[Megathread] StarCraft 2

[barackopala]

Someone should create an MMO-C chatroom for practice and/or custom games, jus' sayin !~

[Deleted]

What I can't understand is why people outright suggest the storylines are *bad* though (not saying that you've suggested it is, just one of those things that keeps popping up lately). As you point out, it is subjective, but as my comparison to other games out there, it's not bad for its medium at all. I'm trying to get my head around what actually leads people to say it's just plain bad; is there some key aspect that people don't like? What is the reasoning behind that stance?

That I tried to answer in my first post. As said, I found it OK (only speaking about HotS now). But somehow the "mystery" is missing. What is happening next? How will it happen? It is very linear with no major twist and no unexpected outcome. I think that is what many people don't like about the story. Probably also too much of it was spoilered in the official trailes, especially the vengeance trailer tells almost the whole story. This surely adds to the fact. You know only by seeing this video that Kerrigan is becoming Zerg, even the Zerg queen, again. That she will invade Korhal. That she frees Char. That Raynor will be disappointed. That Raynor isn't dead. That is already most of the story.
But I agree with you, in RTS games the story is usually not the main focus / the strong part. WC3 is the only one I can think of right now where I really loved the story, RoC even more than TFT.

[LilSaihah]

I was pretty disappointed with the story. It just doesn't seem as well polished/put together as Wings of Liberty, and it has a very serious problem with filling us in on emotions/details from the first game. Also, the usual retcon cavalcade. I should probably put this in a big spoiler block?

Kerrigan and Jimmy are sappy from day 1, and we're never really shown why. That relationship doesn't ever really have a chance to develop. Everything seems to be offscreen; we need to be shown at least a bit of their relationship so that we can actually care about it. This is Kerrigan's core motive, not something to be mentioned for a few missions and otherwise ignored.
Stukov gets no fanfare, no reaction, no -anything- from -anyone-. Kerrigan's just like "hey guy" and Stukov's like "sup kerrigan wanna wreck a lab?" and Kerrigan's like "sure man". It's never brought up that they were practically mortal enemies before Stukov's untimely death in BW, and it's never brought up why this previously slender guy has bulked out to become exactly the same shape as every other Blizzard male character. Why does every guy have to be beeftastic? Stukov's strength was his brain, not his biceps.
Narud is glossed over. Nobody seems to connect the dots that NARUD = DURAN; I know that everyone on the other side of the screen is like "yep that's duran" but it completely undermines the characters' intelligence to just gloss over this. Did nobody realise or think to ask whether they were the same guy? Fair enough that Jim didn't make the connection, I don't think they shared any screen time, but Kerrigan worked with Duran for quite a while during BW, and Duran shot [i]Stukov in the back[/i], but they don't seem interested at all.
Zerus is supposed to be a lava planet, not a jungle! Why else would they settle on Char?

I think they could have solved a lot of these problems with some more scenes similar to The Betrayal, or a secondary campaign similar to the Prophecy line. I don't remember watching a single flashback in the entire game.

For some reason, I don't remember anyone being critical of Dawn of War's story, of Total Annihilation's or any other RTS. And the one series that people did talk about the story almost non stop, was Command & Conquer, which had some of the worst writing ever conceived and laughable dialogue/hokey acting. The games were, however, weighed on the merits of the RTS experience, which should be the major concern.

That's kinda sorta the point of the CnC games, though(at least, the Red Alerts and Generals; I unfortunately didn't play much of the vanilla CnC); they're so light-hearted about themselves that you look past the flaws. I think that's kinda why I liked the WoL campaign; the whole "space western rebels" theme with a bit of a dark edge is spot on, so even with the ridiculous plot holes (RAIN ON CHAR) it's still a fun experience. HotS seems to have a bit of difficulty between deciding whether you're playing as Queen Bitch of the Universe or a lonely girl in space who wants her boyfriend back, or it doesn't merge those two together well enough.

[Master Jakken]

I was pretty disappointed with the story. It just doesn't seem as well polished/put together as Wings of Liberty, and it has a very serious problem with filling us in on emotions/details from the first game. Also, the usual retcon cavalcade. I should probably put this in a big spoiler block?

Kerrigan and Jimmy are sappy from day 1, and we're never really shown why. That relationship doesn't ever really have a chance to develop. Everything seems to be offscreen; we need to be shown at least a bit of their relationship so that we can actually care about it. This is Kerrigan's core motive, not something to be mentioned for a few missions and otherwise ignored.

Ugh, did you even play SC1?

[Shinzai]

I was pretty disappointed with the story. It just doesn't seem as well polished/put together as Wings of Liberty, and it has a very serious problem with filling us in on emotions/details from the first game. Also, the usual retcon cavalcade. I should probably put this in a big spoiler block?

Kerrigan and Jimmy are sappy from day 1, and we're never really shown why. That relationship doesn't ever really have a chance to develop. Everything seems to be offscreen; we need to be shown at least a bit of their relationship so that we can actually care about it. This is Kerrigan's core motive, not something to be mentioned for a few missions and otherwise ignored.

- That's pretty much due to their relationship already having been established and the forefront of Raynor's existence for quite some time. He wants Kerrigan back and she still has feelings for him.

Stukov gets no fanfare, no reaction, no -anything- from -anyone-. Kerrigan's just like "hey guy" and Stukov's like "sup kerrigan wanna wreck a lab?" and Kerrigan's like "sure man". It's never brought up that they were practically mortal enemies before Stukov's untimely death in BW, and it's never brought up why this previously slender guy has bulked out to become exactly the same shape as every other Blizzard male character. Why does every guy have to be beeftastic? Stukov's strength was his brain, not his biceps.

- http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Resurrection_IV

Zerus is supposed to be a lava planet, not a jungle! Why else would they settle on Char?

- It transformed into a jungle planet millennia ago.

HotS seems to have a bit of difficulty between deciding whether you're playing as Queen Bitch of the Universe or a lonely girl in space who wants her boyfriend back, or it doesn't merge those two together well enough.

- That's the whole dichotomy of Sarah Kerrigan vs the Queen of Blades. She's two people in one body.

[Gawdzilla]

If I were to give a letter grade to the story of Heart of the Swarm...I'd give it a B-. There was a lot of stuff I enjoyed but i think they did drop the ball on a few things. One being the length of the campaign. I feel it should have been longer, should have had more time as normal Sarah before she became QoB 2.0. Also the story drops the ball when you figure that for the SCII triliogy this is supposed to be the Empire Strikes Back to WoL's A New Hope.

But overall I enjoyed it.

[Millennía]

Well I just finished the campaign. I only did it on normal because I only play it for the story because I love Starcraft lore. I can honestly say that I loved the campaign and it was much better than the Wings of Liberty campaign. I thoroughly enjoyed the amount of unit customisation (flying Swarm Hosts locust lol) involved and the story was very good. I actually got really sad when I finished because I have been going through this campaign for the last 2 days and I was totally engulfed in the story that I just wanted more. Well worth the money and now time to practice in the league again. I will certainly miss some of the abilities from campaign such as the leaping Banelings and Impaler Hydralisks

[Deleted]

Zerus is supposed to be a lava planet, not a jungle! Why else would they settle on Char?

If you noticed, Zerus was still a lava planet. Most likely, since there is a pool, there is a liquid from plant live can grow from and without the massive Swarm occupying Zerus, the plants took a page from the Primal book and evolved and expanded.

But Zerus is still a lava planet.

[barackopala]

Well I just finished the campaign. I only did it on normal because I only play it for the story because I love Starcraft lore. I can honestly say that I loved the campaign and it was much better than the Wings of Liberty campaign. I thoroughly enjoyed the amount of unit customisation (flying Swarm Hosts locust lol) involved and the story was very good. I actually got really sad when I finished because I have been going through this campaign for the last 2 days and I was totally engulfed in the story that I just wanted more. Well worth the money and now time to practice in the league again. I will certainly miss some of the abilities from campaign such as the leaping Banelings and Impaler Hydralisks

I was in the same spot as you were, I wanted to play MP and forgot I haven't touched it since season 2, played as protoss, my macro sucked.

[Wass]

Someone should create an MMO-C chatroom for practice and/or custom games, jus' sayin !~

I'm up for this. What region?

Also:

[Darkrulerxxx]

Just finished the campaign...and excuse the language. but that was fucking epic. Cant wait for Legacy of the Void to see more of Zeratul

[Frozenbeef]

ever get the feeling blizzard copy elements from their other games? :S

Spoilers:


SPOILER!!!
SPOILER!!!
http://i.imgur.com/xGtWSN8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DfPNHn5.jpg
SPOILER!!!
SPOILER!!!

That better?... seriously, if someone is dumb enough to click images in a thread about a game while trying to avoid spoilers they don't have common sense.

[inux94]

The campaign was way too easy on brutal, it only took me ~7-8 hours

Dude, I spent ~5 hours on the last mission on WoL. I was extemely happy to finally finish the campaign on brutal, which wasn't the case with HotS. (I pretty much A-moved the last mission on HotS >.<)

ever get the feeling blizzard copy elements from their other games? :S

http://i.imgur.com/xGtWSN8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DfPNHn5.jpg

Don't fix what's not broken, it was an extremely fun fight.

[barackopala]

I'm up for this. What region?

Also:

NA? 10chars~

[Frozenbeef]

Yeh for the last mission i was expecting an all out type thing like where you had to bunker down use everything available to you and barely hold out...i was just using banelings to bomb everything in sight on hots last mission :S

[dokilar]

ever get the feeling blizzard copy elements from their other games? :S

http://i.imgur.com/xGtWSN8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DfPNHn5.jpg

yea i couldnt help but think, wow this feels like the diablo encounter but with a deathwing chin.

that being said i felt like this expansion's story was a little underwhelming. it started off good, got rather bland and dry for my tastes in the middle and towards the end it started to pick up again but quite an anticlimactic ending. the last 2 or 3 missions i kept thinking there was going to be this nice huge twist but it never came. when i finished the wings of liberty campaign i was pumped and looking forward to the next expansion and i just dont really get that feeling at all with the ending of heart of the swarm.

i personally feel like its kind of a cheesy move to separate the 3 campaigns over 3 expansions (it just seems greedy to me) but i thought the wings of liberty lived up to its price tag. i personally feel heart of the swarm was a little weak in comparison. it just seems like after almost 3 years there should have been...more i guess? i dont want anyone to think of my views as negative. i like the game, im just a tad underwhelmed is all. heres to waiting 3 years for protoss!!

[Shinzai]

ever get the feeling blizzard copy elements from their other games? :S

http://i.imgur.com/xGtWSN8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DfPNHn5.jpg

Blizzard? Use their own content in other games? Never.

[Wass]

NA? 10chars~

I play on EU >.< But since it's global I guess I could just play on both.

Edit: Also, please spoilertag images and stuff like that really. I have done the campaign but I would not have wanted to see that picture of the prev. page if I hadn't.

---------- Post added 2013-03-14 at 01:01 AM ----------

Also, too bad I'm very busy the coming couple of days. But I'll return more ladderhungry than ever once I'm free again.

[cudomix]

Bleurgh, Mengsk looks like infested Terran in that poster, Kerrigan's hair hakes him look like he has mandibles, ling on the other side isn't helping either. Personally I prefered warcraft 2 to war 3 story wise, Gul'dan's betrayal was really unexpected (Arthas' fall was way too obvious and kinda anticlimactic).

[Frozenbeef]

Edit: Also, please spoilertag images and stuff like that really. I have done the campaign but I would not have wanted to see that picture of the prev. page if I hadn't.

I simply refuse to comply with that. If someone is stupid enough to visit a starcraft 2 thread 2 days after release then begin clicking on random images then they deserve to have it spoiled for them.