On March 19 2013 09:41 Yoav wrote: So, I actually generally enjoyed the campaign (simple and predictable, but inoffensive, unlike WoL).
But I have to say I am perplexed by the whole Kaldir episode.
1) Why exactly didn't ANYONE make the slightest attempt at a negotiated withdrawal... Kerrigan wanted her brood, the Toss wanted their colony, and fighting one another was obviously and will continue to be highly unhelpful.
2) Why didn't the Protoss warp right away? In an earlier cutscene, we saw Kerrigan's *shuttle* warp away a few seconds after taking off, while still in atmo. The Hyperion did the same thing (with a longer start-up time) in WoL. The Protoss have shuttles, Carriers, Void Rays, and Scouts, all of which would presumably have warp drives.
3) As I understand the mechanic, Zealots don't actually usually "die," but instead are warped away at the last second, causing that characteristic flash of light. Sometimes they are badly injured (whence Dragoons/Immortals), or do in fact die, but they at least have an ejection system that is supposed to send them home. So why don't they just show up in Shakuras sickbay and alert the Golden Armada?
4) Similarly, the Protoss production mechanic is to warp in soldiers from other worlds (originally Aiur, but now probably a diffuse collection of planets.) Numerous Protoss warriors are warped in during the Kaldir campaign. And yet, we are to believe that Kaldir was so far removed from other Protoss worlds that they could not get out a message that could be transferred to Shakuras?
-- All that asked (would love a good explanation), I enjoyed the campaign. My next mission: beat Brutal without using Kerrigan at all. I'm sure it's been done, but would be fun to see how it could work.
To be fair, when Protoss units "die", they don't actually die. They're warped away. That's what the puff of smoke is. It's part of their armor systems. Killing as much Zerg as possible before getting warped to safety isn't a bad deal. Also, the Protoss love fighting.
That's why some killed DTs you see go up in a puff of smoke whereas some DTs actually fall down and actually die, as some DTs may not have this system installed in their gear.
Yeah, but that's the whole problem... if they warp away, doesn't Kerrigan's whole "Kill them all so they don't tell Shakuras" plan goes up in blue smoke.
True. But even with that aside, I'm pretty sure the Protoss told the folks on Shakuras everything going on. There's obviously comm links they're going to have with military command on Shakuras.
But the great thing is, Protoss armies are practically immortal :D
On March 19 2013 08:22 Splines wrote: I could tear down the BW story, show you that for each plothole in SC2 there is a bigger one in BW. But you know what would be ever better then competing in which story is more terribly written? Trying to enjoy the good parts as much as possible. Bile or sugar, you choose how to live.
Tell me something worse than this in sc1 or BW:
The very first cutscene in WoL we already know Tychus is in Mengsk's pocket.
Now naturally one thinks, "wow! What a giveaway. I wonder how they'll approach his story later on in the campaign. What epic reversal could they be planning by giving the player the knowledge that Tychus is going to betray them. That Mengsk already knows Raynor's every step through Tychus. That Tychus, despite seemingly being a good friend of Raynor is going to tragically stab him in the back at some point."
Fast-forward through most of the campaign: "hmmm Tychus still hasn't made his move yet...Tosh even hints that Tychus feels guilt on his mind. Oh look! Here's a mission to raid the dominion. This must be it. Raynor is going to fall right into his trap!"
*finish mission*
"Hmmm odd. We just fucked over Mengsk and he had full knowledge of this, yet he did nothing. What is his angle?"
*collect all artifact pieces*
"wtf Mengsk DO SOMETHING!"
*finish campaign*
...."are you fucking kidding me? Tychus' whole mission was just to assassinate Kerrigan..?"
Can you see how unbelievably stupid this is? Why was a covert operation like this needed to take out Kerrigan? Doesn't the entire sector want her dead? How does Mengsk know Tychus has the likeliest chance of assassinating Kerrigan? Wouldn't it have made far more sense to try and kill Raynor or at least attempt to capture him?
and I enjoyed the campaign for the gameplay. I just feel compelled to speak out on how bad the story was xD.
I dunno tbh. Its obvious that Kerrigan is a way bigger threat to Mengsk then Raynor. Raynor is a simple man who got a bunch of raiders, an annoyance sure but not a threat. Kerrigan on the other hand is the leader of an alien race with unlimited numbers. Yea the entire sector may want her dead, doesn't change she is the leader of the swarm and nothing will get close to her head on. And honestly when would be the better place to try to kill her? When she is standing after an army of ultralisks, or when she is vurnable and caught off guard. He planted tychus there in the hope Raynor would bring him to Kerrigan and could always go after Raynor later.
But how does he know he'll have that scenario?
How does he know Raynor will succeed in weakening Kerrigan to the state at which Tychus can take her out with a rifle?
How does he even know what the artifact does?
How does he even know Raynor will even get close enough? It only took an entire fleet launching an invasion on her homeworld to even get the chance (which is also bullshit considering Kerrigan owns 3 factions at once at the end of BW).
It's all just so contrived.
He doesn't, he relies pure on the chance.
But thing is, why not. Putting Tychus there gives him no risk yet can give massive rewards.
No idea about the homeworld part tough, been a while since i played BW campaign (tried recently but got frustrated with the unit selection limit)
No risk? Tychus is a hostage inside his own body armor and Mengsk can press the trigger and end his life at any moment.
However, Mengsk does nothing while Tychus steals the Odin and destroys base after base in Valhalla; Mengsk does nothing while Tychus destroy half of Korhal using the Dominon's Odin; and still does nothing while Tychus helps broadcast a transmission that exposes him as a war criminal to the entire dominion. He risked everything...
Unfortunately WoL is also full of plot holes. For those interested, I recommend reading the following WoL review:
It's possible that Mengsk just plain underestimated the amount of damage Raynor and Tychus could do to him. It's similar to Ganandorf's plan in Ocarina of Time - Ganondorf needs Zelda to reveal herself to obtain the Triforce, so he allows Link to run relatively unimpeded throughout his kingdom. As Ganondorf states, however, he had no idea Link could free virtually every single region in Hyrule from his control.
Also, remember that even though Raynor did put a massive dent in Mengsk's credibility with his broadcasts, in Hots Mengsk seems to have stabilized with his purported victory over the Zerg and over Raynor. He also still has (half) the Dominion fleet at his call, although I'm not sure why more Dominion soldiers did not abandon him upon hearing the broadcasts.
It is true that WoL, and even Hots, are full of plot holes and could use some more eloquent diction. I will, however, put forth a hypothesis regarding Mengsk's actions: Mengsk knew about the artifact all along. He was in communication with Duran/Narud since before WoL and knew that the artifact would de-infest Kerrigan, leaving her vulnerable and providing a most effective approach to assassinate her. In exchange for the intel, and the completed artifact, Mengsk would provide Duran with the proper facilities to conduct his own research. Duran probably didn't tell Mengsk the artifact would provide Duran with the necessary energy to resurrect Amon. Mengsk determined that any public search for the artifact components would likely raise Kerrigan's attention (ignore the fact that Kerrigan ends up looking for the pieces anyway) so he conducts a covert operation to recover the artifact. He uses Tychus to recruit Raynor to his son's Moebius Foundation - Raynor is a tactical genius and is perfect for making quick raids to collect the artifact pieces. Raynor also has the perfect motivations - he needs funds to support his war against Mengsk and also wants to redeem his fallen girlfriend. Once the artifact works, he can swoop in with the Dominion fleet and grab the artifact for himself, regardless of whether Tychus succeeded in assassinating Kerrigan or not. Mengsk would also have pinned down Raynor with Kerrigan, making Raynor much easier to capture. Now that Mengsk has personal control of the artifact and has Raynor captured/executed, he can kill Kerrigan himself and take all the credit.
Again, I am aware of the numerous plot holes and writing. Why didn't Kerrigan read Mengsk's mind as she approached him, and thus alert herself to the presence of the Xelnaga artifact right beneath her? I am also curious that the Protoss do not play a more active part of this story. What the hell are they doing besides burning down Zerg worlds? Why are they not keeping tabs on Kerrigan - I'm sure the Golden Armada would be very interested to know of her de-infestation. Has Zeratul made contact with them to tell them of the prophecy? Nevertheless, I am impressed that the story in Hots is at least more consistent than that of WoL. I think where Blizzard lacks in literary storytelling, they make up for in some part in visual and cinematic storytelling - ALL the cinematics in Hots have some dramatic weight and serve their purpose in the narrative, unlike in WoL where in half the cinematics I didn't care as much what was going on.
You also have to admit that SC1/BW has its share of plot holes as well. If the Overmind had settled on Aiur and the Zerg have apparently taken over most of the planet and should have control over the skies, how do Tassadar, the Conclave et. al get around at all? How does Tassadar return to Aiur without getting shot down by a pack of Scourge first? If even feral Zerg without the control of the Overmind are sufficient to completely drive the Protoss off planet, how do Tassadar et. al ever get close enough to stage a frontal assault on the Overmind, even if they have killed off a couple Cerebrates? Why does Zeratul fall for Kerrigan's manipulations twice? Why isn't Kerrigan more curious about Duran - he's apparently an infested terran who was never mentioned in SC1 as one of the Overmind's minions. How does shutting down the defense network on Telematros allow Kerrigan to steal Raszagal from Shakuras? Shouldn't the constant operation of the Xelnaga temple, powered by the two crystals, be enough to zap any Zerg trying to land on the planet?
Although I think some of the disappointment and complaints are valid, most of them are way overboard in my opinion. Starcraft, in all honesty, is a game for KIDS. Did some of you forget that? What do you think their target audience is? 30 year olds who need complex story lines with excellent dialogue? I was 13 when the original game came out. This isn't supposed to be some crazy, deep, story for adults. However, adults like me who grew up with the game can still enjoy it. Just remember what their target audience is for this game.
I think most of you have forgotten how the original SC and even BW were. The dialogue has always been laughable. That's kinda a gimme with Blizzard. And the story/writing? C'mon!! Like SC&BW were complex stories and not predictable? Get real.. this is the same feel of the old school games. I, for one, enjoyed the hell out of the expansion.
Does anyone else find Kerrigan's voice actress to be really fucking awful? I swear every line she spoke brought me right out of the mood. I realize Tricia Heffer or w/e her name is was only used as a marketing gimmick, but Jesus Christ she is terrible. It was fine in WoL where she only had a line or two, but being the main character really calls for a decent voice actor.
Other than that, the story was just as terrible as WoL, but the gameplay was fun. Wasn't nearly as difficult on Brutal as WoL was, though =/.
SC1 didn't have a great story either, it's just nostalgia making it look good. It was cheesy and shallow but at least it had a sense of grandeur about it, whereas SC2 focuses so much on these one-dimensional characters nobody can relate to.
On March 19 2013 13:20 choicesthops wrote: Although I think some of the disappointment and complaints are valid, most of them are way overboard in my opinion. Starcraft, in all honesty, is a game for KIDS. Did some of you forget that? What do you think their target audience is? 30 year olds who need complex story lines with excellent dialogue? I was 13 when the original game came out. This isn't supposed to be some crazy, deep, story for adults. However, adults like me who grew up with the game can still enjoy it. Just remember what their target audience is for this game.
I think most of you have forgotten how the original SC and even BW were. The dialogue has always been laughable. That's kinda a gimme with Blizzard. And the story/writing? C'mon!! Like SC&BW were complex stories and not predictable? Get real.. this is the same feel of the old school games. I, for one, enjoyed the hell out of the expansion.
I can agree with you to a point on the story/characterization in SC/BW. However, you have to admit that the dialogue is much more sophisticated than that in Wol/Hots. Example:
Zeratul: You speak of knowledge, Judicator? You speak of experience? I have journeyed through the darkness between the most distant stars. I have beheld the births of negative-suns and borne witness to the entropy of entire realities... Unto my experience, Aldaris, all that you've built here on Aiur is but a fleeting dream. A dream from which your precious Conclave shall awaken, finding themselves drowned in a greater nightmare.
and:
Fenix: This is a betrayl most foul, Kerrigan. We were fools to have gone along with this charade! Kerrigan: You're right, Fenix. I used you to get the job done, and you played along just like I knew you would. You Protoss are all so headstrong and predictable. You are your own worst enemies. Fenix: That's ironic, I can remember Tassadar teaching you a very similar lesson on Char. Kerrigan: I took that lesson to heart, Praetor. Now, are you prepared to die a second time? Fenix: The Khala awaits me, Kerrigan, and thou I am prepared to face my destiny, you will not find me easy prey. Kerrigan: Then that shall be your epitaph.
Good luck finding any exchange with that level of diction in Starcraft 2.
I do agree with your point about the target audience for a game like this. Even SC1 is, first and foremost, a multiplayer experience. However I do think that, however basic the stories for each of the games is, there are some interesting themes that run throughout. The rift between the Khalai and the Dark Templar, and the idea that the Zerg and the Protoss are supposed to represent different pinnacles of evolution, are worth noting. Throughout BW there's the idea of betrayal - Kerrigan not only betrays everyone, but Dugalle is tricked into betraying his lifelong friend Stukov, Zeratul and Artanis are tricked into betraying Aldaris, and Duran turns on Kerrigan. Even in Wol/Hots there's an idea of redemption - Raynor must conquer the shadows of his past to deliver freedom, and Kerrigan must grapple with the weight of her past crimes. I believe this theme will run into Legacy of the Void with Zeratul, who must redeem himself from his past failures.
On March 19 2013 13:46 starimk wrote: Fenix: This is a betrayl most foul, Kerrigan. We were fools to have gone along with this charade! Kerrigan: You're right, Fenix. I used you to get the job done, and you played along just like I knew you would. You Protoss are all so headstrong and predictable. You are your own worst enemies. Fenix: That's ironic, I can remember Tassadar teaching you a very similar lesson on Char. Kerrigan: I took that lesson to heart, Praetor. Now, are you prepared to die a second time? Fenix: The Khala awaits me, Kerrigan, and thou I am prepared to face my destiny, you will not find me easy prey. Kerrigan: Then that shall be your epitaph.
Reading this (with the Fenix voice that I actually remember) gave me goosebumps..
On March 19 2013 13:20 choicesthops wrote: Although I think some of the disappointment and complaints are valid, most of them are way overboard in my opinion. Starcraft, in all honesty, is a game for KIDS. Did some of you forget that? What do you think their target audience is? 30 year olds who need complex story lines with excellent dialogue? I was 13 when the original game came out. This isn't supposed to be some crazy, deep, story for adults. However, adults like me who grew up with the game can still enjoy it. Just remember what their target audience is for this game.
I think most of you have forgotten how the original SC and even BW were. The dialogue has always been laughable. That's kinda a gimme with Blizzard. And the story/writing? C'mon!! Like SC&BW were complex stories and not predictable? Get real.. this is the same feel of the old school games. I, for one, enjoyed the hell out of the expansion.
SC/BW was an incredibly dark and gory setting, and I'm pretty sure it was rated M when it first game out. Currently it's rated Teen (13+), and is 15+ or 16+ in many countries. This game was not meant for kids.
Oh, and this, "You're just nostalgic!' argument is a load of crap. Every time it's brought up, we tell you guys why it isn't just nostalgia, but actual quality, that drives the comparison, and it's thoroughly explained why. Not only that, there are specific examples that show how the dialogue, characterization, and plot of BW is better than SC2's throughout this thread.
On March 19 2013 13:20 choicesthops wrote: Although I think some of the disappointment and complaints are valid, most of them are way overboard in my opinion. Starcraft, in all honesty, is a game for KIDS. Did some of you forget that? What do you think their target audience is? 30 year olds who need complex story lines with excellent dialogue? I was 13 when the original game came out. This isn't supposed to be some crazy, deep, story for adults. However, adults like me who grew up with the game can still enjoy it. Just remember what their target audience is for this game.
I think most of you have forgotten how the original SC and even BW were. The dialogue has always been laughable. That's kinda a gimme with Blizzard. And the story/writing? C'mon!! Like SC&BW were complex stories and not predictable? Get real.. this is the same feel of the old school games. I, for one, enjoyed the hell out of the expansion.
SC/BW was an incredibly dark and gory setting, and I'm pretty sure it was rated M when it first game out. Currently it's rated Teen (13+), and is 15+ or 16+ in many countries. This game was not meant for kids.
Oh, and this, "You're just nostalgic!' argument is a load of crap. Every time it's brought up, we tell you guys why it isn't just nostalgia, but actual quality, that drives the comparison, and it's thoroughly explained why. Not only that, there are specific examples that show how the dialogue, characterization, and plot of BW is better than SC2's throughout this thread.
TLDR: Read the damn thread before posting these.
Agreed. Kids these days don't remember WHERE and HOW blizzard got its "reputation" in the first place with regards to storylines, cinematics and multiplayer experience..
The only blizzard legacy thats survived the years of hype/expectation is the cinematics. The rest is.. abit disheartening to even think about them although HOTS multiplayer seems to be back on track again after witnessing MLG Dallas.
I'm kind of stomped that nobody (as far as I read, which is not all of the thread, obviously) pointed out the strange reaction that Kerrigan has toward Zeratul (and to a lesser extent warfield). She doesn't even know who he is.
She never met him before (or she is lying about her memory loss). It's even more absurd because Raynor probably only told her good things about him, it should (easily) beat any (potential) remnant memory she has of him. He's clearly the reason she is human once more !
I was able to enjoy the campaign even though it had a weird story arc. But what really made me sick was the amount of echo for pretty much every single voice in the freakin campaign (at least in my german version). She is an alien? Give her more echo. Stukov is now half Zerg? Double echo, double the fun. After a while it just sounds like my speakers are broken. I don't even know if it was good voice acting for the characters, as the echo made it pretty much impossible for me to listen/enjoy their voice.
On March 19 2013 18:22 Cyanure wrote: I'm kind of stomped that nobody (as far as I read, which is not all of the thread, obviously) pointed out the strange reaction that Kerrigan has toward Zeratul (and to a lesser extent warfield). She doesn't even know who he is.
She never met him before (or she is lying about her memory loss). It's even more absurd because Raynor probably only told her good things about him, it should (easily) beat any (potential) remnant memory she has of him. He's clearly the reason she is human once more !
Oh, they know each other, no doubt about that. She lied about her memory loss for Valerian because she doesn't trust him I guess.
On March 19 2013 18:22 Cyanure wrote: I'm kind of stomped that nobody (as far as I read, which is not all of the thread, obviously) pointed out the strange reaction that Kerrigan has toward Zeratul (and to a lesser extent warfield). She doesn't even know who he is.
She never met him before (or she is lying about her memory loss). It's even more absurd because Raynor probably only told her good things about him, it should (easily) beat any (potential) remnant memory she has of him. He's clearly the reason she is human once more !
Oh, they know each other, no doubt about that. She lied about her memory loss for Valerian because she doesn't trust him I guess.
Well, that's a possibility, but she then lied to everyone else too and she 's a hell of an actress; saying things like (to abathur) "I know i hate you but I don't remember why". I know that she's a backstabbing bitch in bw, but come on, this is pretty far fetched.
On March 19 2013 09:41 Yoav wrote: So, I actually generally enjoyed the campaign (simple and predictable, but inoffensive, unlike WoL).
But I have to say I am perplexed by the whole Kaldir episode.
1) Why exactly didn't ANYONE make the slightest attempt at a negotiated withdrawal... Kerrigan wanted her brood, the Toss wanted their colony, and fighting one another was obviously and will continue to be highly unhelpful.
2) Why didn't the Protoss warp right away? In an earlier cutscene, we saw Kerrigan's *shuttle* warp away a few seconds after taking off, while still in atmo. The Hyperion did the same thing (with a longer start-up time) in WoL. The Protoss have shuttles, Carriers, Void Rays, and Scouts, all of which would presumably have warp drives.
3) As I understand the mechanic, Zealots don't actually usually "die," but instead are warped away at the last second, causing that characteristic flash of light. Sometimes they are badly injured (whence Dragoons/Immortals), or do in fact die, but they at least have an ejection system that is supposed to send them home. So why don't they just show up in Shakuras sickbay and alert the Golden Armada?
4) Similarly, the Protoss production mechanic is to warp in soldiers from other worlds (originally Aiur, but now probably a diffuse collection of planets.) Numerous Protoss warriors are warped in during the Kaldir campaign. And yet, we are to believe that Kaldir was so far removed from other Protoss worlds that they could not get out a message that could be transferred to Shakuras?
-- All that asked (would love a good explanation), I enjoyed the campaign. My next mission: beat Brutal without using Kerrigan at all. I'm sure it's been done, but would be fun to see how it could work.
To be fair, when Protoss units "die", they don't actually die. They're warped away. That's what the puff of smoke is. It's part of their armor systems. Killing as much Zerg as possible before getting warped to safety isn't a bad deal. Also, the Protoss love fighting.
That's why some killed DTs you see go up in a puff of smoke whereas some DTs actually fall down and actually die, as some DTs may not have this system installed in their gear.
Yeah, but that's the whole problem... if they warp away, doesn't Kerrigan's whole "Kill them all so they don't tell Shakuras" plan goes up in blue smoke.
True. But even with that aside, I'm pretty sure the Protoss told the folks on Shakuras everything going on. There's obviously comm links they're going to have with military command on Shakuras.
But the great thing is, Protoss armies are practically immortal :D
I'm kinda curious to know where did you read that the protoss units where warped before they die ? I searched on the sc1 manual but I didn't found it.
On March 19 2013 18:22 Cyanure wrote: I'm kind of stomped that nobody (as far as I read, which is not all of the thread, obviously) pointed out the strange reaction that Kerrigan has toward Zeratul (and to a lesser extent warfield). She doesn't even know who he is.
She never met him before (or she is lying about her memory loss). It's even more absurd because Raynor probably only told her good things about him, it should (easily) beat any (potential) remnant memory she has of him. He's clearly the reason she is human once more !
Oh, they know each other, no doubt about that. She lied about her memory loss for Valerian because she doesn't trust him I guess.
Well, that's a possibility, but she then lied to everyone else too and she 's a hell of an actress; saying things like (to abathur) "I know i hate you but I don't remember why". I know that she's a backstabbing bitch in bw, but come on, this is pretty far fetched.
If she remembers hating Abathur without having precise recollections of who he is, she may very likely remember hating Zeratul (or just have aggressive feelings towards him) without really knowing why. Also, you don't take into account the fact that she has been on the Leviathan for quite some time at this point, and that she might have recovered a lot of her previous memories, through Izsha for instance.
It sounds pretty bad. Or at least it sounds like there's enough in this story to severely annoy me, so I'm glad I didn't get it.
Just more proof that videogames are a long way from maturity, even if the occasional game does still produce something genuinely worthwhile.
The stakes are too high for an 'epic love story'. Kerrigan - now without even the excuse of the Overmind - has slaughtered billions of people, many of them innocent. When does she pay for her crimes?
Oh I guess she doesn't because she's too cool, and that number doesn't mean anything, it's just a way to show how much of a badass she is. Retconning Kerrigan into the savior of the universe doesn't change what she did, and the writers should at least try to find some way of paying that off.
I liked HotS much better than WoL, but it was still disappointing and felt too short. I think what some people are forgetting is that SC1 basically had 3 storylines in each game, a terran, zerg and protoss campaign, whereas so far in SC2 we've basically only been playing 1 campaign at a time, so it makes sense for the story to feel less polished, and the cheesiness is to attract the younger new generation of gamers. SC1 had a lot of plot holes and irregularities that didn't make much sense either if you thought about it, but because it wasn't cheesy and told a story for 3 different angles things felt much more complex and dark.
On March 19 2013 05:01 Jibba wrote: I think the heart of my issue is that SC2 is a hero story, while SC1/BW felt more like a political/military story. Metzen has confirmed that he sees Starcraft, at its heart, as a hero love story, and I want to see the story as harder science fiction. The difference is like the difference between typical Tolkien-ish fantasy, and Game of Thrones. Through SC1 and BW, Raynor could be the most prominent character in the story, but ultimately he was just a small pawn and I'd rather they'd just moved on from him, and found another institutionalized character who had to make it through difficult circumstances.
Instead, they wanted him to be a hero and latched on to him in a way I thought was both poorly written (he's an emo, drama queen drunkard in WoL, and unlike Max Payne, who is far less emo, he doesn't have a sense of irony or any self awareness) and tiresome. I think Raynor became a loser, and they should've ditched him. Now there's no getting around him being tiresome as long as they wanted it to be a hero story, and that's fine, but they didn't have to make him so unlikeable. In WoL and HotS, he's selfish, irrational and sometimes borderline tyrannical. While this is going on, Blizzard keeps saying "This is an epic love story! You should care about this!" but my reaction to that is "screw Raynor/Kerrigan and screw Raynerrigan."
I could tolerate a love story if I actually enjoyed the characters, but through WoL and HotS I've actively come to dislike Raynor (who I liked before) and am a bit bored with Kerrigan (who I thought was awesome before.) These aren't people I want to root for anymore, and the people I was hoping they'd pay attention to actually have diminished roles.
The thing is that if you create an epic setting and then put characters in there to deal with that setting, you automatically get heroic characters. And it's easy to like them since they are just small pieces in a larger picture, which makes them seem vulnerable and human.
Why SC2's Raynor and Kerrigan are suddenly so irritating is because SC2 does completely the opposite - it shoves the characters in your face and yells at you "Here! These characters are heroic and very important and you already like them since you know who they are!" And the problem is - no, I don't know who they are. Raynor doesn't look like he did in SC1 and sure as hell doesn't act like he did in SC1. I don't remember him sporting a full head of hair, and I definitely do not remember him being an emo drunkard hopelessly in love with Kerrigan, a person he was last seen hating the guts out. And Kerrigan, that spectacularly devious bitch is now a cackling cartoon villain/damsel in distress. They are not characters we remember, and they are not thrown into a setting, they now ARE the setting. Don't like it? Well sucks to be you, this is who you're stuck with for three games.
So yeah... SC2 story in a large extent is EXACTLY like Twilight - plot driven by two self-absorbed emo gits whose motivation is exclusively based on mutual obsession with each other. So if you really really like SC2's story, well... there's a lengthy series of books I can recommend as a follow-up.
On March 19 2013 19:38 iamthedave wrote: It sounds pretty bad. Or at least it sounds like there's enough in this story to severely annoy me, so I'm glad I didn't get it.
Just more proof that videogames are a long way from maturity, even if the occasional game does still produce something genuinely worthwhile.
The stakes are too high for an 'epic love story'. Kerrigan - now without even the excuse of the Overmind - has slaughtered billions of people, many of them innocent. When does she pay for her crimes?
Oh I guess she doesn't because she's too cool, and that number doesn't mean anything, it's just a way to show how much of a badass she is. Retconning Kerrigan into the savior of the universe doesn't change what she did, and the writers should at least try to find some way of paying that off.
If you ever reconsider and actually get the game, you will see that her crimes are a major theme of the story, one that she herself keeps thinking of and is being reminded of by others. And eventually she does face the judgment of possibly the person most qualified to judge her (also based on the past and what was said before).
EPT
