I actually loved it a lot. Brood war was hardly a gem like it's fanboys claim, the Dark Voice actually could work, the final battle was epic, and finally I like Kerrigan getting redeemed, because she was a monster
It had good ideas, but it felt unrefined. There's a lot of tiny problems that should have been spotted, and a few larger issues that could have easily been fixed Imma quote myself
Wow Jiffy. You put a lot of thought into this. I would like it if you picked apart every single mission to be honest. If you don't mind, could you put that into a spoiler though? There might be a few people running around that haven't finished the game. The science team thing, some of them don't make sense no but....some of them do. I like the idea of using kel-morian and confed tech, but there should still be protoss and zerg research points too....would have added a lot more.
spoiler tags added. Maybe I'll pick apart every mission next week. First have to finish the day of the dragon review.
Wall of text about to ensue. I am only drawing from experience from the games and no extra lore. I know it's long, but I'd appreciate it if you could spare 5 minutes and read. I enjoy reading your opinions. I've played starcraft 2, and then replayed it. Then, for good measure, I played SC1 and BW again. My conclusion is that, compared to SC1, SC2's story does not compare. Spoiler SC1 had a linear storyline. While this limited the gameplay options, it was a vastly superior vehicle to the story. The big thing is continuity. When I learned that Mengsk fed Kerrigan to the zerg and that Raynor was rebelling, I felt my blood boil and my determination to begin the fight against Mengsk. When Tassadar was arrested by the Conclave, I felt a surge of pride as I rescued him and proved said Conclave wrong. In Starcraft 2, you can first agree to help the Dominion (and anger everyone on the ship, particularly Horner), and then suddenly help Horner invade the Dominion homeworld and be best pals, and then immediately have him surly and angry again. This discontinuity, while allowing players to play the missions that they want to, was not good at all for story flow. Then there was the dialogue. In SC1, we had gems of dialogue such as Mengsk revealing his true intentions: "You don't seem to realize my situation here. I will not be stopped. Not by you, or the Confederates, or the Protoss or anyone! I will rule this sector or see it burnt to ashes around me..." (Episode I, Mission 10: The Hammer Falls) or Zeratul's epic smacktalk to Aldaris: "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." (Episode III, Mission 8: The Trial of Tassadar) Starcraft I was filled with gems like this. I remember hearing these lines and realizing, with a sense of awe (I was 12 back then, but it still moves me now) that I was reading a masterfully crafted story. And while in my opinion BW did not have as good of a story as SCI, I found the UED and any dialogue involving them (particularly the opening and closing scene in the BW cinematics) to be fascinating and engaging. Starcraft II's lines were very short (usually single sentences compared to the almost Shakespearean-like paragraphs of SCI), sometimes cheesy or hammy, and almost never thought-provoking. The best line I can think of was Raynor's telling Matt: "You'll see [a future free of tyranny], Matt. But it ain't for the likes of [Tosh and Raynor]" which, while admittedly cool, was hardly groundbreaking or comparable to the great moments in SC1. Then (and I realize that things like this are hard to recreate) there were those moments of clarity in SCI. The instant when Mengsk betrays Kerrigan. The moment you realize that the zerg are not stupid slaughtering machines and actually had an intelligent leadership and a goal at the end of their rampage. The moment when the executor's fleet sides with Tassadar; the end when Aldaris concedes that Tassadar was in the right and paid homage to him, before Tassadar's heroic sacrifice. SCI's story starts with humble origins (a magistrate in some colonial backwater) to impossible endings (saving the galaxy from being burned to ashes), and the journey was truly breathtaking. While it would be impossible for SC2 to capture that same feeling (they had pretty big shoes to fill), the efforts they had to create "Oh snap!" moments (such as the Overmind actually being a good guy, which was clever) feel understandably lackluster in comparison. Then there were the missions. Post Zero Hour it felt like almost every single mission was a hand-held guide to the new units and toys that Blizzard has developed. On the mission that you get reapers, you can just mass reapers and win. On the level where you get BCs, really the only viable strategy (on brutal, at least) is to mass BCs and win. There wasn't much incentive (or even room) for experimentation or strategy. In SC1 there was no handholding; they just gave you new units and you figured out what to do with them, and there were a plethora of ways you could complete each mission. There were good parts to SC2's system. I loved the upgrades and money system. I liked the zerg and protoss research opportunities and the way they encouraged players to challenge themselves. The graphical detail they put in the cutscenes and cinematics were state-of-the-art and are beautiful. The achievement system is fun and encourages replaying. The twist with Tychus and his tragic fate (as well as the lead-ups and hints) was very well done. I do like the tidbits and information you could glean from the random characters you can talk with on the Hyperion, and I enjoyed reading unit descriptions in the Armory after you unlock them. I think SC2 still has the potential to be the emotionally and mentally accomplished piece of work its predecessor was. In the future, I propose that, while optional missions are still available, they be toned down significantly in favor of a more linear storyline. I also propose that the dialogue in between missions are much longer and more well-thought out, with a minimum of cliche dialogue except for attempts at humor. I'd be completely for keeping Armory-like and Cantina-like locations, but the bits and pieces we can pick up there are no substitute for true story-telling. That's all I've got for now; what do you guys think?
That was indeed a rather good read, which I have to fully agree with. I liked the armory descriptions, but thought that they were way too few in number, since they basically replaced the manual descriptions from starcraft 1.
Thanks! In anticipation for HoTS, I'd like to go through a mission by mission critique of WoL, what the did right, and what they did wrong. I. The Mar Sara missions 1. Liberation Day Given that this is just a training mission, there's really not much to say here. I really enjoyed the extra optional bits of the level where we find evidence of civilians killed, firing squad style. 2. The Outlaws Another training mission, nothing good or bad that I can think of aside from liking that nifty lift. 3. Zero Hour I really enjoyed this mission for the homage it paid to SCI and its efforts to make the remake more interesting. The achievements made the mission more interesting, and the Tauren outhouse was hilarious. Kudos Blizzard.
II. Covert Missions Redstone is a good example of the problems I found in SC2. The entire mission was essentially a showcase of reapers and their cliff jumping ability, and the mission feels really limited with its gimmicky lava mechanic. I did enjoy killing the Brutalisk with lava, and finding the easter egg was nice. Bel'shir was unmemorable and unremarkable, either in gameplay or story. It reminded me of those generic MMORPG quests where you arbitrarily collect 5 X and 6 Y to get a quest reward. The extra bit of dialogue you can get from destroying the enemy base is a bonus, but loses points for recycling in a later mission. I (this is not an overstatement) LOVED Ghost of a Chance/Breakout. It just totally broke away from the accepted story formula that had been followed so far. Would you rather trust a dominion agent or a freedom fighter that has very questionable ethics? Spoiler Turns out that Nova was lying to you regarding the volatility of the spectre programme. But it brings up interesting questions. Did she earnestly believe what she said after being fed propaganda by the dominion? Or was she just a lying trickster? The Breakout ending was, for me, the most meaningful part of SC2's story. Raynor realizes that, although he was once an idealistic hero leading the way to a better future, he's now too burned out to look forward to anything in the future but the death of Mengsk, essentially making him the same as Tosh. He entrusts the future to Matt Horner, the young ideal in whom he sees what he wished he could have been. The music, too, was perfect. The almost religious choral part at the end was just glorious in defining the pursuit of justice and the hope for a better tomorrow. The Breakout ending makes the Ghost of a Chance ending all that more heartbreaking, as Raynor and his crew remain clueless that they were tricked by their greatest enemy into eradicating freedom fighters that weren't really that much different from them; Raynor maintains the illusion that he is seeking some sort of higher goal and purpose than Tosh, and continues to live in ignorance. The problem I have with the last two missions are the inconsistencies in lore. What were Thors doing there, if they were reverse engineered tech designed by Swann? If you haven't played the rebellion mission yet, their appearance is even more anachronistic. Also, why is Jackson's Revenge (the buff battlecruiser) doing there on Brutal? You're REQUIRED to kill it to complete Breakout, yet you can hire it later. They could have just done with a rename or a stronger standard BC. Why are Shrike Turrets there on Breakout, if they were the result of spore crawler research done uniquely by Stettman? If you haven't played the Great Train Robbery, why were diamondbacks there and why was no one surprised at their appearance?The list goes on, and it demonstrates the weakness of a non-linear story, as well as a rather off-putting disregard for the story.
III. Artifact Missions I generally disliked these as they were repetitive to a fault: Grab an artifact from the Tal'darim, maybe throw some zerg in there occasionally, rinse and repeat. The only differences among the missions was a couple of level restrictions (rip fields, a ridiculously slow supernova, etc.) and the levels being designed to showcase some new unit the terrans have (marauders on a mission with lots of gateway units, banshees on levels without much detection, Medivacs on a level where troop transportation is not recommended, it's necessary). In particular, I was disappointed with the first meeting Raynor and Kerrigan had in 5 years. This is the person that you loved, hated, killed your best friends plus a couple of billion people, and the first thing you say to her when you see her again is "whassup, just gonna grab this here artifact"? I'll reserve my judgement on Dr. Narud since next to nothing was revealed on him and he's obviously there as a teaser of things to come. Gameplay-wise, I derived guilty pleasure on The Dig, where you get to use a ridiculously powerful drill to lay waste to your enemies as you essentially turtle at your base until the level's done. But it wasn't GOOD gameplay, it was more like rather mindless fun. The Tal'darim have been examined earlier on this topic. We've got no reason to hate them and our actions make us look like the bad guys. They hate Dark Templar yet enthusiastically utilize dark templar technology, etc. Their inclusion in the story was poorly done. More backstory should have been given, as well as a more well-thought out unit roster.
IV: Colonist Missions The gameplay for these were pretty good. I particularly enjoyed Meinhoff and its option to attack at night. This is one of the few SC2 mission that might require some micro. I was frustrated by the nonsense plot. Dr. Ariel Hanson potentially develops something that could neutralize the virus?? That's like, the most groundbreaking discovery in the Starcraft universe. Does she use it to attempt to combat the species that is wiping out humankind? Nope, she just leaves the raiders and retires with her fellow colonists on some remote backwater, leaving everyone else to fend for themselves (or die). Speaking of which, why did the colonists decide to leave the raiders? These are people that seem to have a major problem threatening to wipe them out every 15 minutes, they're next to a bunch of protoss that just attempted to kill them, and they decide it's a wonderful time to say goodbye to the raiders? These guys seem to have no logic guiding their actions whatsoever. I bet they all spontaneously died of the flu or something right after the Raiders said goodbye.
Thank you. I was planning on refraining from speculation or judgement on HoTS until it comes out, regardless V: Rebellion Missions I liked the premise of the rebellion missions, but sometimes I disliked the presentation. The Great Train Robbery was kind of nonsensical to me. They're using trains in the 2500's? If the cargo was so important, why didn't the Dominion just pick it up with a flight escort? Why didn't they just destroy the adjutant? My only guess is that they didn't know about the adjutant and how important it was to destroying the regime. Deadman's Port felt lacking. I was a little annoyed at the "get X minerals" and win mission objective again, particularly after Redstone and after that idea was recycled in Warcraft III. Orlan and Mira weren't given nearly enough backstory to frankly give a damn about them. I was excited to see vultures return, but I hated the way their game unit was handled. Vultures without patrol/attack cancel is like marines without stim. It just felt very lackluster. The Odin mission (forget what it's called off the top of my head) was a tremendous amount of fun. I found myself chuckling through every line of dialogue. Tychus was one of the best additions to the SCII storyline in my opinion, even though his dialogue is sometimes too hammy and too cheesy. I guess my only complaint about this mission was the fact that they put in a big ol' hunk of fascinating visuals into the Loki battlecruiser but neglect to explain anything about it in any way. The Korhal mission was fun, too. This is the only mission with some aspect of surprise in it. But there were, again, head-scratching details. What was the Dominion doing with outdated pieces of backwater junk like the vulture on their home world? Why did the broadcast have to be sent to THREE broadcast stations? Wouldn't one be enough? The bonus mission was awesome. It reminded me of those fun installation missions in the original starcraft, but they added to the right parts of it and really made it work. It also raises interesting, non-trivial implications to the story (which, sadly, I cannot say for a large portion of the missions in SC2). I won't go to detail about it here in case some people still haven't played it yet.
VI: Prophecy Missions Where did the research points come from, if the crystal is just stored memories? Does zerg slime and protoss crystal matrices just ooze out of the crystal while Raynor's looking at the mission? Do you create a time paradox if you fail to collect the research points? The mission made me miss the old voice actor for Zeratul. The new one tries to sound enigmatic and wise, but most of the time he just sounds really surprised, instead. Why are there banelings, roaches and nydus worms on Aiur, if the zerg there were abandoned by the rest of the swarm? Why did the abandoned protoss there have access to warpgates? The mission had an opportunity to feel retro or explore old stuff from SC1 (I swear they said that every old unit would be in the unit editor, us old die-hards wouldn't have minded trying out reavers and dragoons again) but either didn't care or squandered it. Also why were there craploads of infested terrans there? According to the books Raynor's Raiders (the only terrans present at the overmind's destruction) numbered in maybe their dozens or few hundreds. Did Raynor just lose all his guys to infestation and recruit a fresh batch or something? I was annoyed by the hybrid. Literally every line he spoke was a melodramatic cliche. I would have preferred it if he just didn't say anything, or didn't speak with that raspy whisper. I enjoyed the final mission. Once again Blizzard deals a heavy hand in drama-filled dialogue, but this time I can't say that it's really out of place. There were good things about the protoss mini-campaign. I enjoyed having a glimpse of how the new protoss operate in SC2 and I really like what they did with the Overmind and the story twist.
VII: Final Missions The first mission here is hilarious. The amount of reinforcements you get by the end will just allow you to steamroll anything (unless you're playing on brutal). I enjoyed the rescue mechanic. The spore cannons seem to have been thrown in there at the last second with no explanation, but you'll be strapped for gas on this mission so extra gas is cool. I mildly liked the two missions prior to the final mission. The Belly of the Beast was essentially a glorified installment mission against a very, very large amount of zerg--kind of like the stukov mission in BW. The infested space platform was an interesting concept, and I liked just having a mission where there are enemies everywhere and you have to kill everything (with one or two gimmicks attached). Too many other missions in this game had some sort of time limit or other stress involved, so after all those I enjoyed finally being able to take a mission at my own pace. I didn't like the last mission. We've already played a couple of "dig yourself in and defend" missions. This level seems awfully reserved for being a last mission. I thought the ending was really well done, though.
