If Arcturus was planning on killing Raynor he'd have done it. He didn't know Kerrigan was that important to him and he thought Raynor was one of his most important allies. If it wasn't the woman he loved he might have actually just dealt with it for the greater good. He wouldn't have given Mengsk a hug and pop a bottle of champagne but he might have realized the bigger picture. Hell with Raynor at his side Mengsk might not have been so bad running things. He obviously still had a lot of use for Raynor since Raynor was still alive.
The point I'm trying to make is people make sometimes bad and sudden decisions based on emotion. Raynor did it by telling Mengsk to F himself and he did it by telling Kerrigan they're done. After he had thought about it and seen that the QoB would never risk a battle for civilians and Kerrigan just did, he changed his mind. These kinds of mental twisters happen all the time when dealing with love and hatred. Even Kerrigan's seemingly bipolar decisions were relayed well, as when she thought about Mengsk and Raynor's death she kills and when she thinks about Raynor and how he'd be ashamed of her she shows mercy.
Probably not the original Power Ranger, but a whole lot of Power Rangers gradually evolve into dog robots that assemble. And ya I can't pinpoint the original one that started this trends. You are probably right.
If I may interject, the Enemy Within mission where the broodmother takes over the protoss ship played in an incredibly similar manner to a map I made a while back: http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/infest-and-consume/
I know they didn't copy my ideas, but still, it was incredibly weird to see this play out so similarly.
My map has a larva go around and take control of enemies, who you can walk around in and kill to gain points. After enough points, you can evolve into an Infestor, who can kill some more and spawn more units/get upgrades for points. You can even evolve again to an Ultrafestor. There's even a segment where I had the overmind order you to grow, the same way Kerrigan did.
I finally finished the campaign. Let's see if I can collect my thoughts here. TL;DR version at the bottom.
For starters, I thought it was worse than WoL overall. Some thing were better, some were worse, but overall I preferred the WoL experience. I'll try to sum up the good and bad points.
BAD POINTS: 1) The story, overall, felt clunky and bad. Not Twilight bad, not even 'average movie' bad, but worse than WoL. Overall, a LOT of things felt like they were simply executed in a stupid way. I'll try to demonstrate this with some examples in mostly chronological order.
Kerrigan's attitude towards Valerian, especially in the first missions. I realize she has a deep hatred for Mengsk, but she seemed to piss on everything he stood for when all he was trying to do was help both her and Jim. Doesn't seem right.
Raynor 'being dead'. I liked this idea as a catalyst for spurring Kerrigan's further actions (especially the ones on Zerus), but the way it was done seemed lame. Did anyone here actually think Raynor was dead? No matter how else they would've done it, it would've probably been better (Raynor falls into cliff, Raynor gets seperated and his radio drops out while in a fight with a huge amount of Dominion fighters... whatever). This way it just seemed like a really cheap shot to somehow show players that Nova still exists.
Kerrigan's attitude towards Zeratul. The initial hostility and jumping at him make a lot of sense, no complains there. But then she keeps going. And again. And then she starts hitting him on the ground. All the while Zeratul isn't fighting back or doing anything relevant. How is it even possible that Kerrigan herself doesn't have the same feeling of "WTF"ness about this situation that makes her stop fighting him to see if maybe he has something to say? As a character, I don't think she'd be this needlessly aggressive.
I liked almost everything else about it, but the introduction of Zerus was crap. Even Zeratul's role in this is fine, it's just that... I thought Zerus was the 'ancient homeworld and birthplace of the Swarm', and with that was a planet faaaar removed from the centers of action in both WoL and HOTS. To me it was this kind of 'mythical place' that could be really interesting to look around, if only it could be reached or found again. But no, that's not how it works. "LOL KERRIGAN BTW YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT ZERUS OVER HERE". If it's really THAT easy, then why the fuck did NO ONE ever go there before? Why not the Overmind in an attempt to strengthen his swarm or such? Protoss cleansing forces? Terran science expeditions to learn about the Zerg?
Every single villain in the game sucks balls. "YER GONNA DIE, KERRIGAN, HARHAR!". Really?
Every single encounter between Kerrigan and Raynor after she rescues him from Moros. It's just akward as fuck. Why is Raynor THIS mad about Kerrigan's new transformation? Why does Kerrigan not simply fucking EXPLAIN that she thought he was dead and felt she had no reason left to keep her humanity? Why does Raynor keep the Hyperion around Korhal while retreating and refusing to speak to her? Why does Kerrigan call Horner 'Matt' even though she barely even knows the guy?
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2) The feeling of the game was worse than WoL. Don't get me wrong - for a larger part I still liked the feeling of 'starting out weak' and 'building up your swarm', it's just that there were too little 'filler' missions in between. In WoL one of the reasons that you really felt like 'rebel scum' was that you had to do a huge amount of missions for all sorts of people to slowly build up your army. You were playing Jim Raynor and you actually spent most of your journey in dark corridors of your ship, contemplating things. The Ihan crystal missions added to this feeling of loneliness. In HOTS, every single one of those army-building missions is coupled with introducing and/or killing some kind of important lore figure. I think they're being too try-hard with this. It was at the point when even Mira-Han showed up that I simply went "Oh right, who are we gonna get next? We haven't seen Tosh yet, I'm sure he'll make a cameo too".
Additionally, the set-up of Kerrigan's Leviathan really drags down the feeling. As mentioned, in WoL I really felt like I was walking around on the Hyperion. I felt like this outcast rebel making do in the void of space, having his own struggles. Here I felt like the leader of some kind of carnival. There's only two rooms to enter and only a couple of missions in they're both crowded as fuck with unnecessary characters. Remember the WoL armory? The units you saw on the background actually had REASONS to be there. Your evolution chamber just has a small, diverse Zerg army standing around for no good reason whatsoever. And the main room, between the 9000 characters permanently present, just standing there (which is another gripe; WoL characters were generally DOING STUFF, not just standing around), we really didn't need the addition of random Zerglings walking by TOO.
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3) Some parts of the actual gameplay felt forced and over the top. A friend of mine actually commented on this and I find myself agreeing with him, to an extend. There are no Nydus worms. Literally every match feels like A-moving into a hostile base with a 300 food push. There is no careful sniping stuff with Mutalisks, backdooring or harassing, there is only A-moving. Again: remember WoL? In most missions you had one specific unit (the one you obtained) that was most suited for the job, but you still had multiple strategic options. I've played that campaign several times and I've completed missions with bio+drops, with slow mech pushes and with banshee/viking strikeforces. If I could actually micro, I could add the option of 'using casters' (i.e. ghosts+nukes and ravens/science vessels) to that list. In HOTS, there is only the tremendous power of the A-move.
Another small gripe here is the fact that you have NO information about what your next mission is going to be like. Being able to modify Kerrigan according to your liking is all good, but if I have NO idea whether my next mission is going to be of the 30 minute hold-the-line type or of the infiltrate-a-base-with-a-small-group-of-units type, then how am I supposed to know what spells to pick on Kerrigan? Are you really gonna force me to load up every map just to see what the objectives are so I can properly spec Kerrigan before re-trying it? The WoL approach, that actually told you in a nutshell what you were going to be doing, would've been a lot more helpful here.
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GOOD POINTS: 1) To immediately follow-up on that last bad point: there were still a shitload of tactics viable when staying within the A-move 'paradigm'. The low-tech missions you learn to use Zerglings (and Zergling reconstitution) to a great effect. You swarm your enemies with speed. Lateron you add Aberrations as tanks. These get replaced by Ultralisks in the last few missions. You can use airwaves of Mutalisks to back up your main forces. You can use Swarm Hosts for 'slow but steady' siege-tank-like pushes. You can use a standard Roach/Hydra comp or combine it with Aberrations or air units. Lurkers are an option for offense as well as defense. And because of the 'power of the A-move', it doesn't matter what you go: it still feels like you're playing the ZERG, swarming the shit out of your opponents with ever-growing numbers and slowly encroaching creep. And then, in the last few missions, you combine "everything you've learned" to perform perfect A-move tactics in the Korhal missions - I couldn't have wished for a better way to end an A-move focused game.
I guess the power of the A-move is both a blessing and a curse in this regard, though I'm willing to write off the 'bad-ness' of this point as it simply being a preference thing.
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2) The mission set-up, for all the needless character introductions it forced us into, was great. There were a bit too much timed missions for my liking, but even then, no two missions are ever the same. WoL already had a near-perfect balance of RTS, RPG and 'something completely different altogether' missions, and HoTS certainly lives up to this. The Protoss ship mission, the Kerrigan vs. bosses mission, the Narud+Beam mission... they all keep the game really interesting. The linearity of the missions also hits a perfect balance between 'raw linear campaign' and the 'total freedom' WoL had. I like the idea of committing yourself to one set of missions.
Only small gripe here is that it feels like you're still supposed to do the Kaldir missions before the Char missions. I dare all of you who call the game easy to do the Char 'Bone Trench' mission on brutal with nothing but unevolved Zerglings, unevolved Banelings, Swarm Queens and Kerrigan. Good luck fighting an army of primarily Siege Tanks, Bunkers and Firebats on a timer.
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3) No matter what I say here, the fact remains that overall I still had a blast going through the campaign. On average, everything is still better than most other games out there. For all the gripes I had the feeling of the game is still better than almost any game I've played through. The gameplay was still among the most interesting I've ever seen. I'm still going to replay this.
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TL;DR version:
All in all, I'd rate WoL with a 9/10 as a game, and HOTS is more around a 7,5 or 8. The creativity in the game, the mission set-up, the feeling of the gameplay and the feeling of the characters are all 'good' from the get-go - it is just a shame they get dampened so much by the akward plot moments, weird 'ship-board' decisions and small annoyances. It's a good game, and I'd play it again in a heartbeat, but it's worse than WoL. I do have high hopes for LOTV, though: even from just the setting it takes place in and the characters involved its lore and feeling will HAVE to be better than HOTS, and I'm sure they'll nail the originality and 'Protoss feeling' of the campaign. I do however hope it's not gonna be a strain of 25 "Look we can create WoW boss-fights in StarCraft 2 now" maps.
Why does Kerrigan call Horner 'Matt' even though she barely even knows the guy?
If you read Flashpoint you will learn they met before Tarsonis, and did a mission with him. Then she was infested, Raynor left and Matt followed him, they stole the Hyperion and Matt became the captain of the ship.
But that doesn't save HoTS from all the other problems. I agree with most your arguments.
Valerian was ordering Kerrigan to control Zerg, which didn't serve any direct purpose beyond "analysis". She probably wanted to "scare him straight" in the first mission and deliberately played the "standard villain". And he is the son of the man who betrayed her and turned her into a monster.
I still believe Raynor's "death" was mainly ruined by leaks and the WoL storyline, so HotS can't really be blamed for that one. If we'd been given the WoL ending as a short story/prologue and HotS was the first SC2 campaign we'd expect Jim to be either deader than dead or infested.
The beatdown on Zeratul makes sense if you do Kaldir first, you just slaughtered a whole colony of Protoss when another one appears, one you know was a friend of the man you loved. If Zeratul hadn't appeared she'd probably have punched Abathur through the Leviathan to vent some frustration anyway.
Zerus was never made out to be some mythical sanctuary. The Overmind never showed special interest in it, simply abandoning it in search of the Protoss. According to SC/BW it was left completely barren and desolate, so there was no reason for the Zerg to return there. The humans never knew it existed (the UED victory report lists Char as the origin of the Zerg threat), and neither did the Protoss I would guess. Even if they learned of it eventually, why send a fleet deep into unknown enemy territory when you're struggling to defend your own borders?
The villains I somewhat agree with, but it's hard to display a character as an effective villain while letting the player win, especially if you have no valued friends or underlings to kill off. I actually wished Izsha ate a nuke or two after the 3rd vespene reminder, and the other characters pretty much only existed as gameplay interfaces or plot devices. What could you threaten Kerrigan with except death? Hold Raynor hostage even though he's "dead"? Wait, that one actually worked... for a while.
The A-move part I fully agree with. Except I see no point in using Aberrations, Mutas or any other fancy tactics beyond the mission set you get them from. Vile Roach+Hydra straight up a-moves everything and actually is cheaper than the above. The only thing that distracted me from a-moving more was using Kerrigan's abilities, which didn't actually need any adjusting between missions. Kinetic Blast for tanks, Crushing Grip if you need it, Wild Mutation to quickly clear expansions with 0 losses. Then just spam them mindlessly after Zerus. The ultimates are useless beyond sending drop pod forces against the Psi Destroyer, which allows you to a-move even when you should be defending.
HotS definitely was better than WoL in my opinion, Schrödinger choices are horrible past the first playthrough. And I had less "why the f*ck are we doing this" moments in HotS, but maybe I just need to replay it once the novelty wears off.
Valerian was ordering Kerrigan to control Zerg, which didn't serve any direct purpose beyond "analysis". She probably wanted to "scare him straight" in the first mission and deliberately played the "standard villain". And he is the son of the man who betrayed her and turned her into a monster.
Is there no purpose beyond 'analysis', though? I mean, Valerian has just spent god knows how much time seeing if the Zerg infestation is really gone from Kerrigan and to what extend and such. It's pretty much for her own good too that she's there. When I first launched the campaign I was under the impression that Valerian and Raynor both had spend a lot of time helping Kerrigan undergo the Zerg>Terran changes.
I still believe Raynor's "death" was mainly ruined by leaks and the WoL storyline, so HotS can't really be blamed for that one. If we'd been given the WoL ending as a short story/prologue and HotS was the first SC2 campaign we'd expect Jim to be either deader than dead or infested.
That's what I'm saying though: they should've done it in virtually any other way than this. Literally anything I can come up with is less lame than Raynor getting "captured" by Nova (who otherwise doesn't do anything else in the entire campaign), the screen cutting to black and a news message popping up saying "he was killed".
The beatdown on Zeratul makes sense if you do Kaldir first, you just slaughtered a whole colony of Protoss when another one appears, one you know was a friend of the man you loved. If Zeratul hadn't appeared she'd probably have punched Abathur through the Leviathan to vent some frustration anyway.
Only I didn't do Kaldir first. If they want their logics to work that way they should force the player to do Kaldir before Char. And even then, the fact that Zeratul is a friend of Raynor should make Kerrigan LESS likely to go haywire on him. Venting frustration would be the only fitting excuse, but I think it's a rather weak one - especially seeing as how Zeratul doesn't do ANYTHING to defend himself and this doesn't seem to strike Kerrigan as even a little bit odd.
Zerus was never made out to be some mythical sanctuary. The Overmind never showed special interest in it, simply abandoning it in search of the Protoss. According to SC/BW it was left completely barren and desolate, so there was no reason for the Zerg to return there. The humans never knew it existed (the UED victory report lists Char as the origin of the Zerg threat), and neither did the Protoss I would guess. Even if they learned of it eventually, why send a fleet deep into unknown enemy territory when you're struggling to defend your own borders?
Maybe Zerus was not a 'mythical sanctuary', but it was definitely a place of interest that seemed 'lost to time'. The Terrans not knowing it existed... fair enough. But when looking at the Protoss willingness to blow up entire planets to halt the Zerg's advance, you'd imagine they'd at least put some effort into finding it. I could literally come up with tons of reasons for any faction wanting to go there if they knew it's as accessible as a ten second loading screen away.
The villains I somewhat agree with, but it's hard to display a character as an effective villain while letting the player win, especially if you have no valued friends or underlings to kill off. I actually wished Izsha ate a nuke or two after the 3rd vespene reminder, and the other characters pretty much only existed as gameplay interfaces or plot devices. What could you threaten Kerrigan with except death? Hold Raynor hostage even though he's "dead"? Wait, that one actually worked... for a while.
This isn't even my main gripe. There are tons of things the villains could've done in way of manipulation or such. Take Narud for instance - they could deepen out the reason as to how he came to be in the facility is in. Why exactly the Terran and Tal'Darim hang around together. Have him escape or set some kind of trap for Kerrigan. As he is now, literally everything he does in the game is taunt and die.
The A-move part I fully agree with. Except I see no point in using Aberrations, Mutas or any other fancy tactics beyond the mission set you get them from. Vile Roach+Hydra straight up a-moves everything and actually is cheaper than the above.
I did both Char and Zerus before Kaldir. Without Roaches, Zerglings+Aberrations are your main tankline.
The only thing that distracted me from a-moving more was using Kerrigan's abilities, which didn't actually need any adjusting between missions. Kinetic Blast for tanks, Crushing Grip if you need it, Wild Mutation to quickly clear expansions with 0 losses. Then just spam them mindlessly after Zerus. The ultimates are useless beyond sending drop pod forces against the Psi Destroyer, which allows you to a-move even when you should be defending.
The abilities don't need changing, but it's obvious that some work better in some maps than others. I found Fortitude useful in some of the RPG-style missions for example, whereas the ability is useless in the final missions.
HotS definitely was better than WoL in my opinion, Schrödinger choices are horrible past the first playthrough. And I had less "why the f*ck are we doing this" moments in HotS, but maybe I just need to replay it once the novelty wears off.
I don't think I had a lot of 'why the fuck are we doing this' moments (I only questioned the characters specific actions, not the movements of the swarm as a whole), but rather a lot of "oh jeez, what is it THIS time?" moments when the campaign dragged every single character we've seen so far back in.
Is there no purpose beyond 'analysis', though? I mean, Valerian has just spent god knows how much time seeing if the Zerg infestation is really gone from Kerrigan and to what extend and such. It's pretty much for her own good too that she's there. When I first launched the campaign I was under the impression that Valerian and Raynor both had spend a lot of time helping Kerrigan undergo the Zerg>Terran changes.
For what we've been shown neither contributed anything after the ending of WoL, they certainly didn't manage to set her hair right. Raynor was a comrade previously and now serves as a love interest and a moral compass. Valerian she's probably never met before, and from her point of view he contributed nothing besides a huge fleet of Battlecruisers to bomb Char. Considering how infestation works Kerrigan herself probably knew more about her condition than all the scientists, she was afraid of controlling Zerg for fear of a "relapse" and she was right (3rd mission ending)
That's what I'm saying though: they should've done it in virtually any other way than this. Literally anything I can come up with is less lame than Raynor getting "captured" by Nova (who otherwise doesn't do anything else in the entire campaign), the screen cutting to black and a news message popping up saying "he was killed".
I don't think the circumstances of his death are all that important, no scene at all and a faint "psionic scream" picked up by Kerrigan would've done it just as well. A heroic "last stand" would actually be worse in my opinion, Nova was leading the assault and unlike the average Marine you can assume she actually has the skill to incapacitate someone without crippling them for life. Nova didn't get more screentime because she had no purpose later on, a single Ghost has no chance against Kerrigan.
Only I didn't do Kaldir first. If they want their logics to work that way they should force the player to do Kaldir before Char. And even then, the fact that Zeratul is a friend of Raynor should make Kerrigan LESS likely to go haywire on him. Venting frustration would be the only fitting excuse, but I think it's a rather weak one - especially seeing as how Zeratul doesn't do ANYTHING to defend himself and this doesn't seem to strike Kerrigan as even a little bit odd.
I already acknowledged that complaint 1-2 pages back, you should be forced to do Kaldir first if they want the story to work. As I said previously, the Kaldir mission set as a whole has no point if you've already reclaimed a sizeable army of Zerg, let alone achieved the Primal form. And the first thing you'd learn from fighting Zeratul is not to believe anything you see or jump to conclusions. Zasz paid for it when she didn't heed that warning the first time (and Izsha should have access to those memories, right?)
Maybe Zerus was not a 'mythical sanctuary', but it was definitely a place of interest that seemed 'lost to time'. The Terrans not knowing it existed... fair enough. But when looking at the Protoss willingness to blow up entire planets to halt the Zerg's advance, you'd imagine they'd at least put some effort into finding it. I could literally come up with tons of reasons for any faction wanting to go there if they knew it's as accessible as a ten second loading screen away.
The Protoss stopped blowing up planets after the Sara system, and seemed physically unable to try again even in BW. Aside from Haven, which is a total mess in its own right. The main catch in your claim is the "if they knew" part: Who would tell them there's a distant Zerg homeworld with anything worth destroying? And even if they did, where was it said that the space in between isn't full of Zerg? After the ending of BW no faction was in any fit state to launch an expedition into enemy territory except the Zerg themselves, and they explicitely believed Zerus to be a dead wasteland with no further value.
This isn't even my main gripe. There are tons of things the villains could've done in way of manipulation or such. Take Narud for instance - they could deepen out the reason as to how he came to be in the facility is in. Why exactly the Terran and Tal'Darim hang around together. Have him escape or set some kind of trap for Kerrigan. As he is now, literally everything he does in the game is taunt and die.
The Terrans aren't hanging out with the Tal'Darim, the lab is built on top of the old temple and I don't recall any evidence of Terrans venturing down there. As I argued previously, Narud was in the lab to breed Hybrids for his master and by the time he realised Kerrigan would beat them he was cornered, the entire lab swarmed and infested. He did set up a "trap" in the temple, he knew a giant beam of death would be involved somewhere, Kerrigan won't die to tripwires or Widow Rockets. It would have worked if Kerrigan hadn't achieved her Primal form (which he couldn't possibly expect, Amon also believed Zerus to be a barren wasteland), and even then she needed the help of Stukov (whom he could have killed and probably expected to turn up at some point, but he would never be a threat without Primal Kerrigan)
I did both Char and Zerus before Kaldir. Without Roaches, Zerglings+Aberrations are your main tankline.
The abilities don't need changing, but it's obvious that some work better in some maps than others. I found Fortitude useful in some of the RPG-style missions for example, whereas the ability is useless in the final missions.
I heard someone beat the entire campaign (on Brutal) with just Swarm Queens ;)
I see little point in Fortitude, Kinetic Blast is just too useful for unit retention and general damage output. After you get Mend that's much better for staying alive even if you're alone.
I don't think I had a lot of 'why the fuck are we doing this' moments (I only questioned the characters specific actions, not the movements of the swarm as a whole), but rather a lot of "oh jeez, what is it THIS time?" moments when the campaign dragged every single character we've seen so far back in.
The cameos were a direct reaction after many fans complained over their absence in WoL. As for specific actions, which scene in HotS do you think is worse than Haven or Shatter The Sky? A space platform "needs" the power output of four massive reactors to "stay in orbit" and none of the engineers or scientists facepalm?
The most awkward thing in the campaign(I loved it), Was the jail cell... and it wasnt the gun... it was the HORRIBLY forced Fenix mention... that had to have been the worse line in any game I have ever heard, "What about fenix", lol the guy who was in a few protoss missions and she betrayed and neither of them knew him too much?. I would have understood if it was Artanis talking to her, and mentioning Fenix, but why the fuck is raynor mentioning, Fenix, when kerrigan has killed much greater allies. he could have mentioned Tychus, He could have said something along the lines of "What about tychus, did I take his life for nothin"
eh?
fenix was a major support character
he comes up multiple times in the sc1 campaigns as an ally to raynor, he dies as a zealot and returns as a dragoon. he was awesome, him and raynor fought alot of battles together. raynor should of had the love story with fenix, i would have believed that more.
Yes they were comrads but they had the love interest thing going on since the first mission he met Kerrigan. They couldn't convey that well with the inability to do cutscenes with heroes and talking heads as the only way to tell the story.
I agree that it felt forced in that scene but he definitely should have been mentioned. I like the idea of mentioning Tychus though. You have to understand as well that Raynor spent a very long period of time with Tassadar/Zeratul/Fenix. He was closer friends with them than anyone else save maybe Matt. This was again hard to convey with talking heads :)
The most awkward thing in the campaign(I loved it), Was the jail cell... and it wasnt the gun... it was the HORRIBLY forced Fenix mention... that had to have been the worse line in any game I have ever heard, "What about fenix", lol the guy who was in a few protoss missions and she betrayed and neither of them knew him too much?. I would have understood if it was Artanis talking to her, and mentioning Fenix, but why the fuck is raynor mentioning, Fenix, when kerrigan has killed much greater allies. he could have mentioned Tychus, He could have said something along the lines of "What about tychus, did I take his life for nothin"
Fenix and Raynor were best friends. You probably forgot what Brood War was about.
I wouldnt say best friends.... More like good aquaintences. Sure he was a major support character and I am not saying he wasnt a badass, infact he returns as an immortal as a hero in my map Evo-Frenzy, but it made no sense to mention him in a part where he was upset with kerrigan for changing BACK into the queen of blades.
Now if they had said something like "Sarah, Dont you remember what that form did to you last time, dont your remember killing millions of innocent civilians, along with fenix who only wished to help you."
I mean I suck at writing(my opinion, not the opinion of my english teachers :) ), BUT even I can come up with a better line then "tell that to fenix tell that to the million you butchered."..... that doesnt even make sense!!!!! :(.... and hes fenix why the hell hasnt he made his 3rd rebirth....
Somehow I get feel that "Legacy of the Void" will be like the "Klingon Stovokor", a place you go when you're dead as a Protoss.
I could see Blizzard being like "See! We sure fooled you guys! Fenix is actually alive!" In fact, if they're stupid enough - they'll to try the whole Matrix / Jesus thing. It'd fill the role perfectly - either that or they'll just make Kerrigan kill herself to save the universe - which will be lamer than down syndrum.
@DuckyTheDuck: Go
If Arcturus was planning on killing Raynor he'd have done it. He didn't know Kerrigan was that important to him and he thought Raynor was one of his most important allies. If it wasn't the woman he loved he might have actually just dealt with it for the greater good. He wouldn't have given Mengsk a hug and pop a bottle of champagne but he might have realized the bigger picture. Hell with Raynor at his side Mengsk might not have been so bad running things. He obviously still had a lot of use for Raynor since Raynor was still alive.
The point I'm trying to make is people make sometimes bad and sudden decisions based on emotion. Raynor did it by telling Mengsk to F himself and he did it by telling Kerrigan they're done. After he had thought about it and seen that the QoB would never risk a battle for civilians and Kerrigan just did, he changed his mind. These kinds of mental twisters happen all the time when dealing with love and hatred. Even Kerrigan's seemingly bipolar decisions were relayed well, as when she thought about Mengsk and Raynor's death she kills and when she thinks about Raynor and how he'd be ashamed of her she shows mercy.
@Taintedwisp: Go
That's messed up man. NYDUS WORM!!!!
That's actually a reference to Voltron, not Power Rangers:
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/VOLTRON.jpg
Probably not the original Power Ranger, but a whole lot of Power Rangers gradually evolve into dog robots that assemble. And ya I can't pinpoint the original one that started this trends. You are probably right.
If I may interject, the Enemy Within mission where the broodmother takes over the protoss ship played in an incredibly similar manner to a map I made a while back: http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/infest-and-consume/
I know they didn't copy my ideas, but still, it was incredibly weird to see this play out so similarly.
My map has a larva go around and take control of enemies, who you can walk around in and kill to gain points. After enough points, you can evolve into an Infestor, who can kill some more and spawn more units/get upgrades for points. You can even evolve again to an Ultrafestor. There's even a segment where I had the overmind order you to grow, the same way Kerrigan did.
I finally finished the campaign. Let's see if I can collect my thoughts here. TL;DR version at the bottom.
For starters, I thought it was worse than WoL overall. Some thing were better, some were worse, but overall I preferred the WoL experience. I'll try to sum up the good and bad points.
BAD POINTS:
1) The story, overall, felt clunky and bad. Not Twilight bad, not even 'average movie' bad, but worse than WoL. Overall, a LOT of things felt like they were simply executed in a stupid way. I'll try to demonstrate this with some examples in mostly chronological order.
-2) The feeling of the game was worse than WoL. Don't get me wrong - for a larger part I still liked the feeling of 'starting out weak' and 'building up your swarm', it's just that there were too little 'filler' missions in between. In WoL one of the reasons that you really felt like 'rebel scum' was that you had to do a huge amount of missions for all sorts of people to slowly build up your army. You were playing Jim Raynor and you actually spent most of your journey in dark corridors of your ship, contemplating things. The Ihan crystal missions added to this feeling of loneliness. In HOTS, every single one of those army-building missions is coupled with introducing and/or killing some kind of important lore figure. I think they're being too try-hard with this. It was at the point when even Mira-Han showed up that I simply went "Oh right, who are we gonna get next? We haven't seen Tosh yet, I'm sure he'll make a cameo too".
Additionally, the set-up of Kerrigan's Leviathan really drags down the feeling. As mentioned, in WoL I really felt like I was walking around on the Hyperion. I felt like this outcast rebel making do in the void of space, having his own struggles. Here I felt like the leader of some kind of carnival. There's only two rooms to enter and only a couple of missions in they're both crowded as fuck with unnecessary characters. Remember the WoL armory? The units you saw on the background actually had REASONS to be there. Your evolution chamber just has a small, diverse Zerg army standing around for no good reason whatsoever. And the main room, between the 9000 characters permanently present, just standing there (which is another gripe; WoL characters were generally DOING STUFF, not just standing around), we really didn't need the addition of random Zerglings walking by TOO.
-3) Some parts of the actual gameplay felt forced and over the top. A friend of mine actually commented on this and I find myself agreeing with him, to an extend. There are no Nydus worms. Literally every match feels like A-moving into a hostile base with a 300 food push. There is no careful sniping stuff with Mutalisks, backdooring or harassing, there is only A-moving. Again: remember WoL? In most missions you had one specific unit (the one you obtained) that was most suited for the job, but you still had multiple strategic options. I've played that campaign several times and I've completed missions with bio+drops, with slow mech pushes and with banshee/viking strikeforces. If I could actually micro, I could add the option of 'using casters' (i.e. ghosts+nukes and ravens/science vessels) to that list. In HOTS, there is only the tremendous power of the A-move.
Another small gripe here is the fact that you have NO information about what your next mission is going to be like. Being able to modify Kerrigan according to your liking is all good, but if I have NO idea whether my next mission is going to be of the 30 minute hold-the-line type or of the infiltrate-a-base-with-a-small-group-of-units type, then how am I supposed to know what spells to pick on Kerrigan? Are you really gonna force me to load up every map just to see what the objectives are so I can properly spec Kerrigan before re-trying it? The WoL approach, that actually told you in a nutshell what you were going to be doing, would've been a lot more helpful here.
-GOOD POINTS:
1) To immediately follow-up on that last bad point: there were still a shitload of tactics viable when staying within the A-move 'paradigm'. The low-tech missions you learn to use Zerglings (and Zergling reconstitution) to a great effect. You swarm your enemies with speed. Lateron you add Aberrations as tanks. These get replaced by Ultralisks in the last few missions. You can use airwaves of Mutalisks to back up your main forces. You can use Swarm Hosts for 'slow but steady' siege-tank-like pushes. You can use a standard Roach/Hydra comp or combine it with Aberrations or air units. Lurkers are an option for offense as well as defense. And because of the 'power of the A-move', it doesn't matter what you go: it still feels like you're playing the ZERG, swarming the shit out of your opponents with ever-growing numbers and slowly encroaching creep. And then, in the last few missions, you combine "everything you've learned" to perform perfect A-move tactics in the Korhal missions - I couldn't have wished for a better way to end an A-move focused game.
I guess the power of the A-move is both a blessing and a curse in this regard, though I'm willing to write off the 'bad-ness' of this point as it simply being a preference thing.
-2) The mission set-up, for all the needless character introductions it forced us into, was great. There were a bit too much timed missions for my liking, but even then, no two missions are ever the same. WoL already had a near-perfect balance of RTS, RPG and 'something completely different altogether' missions, and HoTS certainly lives up to this. The Protoss ship mission, the Kerrigan vs. bosses mission, the Narud+Beam mission... they all keep the game really interesting. The linearity of the missions also hits a perfect balance between 'raw linear campaign' and the 'total freedom' WoL had. I like the idea of committing yourself to one set of missions.
Only small gripe here is that it feels like you're still supposed to do the Kaldir missions before the Char missions. I dare all of you who call the game easy to do the Char 'Bone Trench' mission on brutal with nothing but unevolved Zerglings, unevolved Banelings, Swarm Queens and Kerrigan. Good luck fighting an army of primarily Siege Tanks, Bunkers and Firebats on a timer.
-3) No matter what I say here, the fact remains that overall I still had a blast going through the campaign. On average, everything is still better than most other games out there. For all the gripes I had the feeling of the game is still better than almost any game I've played through. The gameplay was still among the most interesting I've ever seen. I'm still going to replay this.
-TL;DR version:
All in all, I'd rate WoL with a 9/10 as a game, and HOTS is more around a 7,5 or 8. The creativity in the game, the mission set-up, the feeling of the gameplay and the feeling of the characters are all 'good' from the get-go - it is just a shame they get dampened so much by the akward plot moments, weird 'ship-board' decisions and small annoyances. It's a good game, and I'd play it again in a heartbeat, but it's worse than WoL. I do have high hopes for LOTV, though: even from just the setting it takes place in and the characters involved its lore and feeling will HAVE to be better than HOTS, and I'm sure they'll nail the originality and 'Protoss feeling' of the campaign. I do however hope it's not gonna be a strain of 25 "Look we can create WoW boss-fights in StarCraft 2 now" maps.
If you read Flashpoint you will learn they met before Tarsonis, and did a mission with him. Then she was infested, Raynor left and Matt followed him, they stole the Hyperion and Matt became the captain of the ship.
But that doesn't save HoTS from all the other problems. I agree with most your arguments.
@Mozared: Go
Valerian was ordering Kerrigan to control Zerg, which didn't serve any direct purpose beyond "analysis". She probably wanted to "scare him straight" in the first mission and deliberately played the "standard villain". And he is the son of the man who betrayed her and turned her into a monster.
I still believe Raynor's "death" was mainly ruined by leaks and the WoL storyline, so HotS can't really be blamed for that one. If we'd been given the WoL ending as a short story/prologue and HotS was the first SC2 campaign we'd expect Jim to be either deader than dead or infested.
The beatdown on Zeratul makes sense if you do Kaldir first, you just slaughtered a whole colony of Protoss when another one appears, one you know was a friend of the man you loved. If Zeratul hadn't appeared she'd probably have punched Abathur through the Leviathan to vent some frustration anyway.
Zerus was never made out to be some mythical sanctuary. The Overmind never showed special interest in it, simply abandoning it in search of the Protoss. According to SC/BW it was left completely barren and desolate, so there was no reason for the Zerg to return there. The humans never knew it existed (the UED victory report lists Char as the origin of the Zerg threat), and neither did the Protoss I would guess. Even if they learned of it eventually, why send a fleet deep into unknown enemy territory when you're struggling to defend your own borders?
The villains I somewhat agree with, but it's hard to display a character as an effective villain while letting the player win, especially if you have no valued friends or underlings to kill off. I actually wished Izsha ate a nuke or two after the 3rd vespene reminder, and the other characters pretty much only existed as gameplay interfaces or plot devices. What could you threaten Kerrigan with except death? Hold Raynor hostage even though he's "dead"? Wait, that one actually worked... for a while.
The A-move part I fully agree with. Except I see no point in using Aberrations, Mutas or any other fancy tactics beyond the mission set you get them from. Vile Roach+Hydra straight up a-moves everything and actually is cheaper than the above. The only thing that distracted me from a-moving more was using Kerrigan's abilities, which didn't actually need any adjusting between missions. Kinetic Blast for tanks, Crushing Grip if you need it, Wild Mutation to quickly clear expansions with 0 losses. Then just spam them mindlessly after Zerus. The ultimates are useless beyond sending drop pod forces against the Psi Destroyer, which allows you to a-move even when you should be defending.
HotS definitely was better than WoL in my opinion, Schrödinger choices are horrible past the first playthrough. And I had less "why the f*ck are we doing this" moments in HotS, but maybe I just need to replay it once the novelty wears off.
Is there no purpose beyond 'analysis', though? I mean, Valerian has just spent god knows how much time seeing if the Zerg infestation is really gone from Kerrigan and to what extend and such. It's pretty much for her own good too that she's there. When I first launched the campaign I was under the impression that Valerian and Raynor both had spend a lot of time helping Kerrigan undergo the Zerg>Terran changes.
That's what I'm saying though: they should've done it in virtually any other way than this. Literally anything I can come up with is less lame than Raynor getting "captured" by Nova (who otherwise doesn't do anything else in the entire campaign), the screen cutting to black and a news message popping up saying "he was killed".
Only I didn't do Kaldir first. If they want their logics to work that way they should force the player to do Kaldir before Char. And even then, the fact that Zeratul is a friend of Raynor should make Kerrigan LESS likely to go haywire on him. Venting frustration would be the only fitting excuse, but I think it's a rather weak one - especially seeing as how Zeratul doesn't do ANYTHING to defend himself and this doesn't seem to strike Kerrigan as even a little bit odd.
Maybe Zerus was not a 'mythical sanctuary', but it was definitely a place of interest that seemed 'lost to time'. The Terrans not knowing it existed... fair enough. But when looking at the Protoss willingness to blow up entire planets to halt the Zerg's advance, you'd imagine they'd at least put some effort into finding it. I could literally come up with tons of reasons for any faction wanting to go there if they knew it's as accessible as a ten second loading screen away.
This isn't even my main gripe. There are tons of things the villains could've done in way of manipulation or such. Take Narud for instance - they could deepen out the reason as to how he came to be in the facility is in. Why exactly the Terran and Tal'Darim hang around together. Have him escape or set some kind of trap for Kerrigan. As he is now, literally everything he does in the game is taunt and die.
I did both Char and Zerus before Kaldir. Without Roaches, Zerglings+Aberrations are your main tankline.
The abilities don't need changing, but it's obvious that some work better in some maps than others. I found Fortitude useful in some of the RPG-style missions for example, whereas the ability is useless in the final missions.
I don't think I had a lot of 'why the fuck are we doing this' moments (I only questioned the characters specific actions, not the movements of the swarm as a whole), but rather a lot of "oh jeez, what is it THIS time?" moments when the campaign dragged every single character we've seen so far back in.
For what we've been shown neither contributed anything after the ending of WoL, they certainly didn't manage to set her hair right. Raynor was a comrade previously and now serves as a love interest and a moral compass. Valerian she's probably never met before, and from her point of view he contributed nothing besides a huge fleet of Battlecruisers to bomb Char. Considering how infestation works Kerrigan herself probably knew more about her condition than all the scientists, she was afraid of controlling Zerg for fear of a "relapse" and she was right (3rd mission ending)
I don't think the circumstances of his death are all that important, no scene at all and a faint "psionic scream" picked up by Kerrigan would've done it just as well. A heroic "last stand" would actually be worse in my opinion, Nova was leading the assault and unlike the average Marine you can assume she actually has the skill to incapacitate someone without crippling them for life. Nova didn't get more screentime because she had no purpose later on, a single Ghost has no chance against Kerrigan.
I already acknowledged that complaint 1-2 pages back, you should be forced to do Kaldir first if they want the story to work. As I said previously, the Kaldir mission set as a whole has no point if you've already reclaimed a sizeable army of Zerg, let alone achieved the Primal form. And the first thing you'd learn from fighting Zeratul is not to believe anything you see or jump to conclusions. Zasz paid for it when she didn't heed that warning the first time (and Izsha should have access to those memories, right?)
The Protoss stopped blowing up planets after the Sara system, and seemed physically unable to try again even in BW. Aside from Haven, which is a total mess in its own right. The main catch in your claim is the "if they knew" part: Who would tell them there's a distant Zerg homeworld with anything worth destroying? And even if they did, where was it said that the space in between isn't full of Zerg? After the ending of BW no faction was in any fit state to launch an expedition into enemy territory except the Zerg themselves, and they explicitely believed Zerus to be a dead wasteland with no further value.
The Terrans aren't hanging out with the Tal'Darim, the lab is built on top of the old temple and I don't recall any evidence of Terrans venturing down there. As I argued previously, Narud was in the lab to breed Hybrids for his master and by the time he realised Kerrigan would beat them he was cornered, the entire lab swarmed and infested. He did set up a "trap" in the temple, he knew a giant beam of death would be involved somewhere, Kerrigan won't die to tripwires or Widow Rockets. It would have worked if Kerrigan hadn't achieved her Primal form (which he couldn't possibly expect, Amon also believed Zerus to be a barren wasteland), and even then she needed the help of Stukov (whom he could have killed and probably expected to turn up at some point, but he would never be a threat without Primal Kerrigan)
I heard someone beat the entire campaign (on Brutal) with just Swarm Queens ;)
I see little point in Fortitude, Kinetic Blast is just too useful for unit retention and general damage output. After you get Mend that's much better for staying alive even if you're alone.
The cameos were a direct reaction after many fans complained over their absence in WoL. As for specific actions, which scene in HotS do you think is worse than Haven or Shatter The Sky? A space platform "needs" the power output of four massive reactors to "stay in orbit" and none of the engineers or scientists facepalm?
The most awkward thing in the campaign(I loved it), Was the jail cell... and it wasnt the gun... it was the HORRIBLY forced Fenix mention... that had to have been the worse line in any game I have ever heard, "What about fenix", lol the guy who was in a few protoss missions and she betrayed and neither of them knew him too much?. I would have understood if it was Artanis talking to her, and mentioning Fenix, but why the fuck is raynor mentioning, Fenix, when kerrigan has killed much greater allies. he could have mentioned Tychus, He could have said something along the lines of "What about tychus, did I take his life for nothin"
@Taintedwisp: Go
eh? fenix was a major support character he comes up multiple times in the sc1 campaigns as an ally to raynor, he dies as a zealot and returns as a dragoon. he was awesome, him and raynor fought alot of battles together. raynor should of had the love story with fenix, i would have believed that more.
@Photoloss: Go
Yes they were comrads but they had the love interest thing going on since the first mission he met Kerrigan. They couldn't convey that well with the inability to do cutscenes with heroes and talking heads as the only way to tell the story.
@Taintedwisp: Go
I agree that it felt forced in that scene but he definitely should have been mentioned. I like the idea of mentioning Tychus though. You have to understand as well that Raynor spent a very long period of time with Tassadar/Zeratul/Fenix. He was closer friends with them than anyone else save maybe Matt. This was again hard to convey with talking heads :)
Fenix and Raynor were best friends. You probably forgot what Brood War was about.
Raynor spent way more time with Fenix than with Kerrigan or Tychus. Four entire SC episodes compared to one with Kerrigan.
@Crainy: Go
I wouldnt say best friends.... More like good aquaintences. Sure he was a major support character and I am not saying he wasnt a badass, infact he returns as an immortal as a hero in my map Evo-Frenzy, but it made no sense to mention him in a part where he was upset with kerrigan for changing BACK into the queen of blades.
Now if they had said something like "Sarah, Dont you remember what that form did to you last time, dont your remember killing millions of innocent civilians, along with fenix who only wished to help you."
I mean I suck at writing(my opinion, not the opinion of my english teachers :) ), BUT even I can come up with a better line then "tell that to fenix tell that to the million you butchered."..... that doesnt even make sense!!!!! :(.... and hes fenix why the hell hasnt he made his 3rd rebirth....
it wasnt four entire -_-....
if we go by mission count, and adding the year before, he spent WAY more time with tychus :), he spent decades before Sc1 :)
Somehow I get feel that "Legacy of the Void" will be like the "Klingon Stovokor", a place you go when you're dead as a Protoss.
I could see Blizzard being like "See! We sure fooled you guys! Fenix is actually alive!" In fact, if they're stupid enough - they'll to try the whole Matrix / Jesus thing. It'd fill the role perfectly - either that or they'll just make Kerrigan kill herself to save the universe - which will be lamer than down syndrum.