StarCraft: Ghost

StarCraft: Ghost is a tactical action game for video game consoles, announced on September 19, 2002 was under development by Blizzard Entertainment. The game is based in the world of StarCraft, a popular real-time strategy game for the PC. It is currently on "indefinite" hiatus. Blizzard employee Rob Pardo suggests that StarCraft: Ghost had failed but could be brought back.

Blizzard, known for computer games, took a step in a different direction by developing it exclusively for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 video game consoles. A GameCube version was also planned, but it was cancelled in November 2005. The game was "indefinitely postponed" on March 24, 2006.

Storyline
The main character of the game is a Terran Ghost (psionic espionage agent) codenamed Nova in the employment of the Terran Dominion squadron, Nova Squadron. She used to be a member of the Confederate Old Families, but has since undergone a memory wipe.

Nova's role when the game starts is as as a soldier 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 the Terran Dominion and built up a new military, despite having to face the Zerg.

Mengsk and his new advisor, General Horace Warfield, have begun a secret project codenamed Shadow Blade, which uses Protoss technology. The program uses terrazine gas to alter the genetic makeup of Terran Ghosts. These Ghosts are transformed into Spectres - shadowy superhuman beings bent on executing the will of their true master.

In addition, a Blizzard panel at BlizzCon 2005 revealed that Kerrigan is massing her forces on Char and is strong enough to "crush the entire sector", Mengsk rebuilds the Dominion military with robotics and stolen Protoss technology and has retaken a number of worlds, while Artanis is trying to merge the two groups of Protoss, made more difficult because many Dark Templar hate the Protoss who had banished them from Aiur.

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 Abaddon, Mar Sara, Ash 'Arak and Vyctor 5 (the latter introduced in StarCraft: Uprising).

The opening video shows a group of Terran Dominion Marines (and a few Firebats) assaulting a Zerg-infested "Vespene" refinery (actually a terrazine refinery) on Mar Sara. Captain Bok leads the group, but is incompetent and refuses to listen to Lieutenant Haggs' suggestion to scout the area first, and when HQ says it will send three Dropships with reinforcements, one with a black ops unit, Bok tries to cancel the order. Bok's forces promptly fall into a Zerg ambush. He pleads for reinforcements, which arrive in the form of the Dropships, one of which is carrying Nova. Two of the dropships are shot down by Mutalisks but the third safely lands, disgorging the black ops unit and Nova.

According to previews of the game, Nova's first mission involves a raid on a Supply Depot on Abaddon, where members of the Koprulu Liberation Front hold a Terran Grizzly they have stolen from the Dominion, along with a captured engineer. Nova is ordered to retrieve the engineer and the Grizzly, but the engineer is murdered before she can save them.

Fate of the Ghost storyline
StarCraft: Ghost "had a killer plot and a really good bad guy." It was unrelated to the main storyline of StarCraft. It may be revived in the form of a novel or comic at some point.

Robert Clotworthy was hired to voice act for Jim Raynor in StarCraft: Ghost. Other characters connected to the major Protoss and Zerg plotlines were not projected to play a role in StarCraft: Ghost.

New and changed units
Several new units are being added which were not part of the original StarCraft game
 * Terran Grizzly
 * Main article: Terran Grizzly

The Grizzly is a fighter-bomber which carries passengers.
 * Terran Stinger
 * Main article: Terran Stinger

This six-wheeled Terran jeep fills a role in between that of the Terran Vulture and the Terran Siege Tank. It has a crew of two and is equipped with a heavy assault cannon.
 * Terran Light Infantry
 * Main article: Light Infantry

Light Infantry are security guards found in various Terran installations, they are equipped with lighter armor than Terran Marines.
 * Terran Spectre - the result of genetic experiments conducted on Terran Ghosts using terrazine gas, almost nothing is known about these soldiers.
 * Seeker Droids - these small robots prowl installations. They can revealed a cloaked Ghost to other units.
 * Protoss Vindicator - 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.

In addition, a number of original StarCraft units will also be changed, some to better suit the multiplayer version of StarCraft: Ghost.
 * Terran Marine - in addition to their standard issue C-14 "Impaler" Gauss rifle, Marines can now carry flak pistols and grenades.
 * Terran Firebat - in addition to their standard issue Perdition plasma-based flamethrower, firebats can fire napalm rockets, of the guided or unguided variety.
 * Terran Ghost - Ghosts will wield an assault rifle/grenade-launcher combination as their standard weapon. The assault is less powerful than the C-14 "Impaler" Gauss rifle. This weapon is different from the original C-10 canister rifle. In addition, Ghosts can use the BOSON FN92 sniper rifle (which is, again, different from their long-ranged canister rifle from StarCraft), a special lockdown device, and the cy-blade (a psionic melee weapon developed using Protoss technology).
 * Terran Vulture - the Vulture may be armed with a powerful laser, autocannon or a grenade launcher which does concussive damage.
 * Terran Siege Tank - may be equipped with plasma cannons.
 * Zergling - virtually unchanged from StarCraft.
 * Hydralisk - also virtually unchanged, but now has a melee attack.
 * Infested Terran, also called Infested Marine - capable of firing poisonous rounds from an "infested" Gauss rifle, in addition to its suicidal explosion ability and a claw attack.
 * Mutalisk - fires a bio-plasma attack and can pick up ground units to drain them of life.

Trouble during development
Reports indicate that most of the people responsible for the development of the original StarCraft have left the company, and the repeated setbacks and delays for release -it was to come out in 2003- have prompted many to question whether the game will be worth the wait. Most StarCraft fans seemed to be pushing for the cancellation of StarCraft: Ghost in favor of StarCraft II.

Release of the game has been postponed six times already, although this is not entirely unusual with Blizzard Entertainment games. Game development started in mid-2001, with a release date of the 2002-2003 winter. 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 Entertainment. 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 will 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". Penny Arcade posted a comic on their site comparing the development timeline of StarCraft: Ghost to the one of Duke Nukem Forever.

It was shown off again at E3 2005, and the web page had been updated for the first time in a year. Blizzard Entertainment also acquired Swingin' Ape Studios as part of a console-dominating strategy, and set them to work on Ghost, pushing the release date to early 2006.

During the summer of 2006, however, Blizzard announced that Starcraft: Ghost would be indefinitely postponed while they examined the capabilities of the PS3, X-Box 360, and Wii systems. Many fans consider this to mean that Ghost is canceled, and as the web page was removed from Blizzard's website entirely this could very well be the case.

Platform controversy
The absence of a personal computer version, and the change of genre from real-time strategy to action/third-person shooter, has aroused considerable protest from StarCraft fans. Blizzard has repeatedly pointed out that the company is trying to return to its console roots by excluding a PC version; however these claims have had mixed results, as many fans feel that the StarCraft universe, founded as it is on a computer fanbase, is an inappropriate series to introduce a console only game. Several die hard fans have pointed out that because the StarCraft name is so closely associated with the computer there may be a general lack of interest in this game from the console community.

Fansites

 * Starcraft: Ghost Central - Guides, Information, and Forums
 * Starcraft: Ghost Azzor
 * StarCraft Legacy
 * StarCraft.org

Press Coverage

 * Actiontrip - E3 2004 StarCraft: Ghost Coverage
 * IGN: GameCube, PS2, Xbox