The most ambitious project in SC2 modding is finally seeing the light of day.
The Starcraft 2 modding scene have always been living in the shadows of the immense success of the WC3 modding scene. The Galaxy editor is stronger than the WC3 editor and offers many more options but the added complexity meant that modding became way harder. The change in time from the 2003 to 2010 also had a huge impact leaving many projects without hope of a fanbase.
A few projects stood out though, taking the challenge of the new editor and bringing themselves up to new heights. And yet even among those, none come close to be compared to Starcraft Universe. A fan-made Semi-MMORPG featuring some of the most iconic battles in history, new original characters and an intriguing story.
Originally presented all the way back in 2011, the development of this mod has been quite the story. In 2013 it launched a successful Kickstarter with Blizzards permission. It was also around this time they also released an early beta for the prologue of the story.
Plenty of projects that were orders of magnitudes less ambitious than this have fallen flat in the past. But Upheaval Arts, the guys behind the project, have proven they had the organization to keep it going and now after more than 3 years since the kickstarter they are ready to launch.
Today they announced the open beta with a complete gameplay trailer AND an original CG trailer for the project. The trailers are not amateur work and you could easily be fooled into thinking you were looking at one of Blizzard's own trailers when watching.
The story behind the universe follows the timeline orignally presented by Zeratul in SC2 Wings of Liberty. After the protoss fall in “In utter darkness” we follow the few remaining survivors as they try to endure the hellish universe that was Amons vision.
The open beta is available on the SC2 Arcade with the full launch coming later in August. Go check out this amazing work made by fans of Starcraft to the fans of Starcraft.
