StarCraft: Protoss Will Be a Foe, Blizzard Hints

Blizzard hints that the Protoss will be a formidable enemy in the new StarCraft, despite their absence from the reveal trailer. Creative director Dan Hay teases how all three factions will feel distinct.

Did you catch the StarCraft reveal trailer and wonder where the heck the Protoss were? You're not alone. The cinematic put the Terrans front and center, and they ended up facing a terrifying Zerg confrontation. But don't worry—the Protoss are coming, and they'll be a force to be reckoned with.

At BlizzCon, GameSpot chatted with GM and creative director Dan Hay about how the three factions will interact. He couldn't spill the beans on specifics, but he did share some thoughts on what makes each race special. "The answer to that question is I absolutely unequivocally can't say," Hay said. "But what I can do is tell you what I would want as a player. I'll hint at sort of not what we're doing, but some of the things that we think about."

Hay went on to describe the distinct flavor of each faction. "Of course, what you want to be able to do... you think about the Protoss and how reverent we are. They're older, and there's a mystique and a grandness to them, right? They have just a completely different flavor. Then you have the Zerg, and the Zerg are just numberless; they're infinite from the standpoint of they just overwhelm you with sheer organic power. Then you have the Terrans, that are this group of... they're working their way through the sector in kind of a haphazard and industrial way. We want that feeling."

He added, "We want it to not all just be one taste. So we want to have moments where you're fighting things that are organic, and then moments where you're fighting things that are this wonderful legacy and that are ancient. I want to tell you a lot more, but I can't."

But wait—there's more. Hay pointed out a subtle hint of the Protoss that was easy to miss in the trailer. "You saw more than the Zerg in the trailer," he said. "If you look a little deeper, there's a moment when the thing opens and you hear that great horn go off. If you look in the background—just in the background, adjust the lighting just a tiny bit—you'll see some architecture that is very not Terran and very not Zerg. It's there."

Hay also confirmed that StarCraft will feature a third-person perspective. While the trailer may not reflect actual gameplay, it does showcase how that perspective could impact the feel of the game. We see a Terran soldier look up in terror at the size of a Zerg Overlord—something you'd normally only see from an isometric camera view in past StarCraft games. He also mentioned that StarCraft will have a "single-player focus" and offered some insight into why the game was announced now despite arriving in 2030.

So, what do you think? Are you excited to face the Protoss again, or are you more of a Zerg fan? Let us know in the comments!