|
The actual gameplay was better than I thought it was going to be. There were some genuinely creative missions. No real complaints there other than some missions seemed to be difficult unless you had specific unlocks.
What I hated was how Blizzard handled the Hybrids/Duran/Overmind story. They took an enigmatic plotline and made it medicore. They then pulled a "WC3 Orcs" on the Overmind and basically retcon'ed 12 years of established lore. Instead of the Overmind chasing absolute perfection by assimilating the Protoss, we find out he was enslaved and rebelled in the form of Kerrigan (what?). The SC1 manual states that the Overmind was obsessed with the purity of form that the Protoss possessed. Instead, he's just another pawn for the higher powers.
What they did with the Hybrids is even more disappointing. The design for the hybrids was extremely disappointing; it looked like what some high school kid would draw during lunch period. Take hydra scales, protoss head and arms, add tentacles and add a glowing aura.
Finally, Blizzard loves deus ex machinas. The artifact questline was basically ripped straight from the Protoss Brood War campaign. Find the Xel'Naga crystals, put them into the temple, vaporize the Zerg. Now we get another artifact, prophecies, super scientists, etc etc.
Like I said before, SC2's storyline reads like a bad fan fic from 2001.
|
I liked the campaign overall, the gameplay was fun, but I'm a little sad that so few of the missions had anything to do with the main story. I don't know about you, but between fighting a war of the universe and doing merc missions for profit the latter is a bit... Lame.
The hybrids stank of warcraft. Blizzard need to get themselves some new writers for the coming expansion.
|
I was delighted with this campaign. Especially at the start it draws you in and makes you interested in what will happen next, what the news-broadcasts will say and such. The middle wasn't enough of consequence however, and the fact you have so much choice in missions confused me a bit, since I think it led to a situation where you had all these not too relevant side-plots that didn't change enough, and even if there was some argument the next mission it was forgotten since after all you could do them in any order you wanted to. There was also some off characterization near the end with Raynor, I felt. On the plus side, the missions were cool and I'm quite interested in replaying it on Brutal.
I agree the storyline is essentially too short, you have a lot of interaction with the Dominion, but you seem to raid the fringe worlds for some artefacts or money. If there was some kind of bigger confrontation with the Dominion to add to the tension later on when you make your deal with Mengsk jr. Maybe some additional things with Tosh too, who was a cool character.
I don't know if it is just me, but I had predicted the ending, something I was very happy about. I guess it wasn't so much predicting as me saying to myself "oh, wouldn't it be cool if this happened", and I think I said that to myself during the revelation that Kerrigan is some kind of special project by the Overmind. At that point I hadn't yet seen the cinematic where Kerrigan is a ghost still, being overrun by the zerg, so that couldn't have tipped me off, and obviously the actual revelation that they could turn Kerrigan human again I hadn't seen yet either.
It's rather futile to try to find logic in videogame plots, I guess, but I had always wondered first of all what the point was of Kerrigan and second, how on earth she could be so powerful as to control the whole zerg. Kerrigan wasn't just an infested terran, or even an infested ghost, she was a special creation that was never meant as a test for some kind of mass producing, I think. Personally, I suspect Blizzard just wanted to put a human face on the zerg, so you weren't fighting amorphous tentacles too much. However, for the plot there just had to be something special about Kerrigan and a reason why the Overmind created her. Creating a being that could lead the zerg but had free will is a credible explanation I guess.
For the second question, why she's so powerful, I think it would make sense if it was discovered her creation was somehow tied to another Xel Naga artefact.
To be honest I never considered Kerrigan a really great character. She's too interconnected with Raynor and Mengsk and such to really be a credible threat to the universe, unlike the far more intimidating Overmind. Her fate always was tied to some action by Raynor and therefore I think she had to go as leader of the zerg, because for the zerg to be a race with some agency, some reason for the race to survive instead of being just a pawn in someone's game it needs a leader like the Overmind.
Considering all that (and because I'm a softie) I realized I would like an ending where Jim finally gets Sarah back, which would be very poignant.
|
5003 Posts
On August 01 2010 00:22 Mortecian wrote:Well. You can see the Warcraft III and beyond influence. Not sure what happened there in the company, but where the original games, starcraft, warcraft, diablo were -incredibly- dark. The new games are light and cartoonish. + Show Spoiler +
A lot of people thought the protoss bit was great. I thought that was where the story became a cartoon:
To sum it up,
End of the World is coming.
A Prophecy told us about it.
It's the Xelnaga (didn't the zerg KILL the xelnaga? I remember reading that the overmind just went rogue and ate them).
The EVIL of all EVIL is coming to cover the world in void.
The overmind wasn't evil, he was a slave! (which is dissapointing and turns him into a 'meh').
Kerrigan is the key to breaking that.
Which sounds exactly like warcraft III....
The Legion is coming.
A prophecy told us about it.
The Orcs aren't evil (which is really dissapointing again!)
The undead are slaves to the legion (directed by the lich king who is like the overmind).
A band of unlikely brothers is key to destroying the Evil of all evil and saving the world.
* * *
That's dandy, but again it feels like way too much of the story was scrapped. Everything that happened in Brood War seems to have mysteriously vanished.
Every character in Brood War was cold and calculating, especially Kerrigan. Let's recap:
- She tricked the protoss into slowing down the new overmind.
- She possessed the Matriach, stole her secrets and had her killed.
- She, through Duran, skullfucked the UED admiral into killing his best-bud and almost destroying the PSI disruptor.
- She teamed-up with Fenix/Raynor and Mengsk in order to destroy the Psi disruptor and the UED.
- She killed Fenix (Raynor's best bud) and betrayed them both.
- She skullfucked every faction (UED, Mengsk, Artanis) at the end and became the leader in the Koprulu sector.
Starcraft II comes, she goes away for 4 years. She taunts people all game while being skullfucked by everyone and just feels really cartoon villain without any plot, scheme or depth (what did she want? What were her goals?).
Same feel for most characters too. You either see right through them or think they dont have goals of any kind (interesting goals anyway).
- Tosh? Free his spectres and dance on Mengsk's grave. (How deep of a goal for a Psychic super warrior)....
- Horner? Kill Mengsk. (You understand this guy from day 1 and he doesn't change)
- Raynor? Forgave Kerrigan for all she did without any struggle (i.e. kill fenix and destroy half the galaxy), but can't forgive Mengsk for killing Kerrigan.
- Zeratul? Became a warcraft 3 character and tries to stop the end of the world.
- Valerian? Somewhat interesting character so far... hopefully he will have fun goals that go beyond what he showed you.
- Tychus? Interesting character. The build-up to his betrayal was interesting, but his betrayal that was anticipated by the player barely did anything and lasted 3 seconds.... Big dissapointment.
That said, the campaign levels were great. You have to understand that some of these characters like Swann were just there to fulfill a game role and not a story role, and that's fine. Each mission was unique and fun to run through (and that's really why they made starcraft), if they wanted to tell only a story, they would write a book or do a movie. Their biggest story mess-up (which I think most people critique here indirectly) was the fact they were telling a story about the characters through an RTS game while there are more adapted game types to do this like an RPG (i.e. Mass Effect). The original SC story was about the factions and the characters leading/helping these factions and the conquests of each factions whether it's Xasx, the overmind, Daggoth, Kerrigan, Dark Templars, Tassadar, Sons of Korhal, Confederates, Terran Dominion, UED, The old Protoss ways (Judicator Aldaris), the new protoss ways (Artanis), and so on. It's interesting, but I think people wanted to know more what is going to happen with those factions and their leaders/major players rather than the new emphasis on character interplay.
This post is pretty much spot on regarding how I felt about story. Actually, I'll say it that this post put it in words much better than I would been able to.
|
Why is everyone so confident that Kerrigan was actually "saved"? The only thing we really got to know is that her physical appearance has been altered into a form halfway between zerg Kerrigan and terran Kerrigan. Kerrigan is after all rather devious, I wouldn't put it past her to actually have desired the outcome of WoL. Concider that she does state that she knows what the Xel'Naga artifact is (During the mission where you destroy data cores, I believe), meaning that she knew full well what it could do to her. Also concider that this was done on her turf, she had an actual entire planet to throw at Jim guarding the artifact but didn't, she just put up token resistance.
Until new information is released, I think I'll stick to my belief that Kerrigan has a few aces up her sleeves. You know, once she gets dressed again...
|
Starcraft's core story was told in the original game. Everything after that tastes like sequel filler because: unfortunately, it is. Similar to how fans made Isaac Asimov come up with the "final" four books of his Foundations series--and the result was accordingly bland--Blizzard is making this game in response to an external demand, not an internal story-driven impulse.
Second, for all the effort put into Starcraft, Blizzard earned its mega-billions on an RPG MMO--not an RTS. Simply being the 12-years-distant company responsible for the original SC and SC:BW doesn't mean that the Blizzard of 2010 (and 2009, and 2008...) is an epic RTS-crafting university. I certainly enjoyed SC2:WL, and I will for a long time to come--more than any other RTS game out there, I think. But some of the story blandness, or awkwardness, I think, comes from the inevitable bleedthrough of RPG elements that will probably continue to affect every game Blizzard makes until WoW is unpopulated.
|
On August 01 2010 06:22 Toesmasher wrote:
Why is everyone so confident that Kerrigan was actually "saved"? The only thing we really got to know is that her physical appearance has been altered into a form halfway between zerg Kerrigan and terran Kerrigan. Kerrigan is after all rather devious, I wouldn't put it past her to actually have desired the outcome of WoL. Concider that she does state that she knows what the Xel'Naga artifact is (During the mission where you destroy data cores, I believe), meaning that she knew full well what it could do to her. Also concider that this was done on her turf, she had an actual entire planet to throw at Jim guarding the artifact but didn't, she just put up token resistance.
Until new information is released, I think I'll stick to my belief that Kerrigan has a few aces up her sleeves. You know, once she gets dressed again...
I don't think you can say the fact she kept the hair the same means she isn't completely turned. How unbelievable would the artefact be if it created out of thin air Kerrigan exactly as she was pre-infestation? If her infestation was aided with some type of xel'naga artefact, which I would guess, then possibly another artefact can remove the effects from the infestation. Having strange hair isn't an effect of the infestation though, perhaps she just liked it that way? If the zerg traces are removed then her hair should lose the thickness and weirdness, but it can stay in the same model.
|
On August 01 2010 06:22 Toesmasher wrote:
Why is everyone so confident that Kerrigan was actually "saved"? The only thing we really got to know is that her physical appearance has been altered into a form halfway between zerg Kerrigan and terran Kerrigan. Kerrigan is after all rather devious, I wouldn't put it past her to actually have desired the outcome of WoL. Concider that she does state that she knows what the Xel'Naga artifact is (During the mission where you destroy data cores, I believe), meaning that she knew full well what it could do to her. Also concider that this was done on her turf, she had an actual entire planet to throw at Jim guarding the artifact but didn't, she just put up token resistance.
Until new information is released, I think I'll stick to my belief that Kerrigan has a few aces up her sleeves. You know, once she gets dressed again...
She was devious in Brood War.
In WoL she is the most pathetic character in the game.
That's why most don't think there's any deviousness going on.
|
Can't wait to see how the campaign continues to play out. Excited for HotS. :D
|
Just one sentence says it all: "We are taking terrible... terrible damage!" :D :D :D
EPIC!
|
Loved it and it's amazing.
All you who didn't like the game have to remember that this is only 1/3 of the story. Sure there are many unanswered question. But Blizzard has never failed to tell their awesome tails.
Can't wait for the Heart of Swarm.
|
finally finished after playing on and off thanks to a #*$)#*$ job.
Felt short, did like the variety of missions but the side missions with tosh and the doc (pretty hot) were boring.
It was all worth it for the ending. With two more installments, they can't progress the story too quickly, but I love it now that Kerrigan is back on our side.
|
The sidemissions should've had an effect on the main storyline.
I mean they only effect in Ghost/Spectre and wich research point do you want.
The way they are now they feel like anime fillers: some random story that doesn't really matter.
|
Ok, thread is TLDR already... though some nice posts in the beginning, I'm all with the OP for instance.
And a couple more things I want to add. SC2 campaign was disappointing in the fact that your "choices" really didn't matter for shit. I don't mean just the couple alternate missions that you got to pick from, which were terribad in themselves, i.e. in not having the differences being clear enough or even making any sense... Like, do I wanna wipe the infested and save the ones that still aren't which somehow turns out to be a bad thing, or do I wanna fight some innocent protoss instead which automagically makes the infestation disappear for some reason. Or why can't I break free the political prisoners but still screw up Tosh and leave the nutsos to Nova. But also the order in which you took the missions as well - like, hell, there is a colony in need of my help, but sure, it can wait till I dig up a dozen relics and get cash and upgrades and come save them next year cos it's absolutely no difference to them, only I'll be a ton stronger. They could've made it so that if you delayed such missions, they get replaced with some harder, bad-things-have-happened-since variants.
I am also disappointed with the story in general. No UED, nothing about Duran or his involvement with the hybrid experiments, no infested, resurrected and de-infested Stukov like in some *official* secret missions in the N64 version of SC 1...
Raynor himself was a disappointment, I was expecting him to stick with the protoss for longer and focus primarily on fighting Kerrigan and the Zerg, even whip out Fenix's old psi blades or some templar or dark templar psi tricks as a surprise move in a crucial moment, etc. I was expecting him to more actively look for a way to de-infest Kerrigan, perhaps something related to the Stukov case, or perhaps some combo of cloning and protoss memory crystals to make an uninfested copy of her, or perhaps any of a bunch of other far-out speculations, but most definitely not just be handed out a magical "artifact" that grants any wish lol.
Tassadar being alive (well, kinda?) was an interesting twist, though not entirely unexpected, but why it didn't lead up to anything... well, hopefully they follow up on this in the expos.
|
So Kerrigan is responsible for the death of Fenix who was "raynors best friend", and raynor doesn't even mention fenix once in the story? not to mention the fact that he doesn't mind that at all. and that's just one of many story flaws, shame because the story really had potential, let's just hope that it gets better in the expos.
|
Campaign was awesome, just finished the last mission.
Im pumped for Heart of the Swarm to see the continuation but that'll take another 10 years probably 
|
I thought the campaign was pretty damn awesome. I usually jump right into multiplayer when I get a new game, but this campaign got me hooked enough to play through two times.
also, General Warfield is a complete badass, looking forwards to seeing more of him in the next expansions.
|
2 Questions I have (not 100% related to the storyline, but still concerning the single player):
1 - Did it bother anyone else that Raynor has hair in SC2? What happened to the bald egg-shaped head / thin mustached Raynor from SC1?
2 - Where can the opening cinematic with Tychus be viewed again? There's no "play intro" button like there was in SC2 and I haven't been able to find it!
|
On August 05 2010 02:19 kh4n wrote:
2 Questions I have (not 100% related to the storyline, but still concerning the single player):
1 - Did it bother anyone else that Raynor has hair in SC2? What happened to the bald egg-shaped head / thin mustached Raynor from SC1?
2 - Where can the opening cinematic with Tychus be viewed again? There's no "play intro" button like there was in SC2 and I haven't been able to find it!
1) People change over 4 years.
2) No clue. 
|
I really liked the gameplay experience, but the storyline was poorly written in my opinion.
For example… + Show Spoiler +Tychus participating in the obliteration of Mengks' reputation while being blackmailed with tracking/exploding devices strapped in his marine suit didn't make a lot of sense.
I knew Tychus wasn't legit the moment he stepped on the ship, but I was assuming Moebius was related to Duran's forces or something and he was working for them while the suit was to hide the fact that he was infested.
The pseudo-romance with the doctor was godawfully cliché. "I'm a poor lonesome cowboyyyyy, amirite?"
Siding with either Tosh of Nova should've been more important than just giving a different unit. While we're speaking about Tosh, they should've hired another guy for Tosh's voice acting… that troll accent was really out of place. Replace all the "bros" with "mons"… while it was probably intentional, I personally didn't enjoy.
The end was also a let-down. Raynor running in to "cure" Kerrigan while Zeratul told him she was needed to save the galaxy, and succeeding. It merely opens a blatantly predictable plot where Kerrigan will be nice for a couple missions and then tell Raynor "omg I can't stay with you I has to go back to the swarm because they need a Lich Ki… I mean a queen otherwise they'll run rampant across Azero… I mean the galaxy. I wuv u but sry I need to go get infested again kthnxbai."
The overall gameplay was pretty rad though. When I ended a mission I was eager to watch the news to see how that moron would accuse Raynor of punching babies, or something, and the research/upgrade/merc system was nice. I liked how completing missions unlocked units, and were tailored to said units and how they should be used.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
