So I finally played through the story with a friend of mine and I have to say: WHY IS THIS FORUM SECTION SO BLEEPING DEAD? So I'll go make some threads and hope someone replies. First of all is this thread, where you, the reader, tell us, the other forum members, what you thought about the starcraft 2 campaign. From a purely technical standpoint, the campaign was amazing. All the missions were fun and had interesting and unique goals, although I found the final mission a tad underwhelming in its goals. The upgrade systems were implemented very nicely and really felt like you were changing the gamestyle in a significant way, while still remaining true to its core. The number of cutscenes was very impressive and they were consistently of pretty good quality. Purely for the mechanics surrounding the actual story, I would have to grant this story a 9.5 out of 10. As for the storytelling, it was not nearly as good as the game mechanics. The dialogue was cheesy, the characters clichés and the plot development predictable. When one can stand these things however, the story is very enjoyable. The characters, while clichés, are all very cool to watch, with general warfield deserving a special mention for his fight scenes. I felt that some of the more unique/enigmatic characters, such as Arcturus, Valerian and Narud, could have done with more screentime. Overall, the main criticism I have of this story was that it wasn't really a starcraft story, as much as it was Raynor's story, set in the starcraft unvierse. You never really got a feel for the overall universe, so I think it doesn't really qualify for the name starcraft II, as much as it's starcraft - wings of liberty. Normally, I would give this a 7 out of 10. It has it's faults and the story by no means lives up to the original, but the way the story is told is great and makes the game highly enjoyable. The protoss mini-campaign was probably the most awesome part of this game and I felt that it's final level should really have been the game's final level. Because the protoss mini shows such great promises for the next two parts, and was significantly awesome, I have to give the campaign story a 7.5 out of 10. Final score for the starcraft - wings of liberty campaign: 8.5 out of 10. Good story, great mechanics, tons of fun.
I found the story ok and the telling pretty bad. Was nobody else left baffled by the poor voice acting and the pauses between speeches? When A cuts into B's speech there's at least a second of silence in between. It was too artificial for me to really get immersed in the story, but the content itself was quite good I think. The secret mission also leaves a lot to learn about in the expansions.
I didn't think the voice acting was that bad, but I pretty much have the interruption delay annoyance with any game I ever played. The voices themselves were pretty decent anyways.
Mediocre. That is all I can say about the campaign. Looking at it as a whole, there wasn't alot to enjoy when it comes to the plot. Spoiler Yes, there were surprises like how the Overmind wasn't the antagonist that we all thought it was. But after the surprise, it started to get predictable. Like how the Overmind chose Kerrigan to lead the Swarm so that the Xel' Naga wouldn't have complete control over the Zerg. I think Wings of Liberty was tailor maded to help those new to the genre(RTS). For a person who is new to the StarCraft universe I must say the campaign was pretty insightful. However, in the eyes of a veteran who has played StarCraft: BroodWar the campaign just reeks of cliches'. Looking at the visuals (cut scenes, art) I must say it was pretty well done and thought out. There are things that Blizzard has done to help out with the replayability of the campaign which I think is something new when it comes to RTS. Introducing achievement points and varying difficulty levels are some of the plus points of StarCraft2.
the storytelling was fantastic. The story itself was fairly generic, with a few gems, such as the last stand of Aiur and the various cool moments.
I thought the storytelling was above average to good. The lines were often cheesy, but the voice acting was quite good. (I'm not one of those people who was desperate for the old voice actress for Kerrigan.) I think the cinematics and the UNN TV shows were actually a really big plus. Especially the latter; it let you see how the universe was being affected beyond Raynor's Raiders. (Of course, it was cheesy, and hard to take seriously, mainly how Kate Lockwell could constantly badmouth Mengsk and get away with it.) The biggest downside was the "choose your own theme" aspect of the branching. You as the player could choose whether Raynor was cynical, idealistic or what have you, depending on which branch you took, but the choice you made was "always the right choice". There was also possible mood whiplash, if say you just played the Dig (very sad, everyone was grumpy at Raynor) and then beat Breakout (very happy). I don't think there was much Blizzard could have done about that.
The storytelling was a joke. While blizzard tried to incorporate story into the missions themselves, it wasn't as deep as starcraft1 (agreed with rifttheory) The decisions u made didn't do anything. Blizzard faild hard on its promise(?) To kinda personalize the story. And you know what the only real branch sc1 had was the mission b/w u taking on battlecruisers or ghosts w/ nukes. Even then, it didn't drastically change the story as would the mission you had to choose between saving or purifying haven. And then, that branch didn't do much the entire story. AND we don't know which branch is canon (this is important to me Q.Q) Blizzard is trying to fit more things into starcraft, which was already great (coukd have used a lil better storytelling but bliz went too far tying to do stuffs) Just imo. Bliz cuda made better story and made all the characters much deeper. I say, don't stoop bliz; uplift people
Actually, IIRC, we do know which branch is canon. The choice where you battle the protoss and the choice where you side with the spectres. At least IIRC. Can't quite remember the source now. IIRC. Also, Blizz has always said that your choices would not have an effect on the overall story, just the small story branch where you make the choice (it was in one of the early Q&A sessions).
thx drie i am about to jixx in your pants. (do you have any? o.o) also, daymn, nova is much hotter than tosh. imo. i guess tosh is alright with his accent, but w.e still, the story is incredibly lackluster >.> (no seriously, besides the graphics....)
Yes, Blizzard picked which branch was canon, apparently after the game came out. (Edit: BlizzCon 2010. Considering the minimal information on StarCraft II at that one, practically the only useful information we saw.) Some people weren't happy that the choices had so little effect on the greater storyline. I hope noone was expecting Mass Effect.
I have to say that they really chose the logical ones. Raynor wouldn't decimate human colonists if someone he trusts thinks she can cure them and he had no reason to trust Nova, an assassin working for Mengsk, over Tosh, who has been honest with him about everything. I'd like to have had some more story missions over stand-alone credit-earning missions. Maybe have the Tal'darim attack Hyperion to take back their sacred artifacts and having a mission take place inside the ship.
Story wasnt that impressive and the zerg fell too easily. Even on brutal I found the char missions easy, gotta try them without the hivemind emulator sometime. The branches not affecting the main story irked me to no end, I didn't even use any units gained from Tosh's storyline and just spent the money elsewhere. However, most of the missions were fun(I despise Supernova and Engine of Destruction) and each one was unique in its own way. Overall, I gave it a decent rating
6/10 the only negative things: story=hollywood cliché characters=some new ones BAD,very bad voice acting=some bad choices (i know that the zeratul's voice actor died :'( but now zeratul's voice sounds like stevie from 'Malcom in the middle'....lame) dialogues=what happened to the writers from SC1?! i gave 6/10 because the thing i loved most about starcraft were the subjetcs above.
