Shadow of the Xel'Naga
StarCraft II: Shadow of the Xel'Naga
Co-op campaign
StarCraft II: Shadow of the Xel'Naga is a custom campaign for the award-winning Real-Time-Strategy game StarCraft II, created with the StarCraft II Editor. All 7 maps were released on November 27th, 2015. They are available on the StarCraft II Arcade, free for everyone.
In Shadow of the Xel'Naga the focus lies on variety. Each map is unique and based on a different sub-genre of strategy games. These sub-genres include Tower Defense, MOBA, puzzles and more. Additionally the campaign offers co-operative gameplay. All maps can be played alone or with a friend.
The story is based on the StarCraft novel Shadow of the Xel'Naga, written by Gabriel Mesta. The action revolves around a colony planet called Bhekar Ro, where one of the frequent and very violent storms uncovers an ancient Xel'Naga artifact. This temple calls both, the zerg and the protoss, while the colonists call the Terran Dominion for help. All these events cause a great confrontation on the normally placid world. The story acts as an interquel between StarCraft and Brood War.
Key Features
- Highly varied gameplay: Each of the 7 maps is based on a different genre, and the maps themselves offer varied gameplay with multiple types of objectives, units, and abilities
- The action revolves around a colony planet called Bhekar Ro, where one of the frequent and very violent storms uncovers an ancient xel'naga artifact. This temple calls both, the zerg and the protoss, while the colonists call the Terran Dominion for help
- High quality terrain and cinematics, supported by many custom assets: sounds, models, textures, loading screens and more
- Playable in single-player or two-player co-operative mode on 4 difficulty levels
- Available in English and German
- Free to play for everyone on the StarCraft II Arcade
How To Play
Anyone who owns the free StarCraft II Starter Edition can play any map of the campaign. Simply start StarCraft II, go to the Arcade tab, type in "Shadow of the Xel'Naga" or "sotx" in the search tab and you can select any of the 7 maps to create a new game. It is recommended that you start with "Chapter 1: Welcome to Bhekar Ro".
Prologue
Bhekar Ro was settled around 2460 by colonists seeking to escape from the civil strife of the Confederacy's inner worlds. Five years after settlement contact with the Confederacy was broken off.
Attacks of wild animals, like the widespread bird species Karak, forced the abandonment of most scientific endeavors and many mines that were used to gather precious material. Priority shifted toward survival which now depended on farm work.
After their parents death Octavia Bren and her energetic brother Lars had been taking care of their cultivated land and also looking for more arable farmland. After a long day of hard work they were finally on their way home.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Bhekar Ro
- Introduction to setting and characters
- Varied objectives supported by semi-linear level design
- Two unique heroes with different playstyles and sets of skills
- Drivable vehicles used to overcome distances and kill enemies
Chapter 2: Uninvited Guests
- Point & click adventure gameplay with puzzles instead of combat
- Custom inventory system: inspect, use, combine, or give items
- Multiple choice dialogues
- Fixed camera angles (optional)
Chapter 3: A Shadow in Between
- MOBA gameplay with endless enemy waves
- Two heroes with unique playstyles and sets of abilities
- Heroes gain experience to upgrade their abilities
- Inventory and shop systems for usable items
Chapter 4: Xeno Defense
- Tower Defense gameplay with strategic positioning of structures
- Two heroes with different buildable structures and abilities
- 16 types of defensive structures, 4 areas, and 20 waves
- Structures gain experience to upgrade their damage or life
Chapter 5: Twilight
- Stealth gameplay where players have to avoid or stun enemy units
- Realistic enemy vision cones reactions based on spotted heroes
- Multiple types of enemies with varied behaviour
- Enemies can hear running heroes
Chapter 6: First In, First Out
- Dungeon crawler with multiple boss fights
- Four types of playable units with unique abilities
- Units gain experience, new abilities and can be promoted to hero units
- AI-controlled hero unit that follows and protects player units
Chapter 7: The Phoenix
- Classic RTS base building mission
- Very large map with open space that allows many strategies
- Classic Starcraft 1 tech-tree with many types of units and structures
- Call down nuclear strikes or summon the terran flagship Norad III
Credits
book
Gabriel Mesta
design
Alexandros "OutsiderXE" Delas - outsiderxe.blogspot.com
codex lore
starcraft.wikia.com
custom models
Ghostnova - herdal8 - TaylorMouse - Thrikodias
uses a modified Starcraft: Mass Recall mod
SCMR version 5.4.1 - sc2mapster.com/maps/starcraft-mass-recall
german localization
LadyMeow, OutsiderXE
testing
Adrian K. - deltronLive - Devourer - Eaglesight - Elematic - Eredalis - Knallertton - Lightspeed - Malchose - Mietfekatfe - Obatztrara - Observer - Silence - Sumadin - theSixthGate - Sven K. - Tomura - XpPlayer
credits music
"Terran Metal Remix" - Charlie Parra del Riego - charlieparradelriego.com
special thanks to
Blizzard Entertainment - Mass Recall team - sc2mapster.com - campaigncreations.org
Patch Information
More information
Comments
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Forge_User_87697641 Owner
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Posted Nov 27, 2020Why are the maps no longer available in the game arcade ?
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Posted Dec 2, 2020In reply to Forge_User_96068351:
😥
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Posted Feb 4, 2021In reply to Forge_User_96068351:
It's in Custom Campaigns tab.
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Posted Dec 9, 2018Man, it was awesome experience! Thank you for your hard work!
I know you don't plan to work on anything new for SC2 (I've read it in your blog) but IF you'll ever make something new it would be fantastic.
Your WC3 and SC2 campaigns are something else, something unique among other custom campaigns.
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Posted Jun 30, 2016I have updated my StarCraft II campaign Shadow of the Xel'Naga to version 1.2. The update includes 190 changes to gameplay and bugfixes and german localization! If you are a german speaker/reader and enjoy playing SC2 maps in german, this is for you :)
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Posted Jun 20, 2016I posted a link to your campaign on the Team Liquid Site.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/single-player/510504-coop-campaign-shadow-of-the-xelnaga
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Posted Feb 25, 2016It seem good to play !
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Posted Feb 23, 2016A note to any players who are reading this far down the page:
First off, if it's not clear, this campaign is exclusively on the Arcade so you don't download it here like most other campaigns. Second, this campaign is incredibly polished and virtually indistinguishable from a professionally made set of official Blizzard maps, short only of voice acting. Highly recommend - if you somehow ended up here as opposed to finding the maps on the Arcade - stop what you are doing, go to the Arcade, and play them!
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Posted Feb 17, 2016hey guys, just updated this campaign to 1.1. Check out the changes here: Update 1.1
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Posted Dec 11, 2015Could you please make it available for download as well?
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Posted Nov 19, 2015The long journey is coming to an end. Over the past two months I have been revamping all aspects of the campaign. I've fixed bugs, added new features, improved the level design, cinematics, balance, added features from the recently released Legacy of the Void, and much more.
I've also been getting very good feedback from my testers. All of them have earned their spot in the credits that appear at the end of the campaign.
Despite the mere 7 maps this is the biggest mod-project I have ever created. The campaign features a story based on the novel Shadow of the Xel'Naga by Gabriel Mesta. It features single-player as well as a two player co-op mode. Each map has unique gameplay with open-world action, puzzles, MOBA gameplay, Tower Defense, stealth mechanics, dungeon crawler, and base-building.
All maps will be published on November 27th*, and can be played by everyone, on the free Battle.net Arcade.
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Posted Oct 24, 2015Beta testing started: Everyone who's interested look in this thread: http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/player-zone/map-feedback/84682-co-op-campaign-shadow-of-the-xel-naga/
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Posted Oct 11, 2015@OutsiderXE: Go
If you need testers I will be happy to help :3
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Posted Oct 11, 2015The campaign isn't released yet. It will probably not be available for direct download but playable through the battle.net arcade for the co-op experience.
All maps are in beta and currently being polished. The campaign is planned to be released on November/December 2015.
I've just added a video for Chapter 5. You can actually see me fail in the end thanks to a bug :)
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Posted Oct 10, 2015I know this might sound stupid... but how do I download? :T I can't seem to find the right link. I love the screenshots btw
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Posted Sep 26, 2015I might remove a few more, but in all honesty, I want to emphasize how each map is its own project. You'll barely see any gameplay mechanics used twice. If I have only 1 or 2 screenshots per map you would barely find out anything about that map.
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Posted Sep 23, 2015Too many screen shots!!
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Posted Sep 17, 2015I've always gone for the approach to add as little custom stuff as possible so keep filesize and workload down. After all, blizzard doesn't allow many MBs per account. Also, the Mass Recall stuff doesn't appear as often as one might think from the credits. Only chapters 3 and 7 feature large combat with units and structures from all three races, while only chapter 7 allows the player to actually use the SCMR tech-tree. Every other map relies on selfmade data. The feeling for this campaign should be very different than SCMR.
However, I haven't yet decided which models I want to use exactly. I hope LotV will add more SC1/BW units made by blizzard.
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Posted Sep 17, 2015The only thing that concerns me about not using the "entire" Mass Recall mod is if I will be able to play the maps with the retro version, because I really like those models.
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Posted Sep 16, 2015Chapters 1 and 2 don't use SCMR. It's likely I'll modify the SCMR modfile to remove stuff I don't need and include stuff I need that isn't there, so the filesize will be reduced. In any case I'll credit the SCMR guys for their data editor work.
Does anyone know how to fix the scaling for the screenshots? Sometimes they are fit to the page, sometimes they appear in their original size.