Similarity

[Battlecruiser]

Has anyone else noticed a similarity between starcraft and other future science fiction type games? I did and it was the similarity between Halo and Starcraft. There are three races in starcraft and there are three in halo that we know of (I am not counting xelnaga because we don't have enough information on them). The three starcraft races, zerg, terran, and protoss remind me of the three races in halo, the humans, the covenant, and the flood.

Starcraft -- Halo
_________________
Terran -- Humans
Protoss -- Covenant
Zerg -- The Flood

What really surprizes me is that both of these games are the best game for their platform by most people's opinions. Starcraft is the best game for pc and Halo is the best game for x-box. Maybe people just like those type of storylines. Another similarity is that in both games the humans are almost losing and they need to be saved. Please don't flame me just because I said starcraft has a few similarities with Halo. If you do then it just means that you are to sensitive to handle the truth.

[dunchy]

There are a few similarities, but many differences.

The humans for instance, when matched against the covenant, don't have much of a chance unless the master chief is thrown into the mix. The terran forces however, do fare better against the Toss armies. I allways found the Zerg to be more of a Alien type of race, units which will blindly die for it's cause. From many sources, Half Life has been voted the best game of all time, with the creation of Counter-strike and many other mods as well. In an abstract way though, I can agree with you.

[Battlecruiser]

yeah but then again the terran army is not even close to the protoss army in strength. that is only in th egame not the storyline. Protoss have to save the terran in the story from the zerg. Everyone knows terran sucks in th estoryline but in the game the designers had to even it out otherwise terran would always lose in the melee games.

[Terran-Civilian]

whoever said that the humans in halo are fighting a losing war? if you have read any of the books than you would know that the humans have an equelly strong if not stronger army than the covenant and you gotta remember that master chief is only one of the thousands of spratans as for the flood there not really an army like the zerg there more like creatures that infest whatever living thing is in there way they have no leader or structure at all
/the thing i find strange is that in the book and the game there is no infested covenenat only marines

[Schwitzer]

There are also no Infested Protoss in StarCraft.

[dunchy]

http://halosn.bungie.org/story/masterchief.html

Thousands of master Chiefs??

[Doom_Dragoon]

I only knew of two... you and your co-op partner.

[Battlecruiser]

no there is only one spartan. well I only read the first book and played the xbox game so I am not sure what happens in the other two books. I remember Chief Mendez leaving the spartans to train other spartans but I don't think we hear of him anymore. At first there were atleast 60 spartans then one by one it slowly dwindled to 1, one reason or the other. And also whoever thinks humans are not losign maybe you havn't read the books. I mean you can easily tell the humans are outmatched in space warfare and when they fight in land the humans always lose unless Master Chief is there. In space combat the plasma shields for defence and a plasma gun for offence creams the weapons that the humans have like there shiva warheads and longswords fighters. Well I will find out more because I got the second book today from Barnes and Nobles. I will update again when I finish the book which most probably will be before 2/22/04 because I have vacation till then.

[IceFlare]

Heh... you guys only talking BS, Im the true master connection between SC and Halo. Heres the basics
Terran = Humans (duh!)
Protoss = Covenant
Zerg = Flood
Xel Naga = Forerunner

The Zerg/Flood convert viable enemies/species into one of their own to be used against other enemies. The Forerunner/Xel Naga were a powerful race that has apparently disappeared but left their artifacts for others to find. Eg. Xel Naga Temple and Halo. Terran/Humans still use projectile based weapons. Protoss/Covenant mainly plasma/laser based. Protoss/Covenant and Terran/Human all have capital ships. Eg. Carrier/Truth and Reconciliation and BattleCruiser and Pillar of Autumn. Both also have smaller single ship fighters. Scout/Seraph and Wraith/LongSword. The Protoss/Covenant were the perfect race or the most powerful race in Halo until the Zerg/Flood arrived and shattered that illusion. Both Terran/Human have one or more people infested to the Zerg/Flood. Eg. Kerrigan > Infested Kerrigan and Captain Keyes. Covenant/Protoss achieve strength through power and high technology. Zerg/Flood achieve stregth in numbers. Terran/Human are middle. These are only some of the similarities.... If I listed them all, I could probably create an essay. There are also major differences as well.

I have also read all 3 Halo books. Fall of Reach, The Flood and First Strike. To contradict someone. There were 150 candidates for the Spartan program. Number cut in half due to costs and space. 30 something died and 12 others permanantly disabled due to augmentation. 30 something Spartans operational. All but 4 die to protect Reach groundside and various other incidents. John, Kelly, Fred and Linda are left. In First Strike, it mentions that the most closely guarded secret is how close the Covenant are to finding Earth and that their forces are dwindling against the Covenant. There are also infested Covenant. There are 2 types of Flood Combat Forms. The infested human type, weaker and tend to stay with human weapons. The Covenant type which are stronger and use any weapon. If you've ever had the experience where a dead Flood pop back up to hit you, it was a human one. Also, level 9 Keyes, when you reach the part where you see the big huge pod with Keyes in it, look closely, you'll see another pair of legs. Covenant legs. In warfare, the Covenant ALMOST always win in space, but on the ground, they are even, tipping to the humans even without MC because of marines training. The Grunts, Jackals, Hunters and even maybe lower class Elites dont have training. Its just that the Covenant outnumber the humans. With MC, the marines always win. Cause the MC never fails. Hes worth more than a hundred Covie Elites.

Sort of off topic arent I?

[Battlecruiser]

nah you right on target. wow you seem to be as obsessed with halo as I am (probably more). Oh yeah did you beat the maw on legendary. I did. The ending movie is funny.

[IceFlare]

Yup definitely. Elite and hu--- dun wanna spoil it for the n00blars who havent beaten it yet =P. Anyways ya, Im Halo fan all the way... got all the figure sets, books everything xcept the clothing.

[Battlecruiser]

wow I never got the figure set and all but I sure love the game. The ending movie is mad funny.

[HackingVictim]

Are you talking about the movie were a human and that thing are fighting over a rifle and a gernade lands next to them and blows up?

I saw my friend playing and thats what it looked like.

[Duddits]

One simlilarity that shocked the shit out of me that-- omg-- the word Terran is used more than just in SC. I have seen it somewhere in non-SC related books. I can't remmber if I've ever heard the word Terran in a movie or other game, butI'm sure it is there somewhere. Anyway, yea.

[Whiteknight]

More bumping, at least not by Duddits this time. HackingVictim, 2 months is ESPECIALLY too long. Don't revive a thread THAT long dead.

BTW, Terran basically means human.

[Battlecruiser]

Well I really don't understand why bumping is considered bad. Can someone explain?

Anyway the reason he bumped it was because I put the link to this thread from another thread so that is why he must have come here.

Also just to tell you guys, I have finished all 3 halo books and I now consider myself a Halo expert so anyone with questions about halo can ask me.

[Giggilyomeromicon]

In halo2 ther are more spartin AND all of them are from riech.

[Modred]

For those who haven't figured it out yet, there was a connection between StarCraft and Aliens long before there was a connection with Halo. Throw in the AvP games and you have the almost same scenario as SC (unit wise).

Terran Marines are like Humans on AvP. They even wear similar clothing and have similar weapons.
Zerg Hydralisks are like Aliens. Less claws, but same basic design.
Protoss Zealots are like Predators. Advanced weaponry...no mouth (visible, I know preds do have mouths), similar armor and abilities.

And pay attention to the cinematics in SC. Particularly the "Battle on the Amerigo" during the Terran SC campaign. Then watch Aliens. The "architecture" of the Amerigo and that power plant are almost identical in theory. Hexogonal hallways with grated floors, enemies hiding in the air conditioning and around corners.

Considering that the Aliens and Predator franchises have been around much longer than SC, I find it quite possible that SC was based loosely off of that universe.

[EdvardMunch]

I get the impression "Battle On The Amerigo" was an homage to Aliens, it's just so similar to the Alien movies, and the cinematic itself has nothing to do with the game. (Or perhaps they made the cinematic before they had the Zerg campaign planned out? Not likely.)

Blizzard is prone to cinematic homages. The Terran BW cinematic is one great big homage to Starship Troopers, whose ending was almost exactly the same. (though no CENSORED bars :( )

I agree with Battlecruiser, why is bumping bad? (Assuming it's constructive bumping, and not bumping to put in the message "I agree") If you decide to start a thread about something that's already been discussed because you missed out on it, people flame you for making a thread on a topic which already has a thread. So you dig up that thread and bump it, and people flame you for bumping it! Is there a statute of limitations on topics?

[Battlecruiser]

I agree with Battlecruiser, why is bumping bad? (Assuming it's constructive bumping, and not bumping to put in the message "I agree") If you decide to start a thread about something that's already been discussed because you missed out on it, people flame you for making a thread on a topic which already has a thread. So you dig up that thread and bump it, and people flame you for bumping it! Is there a statute of limitations on topics?

Exactly! Finally someone understands. I am seeing quite often when someone tells someone else to stop bumping. If they can't bump then they have to create new threads on it and that is just a waste. I mean now you have 2 threads dealing with the same topic. The only way a bump is bad is if you do it 2 posts in a row just to get attention. If you are bumping just to give your opinion nothing is wrong with that. That is what I think.

[Giggilyomeromicon]

the reason hidras look like alieans (frome the movie alieans) is becaus thats what they were based on.also the word terran means lives on terra(i think) and terra is EARTH yay the terran ARE the earthlings so the ued is the same thing as the terran so.........

[CaptainWill]

I played that Warhammer 40k game until a few years ago (now I wouldn't be seen dead playing it) and I see many similarities between the Terrans and Space Marines/Imperial Guard and also the Zerg are very similar to the Tyranids.

Here are some of the units that are similar to each other in Starcraft and WH40k:

Marine - Space Marine
Ghost - Vindicare Assassin
Goliath - Sentinel
Siege Tank - Predator Annihilator or Basilisk (when sieged)

Zergling - Hormogaunt
Hydralisk - Lictor
Ultralisk - Carnifex
Mutalisk - Gargoyle (These units are identical, if I remember correctly)

Kind of sad that I remember all those names, but who cares?

[singo]

i think first edition 40k came out before sc but am not sure

and there will always be similarities between human races in all games. they will look human :P

[Dark_Viper]

yea first edition did come be4 SC.. and.. lol.. i still own a large army of the tyranids..

[singo]

Hydras, imo look nothing like aliens
reasons....

HEAD:
Alien=smooth elongated skull
hydra=backswept crest

CLAWS:
alien=3 taloned hands
hydra=huge atrophied scyth like claws

LEGS:
alien=two
Hydra=none-serpent like body

JAWS: okay, admitted similar, but aliens have inner ones to bite peoples faces off hehehe

TAIL:
alien= long, agile, whip-like tail with stinger
hydra=indistinguishable from body

SIZE:
alien=9 foot, thin
hydra= 12 foot, heavily muscled

PURPOSE: Okay, again i concour, both are genetically manufactured killing machines

REPRODUCTIVE HABITS: do you really want to know?
alien= Queen lays eggs, hatch into parisites commonly known as "facehuggers" attatch on to head, infest humanoid host, gestate into "chestburster" moult into full sized drone
hydra= produced fully grown at hatchery

[AgentFalcon]

Starcraft does have many similarities to past Sci-Fi especially with Aliens. However, it is quite clear that Halo is probably the most similar to Starcraft than any other game.

But in it's own right, Starcraft certianly has a very unique storyline and is probably the best of any game right now tied with warcraft.

[singo]

and in halo the humans ARE outmatched but the warship AI gives them an advantage

remember the intro where cortana says to keyes,
"a dozen covanent superior battleships against a single halcyon class cruiser, with those odds I'm content with three, make that four kills"

and the marines are only outclassed on heroic and legendary, in easy they stuff the covanent easily, on normal they can hold their own. on legendary they get absolutely sodomized (metaphorically) by the covies.

[Battlecruiser]

and in halo the humans ARE outmatched but the warship AI gives them an advantage

remember the intro where cortana says to keyes,
"a dozen covanent superior battleships against a single halcyon class cruiser, with those odds I'm content with three, make that four kills"

and the marines are only outclassed on heroic and legendary, in easy they stuff the covanent easily, on normal they can hold their own. on legendary they get absolutely sodomized (metaphorically) by the covies.
Yeah, the marines are pretty much out matched on heroic and legendary. The only thing they can kill is grunts and maybe Jackals. But Spartans on the other hand dominate any creature. However there is only one unit which can almost kill Master Chief. This unit was in the book First Strike. It is called the brute. But in the video of the live single player demo on New Mombasa, Master Chief takes out the Brute quite easily. All he had to do was blow up something next to the brute or double weild and the brute would die.

In halo2 ther are more spartin AND all of them are from riech.
Yes, a few spartans survive and they come from Reach. But that was in the story First strike and it is possible that won't be included into the game.

[singo]

i thought the brute was just going to be a hairy elite type thing

ahh well, i stand corrected

[dark-kirby]

btw speaking of Half Life...There is amod called Natural Selection, the most popular mod for Half Life Normal. It Has a very striking resemblance to StarCraft because, while there is no 'toss, there are humans with very similer technology in starcraft, and the aliens who have 5 eveluotions: Skulk (zergling), Gorge (drone), Lerk (mutulisk), Fade (Hydralisk), and Onus (Ultralisk).

[PowderBB3D]

Halo expert eh...?

http://www.haloonline.net/
That's my site. I'm known as PTM there.

Anyway, back on topic: Spartans exist in more numbers than 1 (the co-op partner has nothing to do storywise). If you read the books you know that John-117 is not the last of the Spartan-IIs, and you can also logically conclude that there are others like him fighting on battles on other worlds since they tell you that not all of the Spartan-IIs could make it back to Reach (which was then subsequently destroyed).

As for military strength, the human forces are more than a match for the covenant on the ground, and they have superior tactics overall. What they don't have is numbers; humanity faces a dwindling military composed of only one race (humans), whereas the covenant has billions to pull from through its 5 (or perhaps more) races. In space battles the humans don't fare as well, but they still manage to have high kill:loss ratios thanks to the superior reasoning power of the human mind, as well the AI (which is basically a human mind able to operate at extreme speed and multi-task like no other; Cortana is basically a replicant of Dr. Hasley). Covenant technology is stolen from the Forerunner, meaning that the humans are, overall, the superior race. Take away the technology from both races and the humans could rebuild in time - the Covenant could not.

Unlike the Protoss, the Covenant is a loose collection of races united more by fear than religion or common heritage. The Elites and the Prophets spent much of their races' earlier years subordinating the weaker species such as the Jackals and especially the Grunts. It is also known that there is a great deal of infighting - barring the Dark Templar issue, Starcraft makes it a point to accentuate the fact that the Protoss no longer have infighting since they took up the path of the Khala. The humans in Halo are more unified, which is a stark contrast to the severely fractured factions of Terrans in starcraft.

The humans are outclassed by the covenant in Heroic and Legendary for balance reasons - they want the game to be harder for you, the player, so they tone down the help you get and beef up the opposition you face. There is no real story connection as far as the AI goes.

The Brutes seemed stupid and weak in the E3 2003 demo because the AI they used was the same as the Grunt, and the game wasn't even close to being properly balanced or completed in any way, shape, or form. The Brute is rumored to be a sort of rival to the Elite, vying to reach a higher level of acceptance amongst the Prophet leadership. As it stands, the Prophets are political heads and the Elites are military heads with all other races being under the command of these two. Problems are supposedly going to arise and more infighting should take place in Halo 2 between these races.

Oh and before I forget - there are plenty of infected/infested Covenant warriors in Halo. The Elites are obvious to spot, with the Grunts and Jackals being more inconspicuous; they are the Carrier Flood which detonates to release additional Infection Form Flood (or "squids"). Or so goes the popular theory. Another theory is the Carrier Flood are battle-damaged host bodies, ill-suited to combat and converted to reproductive functions.

As for the post about seeing the term "Terran" in other, non-starcraft settings: Terran is a real word. I am Terran and unless you're an extraterrestrial you are one as well. Everyone born of Earth is a Terran, since the name of Earth is Terra. If you were born on the Moon you'd be a Lunan since the name of the moon is Luna. Every celestial body has a proper name - the sun, for instance, is known as Sol (hence, the name of our star system is the "Solar System").

- P

[singo]

i know why the humans are outclassed on heroic and legendary i was just pointing it out

didnt know the covies stole from the forerunners though

thanks for the info however

[neobowman]

As for the post about seeing the term "Terran" in other, non-starcraft settings: Terran is a real word. I am Terran and unless you're an extraterrestrial you are one as well. Everyone born of Earth is a Terran, since the name of Earth is Terra. If you were born on the Moon you'd be a Lunan since the name of the moon is Luna. Every celestial body has a proper name - the sun, for instance, is known as Sol (hence, the name of our star system is the "Solar System").

- P
I am Martian!

Okay never mind what i just said. What if Halo and starcraft were in the same universe, and just different places, and they suddenly meet up? (i wonder if the Zerg will infest the Flood or the Flood will assimilate the Zerg. Or neither)

[B.A.Baracus]

Holy 2 year necro batman!
Anyway, the Covenant are nothing like the protoss, their made up of a bunch of different species. Where as the protoss, only really have 2 different factions/religions, dark and light temps.

EDIT
forgot its not 06' anymore, so this is a 3 year necro

[DarkMirror]

Wow. But, on topic, with the new books it spreads some light on the Spartan IIIs. SUICIDAL SPARTANS

[Ktan]

2004 called, they said congratulations...

Please check the date of the last post if looking at old threads.

(and the rest of you whores just report it once and leave it be :P)