This is the second part of the three-part series on the three Starcraft races, focusing on the use of tropes and the legacy of sci-fi franchises as used in the lore of Starcraft 1 and Brood War. Read part 1 here.
The Zerg are based off of the Tyranids in Warhammer 40 000, the “bugs” in Starship Troopers and the xenomorphs of Alien. To be fair, these different franchises have cross-pollinated each other as well so where one influence starts and another one ends lies outside of the scope of this post.
The clearest example of the influence of Alien is the Zerg egg, reminiscent of the egg cluster found by Ripley.
Even the sound of Zerg eggs hatching is similar to the gross sound of xenomorph face-huggers:
While most Zerg units don’t evolve the way xenomorphs do (from face-hugger onwards)the idea of evolution is clear in upgrades and, among living beings, what happens to Kerrigan. She is encased in a crysalis and is then evolved into the Queen of Blades.
In the first few missions of the vanilla Starcraft campaign the Terran player comes across creep and infested buildings, much like the plot of Alien:
Marine or Firebat: (on finding a Infested Command Center) What the hell did they do to that Command Center?! Jim Raynor: Whatever it is, it ain't natural. Burn it, boys!
Infested Terrans are another influence from mostly Alien, though the trope appears in 40k as well with Genestealers, even though the Genestealers are faintly different.
Another all too obvious creature is the hydralisk which appears to be, except for its projectile attack, a clear rip-off of the full-grown xenomorph. As with the Terran episode, watch the Battle of the Amerigo cinematic:
Convinced?
From parts of the Alien movies but above all in Starship Troopers and in Warhammer 40k the swarm nature of Zerg come. Thousands if not millions of mindless, hive-mind-controlled creatures throw themselves against the human lines. Note that in Starship Troopers and 40k there really are hive minds as well but as far as I know this doesn’t exist in Alien.
Starship Troopers Warhammer 40 000 Tyranids in the background
Please note the gigantic Tyranids in the image. Similar "big" or "different" style of creatures (artillery, big guys, small guys, etc) exist among the bugs of Starship Troopers, all which lent a hand to the design of the Zerg.
I hope this was moderately interesting. If you've got some info I don't have or a question then go ahead and post it! I'll try to write the Protoss part in a few days time.
I don't think the Hydralisk is a complete rip-off of the aliens in Alien. There are similarities certainly but the snake/serpent movement and projectiles was different and possibly original. Also after Starcraft Tyranids with serpent bodies began to appear for the first time in (I think) 3rd edition 40k, the Ravener is the first I remember seeing with it in probably the early 2000s. So I think despite the Zerg being influenced by early Tyranids, the next generation Tyranids seem more influenced by the Zerg.
Thinking more about it, when BW came out there only was second edition Tyranids. If you look at those models they are quite different, only the Hormagaunt (the 90s ones were much cooler than the modern ones) and maybe the Genestealer were similar to any Zerg units. So I wouldn't say the Tyranids were as much and influence as the Alien or Starship Trooper movies. Maybe a little in terms of the lore though like the hive mind and swarms.
I was told by someone that Blizzard approached Games Workshop asking if they could get a licence to make a game based off the WH40k IP and GW denied them so they had to skirt around the IP using analogues. I wonder if there is any truth to that...
On November 24 2016 20:34 moktira wrote: I don't think the Hydralisk is a complete rip-off of the aliens in Alien. There are similarities certainly but the snake/serpent movement and projectiles was different and possibly original. Also after Starcraft Tyranids with serpent bodies began to appear for the first time in (I think) 3rd edition 40k, the Ravener is the first I remember seeing with it in probably the early 2000s. So I think despite the Zerg being influenced by early Tyranids, the next generation Tyranids seem more influenced by the Zerg.
Thinking more about it, when BW came out there only was second edition Tyranids. If you look at those models they are quite different, only the Hormagaunt (the 90s ones were much cooler than the modern ones) and maybe the Genestealer were similar to any Zerg units. So I wouldn't say the Tyranids were as much and influence as the Alien or Starship Trooper movies. Maybe a little in terms of the lore though like the hive mind and swarms.
You make a great point which is that Starcraft in turn influenced some of these franchises - and others - back. I'm a bit uncertain about the specifics here to really delve into it though. I think the hive mind and the general swarminess of Zerg is coming out of both Starship Troopers as well as 40k (as I am arguing in my post).
On November 24 2016 20:40 sc4k wrote: I was told by someone that Blizzard approached Games Workshop asking if they could get a licence to make a game based off the WH40k IP and GW denied them so they had to skirt around the IP using analogues. I wonder if there is any truth to that...
That might be true or not. Regardless, I hoped to show with my post that is not just 40k which is the influence of Starcraft - if it was then marines would never be the way they are. These other huge 90's sci-fi franchises are just as much parts of the background to the game as 40k is, if not arguably more.
The quote and appearance of the dropship pilot are as close to 1:1 as you can get without a copyright notice.
It has been said (and I agree) that Blizzard isn't good at original ideas. But they are exceptionally good at looking at what works and improving it.
The Dropship example is a really good example, I didn't catch that. Well done! I think the quote from the Dropship is more an obvious homage, of which there are many, many, many examples in Blizzard games. See for example: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/StarcraftI
I think those sort of homages and references fall outside of the inspiration for the game itself. And yeah, as you argue quite well, Blizzard has never ever written an original, beautiful story. Not in sc1, not in bw, not in sc2. But they don't have to. They can just steal and do it well.
The quote and appearance of the dropship pilot are as close to 1:1 as you can get without a copyright notice.
It has been said (and I agree) that Blizzard isn't good at original ideas. But they are exceptionally good at looking at what works and improving it.
The Dropship example is a really good example, I didn't catch that. Well done! I think the quote from the Dropship is more an obvious homage, of which there are many, many, many examples in Blizzard games. See for example: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/StarcraftI
I think those sort of homages and references fall outside of the inspiration for the game itself. And yeah, as you argue quite well, Blizzard has never ever written an original, beautiful story. Not in sc1, not in bw, not in sc2. But they don't have to. They can just steal and do it well.
Definitely credit where credits due - the warcraft series is fantastic. But their best has always been to take someones really good thing and make it great. Diablo 1, very good game. Diablo 2, still one of the best games ever made.
I like how you said it better. Homages sounds nicer and more accurate.
EPT![[image loading]](http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/avp/images/9/91/Ripley_and_Newt_in_Hive.png/revision/latest?cb=20140803210315)
![[image loading]](http://cdn.dbolical.com/videos/mods/1/28/27126/zerg-hatchery-larva-egg.mp4.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/starshiptroopers/images/9/95/071031_starship_hmed_1p_hmedium.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081003182059)
![[image loading]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r9fnkiTlbgg/UtrDVlEFhmI/AAAAAAAAAqA/Go1-Zo3kh2A/s1600/anti_tyranids_by_lathander1987-d4hkcrc.jpg)
