Starcraft Mass Recall: Zerg Campaign - Part 1

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[@brentramsten249]

the "annoyance of zerg yelling" is one of my favorite parts of SC1.

[@Fr3k3]

same. i love how noisy the zerg are

[@subatomicseal7789]

One thing I like about the Zerg campaign, is that in Rebel Yell Mengsk tells you that the Zerg are a Confederate bioweapon that they use to stage false-flag attacks to eliminate their enemies without blaming the Confederacy, and that's never really countered or disproved, as far as i know. But once you get to the Zerg campaign, I imagine people playing Starcraft 1 with no prior knowledge were thinking "okay, so we're gonna be playing as a small Confederate remnant directing the Zerg to fight the Dominion?", and then in the first briefing a giant fucking eyeball comes out of nowhere and says "GREETINGS, *CEREBRATE*", and the player is introduced to this almost loving family of horrifying alien intelligences controlling the Swarm, inadvertently outing Mengsk as even more of a lying piece of shit than he already was.

[@ChristopherCubbage]

I never thought about this way, and now that though its wild and awsome to think of being a thing

[@wereoctopus]

That would have been a cool experience, though Mengsk might well have *believed* the conclusions he jumped to. I read the manual before playing, and that contained the (then) origin story for Zerg & Protoss. Different experience, I guess.

[@MagicMan3K]

Well it was no lie that the Zerg were... "Forced" onto other planets with Psi emitters which Mengsk hasn't know about until the data disc is retrieved and viewed. However I do think he knew something else or doubted their origin but if he explained it as a sole entity he'd sound crazy. Thus placing the blame on the Confederacy (though they ARE to blame for "false flag attacks" (as you say)) is not only more logical but also more sound. Logical as in "Everyone might think I'm crazy." And sound as in "We need to band together otherwise their creation will kill everything." Once the Confederacy was... Disbanded. You can shift tactics to the other races, especially the Protoss. I think Mengsk might not have even known how far the Zerg actually were but the pieces looked right for the puzzle he was trying to complete and he went with it with considerable force. I think how they introduced the Zerg as this 'if' factor to only have whatever thoughts you had be completely wrong was beautiful done. And as you said, just a giant eyeball really ran that through. I also enjoy how they hyped the Protoss up also, though I think the follow up could have been better imo. Part of it's problem was overshadowed by how incredibly powerful Kerrigan was imho.

[@NoESanity]

mengsk doesn't outright say "the zerg are confederate bioweapons" he says "for all we know they could be breeding the [zerg]" and he says that the confederates have known about the zerg for some time. there is a massive difference between "the government knew about space bug terrorists" and "the government is controlling space bug terrorists" at that point in the story the zerg were a infestation race, they destroyed but were not thought to have any form of intelligence, in fact it isn't until zeratual kills a cerebrate that anyone knows that the zerg are anything more than space cockroaches. in the lore the psi-emmiters were actually developed as a method of trapping the zerg, the plan was to use the psi-emmiters to lure the zerg to uninhabited worlds and to exterminate them, like insects or mice, but then mengsk ordered kerrigan to use the prototype to on antiga.

[@shamrocksardonic2582]

@@NoESanity Mengsk literally says in the pre-mission briefing that 'The zerg are a secret weapon developed by the Confederacy' word for word. The Confederacy was also not just using the psi-emitters to corral the zerg and exterminate them, they were using them to lure zerg to planets known to be populated by people opposed to them, let the zerg run their course, and then come in and kill them to look like the heroes and shut up their detractors.

[@TheJosep25]

I enjoy the pre-mission briefings so much, the VA for most of them is really good. The Overmind sounds like an imposing villain right from the start.

[@Noplayster13]

The reason he’s so intimidating is that he’s essentially portrayed to be God. He speaks in very Old Testament language, his demeanor and philosophy was intentionally meant to look that way, and his relationship with and love for the cerebrates and Zerg mimics God. Then you remember that he’s an unkillable, world devouring eldritch abomination and he becomes very intimidating.

[@SimoN-vf8ps]

@@Noplayster13 huh never saw that when playing the original, hearing him again really shows the old testament style in its dialogue

[@FrostbiteDigital]

​@@Noplayster13 "Then you remember that he’s an unkillable, world devouring eldritch abomination and he becomes very intimidating." Yeah man, he was essentially the Zerg Swarm itself. It really goes into how genuinely terrifying they actually are. (I think a lot of people whom are fans of other sci-fi verses namely Halo and Warhammer 40k really downplay them in comparison to their own similar races.) Oh... And then Kerrigan in HOTS tries to victimize them to Lasarra's face when she brought up the fact that Kerrigan was killing the Protoss colonists... She victimizes the fucking Zerg (you know, the galaxy eating horrors of unholy origin) and says to a fucking Protoss (the race she helped almost destroy) that they've killed billions of Zerg and they should feel bad... Bruh 🤣

[@Felamine]

​@Noplayster13 "Truly, no Zerg can stray from my will." "For the hour of judgment is come!" They definitely did make the Overmind sound Biblical with those lines.

[@fulguratingbean9489]

Also Hydralisks in SC1 are medium, which means that they take less damage from both explosive and concussive attacks. Kind of a hidden bonus to their durability that's really neat

[@Snowfireblues]

As much as the Gas Geyser placement was a major pain in the Original SC1, I noticed this was particularly common in the Zerg campaign. I think it may have been a deliberate choice in order to get the player used to having multiple hatcheries in one base, as it strongly contrasts both Terran and Protoss (because you only have ONE main structure per base). I noticed that a lot of these missions were infinitely easier if you made 4 hatch setups, two in the long mineral lines and one near the geyser and an extra just so that I could spawn 12 hydras at once. And while I got off to a slow start it is fairly easy to defend the base with zerglings and sunken/spore colonies. The lack of optimal mineral and gas placements is a pain for sure, but it DOES make some maps feel more organic, and again I think the gas thing may have been done on purpose to force the hand of the player to make more production buildings or take expos. (Bc in protoss it's not uncommon to have bases with no minerals and just a gas geyser, or only minerals)

[@benedict6962]

But it's also a bit weird since tier 1 units are so strong. It balances out having a limited number of larva compared to terran and protoss making production structures, but they fully acknowledge that you'll have multiple hatcheries to match that.

[@Micheals64]

I think that's a really cool observation on the encouraging multi Hatch. Makes a lot of sense

[@chrayez]

Zasz’s voice is more hiss-ish, and Daggoth has more of a deep rumble, similar to the Overmind. Honestly, Zasz having a much higher-pitched voice than either of the two Zerg “personalities” you’ve already met at the time is probably what led to his voice being the main thing I remember about the character.

[@alicorn3924]

I know them via color, in the original SC I knew them via the background color of their portraits. But I guess the voice is also a good reminder.

[@darthimperious1594]

The way I always head-canoned it was that Daggoth had the closest voice to the Overmind as he was the first cerebrate created. Zasz was the youngest cerebrate before the player cerebrate was created. I feel this makes sense, as you have the eldest and most experienced cerebrate and the youngest, and therefore most familiar with your challenges cerebrate.

[@orangesouls7112]

I loved reading the manuals and all about the different zerg broods and what they excelled at and how they operated. Blizzard used to have such crazy lore about things you'd never even see in the game, and now it feels there's less to be said about major characters in newer games than there was to be read about the Alliance nations and Orc clans in the WarCraft 2 manual.

[@coaiemandushman1079]

literally the Tyranid Hivefleets

[@BaneGaiety4848]

@@coaiemandushman1079 and I think is something many have missed for so long with Blizzard. They never were too original, just good at mainstreaming and polishing concepts and things better than others .

[@karrtoonz2532]

@@coaiemandushman1079 I heard somewhere that StarCraft was originally meant to be 40k. Space Marines, Tyranids, and Eldar. I don't remember where I heard it, or how accurate it is as it was a while ago. But you can definitely see the clear similarities between the races from both franchises

[@karrtoonz2532]

@@caelvanir8557 Warhammer 40k, not Warhammer fantasy. The fantasy is close to warcraft, yeah, but 40k and StarCraft are basically copying someone's homework and changing a couple things to make it less obvious. Like Terran Marines and Astartes

[@karrtoonz2532]

@@Salted_Fysh we don't talk about the mobile game...

[@herrdoktor1810]

The Nydus/Leviathan feels like a huge downgrade from the wormwhole that the overmind could spawn in SC1. It made him seem like the ultimate psionic force in the universe. It also explains why the Zerg didn't need capital ships in the origional game.

[@7thAce]

Awaken, my child, and embrace the glory that is your birthright. Know that I am the Overmind, the eternal will of the Swarm, and that you have been created to serve me. Overmind and zerg

[@Razr750]

I love that the first mission of the Zerg campaign treats you like you already have an idea of how to play. If you're doing them in the order that's intended, you've had an entire campaign to learn the basics of the game and all they need to do is teach you how Zerg buildings/tech work. I think of the SC races Zerg gets the biggest buff from not having a unit cap. Mass ling gets absolutely insane later in the campaign, simply because they were balanced around the limit of selecting 12 at a time.

[@Noplayster13]

Is there really no unit cap for Zerg? That’s so freaking broken.

[@poiuyt975]

@@Noplayster13 He meant the cap of maximum units you could select. In SC1 it was 12, so controlling huge zergling armies was rather bothersome. Plus the AI of your own units was much worse as well, they kept colliding with one another and the obstacles on the map. Overall the zerglings in SC1 were much less effective despite have the same stats.

[@Noplayster13]

@@poiuyt975 Ah, yes. I should have realized that’s what he meant.

[@silverhand9965]

@@poiuyt975 Yeah, lings were ridiculously strong units for their cost and supply, but it was balanced by the fact that controlling more than 6 supply of them was tough. In a way the fact that you got two per larva was almost a nerf because of that

[@Enderspartan911]

In regards to finding and securing gas geysers, I like the idea as someone who cut their RTS teeth on Age of Mythology/Empires the tactical elements of finding and securing resources beyond a bunch of copy-pasted mineral gas pads, and having irregular resource spawns feels a little more organic map design. However, the actual resource system used in Starcraft makes that kind of design super cumbersome

[@mullerpotgieter]

Its a fundamentally different balance

[@mbos14]

I do like it more but for a game like startcraft with only 2 resources outside the campaign not so much. Tough the more organic resource spread is prob why i like AOM or EE more then SC.

[@Zakuzelo]

There's nothing wrong with mineral patches and geysers not being optimally placed out if the maps are designed for that level of income. Hell, if anything it's better this way; frees up some space for map design.

[@JackFrosthawk]

Yeah AoE/M has a totally different system of economy compared to SC, that when SC takes a page from AoE in its map design regarding resources it comes off way clunkier and less intuitive. The biggest thing is simply that starting gathering AT ALL is a huge investment because you need an expensive town center building to drop off resources. Jankier resource layouts would be a lot less cumbersome if you could drop down a 2x2 building that takes 75 minerals and 15 seconds to build, like what you're expected to do in Age of games, but I don't know how feasible it would be even then just because environment design is so different in general.

[@Protolisk]

I knew Hydras were good, but last time I played SC1 was when I was a wee lad, and I never realized that Mutalisks were available already. That's actually a lot of military strength the game lets you throw around already. I DO remember the Hunter Killers, and man, I thought that they *were* my Hydras and I was wondering when I could upgrade my Hydras into them. The lessons of 20 years later.

[@jones.7235]

Hey! I'm one of the people responsible for this. Shame about the issues. I'm noticing there's no option for cinematics in the menu - it should be in the gameplay tab and should only appear when the game detects the cinematics pack. An easy way to make sure if the cinema pack is actually installed is to check the file size of the "SCMRcinematics" file in the Mods folder. If it's a couple kilobytes, it includes no cinematics and is in fact a placeholder file since the game needs to find one for the mod to run (dependencies etc.) If this is the case, you could simply overwrite the file with the actual cinema addon and then enable cinematics via MR options. If that's not the case, then clearly something has gone terribly wrong. As for the issues with other options and campaign progress, couldn't tell you. I doubt the game's throwing random options at you, what's probably happening is they get reset or not loaded from the bank file for whatever reason. People have mentioned reloading from replay and a recent SC2 update for possible causes. Both are very possible. Sadly, less attention has been given to playing without the cinema addon so the mod might also be more prone to problems under those circumstances. Hard to say based on this. The campaign unlock thing has obviously gone haywire at some point, at least. In case we ever end up updating the mod again, we'll take another look at some of the things talked about here.

[@lucaschudleigh7193]

Can you update the mod so it actually functions? Tried installing twice and it just doesn’t work. Tried all the fixes. Would love to play it, but in its present state, there is little chance.

[@MrGeorgeFlorcus]

I think that Brood War is the only time Kerrigan works as the head of the Swarm, mainly because she had to really fight for it. Whether it be combating rogue Hive Clusters, competing with the surviving Cerebrates, or trying to survive under external threats from the Terrans and the Protoss, Kerrigan was constantly under pressure to perform strategic maneuvers and exercise her intelligence. As a total maverick who refused to play by anyone else's rules, even those of her creator's, her level of independence, unpredictability, cunning, and manipulation were the best part of SC1's writing, with the characterization of Mengsk being a close second. You really get the sense that she earned her place as the undisputed Queen of the Koprulu sector by the end of Brood War; not by being the most special, most important, most awesome, godly-powerful being who ever lived, but by outplaying and outmaneuvering her opponents.

[@sintanan469]

Awaken my child, and embrace the glory that is your birthright! I am the Overmind, the eternal will of the Swarm, and you have been created to serve me. I love this opening. Sets the tone of the Zerg campaign with you playing the role of the Cerebrate of the newly created Jormundgand Brood. It is this brood in its infancy that is lured by the call of the Psi Emitter to do Mengsk's dirty work, it is this infant brood that Kerrigan defends, it is this brood that is the caretaker of Kerrigan, the brood that is the vanguard for the attack on Aiur, and it is the first brood Kerrigan bends to her will to serve during the Brood War. The Jormungandr is the Norse serpent that devours its own tail, and it is with the Jormungand Brood that the Overmind starts the mechanization of its own destruction.

[@Kilmori]

This got me searching, and I found this: the Jormungand Brood is led by Araq, not the Young Cerebrate (player character). They are two distinct characters. Source: The Queen of Blades (book)

[@sintanan469]

You play as yhe Jormungand Brood the whole of the zerg campaign. Maybe it's a different cerebrate in the book, but you literally play the new brood... this is a case of I'm going to go with the game's facts over a side story book I haven't read.

[@Noplayster13]

I don’t think that the Jormungandre brood did anything to undermine the Overmind itself though. It could be argued that since Kerrigan was a part of that brood that it eventually devoured the rest of the swarm.

[@sintanan469]

@@Noplayster13 My point is like a series of dominos falling into place, the Overmind creates the Jormungand brood to protect the chrysalis, which leads to the creation of Kerrigan. From there the Overmind feels confident enough to push forth into Aiur, only to get destroyed by Tassadar channeling void energy as taught to him by Zeratul, who only joined with the templar because of the psychic emanations of Kerrigan got his attention in time. Without the chrysalis, Kerrigan, and the Jormungand brood, the Overmind would not have been in a position to be haughty enough to believe it couldn't fail the invasion of Aiur.

[@conan2096]

what youre not seeing is that the nydus worm is just millions of miles long and filled with speed pads. the drones playing wipout in there.

[@kewu313]

8:50 SC2 feels like it was designed with pro matches in mind more than ever, more than probably any other RTS game I believe. If not so things like Spawn Larva would've been auto-castable. It's like the ability that suits auto-cast the best in the game.

[@RoyalFusilier]

An ability like that is a great example of the difference between "decision making" and "decision prolonging", as in, nobody would ever choose to *not* spawn more larva if they could, there's no counter-choice, it's an obvious must-have... which is what auto-cast should be for, yeah. When a decision is automatic.

[@salmelo16]

Friend and I think this is why they changed their mind about Thor's building with SCVs.

[@WrathOfMega]

@@salmelo16 I think they changed their mind about that when the beta testers started finding Thors proxied in their main bases.

[@SleepLessThan3]

@@WrathOfMega that's funny as fuck 🤣

[@AbdielKavash]

@@RoyalFusilier I used to think the same until I started playing Zerg a bunch myself. But there is still a meaningful decision to be made. The decision is just not "do I want to inject or not", but "do I want to inject at the cost of losing sight/control of my army for a few seconds". With larva/creep/economy/map control and so on, you simply don't have enough time to pay attention to everything at once. So you need to make more big "meta-decisions" about what to prioritize at any point in time. Your game time becomes another resource that you need to manage and spend efficiently. Which at least in my opinion is more interesting than just being able to focus on the most important thing all the time and having everything else automated for you.

[@christopherg2347]

17:00 Zsas and Daggoth use different color shemes, even in the briefings and mission discussion. Also their voices and mannerisms are very different. Daggoth is like the 2nd in Command. He is the one that picks up the slack when the Overmind is out of action. Zsas is more like the previous "New Kid".

[@pabloP417]

Grant, It is a pity that your version of SCMR does not work properly, but I just want you to know that it is not the same for all of us. My version at least works perfectly fine as far as I am concerned. Developers made a huge effort throught the years creating this campaign and the result is really good despite having some issues in certain setups.

[@leererKanal]

yeah I'd sa, he should probably reinstall the mod

[@eadbert1935]

it might be an issue because recent patch bringing issues.

[@leererKanal]

@@eadbert1935 sure bit I have the latest version (as far as I know at least) and I dont have problems and I see a lot of other people here not javing any problems aswell. Do a new clea install might just be the thing to solve his problems

[@Lanadra]

@@leererKanal I think Grant may have mucked about in the files a bit too much.

[@Zakuzelo]

I love the bomb of this briefing. You've played an entire campaign of the zerg being these mindless killer bug things, then you switch to playing as them and get hit with deepest voice imaginable speaking more poetically and eloquently than any human you've heard so far. It's so, SO good. And yeah, zerglings are busted in this. SC1 units were not at all balanced for 2's pathing and unit selection.

[@JayborinoPlays]

ANOTHER video with ZERO dislikes?? He can't keep getting away with it!

[@mullerpotgieter]

Think you'll try playing the deleted levels Grant couldn't?

[@felipecejas9313]

not after that cerebrate comment!

[@HurremDurrem]

Pfffft

[@willbassett5290]

Its incredible what proper movement and infinite size control groups can do for BW zerg.

[@siaal5001]

Y'know, i never realized that Terran had only 13 worlds, and they lost 9 of them to the zerg. I always thought they were more prolific but they actually got dumpstered huh. p.s. I *unironically* enjoy the zerg response screeching, idk p.p.s. What is 'authorise the use of psi-emitters' in evo chamber options? o.o

[@triluchowy]

The psi emiters option unlocks "endgame" difficulty, beyond hard.

[@thetheory6159]

It adds zerg waves in extra to literally every mission. Not small ones, either. I think in the prologue missions it ends up slamming your base with like 4 ultras, 12 hydras, 6 mutas and 3 guardians on the third wave.

[@alicorn3924]

@@thetheory6159 WHAT THE- Imma go play that, Imma redownload SC2 now, cya.

[@insignificantgnat9334]

The number of human worlds started in the text seems a little low given what we see elsewhere in the storyline. So either the lore was drastically revised later or it means that there were 13 major human planets and an unknown number of satellite colonies which weren't meaningful in a military/economic/political sense.

[@bluesbest1]

@@insignificantgnat9334 I think most of the "Terran Worlds" we see in SC2 are either outposts, colonies, or research stations. Think Agria and Redstone. Also, I'm sure Arcturus expanded a lot, both in terms of technology and Dominion borders. Come to think of it, Mar Sara is a fringe world, so it might not have necessarily counted among the 13. IDK, I don't really know the SC lore.

[@christopherg2347]

I like the contrast. Mengsk in terran outtro: "We,will win, no mater the cost!" Zerg: 1:25

[@ChrisKogawa]

I personally think having vespene (meant to be the 'rarer' of the two resources you can access) being something you have to go out and secure is a much more interesting and immersive mechanic, and, in a vacuum, is how I would prefer any RTS to be. With that said, the game needs to be balanced around that concept in order actually work, and the implementation of vespene is so integral to Starcraft that it isn't rewarding in its execution. In order to work effectively, having a rare resource that you have to seek out requires the ability for each playable tribe to operate completely *without* that resource in the early game, a feature that I think Starcraft lacks.

[@NoESanity]

im pretty sure minerals are actually rarer in lore. minerals are deposited on planets by asteroid impact but vespene is just a fossil fuel/natural gas analog and is actually said to be near infinite, planets can be over mined, but will continue to produce more vespene over time, which is why in sc1 gysers would deplete and still give resources. in lore minerals effectively replaced metal for the terrans and protoss and are what make the bones, carapaces, and claws of the zerg so strong. where vespene is basically super methane on crack. but if you look at warcraft you get a very similar concept. a few buildings, workers, and usually the main unit could be built without wood, but pretty much every structure or unit after that in the tech tree would require wood. wc2 had oil, which i think is what you're looking for, an optional special resource that can be used for special units, in the case of oil it was boats, but SC could in lore do something like terazene for psionics, but i don't know if a 4th resoruce would do anything for gameplay. like maybe having zerg hunt down essence to unlock strains or protoss unlock a hotbar or something with solarite, but at that point you're not playing starcraft anymore.

[@ChrisKogawa]

@@NoESanity I had no idea; I'm not really into SC lore. I assumed vespene was supposed to be rarer since bases always have minerals but whether there are and quantity of vespene geysers can vary from map to map and base to base.

[@nonya1366]

Zergling in 1: created specifically to be an efficient killing machine. Zerling in 2: Lil baby.

[@manolgeorgiev9664]

They were a bit too effective at their job and Blizzard had to hit them with the nerf hammer.

[@Fr3k3]

blizzard didn't nerf them because they were too good. blizzard nerfed them by shifting the focus of SC2's balance to gas units over mineral units. this effectively pushed the Tier 1 units out of the picture.

[@TheHappy115]

Its funny how good the Zergling is. Even in SC1 it is one the best units (and best starter unit), and that is with them stumbling on themselves while only being able to select 12 units.

[@Varja376]

so about cinematics, what might have happened is if you download all the files the mod page gives you, one of the optional ones has cinematics for the extra stuff, but the file name is the same as the one for the regular campaigns, so if you overwrite that, well... edit, the only way to tell the cerebrates apart is what color they got. zasz is green in sc remastered (guess hes red now) and daggoth is blue. daggoth is also the first cerebrate that talks to you

[@Poynting_Vector]

I adore the short descriptions of every unit you can make. It gives a nice idea of where the units come from and how they work. Also the mohawks on the workers are cool.

[@PeterZaitcev]

Grant, please enable extra hero abilities. They make your life easier while also making heroic units almost useful.

[@nonnect]

he has been playing with it before. Think it is his settings messing up.

[@PeterZaitcev]

@@nonnect i know, i mentioned this earlier. It happened before right before New Gettysburg

[@cptKamina]

Lmao the "all Cerebrates look the same" bit was hilarious because it was taken further than that phrase usually gets taken and also it shows an understanding of the real situations this joke makes fun of.

[@CongaYT]

I really love the SC1 Zerg, there's a social hierarchy and characters have more personality than "I will serve you my queen" Actually, now that I think about you never see the kerrigans "crew" talk amongst each other... at all Maybe very rarely in niche scenarios or on a technicality but they feel so.. quiet, like the only person they have a relationship with is Kerrigan. They don't argue or discuss like cerebrates

[@ThanhLe-ti8nx]

Zerg feel more like a cool race when the Overmind and cerebrates leading them, with a clear goal and purpose. After Overmind's death, the zerg is portraited as mere tool to be used by other (Kerrigan, Amon...) Kerrigan should be the unpredictable factor and should not be the leader/representative of the zerg.

[@Noplayster13]

@@ThanhLe-ti8nx They feel like more than just another race. They feel like almost supernatural beings. Something that cannot be stopped. It might have something to do with the Overmind talking like he’s Jehovah.

[@MrGeorgeFlorcus]

The Overmind is a really cool entity, for a few reasons. For one thing, it's not new by now to hear the other characters talking to you, the player, as a silent protagonist in the story. But to have The Overmind start off talking directly to you, one on one, with no humanoid mediator or supporting character in the way, it's uncomfortably intimate and disconcerting. You're made to feel conflicting emotions; on one hand, you are a servant; your only purpose is to obey the Overmind absolutely, and yet the Overmind is also encouraging, even kind, to it's loyal servants; it takes a vested interest in your development, congratulates on a job well done, and promises to look after you no matter what. You're made to feel as though you are not just conceptually part of the swarm, but _literally_ PART of the Swarm; like an arm is a part of your body. On one hand, I don't really "care" about my right hand the way I do a person; I don't recognize it as having feelings, or a will of it's own, but at the same time, I care about what happens to it, and I have a vested interest in taking care of it. Serving The Overmind and the Swarm feels very much like a cult, and I think that's a fantastic contrast to the politics and personal drama of the Terran campaign. As a character, The Overmind stands out, because although he has absolute confidence in his ultimate goal and eventual conquest, he's realistic about his limitations. He knows there are certain things he has to do, and certain things he should avoid, to get what he wants. He's willing and able to adapt to his situations, and come up with new plans when old plans become obsolete. Ironically, in a lot of ways, he's much more open-minded than the Conclave which he opposes. He's not just an evil entity out to just ravage the universe, he's a fully realized villain with a clear motive and a plan to get there.

[@jeremyrugg3015]

I really like how the overmind is set up here and so quickly. His first line shows how direct he is and gives you your singular purpose to serve him. But he is a benevolent god. He then explains about a covenant (or a two way promise) which he has no need to be entering due to his all power, but he offers that we will always be made renewed should our flesh fail us. I like the idea that just because his goals may be evil (destruction of so much life) that doesn't mean he needs to be evil to his kind. I think it also shows how alien the zerg are. To them, I don't think killing all the terran would seem that bad. The broods are controlled by the cerebrates, evolved from almost all lower intelligence creatures. They send wave after wave, but no individual is lost in the swarm. They probably see terran marines and whatnot to be the same, They are just killing the underlings and taking control through force, but they've yet to kill even one of the big, intelligent creatures that control these packs of humans.

[@MrGeorgeFlorcus]

I love a lot of the SC1 Zerg sound voice clips, especially the Hydra. Sounds so menacing. And yeah, even though Hydras were "buffed" in SC2, the higher cost, higher supply, and later tech made them less cool. Hydras were just such a reliable unit in SC1, you could use them early, and they would stay good for the rest of the game. By the time you can use them in SC2, the enemy already has access to so many counters, they're kinda useless unless they are crazy-spammed, or supporting something else.

[@willbrolley262]

I remember the 24h stream, but DAMN if it isn't crazy seeing SC model zerglings tearing everything up. As a zerg main, it fills me with joy and tears.

[@maybenot9289]

"The overmind does not exist in starcraft 2" *Sad whispers of oblivion noises*

[@dicerson9976]

on the subject of zerg noises: I like them. Idk, I greatly enjoy the screeching all the time, really feels like a swarm of monsters :p

[@john.darksoul]

Yeah, I remember destroying everything with maxed zerglings in Mass Recall :D Also, I didn't encounter nearly as many bugs as you did in my playthrough. Could it be related to newer SC version? You know, one that features spaceballs

[@Snowfireblues]

Space Default Spheres?

[@kirlandiya]

i think you're right, since i too recently played mass recall not encoutering much bugs. Might be due to some shenanigans with certain files in SC2 made read-only or something like this, which was introduced in the latest patch

[@NoESanity]

from what i've heard, mass recall seems to cause bugs if you have older versions of mass recall. even if you delete the files sc2 saves some metadata that just doesn't play well, and you have to do a full clean install of sc2.... but i've also never seen many of the bugs grant keeps getting.

[@alexstewart9592]

You were right about which one Zasz and Dagoth were in the second mission breifing. The only major visual difference between the two is that Zasz has a blue-tinted "face" and Dagoth has a red-tinted "face" - however, red-blue colourblindness, while rarer than red-green (the most common), is still a fairly common type of colourblindness, and if you have it the two really are almost identical in appearance - if you look closely you can also spot that Zasz doesn't quite reach the right side of its window and Dagoth does, at least in this scene, but that requires more attention than most people will have for them when they pop up during missions.

[@NivRel]

Oooooh cool The drone had to enter a leviatan and then It did the warp Jump thing That fills so many holes tbh

[@Hrolfgord]

I always hated how the Zerg felt like they devolved from the brood wars to SC2

[@manolgeorgiev9664]

How so?

[@Hrolfgord]

@@manolgeorgiev9664 well, the zerg force in BW was essentially just masses of lings/hydras/mutas with some other specialist units thrown in. Then 4 years later they somehow reduce the efficiency of the hydra to create roaches? and when their primary threats to the zerg forces used to be the protoss fleets and the terran's more mechanized units they created banelings? overlords somehow lost their detection abilities, and then of course they lost their scourges and their corruptors are just worse than devourers.

[@silverhand9965]

@@Hrolfgord In Heart of the Swarm, Abathur mentions a lot of "lost" or "almost lost" zerg strains. So it's maybe fair to assume that the loss of the overmind and the cerebrates,and then the splintering of the swarm led to the loss of a significant amount of zerg genetic data, forcing them to evolve again in a different direction

[@sld1776]

You didn't even mention the loss of SC1 queen.

[@Seagull512]

as zerg I kinda enjoyed having gas placed far away, cause it encourages you to get a macro hatchery, but as the other races it's really annoying

[@thacobell4700]

I've always LOVED this reveal. You Go through an entire campaign thinking that the Zerg are a mindlessly destructive Dominian science experiment. And then you're immidieatly greeted with THIS upon starting the Zerg.

[@Scarface39212]

I always found the pre-Brood War "power structure" of the Zerg to be much more interesting somehow. The Overmind and the Cerebrates was just so much cooler than Kerrigan and her Broodmothers. I pretty much agree that Kerrigan was better as an "agent" of the Swarm, rather than its leader. Somehow just felt more fitting to me, and that's despite the fact that I loved the SC2 storylines - odd as they might be at times. Always found it nice that they did make some references to the fact that cerebrates were a thing at one point in HotS' story, particularly (think it might be the only one to be fair) the Lurker evolution mission where Daggoth is mentioned by name.

[@Noplayster13]

Yeah, the brood mothers were really boring and seemed to lack any personality other than “I must serve you my queen!” Or “I must take over the swarm!” Niadra showed a little promise if you click on her a bunch of times, but then she disappeared and became a generic bad guy in later stories. I think it’s telling that SC1 told a compelling Zerg story with a floating eyeball, 2 slimes, and an ugly bug woman. Whereas SC2 needed 3 infested terrans (one from Earth), a brood mother, Abathur, a feral Zerg, and several terrans to tell a story that almost everyone was bored by. Good writing is a disappearing art.

[@ngryleprechaun87]

SC1 Zerglings with good pathfinding cannot be stopped. A weapon to surpass metal gear.

[@archsteel7]

I actually really like Kerrigan as leader of the Swarm in Brood War. I'd say I prefer her to the Overmind as a villain, simply because she had much more plot connection to the protagonists. That, and her dialogue is actually really witty and fun. That being said, Overmind is a chad villain and is exactly what Amon *should* have been. Hearing him talk sounds like someone reading apocalyptic predictions from the book of revelations In my opinion, Kerrigan only became worse than the Overmind when they decided to try and make her into the Overmind. When they decided to make her a cheap knockoff of the Overmind, and then later into a "morally grey," "sympathetic," monster they really did her character dirty.

[@fenixalar]

One of the main reasons stuff like Siege Tanks, Zerglings, Hydras and Dragoons are so much better in Mass Recall and the reason they feel overpowered is the improved pathing and the different unit collision boxes. In the SC2 engine you can have 50 lings move together and start attacking almost simultaneously. In the original SC they would spread out over several screens and derp around for a couple seconds before reaching melee range. Siege tanks thus become so much better because their target units clump much more than in the original SC.

[@Saturas35142]

I don't mind hearing Zerg Screeching... I think it's it soothing to bask in the glory of the Overmind.... :D

[@darthraynor2314]

I just downloaded mass recall after quite some time and haven't had a single bug so perhaps you just need to reinstall it

[@nataliaweaver7214]

I'm going to agree with what several people have said already. It seems like your version of Mass Recall is broken, and a fresh download is in order. While it may be annoying to have to go through all the missions you've done again, I think it would be much better than continuing to deal with all the bugs you currently have.

[@noblehelium3794]

In the original game it's much easier to tell Zasz (red) from Daggoth (blue) because the coloring is obvious and consistent. Here they kind of made a mess of the portraits and don't have the natural player color to fall back on.

[@Suprentus]

I think it would be more interesting if gas geysers were actually treated as a more rare resource. If your main has only one gas geyser (that might even be further away), there would be far more importance to getting a base that has two or three.

[@hunterb412]

I love these! I will watch every video in this series

[@RoastedPheasant]

I love the sound design of Starcraft 1. Every Zerg unit sounds so different and grungy and horrifying.

[@helxeen2607]

One of the reasons I wanted the Overmind as a commander in SC2 and have his voice pack back into the game.

[@Quetzen]

"Every time you click on their building they're very loud" >laughs in Warcraft2 gold mine

[@skeptic_lemon]

The trick to telling cerebrates apart is the weird tint on the side of the portrait. In the original game, Zasz had a green-ish colour and Daggoth had a blue-ish color. It's really visible on the side of their portrait. In this game, Daggoth has a red-ish colour, while Zasz has a blue tint.

[@tornagh9200]

I do remember as a kid being dumbfounded by how strong Lings were on that first Terran mission where a single one just owned my marine... I carried this scar with me all the way to the Zerg Campaign where I basically did the whole thing with lings only (and Hydras where I absolutely needed anti-air). Zerg was my favourite race by far! but it also felt super broken.

[@Fr3k3]

"I like to watch the fights in my rts game" ME TOO. this is why I was always more into supreme commander (and to a lesser extent WC3) than starcraft 2. you could do all your macro through hotkeys (or in the case of supcom completely automate it) without ever having to leave a fight to do it. also brood war zerglings are so strong with sc2 mobility and fluid pathfinding lmfaooo

[@meeperdudeify]

This is why I play zagara, backwater sheriff Raynor, and Kerrigan, where using queens and mules is either discouraged or impossible

[@skeptic_lemon]

I adore the mutalisk's screaming. It's funny.

[@joshwhite2764]

GGG this is my favorite new series you are doing, keep it up!

[@enderrzvx1461]

What in the heck is that zergling , someone bring the holy lemon juice for it ! It truly brings it to perspective that the main limitation of zergling in sc1 was that u could only control 12 units max .

[@FenekkuKitsune]

Fun Fact about inject larva forcing you to go back to your base, Grant. You don’t actually need to click on the hatchery. If you use Inject Larva on the minimap, so long as you’re clicking close to a hatchery, the nearest Queen you have selected will inject into that hatchery. It’s a bit of useless detail however as generally you’re not JUST injecting. You’re also doing other things.

[@manolgeorgiev9664]

The Zerg hasn't been the same ever since The Overmind died...

[@s-man5647]

I'm really glad to be able to watch Grant play the SC1 campaign. I never realized how powerful the zergling was in SC1 compared to SC2 and it kinda helps explain why SC2 never matched up to my memories of SC1

[@elliejohnson2786]

I don't remember much from starcraft 1, but I DO remember hunter killers and immediately recognised them and got excited.

[@Roberto577_One]

Lmao I watched this 1 year 3 months and 11 days after this came out, the fact that you came that close with your analogy at the end made me laugh too hard. And yes I was watching on a separate device too. Lol.

[@MatrimVidz]

These videos are hilarious, keep it up!

[@demilung]

Awaken my child, and never use your last drone to make a building!

[@Feraligono]

I honestly always thought of Tassadar as a lemon because for the longest time the only thing I knew about him was the iconic line: "Clearly Tassadar has failed us - you must not."

[@Severencir]

I'm not steve, but i appreciate you acknowledging those of us watching the vid exactly 1 year 3 months and 7 days from when you uploaded it

[@EssigSaureEthylEster]

Last Campaign: Rebel Yell This Campaign: Mutalisk Yell

[@caspianvonliechtenstein6517]

9 of 13 worlds… economies in ruins… people scattered… material lost… “We are the Zerg.”

[@michaelmontgomery8315]

I'm really enjoying your discussions about gam design choices.

[@SittingOnEdgeman]

Part of the design in the first mission might have been to make your gas geyser far away as a way of encouraging the player to "not make mistakes" - i.e., not overcommit to gas too early. Sometimes it can be a little weird though.

[@FenekkuKitsune]

Grant, each Cerebrate has a different colour tint. Daggoth is red tinted, Zasz is cyan tinted. That’s how you tell who is who.

[@brianmccracken4880]

Personally, I actually like the spread out resources. It makes it more natural, like you are actively scouring for the materials needed for production. However, on an PvP basis, this is not an option to keep the field even. It is just nice from a story frame.

[@WoobertAIO]

5:15 oh no, Creep definitely gives you a huge benefit in Starcraft 1: Zerg units regenerate at double speed when standing/flying on/above creep.

[@JinFreeks]

One way to micro Flappy bois without loosing your eardrums is to add an overlord into the mix and have him selected as the "leading" unit. This way at least you're getting ovi grunts instead of flappy screeches.

[@nef36]

In the Zerg campaign, what I always did to solve the gas problem was to just build my hatch first close enough to saturate with only three workers

[@zeldaholic]

I quite like this series. Thanks for continuing despite the bugs

[@Draenith933]

I have withdrawal symptoms for more mass recall. I need MOAR!!!

[@unnamedlegeon]

The Devs fix the issue in replacing the Ghost Academy with SC2 version of Terran Academy esspecially with the SC2 version of the CC 👍, but they didn't fix it in the terran campaign 😑.

[@Adoak1]

I am become Zergling, destroyer of worlds. SC1 Zerglings with all of the pathing benefits of sc2 just make them so good.

[@_H_aruu96]

Grant!!! The colour of their background reveals who they are, blue is Daggoth and green is Zasz!

[@amateurishauthor2202]

I could generally tell the Cerebrates apart given that, while it's the same model, the lighting and orientation of the model are different, the left one was Zaaz and the right one was Daggoth. and along with some of the comments, they do sound different, they're similar, but different enough to be identifiable. When I played Heart of the Swarm for the first time I was expecting it to play similarly to SC1's Zerg campaign. I was wrong, very wrong. The first three missions are bad(imo) just bad. if Mission 3 of HOTS was mission 1 it would be much better.

[@michaelbarnard8529]

My go to for Zerg was sunken colonies. Most maps were a matter of figuring out how to put one in the enemy base. I really never made zerglings, as they were basically guaranteed to run up your lost unit count.

[@eadbert1935]

so this might become a long one i think kerry was better as an agent than as a sole leader as well, but i also think that she's an interesting character in brood war. i think she lost a lot of her "interestingness" when she became the CC of of the zerg, instead of being deceitful hidden leader creep was useless in sc1? i recalled it increasing regen back in the day (i'm pretty sure i though it was funny that flying units were also affected), but apparently i imagined that. i think resources is something really hard to do right in RTS. I really love the northgard/rise of nations (and also somewhat in settlers) resource management where you just get a resource that will never die and will just give you +x for the rest of game (upgradeable). There is the point of it always giving people some power to come back and there's always some possibility to come back. On the other hand, it's discourages expansion and fighting for resources. I think this would be an interesting point to talk about.

[@mobgabriel1767]

tassadar in the entire zerg campaign:RANDOM BULSH*T GO!

[@DisconnectLoL]

I just want to go sleep and watch some SC1 Zerg gameplay by GGG but i've already watched this video, what can a man do in such troubling times.

[@MichelCarajo]

Mandatory comment saying I love this playthrough and thank you so much for all the content you provide.

[@Regunes]

Zergling are great. And now that I think about it, the Dev of Warcraft 3 might have had the "zergling treatment" for the Ghoul and ended up being "let's not". 15:15 That's because you don't have the SC1 client working against you with unit collision, small control group, and most Air unit being gimmicky at best compared to the mutalisk .

[@MercyPerson]

I will blot out the ground with the hydras! Yeah... - Grant 2021

[@ChannelMiner]

I do agree with you that these lings and hydras seem really strong, but personally for Mass Recall I just mass muta.

[@DerCossack]

Hey Grant, so I've been playing mass recall essentially alongside you. I've noticed that reavers are actually bugged right now. The scarabs do not seem to do full damage to units, amd in fact if you move a unit that a scarab is following and keep it moving til the scarab explodes, the explosion will deal no damage. I also encountered scarabs dealing no damage to my buildings.

[@anuaronaibay8628]

Hey Grant! I had the same problem with campaign not saving my progress. Apparently its because I was using reload from replay. Mass recall lets you continue campaign, but will not save your progress from that point on if you do it. Not sure if it will help, but thats something I have found for myself =b love the series! Keep it up!

[@NoESanity]

grant, one thing that you might want to try if you're not already, is making a save state in mass recall with all your settings and stuff enabled. that way when you go to open mass recall again you can load the save state. if you're settings and options change at that point it means you have something on the sc2 files messing with your scripting data.

[@BarracudaDrifter]

cerebrates harder to tell apart on mass recall portraits but in original starcraft campaign, zasz had a green backround, daggoth had a blue backround

[@TheQwetot]

Zergling in early game, crackling in late game :)