WOTC hero classes seem heavily inspired on Starcraft

[Timbermaw]

I'm very late to the wotc party but after playing for a while i couldn't help but notice that Jake or whoever was in charge of the new class designs must've taken some inspiration from starcraft's units.

Let's take the Reaper for example: this is the easiest, it's the xcom take on the terran's Ghost unit. Can cloak, can drop nukes (claymores and remote start) and has the battle rifle thing as a weapon.

The Templar is a mix and match of the zealot + high templar. Not much to add here.

Had a bit of trouble deciphering the Skirmisher, I'd guess this was the last unit to be finalized. This is a take on the basic marine with some fun abilities tacked in. Also probably took inspiration from long war's infantry class (which is basically a guy who can shoot twice per turn) since it was a fan favorite. This one has the most original set of abilities between all 3, with the grappling hook and justice, since they had to improve upon long war's infantry class.


They probably wanted to include a zerg tribute too, so that we'd get one of each race, but had a hard time figuring out which zerg unit to draw inspiration from since zerg just wants to mass everything; not much material to create a hero class out of. Maybe an ultralisk unit that would act as a tank for the rest of the squad but that would probably be silly. Plus zerg is evil so there's that.

Thoughts?

[Stardustfire]

why ppl ever say other games taken this or that from a blizzard game, when blizzard itself is inovativ as a trashcan and mostly take itself things from other games to implement it in theres?

[Aranador]

It is almost like if you take a random selection of abilities and put them together, you come up with an idea that has similarities to something else ! Like the human mind has an amazing ability to see patterns beyond what was ever intended. If you read these forums long enough, you will see the same patterns over and over too. We're about due for another OMG RNG IS BS thread.

[Timbermaw]

I take it you guys don't see the similarities?

[Hamster?????]

I can see it. And I don't think the OP meant any offense to the game. Just that every game takes an inspiration from something else and gives its own take on that.

[Timbermaw]

Well yeah that's why I used inspiration instead of rip-off or another word ^^

[Freedom's Flame]

So because one of the Hero units shares a resemblance in its gameplay to a unit in SC, you've hamfisted SC analogies onto the other two? *GAME THEORY!!!!!!!* /s

Frankly, the devs saw the three styles of play that were dominant in XCOM 2 and decided to try and cater a hero unit to each of them, to varying degrees of effectiveness. The scout/sniper Reapers, the psi/melee Templars, and the grenadier/specialist Skirmishers.

[talemore]

Skirmishers are familiar to the infantry class in long war and them took the fatigue from the dlc. The reaper is a reskin of the scout in long war who is provided with stealth abilities and marksman rifles who can be upgraded to sniper rifles. Templar is given a machine pistol as sidearm, once again a concept taken from long war while it's the only class who has a new mechanic because swords were introduced with the ranger.

[Aranador]

I thought all the units were inspired from the soldiers in the original predator movie!

To be fair, I dont think I have ever played star craft, so I couldnt tell you if they have any similarities at all, but it is definitely fair to say that "sneaky guy with sneaky bombs and a rifle" is so super generic that you could pin it to whole hosts of things out there. Guy with a grapple that is weaponised is clearly scorpion from Mortal Kombat, and guy with laser swords, well, laser swords are star wars and every rip off of laser swords since is also star wars, even when they are not star wars, but disney came and pooped on star wars so I say fair game - laser swords for everyone!

[✪ Wuhan Warrior 🍉🍉]

I like your imagination. Could be true though. A lot of AAA games draw inspiration from each other.

[KRON]

Originally posted by Timbermaw:

They probably wanted to include a zerg tribute too, so that we'd get one of each race, but had a hard time figuring out which zerg unit to draw inspiration from since zerg just wants to mass everything; not much material to create a hero class out of. Maybe an ultralisk unit that would act as a tank for the rest of the squad but that would probably be silly. Plus zerg is evil so there's that.

Thoughts?

They should've made their version of the Queen of Blades as a hero unit.

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by Timbermaw:

I take it you guys don't see the similarities?

In very, very general terms, sure. But like the other posters alluded to, each person can make comparisons to ANY two things that they are familiar with.

For example, I could say, "The Reapers are just like Rikimaru and Ayame from Tenchu: Stealth Assassins[en.wikipedia.org]! The Reaper can cloak (like a ninja's stealthiness), can lay traps (like a ninja's smoke bomb and landmine) and can kill from afar (like a ninja's shuriken or kunai)!"

;)

[Timbermaw]

Okay I see your point. Maybe they are generic enough but I instantly saw a ghost and a zealot in those two. Nice reading your comments though.

[Farsha]

You realise that Starcraft and Warcraft are derivatives of Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, right?
Blizzard just could not affort to buy the licence at that time, they just made watered down versions for kids of those universes.
Blizzard mostly uses only proven ideas and mechanics in their games. They polish their product, true, but not much in it is original or inovative. Not even in the slightest.

[Green Raven]

I dont know about starcraft, but the Templars definitly take cues from Star Wars.
I mean, theyre essentially Jedi who arent scared to use force lightning.

[red255]

Originally posted by Freedom's Flame:

So because one of the Hero units shares a resemblance in its gameplay to a unit in SC, you've hamfisted SC analogies onto the other two? *GAME THEORY!!!!!!!* /s
.

I'm sure he could work it up with a proper intro and writing.

but no. they aren't more similiar to the point of one being taken from the other.

I watch a bunch of anime. People are always saying stuff is taken from other stuff.

and the general response is the other stuff the ONLY stuff you've seen?

I recall them recently comparing Darling in the Franxx to Evangelion, because everyone's seen evangelion. its got Giant Robots and a Science fiction council. thats how they are similiar.

is that enough to say one is taken from the other, inspired, ripped off whatever word you want to use no.

so we have the Starcraft Ghost which is an OP stealth unit. uses a gun sure, but also uses nuke strikes and some anti magic PSI attacks or something. Gun is reasonably strong against soft organic targets and weak vs metal full cloak.

and on the WotC they have the Reaper which is a stealth scout Sci-Fi unit who uses Claymores and a wimpy rifle and instead of magic stealth its just very hard to detect.

Now I'd have to see pictures of them side by side the ghosts I really only know Nova and Kerrigan who are very anime inspired big boobed women with curves and XCOM 2 is all cloaked up and masks, so they don't LOOK alike so if you are just going for they both fill a futuristic tactical scout roll, then no. it doesn't apply.

but if you got art that shows how they look simliar I'll entertain it.

Now the Templar and the Zealot both use I believe Psi blades. I know they don't look anything alike. But I wouldn't be surprised if the templars got Psi powers and all drunk or whatever wanted to be like starcraft Zealots and got the Psi blades because PSI is whatever you want man, visualize. though if that was truly the case I'd imagine there would be more wolverines claws and lightsabers.

and even you see the Skirmisher as a long walk so I'm not even going to discuss it.