Here is an excellent illustration showing the transition of StarCraft Protoss units from StarCraft’s 2D to StarCraft 2’s 3D.

The original StarCraft units were actually created in 3D at first. 2D sprites were generated from those and used in the game.

It is yet to be determined whether The Dark Archon -> Soul Hunter comparison is a fitting one: The Dark Archon is a pure spellcaster that lacks an attack, while the Soul Hunter is a ranged, ground attack unit. However, until new info is released, we’ll stick with this comparison. After all, the Dark Archon controls minds, while the Soul Hunter controls souls…

The Dark Templar, one of the most popular units from the Brood War expansion, is missing so far. Fortunately, with the Protoss units being based on Dark Protoss design, there’s a good chance he’ll make an appearance in the final game.

4 Comments to “StarCraft 2: Unit Evolution”

1. SC2Fan — June 29, 2007 @ 7:51 pm
   

   Thats awesome, great input by everyone. I wish I could find a forum here..

2. Jenny — September 27, 2007 @ 10:26 am
   

   Awesome, exactly what i needed to know.

3. Yeah, alright then. — September 28, 2007 @ 4:11 am
   

   Yeah, now compare those to the scrin units from c&c 3. colossus? pff, please.. annihilator tripod. mothership? put some effort in.

   As excited as i am about starcraft 2, blizzard could spend a bit more effort into unit design, rather than rehashing their old stuff. I realise they don’t want to go too over the top with the new unit design, since they’d be faced with hordes of angry gamers, but let’s face it, they’re going to get that anyway. Just look at the fallout 3 community. That game was doomed before it was even developed.

   As hard as it is for game companies to come up with fresh ideas to rehash old products, we’re talking about the folks that brought us diablo, warcraft and of course, starcraft. Surely they can do a bit better with something that we’ve waited a decade for.

   I’ll wait until we have a bit more to go on personally, since it’s mostly blueballing and hype right now, and that’s never a good indication of the state of a game.

4. RTSgamer — October 3, 2007 @ 9:10 am
   

   The team currently working on starcraft 2 isn’t the same team that was working on starcraft. It makes me worry a little, but i trust blizzard with whatever comes out. and yeah, when i played C&C 3, was just like, huh?