The Story of Starcraft Part 17: Zerg Brood War

It’s a dark time for the sector. The United Earth Directorate controls the new Overmind, bringing most of the Zerg under their control. The remaining Zerg – under Kerrigan - languish thanks to the UED’s use of the Psi Disruptor.

The UED were powerful enough when they arrived. Now, as a mighty Terran/Zerg force, their enemies pose little threat to them. Especially since those enemies are scattered and mistrustful of each other.

There are no new characters introduced, unless you count the nameless, voiceless cerebrate you play as. But we do get some…

New Zerg Units

Many Zerg units can burrow, making them invisible to enemies without detection. However, it also makes them passive - unable to move or attack. It’s a handy defensive tool, letting you hide from overwhelming enemies. It’s handy on the offensive, allowing you to launch ambushes and get into th vulnerable parts of their line.

The lurker is different. It can only attack while burrowed. It’s great for defending bases and harassing enemy forces, while being harder to hit in turn.

Lorewise, though, there’s not a lot to say about it. It just seemed to appear, part of an experiment that the Overmind probably started but never really finished. It’s hard to say where it came from (unlike the other factions’ Brood War units), just that it wasn’t in the original campaign and now here it is.

Same with the devourer - a flying unit that can weaken other flyers. It’s new, it’s useful, but we don’t learn a lot about its origins.

That’s okay. The campaign’s story more than makes up for the plot.

The First Bit: Unlikely Allies

Kerrigan reels from the UED’s victory, taking some time to gather herself and consolidate what’s left of her forces. Then she reaches out to the only people she could call allies.

There’s Arcturus Mengsk - the man who she followed until he left her for dead, who now fears and despises her.

There’s Jim Raynor - her former comrade, tormented by guilt and horror about what she’s become.

There are the Protoss warriors Fenix and Artanis - still mourning the loss of their home world and most of their people in an invasion that Kerrigan (under the original Overmind’s control) led.

It doesn’t help that Raynor and Mengsk hate each other. Mengsk and the Protoss aren’t exactly on good terms either.

Still, Kerrigan convinces them to work together. Desperate times and all that. She says they can trust her because if the new Overmind becomes more powerful, it will enslave her again. It’ll also wipe the rest of them out. If they don’t work together, they’re all doomed.

Their plan is to destroy the Psi Disruptor and recapture the Dominion throneworld of Korhal. Since the invasion, the UED have been using that planet as their major base. Reclaiming it would deal a blow to them. It’s also the best way to get Mengsk on board with the plan, since that was his capital - and the planet of his birth.

The ragtag group destroy the Psi Emitter. Then there’s a mandatory gather 10,000 resources mission, then they invade Korhal.

Korhal is tough. The UED’s control over the Zerg isn’t perfect, but there’s still enough of them - plus their Terran military - to put up a fight. A combined Terran/Zerg army is formidable. Still, Kerrigan leads the invasion of Korhal and succeeds in driving the UED off the world, returning it to Mengsk’s control.

The Second Bit: Interrupting Nap Time

Kerrigan still sees the weakened UED as a threat - they still control the new Overmind, after all - but her new allies can’t help her destroy it. Also, they’re too dangerous to be left alive.

With the Terran and Protoss forces resting from the recent invasion, Kerrigan launches a surprise attack on both of them.

This is a sleeping enemies mission - another that Blizzard likes to use. The idea is that you have many enemy bases, all in a “passive”, defensive mode. Workers don’t work or repair, buildings don’t produce, and units don’t fight unless attacked. This lasts for a few minutes. After that, the bases “wake up”, they counterattack with whatever they have, and then the level continues normally.

It’s an interesting gameplay design, giving the player a few choices. They could try to wipe out all the defenders, leaving the bases soft and neutering the counterattack. Or they could wipe out one or two of the bases - but which ones? And are they quick enough to pull that off? Whatever you destroy can’t fight back, so it pays to choose your targets wisely.

So, it’s fun enough. It’s also different from most levels, so that’s nice.

From a narrative perspective, does it make sense?

Sort of.

Yeah, a military is most vulnerable when caught off guard. Celebrating and recovering from a major battle like this would leave the Protoss and the Terran vulnerable. But as I’ve said earlier in this series, the way the interface works implies instant comms, whether you’re Terran using radio, or Protoss or Zerg using psionics.

Sure, you could ambush an enemy. But could you ambush an enemy, then ambush their buddies just over the hill, then ambush their buddies a few moments later? Even if they’re restocking and wiping muck from their boots, that doesn’t seem likely.

Then again, it’s not like the warriors are always “on”. Yeah, maybe marines respond instantly to commands and warnings… if they’re wearing their radios. They probably don’t wear their combat suits in the shower, though.

Either way, it makes way more sense than the Warcraft 3 sleeping base mission.

You know, the one where you launch a surprise attack against two bases in the middle of the night.

One belongs to the Human Alliance and they’re all napping right now.

The other base belongs to a rogue faction of undead. Who are… also… napping? It’s not like they’re in the shop for repairs or whatever the undead equivalent of that would be. They’re literally sleeping. You can see Zzzz over their heads.

How? Why? They’re undead, aren’t they?

Ah, oh well. Back to Brood War.

In the attack, Kerrigan kills Duke. Mengsk swears revenge against her, even harder this time. She also kills Fenix. Raynor is even more heartbroken overthe monster she’s become. Even without the Overmind controlling her, she’s rotten to the core.

The moral is, sometimes you really can judge a book by its cover.

The Third Bit: Destroying the Overmind

The UED launch a series of attacks against Kerrigan, using their Zerg. She responds by targeting the scientists that tagged along, correctly assuming that they were helping control the Zerg Swarm.

This leaves the UED less able to use the Zerg offensively, as the new Overmind - drugged up to the eyeballs - has an effective range limit. Without those scientists to help, the UED’s Zerg can’t travel far.

They can still use the Zerg defensively though. Also, Kerrigan can’t kill the Overmind - only the Protoss Dark Templar can do that.

Kerrigan launches a snatch and grab operation on the Protoss world of Shakuras, kidnapping their Matriarch, Raszagal. She knows how much the Dark Prelate Zeratul adores her, so Kerrigan offers him a deal - help her kill the new Overmind and she’ll allow the matriarch to return home.

Zeratul knows he can’t trust Kerrigan. He also knows, even without the matriarch at stake, he has no choice. The new Overmind must die.

They break through the UED’s defences on the Zerg world of Char and slay the second Overmind, shattering their control over the Zerg. Kerrigan quickly assumes control over these Zerg, multiplying her power.

She then allows Matriarch Raszagal to return with Zeratul. However, she refuses. It turns out Kerrigan had telepathically enslaved the matriarch long ago, saying the Protoss leader underestimated her power.

This is a decent twist. They foreshadowed it right through the game. Earlier, Zeratul noted a “darkness” to Raszagal’s thoughts, writing it off as the pressures of the war. It also explains the Protoss civil war between light side and dark side. The former leader of the light side Conclave, Aldaris, was puritanical enough to be blamed for starting it, but it was Raszagal who was responsible.

Also, Raszagal was always quick to say how they should listen to Kerrigan, to unite with her against their common enemies. The other Protoss followed “her” wisdom.

Let’s take a moment to admire Kerrigan’s cunning. Freed from the original Overmind’s power, she knew her biggest threat came from her fellow Zerg. She used Duran to infiltrate the UED, guiding them to fight the other Zerg in a mutually destructive battle. Thanks to Stukov ignoring Duran’s advice, it wasn’t mutually destructive - the UED use the Psi Disruptor to win decisively.

But that’s okay because, with Raszagal, she also has the Dark Templar - the only warriors capable of killing her Zerg rivals.

She did a real good SWOT analysis on this one. Using the Protoss and Terran to fight her Zerg enemies, tricking them into it through spies and deception, shows a supreme level of cunning.

The Fourth Bit: People Get Angry at Kerrigan

Zeratul kidnaps the brainwashed Raszagal, hoping to return her to her people where they can deprogram her. Kerrigan attacks his base before he can leave. Unable to save his matriarch, Zeratul is forced to kill her.

She thanks him in her dying words.

Kerrigan finds this funny. She lets him go, knowing his guilt will torment him.

Then all of Kerrigan’s enemies in the area launch desperate, coordinated attacks against her. The remaining Protoss forces, a fleet from the Dominion and the last of the UED all attack her.

The thing is, Char is a Zerg planet. It’s the Zerg planet in the region. And all those Zerg are now under Kerrigan’s control. She repels their attacks. The Protoss and Dominion forces withdraw. The UED fleet tries to retreat to Earth, but Kerrigan overruns it and annihilates it.

The Fifth Bit: Yet Another Betrayal

Remember Lt Samir Duran?

He posed as a member of the old Confederacy’s military, selling his services to the UED invaders. If you stretch it, this makes him a traitor to the sector. But he’s a human helping humans kill his human enemies, so I don’t know, maybe he’s just a soldier.

It’s better if you call this treason, though.

Then it turns out he was infested, placed there by Kerrigan as a spy, operative and saboteur.

Then… Kerrigan loses her psychic connection to him. He doesn’t die - he just switches the link off. That should be impossible, but he does it.

Meanwhile, Zeratul, looking for survivors, finds a Protoss energy signature on an uncharted moon. He lands and finds… a Terran research base, working with Protoss technology.

And experimenting on his kin.

And experimenting on Zerg.

He finds many records of some concerning research - attempts to combine Zerg and Protoss genetics into a hybrid species. This was the original purpose of the Overmind - to assimilate the Protoss and create something new and better.

This is following the same path, but by different means.

Duran reveals himself to Zeratul. Zeratul assumes that means the lab is somehow is Kerrigan’s work. Duran laughs at that, saying he serves a much older power, and that hundreds of labs like this lie scattered across (and beyond) the sector.

Zeratul, in an act of futility, destroys the lab.

But what does that mean? Duran pretended to work for the UED while pretending to work for Kerrigan, all the while serving his true masters? He’s probably talking about the Xel’Naga – Starcraft’s precursor race – but that’s not certain. It fits some things, like them being an “older power” obsessed with the perfection that uniting Zerg and Protoss could bring.

If you read the lore in the manual, though, the Xel’Naga weren’t this malicious. They uplifted primitive Protoss into sentience, they tampered with the primal Zerg to create the first Swarm, but they came across as benevolent but clumsy. Influencing the Brood Wars, though? Working through proxies? That’s a much darker take on the Xel’Naga, if that’s even who Duran means.

There are many unanswered questions here.

End of story. With a cliffhanger like that, you sure hope it doesn’t take a decade for the sequel to come out!

(Foreshadowing…)

The story and the gameplay

Everyone fights everyone in this, and it’s all Kerrigan’s doing. Or is it? Isn’t it really Duran’s plan all along…?

This campaign shows a drastic power swing. At the start, the UED are formidable and Kerrigan is barely holding on, facing a clock on her own freedom. Using cunning and ruthlessness - her two best traits - she steadily builds power until her Swarm is the most formidable force in the sector and the UED Expeditionary Fleet lies in ashes.

You feel that. In the first mission, you fight with scraps. The invasion of Korhal only works because you’re rich at the start. By the end, you fight off three simultaneous attacks. Your achievements ramp up as Kerrigan’s power does the same.

The pacing feels a bit odd, tohugh. Killing the Overmind feels like a climax, only there are two (and a secret bonus) missions after that. Then again, killing the Overmind wouldn’t make sense as the end. Apart from being derivative of the first game, it would still leave the UED as a loose end, if not a threat.

I don’t know. This campaign felt long at times, but never really boring. Well, that mining mission is boring in two senses of the word, but still.

I’m taking a short break over the holidays. Next year, I’ll talk about some RTS concepts before diving into the reason I started this series: the ludonarrative triumphs and terrors of the Starcraft 2 campaigns.

See you then.