A Look At The Forgotten Starcraft Ghost
As you know SCunite really really misses Starcraft Ghost and often post tributes and information on it so here is a big post about he whole game.
UNITS & BUILDINGS
Seeker Droids appear in StarCraft: Ghost, prowling the interior of installations. They’re employed for surveillance, even able to detect cloaked Ghosts.
The Grizzly is a fighter-bomber which carries passengers.
The Dominion discovered terrazine gas, a potent psionic reagent, about four years after the Brood War. Terrazine has mutagenic effects on psychic Terrans such as Ghosts. General Horace Warfield was put in charge of “Project Shadowblade”, which transformed Ghosts into “Spectres”- shadowy superhuman beings bent on executing the will of their true master. Shadow Blade also uses covertly-collected Protoss technology.
The Terran Stinger is a six-wheeled jeep featured in StarCraft: Ghost. Its primary purpose is to grant mobility and extra firepower to Terran infantry units. The Stinger requires a driver to operate it (usually a infantryman or Ghost); a passenger can fire the pintle-mounted 35 mm HE cannon. The Stinger is very stable, and its sturdy frame is capable of crushing Zerglings under its wheels. Unfortunately, its open-topped design leaves it vulnerable to Mutalisk attacks; a Mutalisk can snatch a crew member directly from the vehicle.
formerly known as the Purifier, little is known about this unit. It appears to carry a single, large “lightning gun” on its arm. The Vindicator does not move while firing the ranged weapon.
Storyline
The main character of the game is a Terran Ghost (psionic espionage agent) codenamed Nova (aka Agent 12-862) in the employment of the Terran Dominion’s Nova Squadron.
Nova’s role when the game starts is as an officer in the Terran Dominion, working for Colonel Jackson Hauler in his Ghost squad.
The story takes place four years after the Brood War campaign. Emperor Arcturus Mengsk has rebuilt much of his empire, the Terran Dominion, and built up a new military, despite having to face the Zerg.
The Dominion has not heard from Kerrigan in years, though they believe she could easily eradicate all of her opposition. The Zerg have been quiet, however, and there is something of an uneasy peace.
Mengsk and his new advisor, General Horace Warfield, have begun a secret project codenamed Shadow Blade, which uses covertly acquired Protoss technology. The program uses terrazine gas to alter the genetic makeup of Terran Ghosts, amplifying their psychic potential. These Ghosts are transformed into Spectres – shadowy superhuman beings bent on executing the will of their true master.
A rebel group called the Koprulu Liberation Front seeks to put an end to Mengsk’s actions and the reign of the Terran Dominion.
Nova is about to embark upon a perilous mission to uncover the frightening truth behind Project: Shadow Blade – this conspiracy will cause her to question her own identity while embroiled in a struggle between the Terran Dominion and the rebel Koprulu Liberation Front. During the course of the story, she will visit Mar Sara, Ash ‘Arak, Abaddon and Vyctor 5 (the last introduced in StarCraft: Uprising).
Meanwhile, Arcturus Mengsk has succeeded in retaking a number of Terran worlds with a ramshackle army, augmented by robotic and Protoss technology. Artanis attempts to merge the two Protoss societies together on Shakuras, but many Dark Templar resent the presence of other Protoss on their world. Infested Kerrigan continues to mass troops on Char but has not struck against the Terrans or Protoss as yet.
Trouble With Development
Release has been postponed six times. Game development started in mid-2001, with a release date of winter 2002-2003. During the summer of 2002, the entire Nihilistic Software development team, the original developer of the game, quit en masse after an internal power struggle with Blizzard. At the time, Slashdot and Penny Arcade reported that the team had already completed more than 85% of the game engine and 40% of all level design.
Following the resignations, Blizzard pushed back the release date of the game to January of 2003, only to push it back to “early summer 2003″ in October of 2002. Blizzard went out on the market to look for a new development team, while reassuring their customers that there was nothing to worry about, that Nihilistic Software had merely finished the job they were hired for, that there were no power struggles inside the company and that the game would be delivered on time.
By Christmas 2003, they had found their new development team, but they pushed the date even further backwards to “second quarter of 2004″.
Ghost was announced at E3 2005 (and later the date was pushed to September 2005), and the web page was updated for the first time in a year. Blizzard Entertainment also acquired Swingin’ Ape Studios as part of a console-dominating strategy. Swingin’ Ape Studios canceled the GameCube version in order to concentrate more on the Xbox and PS2 version, citing a lack of online support. These announcements seemed to have improved fan opinion of the game, but pushed the release date even further back to 2006.
In late March 2006, Blizzard Entertainment announced that StarCraft: Ghost had been “indefinitely postponed” for the PS2 and Xbox.
Although no further word has come on StarCraft: Ghost’s status, in November 2006, a new Blizzard novel, StarCraft Ghost: Nova [1], written by Keith R. A. DeCandido, was quietly published. This has led to speculation that Blizzard is taking the same route with StarCraft: Ghost that was taken with Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, which was canceled in 1998, only to have its story released as a novel, Warcraft: Lord of the Clans, written by Christie Golden.
In 2007, a trailer for Starcraft Ghost was featured on the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade special edition DVD which came with the Burning Crusade collectors edition pack.
At Blizzcon in 2007, Chris Metzen hinted that terrazine gas, spectres and Nova may appear in StarCraft II. Metzen explained that Ghost had an excellent storyline and a good villain, and that the story may be told in future novels.
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