The Protoss Colossus has been officially released on the Starcraft 2 website.

Here’s the official description:

The towering colossus is a protoss robot design dating back to the bloody conflicts of the Kalath Intercession. It strides across the battlefield on four tall, slender legs which give it an extremely high level of mobility. The great height of the machine allows it to step up and down cliffs and other steep elevations with little difficulty, and gives it a dominating field of fire.

The immense height of a colossus means it is vulnerable to attack from both anti-ground and anti-air units and structures

The heavily armored hull of the colossus carries two powerful thermal lances: one mounted on each side of its body. Complex focusing and targeting systems are used to pinpoint the continuous damage output of the thermal lances for optimal efficiency. As a target is destroyed, the lances are switched to a new target instantly so that a colossus’ beam cuts a fiery swathe of destruction through multiple enemies with each firing cycle.

And here’s a bit of historical background information on the Colossus and how it fits into the Starcraft Universe:

The colossus is unusual for the fact that it was created purely as a war machine. Most protoss robots are created for industrial or resource-gathering purposes. Even the much-feared reaver is at its core a mobile manufacturing unit re-tasked to the creation of scarab drones for long-range bombardment. The mass slaughter unleashed on the kalathi by roving colossi appalled the protoss.

At the time, the Conclave outlawed the manufacture of colossi, and existing machines were deactivated before being sealed away in distant asteroids and uninhabited moons. Centuries later the war against the zerg has brought forth these engines of destruction to do battle once more.

You can see a video of the Colossus in action in my previous post. In this video, we see the Colossus providing support for a group of zealot. Indeed, the description on the official website says “heavy support.” The Colossi will probably be best used as a behind the lines support unit, dishing out damage with the heavy lasers while being protected from a direct frontal attack. It remains to be seen whether the Colossi will be effective against heavily armored units. Here’s a screenshot of some Colossi attacking some marines in a jungle setting.

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• Starcraft 2 Developer Gameplay Video