A few months later: what's the verdict on Starcraft 2's campaign? (Spoilers)

[ranger19]

Curious to hear what other people think, because quite frankly, I was a little disappointed in it.

The original game had (as I remember it) a great storyline - but this one felt all over the place. The story begins with Jim Raynor trying to come back to power and dethrone the evil tyrant Mengsk, and most of the first half of the game has players working to build up money and resources to take him on, eventually finding evidence of his cruelty. Sounds like the story is shaping up for a huge revolutionary battle, right?

Well, about halfway through, this Protoss guy gives you his memories and helps you realize that the Queen of Blades may be the only one to save the world from its doom; she is not such a bad girl after all. But then you spend most of the rest of the game working to rescue her and bring her back to her human form, and the game ends on a peak when you do save her.

So this is great, but: what happened to overthrowing Mengsk? Everyone in the game just decides "oh there's no point it stopping him if the Zerg wipe out all human life." While this is true, it means that halfway through the game you drop one major plot thread in exchange for another, which is disappointing for players who have been working towards this goal. (I realize that the order you can play missions in means that you might still be playing Mengsk missions until near the end of the game, but the point remains that that story is still unfinished.) And what about Kerrigan, who was supposedly going to save everyone? Now that she's back in human form, doesn't that mean trouble? This was also unaddressed.

I was disappointed in the game, and it felt like it was trying hard to keep things open for the sequels, which is really unfortunate. What are your thoughts?

 

[ranger19]

Hello? Surely someone out there must have an opinion concerning one of the biggest PC games of the year.

 

[JeanLuc761]

I was and still am impressed. While the storyline and storytelling was iffy at times (I've been spoiled by Alan Wake and Mass Effect 2 this year), the cinematics were entertaining, the characters were great and the mission designs were all brilliant.

Never a dull moment.

 

[Spencer Petersen]

After delivering the TV broadcast about Tarsonis Raynor has to wait a while for the revolution to kick start. The best thing Raynor could do was wait for the people to get restless again and bolster his forces in the meantime. Mounting an assault on Mengsk so soon could damage his image because Mengsk could label him as an opportunist, just in it for personal power. He just needs to wait for the people to exile or overthrow Mengsk and then come to their aid when they reform the government. Hes already got the support of Warfeild, and if worse comes to worse they are on good terms with Valerian, which they could use to bring about the changes they wish to bring if the people choose him as his father's successor.

 

[Flying-Emu]

The story is all over the place, like you said, and it is complete bullshit that the Zerg aren't evil.

It's fucking the Orcish Horde all over again; way better when they were evil.

 

[AceAngel]

I don't know. I hate traditional RTS games, had my fill back when Red Alert was all the rage, until it bled dry by all the clones of the genre.

Anyway, back to the topic.

The story was very well told and the decision-making sections really helped me care about parts of the game which would otherwise static and mundane.

The characters had coherent motivations, and the background world really worked well.

I don't know why many people like you keep on harping on the point of Zergs vs. Mengks dilemma on the mission from Jimmy. Jimmy just wanted Mengsk dead due to the betrayal of Kerrigan, nothing else, and the extra 'power to the people' message is being used to destabilize him and take him down. That's all he wanted, hell, even the way he acted and his dialogue came across rash in most cases, so he wasn't to be considered a hero.

He's objective changed when he found out he could get Kerrigan back, but the core idea stayed the same. Kerrigan. I mean criticizing a game for not giving the proper transitions from one story part to another is acceptable (and there were instances side-quests lacked context), but the main bulk of it was fine and perfectly follow-able...

The bigger question would be: "Why the hell did it rain on Char, and how did people breathe without their masks on, and how did Kerrigan, after becoming human, survive without burning up'?

 

[Legion IV]

lol my only gripe with the story is my stubornes. I WANTED KERRIGAN DEAD. She murdered billions she KILLED FENIX. I felt a bit diffrently when i saw the universe end but still. She has to pay her dues!. I dont care she wasint in the right mind. F her. Fenix

 

[sanguinator]

i thought it had a very good story and overrall extremely fun but not replay friendly. i was only able to play through it twice along with the more fun levels. then i got bored.

 

[Firetaffer]

The story felt like a B-grade movie, which is in fact sort of fitting at least for me.
The game play itself was actually superb, a lot of variety throughout the levels.

A-

 

[John Funk]

The gameplay was absolutely fantastic with bar-none the best mission design I've ever seen in an RTS.

The story itself was fun pulp sci-fi that was well-told if not Shakespeare. I thought some of the dialogue was corny, but it was presented well which makes up for it in a big way.

I thought it was excellent overall, and well worth my $60 even before you get to the MP.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Right after the game was released I made an entire thread sperging about my thoughts on the story. I really don't want to type all that up again, so forgive me if my responses are to short to have any value.

The story is all over the place, like you said, and it is complete bullshit that the Zerg aren't evil.

It's fucking the Orcish Horde all over again; way better when they were evil.

This is one of my bigger problems. Starcraft 2 establishes the idea that neither Kerrigan nor the Overmind are evil, just puppets being controlled by the Dark Voice. Forced to do evil by a force beyond their control. This is bullshit, because it ruins two major villains of the series. Kerrigan is back to being a human, and let's be honest; there's nothing special about human Kerrigan. She was put into the story for the purpose of becoming the Queen of Blades. Through the first game and the Brood War expansion, we saw how her new found power corrupted her both mentally and physically. Raynor realized that there was nothing redeemable about her when she killed Fenix. She had become a monster, and had to be treated as such.

But hell, let's go back and make all of that pointless. Kerrigan isn't evil! It's just evil Zerg infestation! Nothing she did while infested matters because apparently she had no control. Despite the first game saying otherwise. I guess none of that matters. Oh yeah, then Raynor shoots his friend in the face and doesn't really care about it. Good job bringing in a new character just to pointlessly kill them off later on.

And do I even have to explain why the Overmind not being evil is stupid and pointless?

I didn't come in expecting the story to be incredible, but I did expect it to at least be on par with the first game. Amazing how despite all the money they poured into those fancy cutscenes, they still aren't as effective as the primitive mission briefings from the first game.

 

[Daden]

I was a bit underwhelmed by the campaign's storyline at first, but this was more than made up for by superior gameplay that never got stale.

The funny thing is, I actually watched my fiancé play the original Starcraft on her Mac off-and-on this past month (She wanted to start from the beginning before tackling SC2), and I came to find that SC2's campaign is superior in just about every way. Yes, even the story!

I suppose my twelve-year-old self found Starcraft's story to be amazing, but now it's just trite and cliche-ridden. This is compounded by looooooooong mission lengths and extremely similar mission types. Oh, and don't get me started on Brood War's story...where all the galaxy's heroes become blatant morons and weave some impressive plot holes.

Don't get me wrong, SC2 is a cliché-fest as well story-wise, but the short mission lengths, varied mission structures, and RPG aspects at least make the game entertaining and fun (to me). I don't really agree with the decision to have players pick their own missions either, but I don't think this comes off as any more schizophrenic than Raynor did in the original:

-He starts as a Confederate marshal
-Joins the Sons of Korhol to fight the Confederacy
-Fights Mengsk after being betrayed
-Joins the Protoss to fight the Zerg
-Joins Kerrigan's Zerg AND Mengsk to fight the UED
-Is betrayed by Kerrigan and strikes off to rebel against Mengsk

Sheesh.

I loved Starcraft when it first came out too, but SC2 is a better game in almost every respect. I think a lot of people are wearing their rose-tinted glasses when it comes to comparisons.

 

[Lyri]

The Escapist Starcraft 2 players Group [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/The-Escapist-Starcraft-2-Players]

I'll be straight up honest, I didn't play it for very long. I found the missons themselves to be some lame filler for the story.
Do this for so & so until you win and get a unit.
Alot of the missons didn't grip me and feel like they were intricate to the part of the story until you hit a certain check point and a more focal story based mission shows up.
At least, that was how it was too me.

I ended up just whoring ladder.

 

[Flying-Emu]

Right after the game was released I made an entire thread sperging about my thoughts on the story. I really don't want to type all that up again, so forgive me if my responses are to short to have any value.

The story is all over the place, like you said, and it is complete bullshit that the Zerg aren't evil.

It's fucking the Orcish Horde all over again; way better when they were evil.

This is one of my bigger problems. Starcraft 2 establishes the idea that neither Kerrigan nor the Overmind are evil, just puppets being controlled by the Dark Voice. Forced to do evil by a force beyond their control. This is bullshit, because it ruins two major villains of the series. Kerrigan is back to being a human, and let's be honest; there's nothing special about human Kerrigan. She was put into the story for the purpose of becoming the Queen of Blades. Through the first game and the Brood War expansion, we saw how her new found power corrupted her both mentally and physically. Raynor realized that there was nothing redeemable about her when she killed Fenix. She had become a monster, and had to be treated as such.

But hell, let's go back and make all of that pointless. Kerrigan isn't evil! It's just evil Zerg infestation! Nothing she did while infested matters because apparently she had no control. Despite the first game saying otherwise. I guess none of that matters. Oh yeah, then Raynor shoots his friend in the face and doesn't really care about it. Good job bringing in a new character just to pointlessly kill them off later on.

And do I even have to explain why the Overmind not being evil is stupid and pointless?

I didn't come in expecting the story to be incredible, but I did expect it to at least be on par with the first game. Amazing how despite all the money they poured into those fancy cutscenes, they still aren't as effective as the primitive mission briefings from the first game.

I've just decided to keep the SC2 story as non-canon. It preserves my memory of the single-player that way.

Kerrigan is evil and that is all there is to it.

 

[The Madman]

I loved it in all its cheesy goodness. I think too many people such as Mr.Emu above me were expecting some sort of mind-blowing Shakespearean narrative from a series which has *always* been a corny B list style action flick. And ya know what? Thats PERFECT! I love B movies; Escape from New York, Evil Dead, Starship Troopers, Big Trouble in Little China, all bloody fantastic movies to watch! And Starcraft 2's story plays exactly like a sci-fi version of the above... I couldn't have asked for better!

As for the gameplay itself, damned good mission design. It says volumes that I took the time to not only replay the campaign twice, which is unheard of for an rts, but even went all achievement whoring trying to get every singleplayer achievement I could, which again is unheard of for me. But hell, it was just plain -fun- and the achievements were clever enough that getting them often put a fun twist on how you were forced to play each level. If more games took such an approach to achievements maybe I'd bother paying attention to the damned things more often.

Good times indeed! Really looking forward to more from Blizzard.

 

[Flying-Emu]

I loved it in all its cheesy goodness. I think too many people such as Mr.Emu above me were expecting some sort of mind-blowing Shakespearean narrative from a series which has *always* been a corny B list style action flick. And ya know what? Thats PERFECT! I love B movies; Escape from New York, Evil Dead, Starship Troopers, Big Trouble in Little China, all bloody fantastic movies to watch! And Starcraft 2's story plays exactly like a sci-fi version of the above... I couldn't have asked for better!

As for the gameplay itself, damned good mission design. It says volumes that I took the time to not only replay the campaign twice, which is unheard of for an rts, but even went all achievement whoring trying to get every singleplayer achievement I could, which again is unheard of for me. But hell, it was just plain -fun- and the achievements were clever enough that getting them often put a fun twist on how you were forced to play each level.

Good times indeed! Really looking forward to more from Blizzard.

I expected cheesy dialogue.

I didn't expect them to turn one of the greatest villains of all time into a pussy-footing human again. And to turn the Overmind, arguably the ONLY alien who's ever been able to frighten me, into a poor, dejected slave to a greater power, who only wants to save his people from BLAH BLAH BLAH HORSESHIT the Overmind is supposed to be an evil ruler hell-bent on universal domination to perfect the Zerg gene strain.

/waves cane and rants.

also, I LOVE those old b-flicks. I don't love some of my favorite characters being bastardized because Blizz thinks that no one likes to play the evil race.

 

[lacktheknack]

Don't worry, Blizzard know what they're doing. Mengsk will become a plot point in a later episode (probably the third one).

 

[Sonicron]

Well, I haven't played a single multiplayer match so far, and yet I don't feel ripped off having paid 60 Euros. What's that tell ya?