quote| '''Artanis:''' This is not Warcraft in space! <br />
'''Artanis:''' It is, much more sophisticated! <br />
Line 177:
* [[Sequel Hook]]: Dark Origin. Which is notable due to the level being a unlockable secret. Unless you finished the previous mission within a certain amount of time, the player would never learn about the plot.
* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story]]: By the end of ''Brood War'', {{spoiler|the Confederacy was replaced by the equally rotten Terran Dominion, which was then devastated by the UED and the Kerrigan. The Zerg invaded Auir, were stopped, but killed virtually the whole population first. The Protoss evacuated to Shakuras, but were still devastated and lost their leaders. The UED conquered the sector, but were defeated and wiped out by Kerrigan. The Zerg created a second Overmind (virtually undoing Tassadar's sacrifice), which was then killed. In the end, Kerrigan is the ruler of the sector, and the heroes have been defeated in virtually every way}}.
* [[Shout-Out]]: With its [[Starcraft
* [[Shows Damage]]: Type 2 example to buildings.
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism]]: Quickly veers to the cynical side and keeps going until it becomes downright depressing.
Line 191:
* [[Surprisingly-Sudden Death]]: The zerg. 5 out of 13 unit types can invoke this at will.
* [[Suspiciously Small Army]]: Rampant, in quite a few missions your enemies have very small armies, or at least small armies that you see. The later missions have larger bases with more troops, but you're still not going to be seeing enemy forces number in the thousands like you would expect from an actual army.
* [[Sweet Home Alabama]]: The Terrans. To the point where a cover of said song appears in ''[[
* [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors]]: [[Exaggerated]]. In addition to some units only being able to hit airborne or ground-going enemies, attack damage gets boosted or blunted depending on the opposing unit's physical size (small vs large); the sequel also added bonuses against unit composition (biological vs armored); and, always, [[Zerg Rush|lots of small cheap units]] can easily gang up on a large expensive one. The end result is a tangled web of counters, with each unit being specifically strong against several others and being weak to several more.
* [[Themed Cursor]]: A sonar-like thing whose color changes depending on the alignment of whatever you're hovering it over. Green, yellow and red are friendly, neutral and enemies.
* [[They Look Like Us Now]]
* [[Touched
* [[Turned Against Their Masters]]: Both the protoss and the zerg, against the Xel'Naga; the protoss merely shooed them away from their world, while the zerg killed most of them. The Protoss rebellion was just as violent as the Zerg's was. The only difference is the Zerg were all working towards assimilation of the Xel'Naga, and the Protoss were just killing anything that moved, including themselves. A good number of Xel'Naga were killed during the Protoss uprising.
* [[Unobtainium]]: Neosteel, Khaydarin crystals and both Vespene Gas and "minerals".
Line 209:
[[Category:Science Fiction Video Games]]
[[Category:The Nineties]]
[[Category:Real-Time Strategy
[[Category:IBM Personal Computer]]
[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]
[[Category:Military Science Fiction]]
| |||