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On March 22 2013 04:17 emesen wrote:
It isn't really so much that the story is cliche. Cliche itself isn't bad. What is bad is the way Heart of the Swarm is presented, and, with the exception of the visuals, the presentation was very lackluster.
That isn't even the main gripe I have with the campaign and how the story is unfolding so far. Like many others I'm just appalled at the utter lack of creativity from the developers at Blizzard. For years now they have been recycling, re-appropriating and cross pollinating not just mechanics but story elements from all their franchises.
The Xel'Naga from the Starcraft Universe :: The Titans from the Warcraft Universe
Amon a fallen Xel'Naga and his Hybrid Army :: Sargeras the fallen Titan and his Burning Legion
Amon enslaved Zerg for his own means :: Sargeras enslaved the Orcs for his own means
Kerrigan infested by Zerg and eventually becomes Queen :: Arthas corrupted by the Scourge and eventually becomes King
Kerrigan human/zerg rallies the zerg and sets off to fight Amon :: Thrall an orc raised by humans rallies the orcs to fight the Legion
Titan is going to be a Starcraft MMO. With the way they have treated the Zerg in Heart of the Swarm it's exactly the same way the Orcs went from a demon worshipping horde of pure evil to unfortunate tools used by a greater power. Blizzard is trying to humanize the Zerg so they can be a playable race in an MMO scenario
Everyone is probably familiar with Chris Mezten and his "I'm a one trick pony" line, but I'm just shocked that they don't even try to differentiate.
quoted for truth! i saw this too.
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On March 22 2013 04:17 emesen wrote:
It isn't really so much that the story is cliche. Cliche itself isn't bad. What is bad is the way Heart of the Swarm is presented, and, with the exception of the visuals, the presentation was very lackluster.
That isn't even the main gripe I have with the campaign and how the story is unfolding so far. Like many others I'm just appalled at the utter lack of creativity from the developers at Blizzard. For years now they have been recycling, re-appropriating and cross pollinating not just mechanics but story elements from all their franchises.
The Xel'Naga from the Starcraft Universe :: The Titans from the Warcraft Universe
Amon a fallen Xel'Naga and his Hybrid Army :: Sargeras the fallen Titan and his Burning Legion
Amon enslaved Zerg for his own means :: Sargeras enslaved the Orcs for his own means
Kerrigan infested by Zerg and eventually becomes Queen :: Arthas corrupted by the Scourge and eventually becomes King
Kerrigan human/zerg rallies the zerg and sets off to fight Amon :: Thrall an orc raised by humans rallies the orcs to fight the Legion
Titan is going to be a Starcraft MMO. With the way they have treated the Zerg in Heart of the Swarm it's exactly the same way the Orcs went from a demon worshipping horde of pure evil to unfortunate tools used by a greater power. Blizzard is trying to humanize the Zerg so they can be a playable race in an MMO scenario
Everyone is probably familiar with Chris Mezten and his "I'm a one trick pony" line, but I'm just shocked that they don't even try to differentiate.
This. Yea I don't have a problem with the story for the story's sake cause I didn't play this game for its storyline. Just entertained. and then play the matchmaking.
But the creativity in the main stream video game market is becoming a little ridiculous. So rare to find more orignal games.
This and Tomb Raider are the last AAA titles I've bought and will buy for a long time. And I bought them because I'm a fan of the franchises.
Saving my money for games that are creative or simply well planned. (New torment on kickstarter, project eternity, Witcher 3, and lots of indie games)
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On March 22 2013 04:05 Meatloaf wrote:
I agree with that take on , but you didnt feel afterwards that she still kept quite a lot of her humanity?
I mean , the end with that "thank you jim... for everything"...saving the civilians... Every action she took afterwards in regards to the terrans was a little bit underwhelming from my point of view from a character that supposedly has given away her humanity.
i mean , the story could be legitimate , but one can only stand so many awkward moments before wanting to drown kerrigan deep in the ocean forever.
still was better than WoL ; but the whole arc is not up to BW nor WC3 stories IMO.
Indeed she evidently did manage to hold on to some shreds of humanity. Remember that the times this became evident she was being directly confronted/appealed to. Other times, such as when she was sending her brood mothers to invade planets of strategic value she made no such concessions. This could be taken as inconsistency but I can relate, she would feel pressure from the zerg to act in this way and she did need to appease them, so it would be easier for her to just allow slaughter in those situations.
Ultimately though I guess at the age of 31 I am still just a sucker for a happy ending and feel a powerful affection for characters I met when i was in my teens. high level adult story telling be dammed 
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Great Review, I really enjoyed reading it. This will probably get buried but I think you grossly overestimate the ability for most people to think critically about storylines in general, even if they are 30+ years old. The fact is that most people will not be able to think about the story on this level let alone are able to organize most of the ideas that happened in Brood War. For blizzard to make everything co align with every idea would take a lot of work (not saying it shouldnt be done) and I think they just decided they didnt care because less that .001% of the people that play the game are even going to realize the incongruencies,
Anyway Thanks for the article, Ill probably read it a couple more times ^^.
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"Finally, and this is a huge disclaimer, but as an artist I know that our viewpoints on topics can be widely different at times when talking about certain ideas or executions, so keep in mind these are my own personal thoughts as someone who has more than 25 years of experience in creating and performing."
This sounds more like a warning shot than any sort of disclaimer. I disagree with most of the points in the original post, and believe opinions posted here are set up to be read as fact. This is misleading and an unfortunate use of 12,000 words. The run-on sentences (in "Prefatory") and generalizations (the story is bad if it relies on supplemental material) are off-putting.
I did not expect the story from HoTS to melt the skin off my face, and Blizzard has never been known by me to throw together an infallible and fleshed-out story from within campaign mode. The Starcraft series has never done this, and I doubt anyone else was expecting Mass Effect when they bought any entry in the series, from SC vanilla to the current.
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I agree completely with all your points, excellent analysis. I still enjoyed the campaign for the gameplay, but since WoL my expectations for Blizzard's storytelling have plummeted so all the inconsistencies/problems didn't bother me too much. I guess at this point it's clear that Blizzard has some overarching plot arc that they're trying to mold the past lore into and they don't care so much about the collateral damage. For me I appreciated the fact that they gave some closure to the whole Mengsk storyline, so that the last game can be completely focused on the final war or whatever.
Also, my friend pointed this out, why, in the mission where Raynor and Kerrigan are separated but Kerrigan is near the dropship, does Kerrigan not just fly the dropship over to Raynor and pick him up? This whole sorry mess of a plot could have been avoided completely! I guess Kerrigan is just really dumb now after all that trauma.
Edit: Oh, by the way, when they revealed the motivation for the Hybrids, was anyone else thinking "Reapers. We have dismissed that claim."? It's basically the same mechanism for reproduction for the Xel'Naga and the Reapers from Mass Effect (which I also thought was a really weird plot device in ME).
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On March 22 2013 04:04 uanime5 wrote:
I find it ironic that Blizzard is making games to attract a young audience but don't have any games that will appeal to them when these people enter their twenties. Trying to gain new customer while being unable to retain existing ones isn't a viable strategy.
D2/BW/WC3 appeals a ton of people in their twenties. 
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This is a really excellent write-up. I think it's important to demand more from our video game stories, because if we don't it makes it much less likely that video games as a whole will mature into a respectable narrative device. And if there's one thing I want to see in my lifetime, it is the acceptance of video games as a legitimate storytelling device.
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Very well written, elaborate, detailed...so much so that I feel like ive been brainwashed until now.
Not gonna lie...back when i played BW campaign i got so hyped when Raynor said he was going to kill Kerrigan...and of course i was hugely dissapointed with the courses that WoL and HotS took. (Wheres the love for Fenix? T_T)
I never really understood how Kerrigan assumes virtually the exact same form after her Zerus-boost-incarnation as she was as Queen of Blades except with a few color changes either.
for 40$ for an expansion i suppose i would expect a solid story, but in reality...i didnt pay for the story...i paid for being able to use those unit upgrades and the incredible fun that ensues >_>
even though the sc2 story's been a sort of disapointment til now somehow im still hopeful that LotV will be fulfilling...but now im very doubtful..
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On March 22 2013 08:31 zyce wrote:Show nested quote +"Finally, and this is a huge disclaimer, but as an artist I know that our viewpoints on topics can be widely different at times when talking about certain ideas or executions, so keep in mind these are my own personal thoughts as someone who has more than 25 years of experience in creating and performing." This sounds more like a warning shot than any sort of disclaimer. I disagree with most of the points in the original post, and believe opinions posted here are set up to be read as fact. This is misleading and an unfortunate use of 12,000 words. The run-on sentences (in "Prefatory") and generalizations (the story is bad if it relies on supplemental material) are off-putting. I did not expect the story from HoTS to melt the skin off my face, and Blizzard has never been known by me to throw together an infallible and fleshed-out story from within campaign mode. The Starcraft series has never done this, and I doubt anyone else was expecting Mass Effect when they bought any entry in the series, from SC vanilla to the current.
Posts like this make me rage so hard. I lack the ops skills with the english language to accurately describe as he has done just how terrible this story was compared to sc1/bw. But the fact that you completely miss everything he says... its almost like you didn't read any of it. I don't expect everyone to understand poor story writing but surely you can read?
I guess I am getting old when I expect more from a story than the same rehashed bs that every movie/game uses these days without any originality. The original SC had a GOOD STORY. Go play it. And then if you can honestly still say sc2's story was even close to it in terms of quality then you are a waste of the use of logic and reasoning. Agree to disagree.
Blizzards original writing team is clearly gone. Whoever is the lazy retconning bastard they have now obviously is a soulless machine that just rehashes the same garbage over and over for each game. I would kill for a true story sequel to sc1/bw. I was looking forward to it so much. The conclusion to the beginnings laid out for me. 10 years I waited. And what I got was a quickly thrown together piece of turd that people say I am being picky about. I don't pay hundreds of dollars for turd after seeing the original 3 course meal made by a gourmet chef and not think I am being ripped off.
Blizzard made a great multiplayer game. Blizzard made a technically amusing campaign and I can see why people enjoyed it. BUT PEOPLE NEED TO STOP SAYING THEY MADE A GOOD STORY! Praise them for what they did right. Not the turd they wrapped in gold foil.
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I dont know, where are people coming from who says SC+BW had an amazing story. It was ok but by far wasn't god made paperwork at all.
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well I finished SC1 and BW campaign finally a few days ago. The story really isn't all that impressive, I won't even say it's better than WoL and HotS. Maybe it's because kerrigan inner conflict was really interesting for me
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On March 22 2013 08:31 zyce wrote:Show nested quote +"Finally, and this is a huge disclaimer, but as an artist I know that our viewpoints on topics can be widely different at times when talking about certain ideas or executions, so keep in mind these are my own personal thoughts as someone who has more than 25 years of experience in creating and performing." This sounds more like a warning shot than any sort of disclaimer. I disagree with most of the points in the original post, and believe opinions posted here are set up to be read as fact. This is misleading and an unfortunate use of 12,000 words. The run-on sentences (in "Prefatory") and generalizations (the story is bad if it relies on supplemental material) are off-putting. I did not expect the story from HoTS to melt the skin off my face, and Blizzard has never been known by me to throw together an infallible and fleshed-out story from within campaign mode. The Starcraft series has never done this, and I doubt anyone else was expecting Mass Effect when they bought any entry in the series, from SC vanilla to the current.
If you're going to disagree "with most of the points" you should at least present some counterarguments rather than being a lazy hack and trying to discredit the OP with grammar nazism (run-on sentences, really?). I never got the impression that this was supposed to be some definitive factual analysis of the starcraft storyline but you can take that as you wish. Your last point is also pretty sad- just because you have low standards for their product excuses them for actually putting out a shitty product? I would hope for better from an established game producer that actually has the resources to produce a game with at least a fairly decent story.
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I disagree with the OP on so many accounts, and your complaints often have nothing to do with the effectiveness of the storytelling, but rather a direction. It's like looking at the Mona Lisa, and asking da Vinci, "Why didn't you paint a man instead?"
I, for one, would have hated a pity-fest of Kerrigan with post-traumatic stress disorder, and preferred her voluntary choice to once again become a powerful, ruthless lord of war.
Further, I also disagree with your interpretation of Kerrigan's and Raynor's relationship in BW. When they first met, they instantly became compatible, and if you listen to Kerrigan's voice inflection, she is clearly flirting with Raynor when she calls him a pig, etc etc. She is not disgusted, simply a tad distant and intent on establishing her independence, which is why she almost never listened to Raynor. Raynor, on the other hand, had no intention of hiding his feelings for Kerrigan, and made it clear that he loved her and wanted to be with her. When she fell due to Mengsk's betrayal, Raynor wanted to leave the Son of Korhal not only out of a sense of justice, but because he wanted to exact revenge. They were not merely acquaintances. Raynor was deeply in love, and Kerrigan was distrustful because of her traumatic past, and had difficulties letting anyone into her life. Finally, in the beginning of HotS, when Raynor proved himself to her by risking literally everything he had for her, she finally lets her own feelings of love blossom without restraint, and returns the favor by doing whatever it takes to rescue him.
I find it sort of strange that your guff is with the love story component, because personally I thought it was the most compelling.
I do think that Blizzard did a great job on HotS, especially the multiplayer (which is not a topic of interest in this thread, but is nonetheless a significant part of the $40 price tag for the game). I do have a few complaints of my own, although I'll wait until I play through LotV before I formulate any conclusive opinion.
First, Narud's story arch came to a shockingly mundane splat without any intrigue or suspense whatsoever. I felt after Kerrigan killed him, that it was the equivalent of any other household chore, like picking up the dry-cleaning, or weeding the garden. It was merely something that must be done, but doesn't incite any joy or pleasure from doing so.
Second, this could be merely a pet peeve of mine, but the concept of biological evolution was depicted in such an absurd and fantastical manner that it was a little disappointing for a biology major like myself. Similarly, I really enjoyed the - relative - realism of Brood War (although Protoss have always been essentially magical). For example, in Brood War, when Kerrigan first emerged as a Zerg, she attained more power by reversing the inhibitors left inside her brain during her Terran Ghost training. Her increase in strength was very tangible. In HotS however, she continually defeated tougher and larger enemies, gathering 'essence' and 'power,' but it was very difficult in conceiving what this power really meant. For example, how much stronger was Kerrigan after defeating the primal Zergs? I dunno: she seemed about the same to me, and therefore the plot failed to move me.
Regardless of my qualms, I'll make my stand beside HotS. I think it is a great game, worth $40. It's not perfect, but I'm generally pleased with Blizzard's performance.
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On March 22 2013 18:28 Darksoldierr wrote:
I dont know, where are people coming from who says SC+BW had an amazing story. It was ok but by far wasn't god made paperwork at all.
People just remember the epic dialog and not the mediocre stuff that is really happening. Campaign story wise both the terran and protoss BW campaigns are (infinitely) worst than WOL or HOTS.
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On March 22 2013 20:49 fr0d0b0ls0n wrote:Show nested quote +On March 22 2013 18:28 Darksoldierr wrote:
I dont know, where are people coming from who says SC+BW had an amazing story. It was ok but by far wasn't god made paperwork at all. People just remember the epic dialog and not the mediocre stuff that is really happening. Campaign story wise both the terran and protoss BW campaigns are (infinitely) worst than WOL or HOTS.
I don't necessarily disagree with this. The BW campaign was not nearly as good as the original starcraft one.
I really, really do believe that vanilla SC had a much, much better storyline. It was awesome. My first experience with it was the single player (way back when it first came out), and it was awesome in the Terran campaign discovering who the zerg were, trying to figure out what they wanted, playing through missions that felt hard at the time where you felt you were in constant retreat from an overwhelming force just trying to stay alive (Note: I replayed the evacuation mission when I didn't suck at video games, and I wiped out the zerg off the map with ten minutes to spare, but playing it for the first time as your first RTS that shit was hard!). Allying yourself with terrorists when your government abandons you because you had to survive, then actually launching a crusade against that government, and THEN ditching the sons of Korhal because they became what you were fighting against. All while maintaining a little bit of subtlety in the dialogue, without needing to say cheesy lines where characters point out exactly what's going on (MENGSK YOU R EVIL, WE FIGHT FUR FREEDUMS)
Then you actually get to be the creepy-ass zerg and play from the "bad-guy" perspective, which was actually an interesting experience in and of itself. All WoL and HotS do is make you play as the pristine, white-washed, easy-choice never-do-any-wrong knights in shining armour. The zerg are good guys now? Jesus christ....It was awesome playing the zerg campaign, and fucking everyone's shit up, all with the justifying goal of "obtaining perfection". Creepy shit. And they wrote it well!
The protoss campaign was sweet, too. Fighting to save your homeworld against an overwhelming invasion from a totally alien threat, again with the feeling of constant retreat in the face of overwhelming forces, discovering who the dark templar are, how they relate to the Aiur protoss, fighting the civil war (though I admit I even thought the Tassadar rescue mission was fucking stupid), and then ultimately suicide bombing a ship (with Tassadar on it, the most awesome character in the game) into the overmind (also, I sucked at video games, so that mission was hard as well, when I replayed it later I fucking wrecked the overmind's shit), only to view the wreckage and destruction left on your homeworld, and knowing that Kerrigen was still out there.
And Tassadar is alive now? Awesome retconn bullshit, if a character dies heroically, it's the sacrifice of his life that makes the death tragic, meaningful, and heroic. If he goes on to live in some mystical magical plan where everything is kittens and ice cream, it completely negates the impact of his death.
Anyways, I didn't mean to get into such a huge rant. I was just reminiscing about how great starcraft was.
Oh yeah, and I did play it recently, before WoL came out, to get myself hyped for the game. And the campaign was still fucking awesome.
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I agree with almost every point... the campaign should be remade tbh... :/
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I didn't expect a good story(why would I? Everything after WC3 have sucked story-wise), but I wanted missions that were fun to play. And I must say that they delivered there! I have enjoyed this campaign a lot, and I found that it was a good variation in the missions etc.
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I liked how my decisions in the WoL campaign affected the HoTS story!
Matt - '' I'll have my associate Tosh deal with that.''
Kerrigan - ''No thanks''
Golden
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On March 22 2013 17:53 Bobgrimly wrote:Show nested quote +On March 22 2013 08:31 zyce wrote:"Finally, and this is a huge disclaimer, but as an artist I know that our viewpoints on topics can be widely different at times when talking about certain ideas or executions, so keep in mind these are my own personal thoughts as someone who has more than 25 years of experience in creating and performing." This sounds more like a warning shot than any sort of disclaimer. I disagree with most of the points in the original post, and believe opinions posted here are set up to be read as fact. This is misleading and an unfortunate use of 12,000 words. The run-on sentences (in "Prefatory") and generalizations (the story is bad if it relies on supplemental material) are off-putting. I did not expect the story from HoTS to melt the skin off my face, and Blizzard has never been known by me to throw together an infallible and fleshed-out story from within campaign mode. The Starcraft series has never done this, and I doubt anyone else was expecting Mass Effect when they bought any entry in the series, from SC vanilla to the current. Posts like this make me rage so hard. I lack the ops skills with the english language to accurately describe as he has done just how terrible this story was compared to sc1/bw. But the fact that you completely miss everything he says... its almost like you didn't read any of it. I don't expect everyone to understand poor story writing but surely you can read? I guess I am getting old when I expect more from a story than the same rehashed bs that every movie/game uses these days without any originality. The original SC had a GOOD STORY. Go play it. And then if you can honestly still say sc2's story was even close to it in terms of quality then you are a waste of the use of logic and reasoning. Agree to disagree. Blizzards original writing team is clearly gone. Whoever is the lazy retconning bastard they have now obviously is a soulless machine that just rehashes the same garbage over and over for each game. I would kill for a true story sequel to sc1/bw. I was looking forward to it so much. The conclusion to the beginnings laid out for me. 10 years I waited. And what I got was a quickly thrown together piece of turd that people say I am being picky about. I don't pay hundreds of dollars for turd after seeing the original 3 course meal made by a gourmet chef and not think I am being ripped off. Blizzard made a great multiplayer game. Blizzard made a technically amusing campaign and I can see why people enjoyed it. BUT PEOPLE NEED TO STOP SAYING THEY MADE A GOOD STORY! Praise them for what they did right. Not the turd they wrapped in gold foil.
I replayed BW before HotS because I was excited and wanted to remind myself of the story. And actually, while the BW story was as enjoyable as I remember it, I did find myself thinking
1) the story is a lot more generic and trope-driven than I remember it (warring species join forces to defeat an alien overmind, alien hero defies the traditions of his race to save lesser humans, hero sacrifices himself for the greater good, etc etc)
2) the story is really quite "badly" told from an artistic point of view
As far as I can see, the WoL and HotS stories are told in almost the exact same way as the SC and BW stories - very blunt, in your face overdone story telling with no subtlety, characters following very clear directions for rather unclear motivations, very well done cut scenes that are more just cool and nice to watch than actually advancing story.
I can understand people not liking the story or story telling in HotS or WoL. I don't really understand when people then start drawing up comparisons to SC or BW, because as far as I can see those are just as good/bad in every respect.
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EPT
