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Three new, action packed screenshots have been released by Blizzard. Two of them feature the Zerg, which we haven’t seen or heard of in a long while.
Unfortunately, the pictures only feature very few Zerg unit types. A couple of things do stand out, though:
Overlord?
The hideous flying monster in this picture is probably none other than the new version of the Overlord.
The Overlord of StarCraft 1 is an important unit that serves many roles for the Zerg:
- Flying detector
- Unit carrier
- Unit control (raises maximum supply)
It’s not clear why an overlord is present in the attack depicted in the picture. The attacking Zerglings and Banelings are attacking the heavily defended Terran choke point – all non-stealthed targets. The Overlord might be attempting to drop a few more Zerglings behind the choke point, perhaps to deal with the Siege Tank that’s situated on the ridge near it. Of course, the new Overlord could have a completely new ability – one that might have something to do with the glowing green orbs it has on both sides of its… head.
If the unit itself doesn’t convince you, take a closer look at its shadow, which resembles the old Overlord even more.
Dark Swarm?
A weird looking orange effect is clearly visible on top of the swarm of Zerglings. While the only Zerg units present in this picture are obvious non spell-casters (Zerlings, Banelings and Mutalisks), the effect is most likely a spell.
Dark Swarm, a Defiler spell, protects units under its area of effect from ranged attacks. This is the perfect protection for a tight group of swarming Zerg units, which would otherwise suffer heavy damage from Terran splash-damage attacks by Siege Tanks and Thors. Take a look at the original spell from StarCraft 1 for comparison:
Also worth noting in this picture is the huge Thor that’s acting more as a gatekeeper than a siege unit on top of the defended ramp. The Thor is a heavily armored unit with plenty of hit points that will likely be resistant to attacks by small units which deal low amounts of damage, like Zerglings, making it a good choice for this role. Likewise, the exploding Banelings are more suited to deal with clumps of weaker targets than large armored ones.
After a long Zerg-free period, we’re glad to see any Zerg presence in StarCraft 2 updates. Hopefully, these pictures are just the first trickle of information about the Zerg race, which we still know virtually nothing about.
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- » StarCraft 2 Beta Key Contests: 38 Beta Keys to Earn
- » Death Animations, StarCraft 2 Q&A 51 and Fansite Q&A 5
37 Comments to “Three New StarCraft 2 Screenshots: Zerg Attack!”
The Swarm is Coming »
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Incredible
I wonder what this green cloudlike mist could be in the last screenshot. Aftermath of exploding Banelings? Or maybe something else.
Definitely a Baneling explosion (which the Thor is hardly feeling).
Cool stuff!
More Zerg please.
About the Overlord and his presence… it’s defenetly a must, since the Zerg are attacking an elevated position and due to the fact that in SC2 you don’t get to see who’s shooting at you, the attackers need viswion over high ground. The Overlord is simply perfect for that.
That’s an interesting point – but the swarm doesn’t have any ranged attackers there, so they have to get up the ramp to attack anyhow.
The overlord might also be present to detect invisible units.
To me, thet orange haze over the zerglings looked more like some kind of fire/explosion from the Thor. But it probably is some sort of zerg cover spell. Blizzard developers are afraid to fully commit to the devourer it seems.
Also, I wonder how the Thor handles the zerglings. Would the thor handle the zerglings like ghouls on a mountain giant? Although the thor now seems to be taking on the mountain giant role, other units like marines and firebats will probably be necessary to actually take out the numerous zerglings.
Another comment!:
Has it been established whether or not players can change what units the bunker should focus fire on?
I really hope that BLIZZARD is going to change the look of the zerglings… now they look like grasshoppers
I was thinking Locust.
They look better in motion though.
Yeah, I got the same feeling as mmx.
To me the orange thing seem more like explosion/fire as THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC said, so if it is actually the darkswarm, spell, they’d better change its look as it isn’t clear what it is and that would be confusing.
I agree – I don’t like the look of the ‘lings. Maybe they just don’t look as good in screenshots, but they still look an awful lot like large, scary grasshoppers.
But this is still awesome, don’t get me wrong
Thats it?
I find it interesting that the fire/dark swarm thing seems to be soming out of the zerglings. maybe they can creat there own DS for cover?
Are we sure that the flames around the zerglings aren’t from some Firebats that have taken them on and then got zerged?
I liked the new Zerglings…
don’t know why. I just did.
But i didn’t like that new spell..
It looks like a fire tornado or something like some °.º
while i was seeing the first picture again i noticed two things:
First, the Thor is fireing, so it has to make some explosion where’s hitting.
Second, most of the fire from the lings, are coming FROM the lings, like they were burning!
So basically i think that SC2 “realism” came to such a perfection that shows the victims burning after a attack.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f380/chairman123/tvz-char-massnumbers03copy.jpg
There’s the pic. Looking really close to those circles, can be noticed that (if this is really fire) those lings are burning up from the Thor’s attack. And that’s better thinking that they’re on a AOE of a such ugly defensive spell.
What do you guys thinks?
anybody noticed new nydus worm? it’s got eyes?
Where is the nydus worm? is that the object in the bottom right of the first picture?
These screenshots kind of make me wonder how powerful the zerg units will be. Most of them involve ridiculously large amounts of zerglings attacking bases with some mutalisks, enough zerglings where it seems the terrans will end up loosing every time unless the zerg units (or at least the zerglings) are a lot less powerful this time around compared to other units.
I think the number of units should be taken with a grain of salt since the screenshots are mainly to reveal new units in an exciting way. It would be quite boring if the screenshot were just a few lings versus a tank or two. Though it’d be much easier to see the details. Basically, I don’t think the zerglings will be weak just because a lot of them are used to fight a smaller Terran force.
And Eros, I think I agree with you. It does look like the lings are in fact ON FIRE, and that would be totally awesome if units could actually catch on fire from heavy attack like the Thor.
I guess that does make sense given the descriptions of showing off (since the zerg swarming ability is what would be shown off.), though the shots still tend to be pretty unbalanced with 2-4 tanks or so and 8-10 marines or so fighting off what looks like several tens or maybe hundreds of zerglings.
That ain’t dark swarm!!! perhaps its splash damage from tanks or Thor or something.
Yesterday I was excited to see a new zerg unit. But I am simply disappointed with this. Overlord isn’t even a new unit… hay… guess we’ll have to wait for NEW updates. Thanks anyway!!!
Yeah i agree with Ken, the firey thing on the lings seem to come from the explosive rounds of the Thor or something. Doesn’t seem to fit in with the whole darkswarm thing if they are burning like that. Also for the overlord, i think that it glows green when it has units stored in it.
“That ain’t dark swarm!!! perhaps its splash damage from tanks or Thor or something.”
Totally agree…
What we see is the splay damage from the Thor bombardment. It’s obvious because the Thor is using the cannons from it’s back, Therefore, it is using his special ability.. So, sorry.. No dark swarm just yet xP
Personally, I don’t like the new look of the zerglins, they look like some weird bug with wings… I like the classical look better.. and the overlord, looks interesting, at least is a little refreshing to see another zerg unit…
I find the new lings AWESOME. Their motion in the gameplay video is wonderful, it seems a thousand times more organic than the original.
“What we see is the splay damage from the Thor bombardment.”
Sorry it’s “Splash damage”…
Damn Internet Explorer…
Lings on fire O.O
FREAKING AWEASOME!
Imagine the effects of that while playing!
We would all get blind! hahaha
its not a spell… its cloaked firebats!
“its not a spell… its cloaked firebats!”
damn, they must hate the smell of scorched lings…
I have a really great idea for the StarCraft II World Editor. I would like to see custom games that are First Person Shooters. No telling how many map makers in WarCraft III tried to accomplish that, but failed miserably. Please reply to my email that comes with this comment, I don’t want to play StarCraft custom games in RTS all of the time, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to see FPS gameplay in some custom games.
How do you play FPS using SC map editor? you mean like half-life in SC2? oh i think we already have that, Starcraft:Ghost is a first person shooters game. Right?
@ ken : maybe something similar to the boomstick map for Warcraft III
Dude….Peeps….That’s dark-swarm hun. Don’t you people kno what dark swarm is? It’s flying bugs ejected from the defiler:
http://www.battle.net/scc/zerg/units/defiler.shtml
Also, you are insane to think that the zerglings are burning. No, that is none other than dark swarm. Look at the size and shape of the SPELL. Look at the clouds of flying BUGS. They just took the old spell and gave it more complex animation. Also, the zerg absolutely DEPENDED on dark swarm to fight off marines, and it is insane to think it would not make a return.
Like we didn’t know what dark swarm is …
Sorry, but no dark swarm
Can’t you see that the Thor is CLEARLY using his cannons and that the zerglings are receiving the splash damage?
If you don’t, I think you better go get some glasses, contact lenses or clean your monitor