StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm (WoL Spoilers)

[SpecialKO]

It's been way too goddamn long since I played SC1, but didn't Blizz allow you to choose (if you had both) whether you wanted to play a regular SC1 match instead of a BW match on the B.net?

Or am I just mis-remembering? Either way, especially with the B.net ID system, that should be doable.

 

[ScytheRexx]

It's been way too goddamn long since I played SC1, but didn't Blizz allow you to choose (if you had both) whether you wanted to play a regular SC1 match instead of a BW match on the B.net?

Yes, that is how it works for all of them. You buy the original game, you can play it, you buy the expansion, you can play it, but if for whatever reason you prefer the original, you can still play it without the expansion. The only thing was, obviously, to play the expansion version you always needed to first own the original, you never could buy BW as a stand-alone game.

SC2 was rumored to break from that by making each release of the trilogy as a stand-alone game, much like Dawn of War. I think they back-stepped on that, however, after the complaining first started, and now just call them expansions and will probably sell them as such.

WoW was the only exception to the "downgrade" rule, but that was because every version of the game was always updated through patches. Buying the expansion merely unlocked the high end goodies like new races, classes, and high end zones, but all version of the game got the extras like achievements, old zone changes, mount improvements, etc... That is one of the neat things about Cataclysm, as all the zone and quest changes to the existing old world zones are going to be free to everyone, regardless of what version they own. You can play in the new troll starting area and still own vanilla.

 

[Adam]

But we got new graphics! Wow! No new play mechanics or even particularly dynamic missions written. No, all the cool work is being done by the community (for free).

Ah, you should let us use your crystal ball, since you can see the future and all. There are some things I have been wanting to find out.

I don't need a crystal ball to see the present. I can play the game I paid for right now.

Hey, and don't forget, no LAN play. Thanks Blizzard!

 

[Adam]

Oh good, we get one free name change. After that, we have to pay to change our Battle.net names.

Free Character Name Change Coming Soon - StarCraft II

Yeah, money pit. Thanks Blizzard.

 

[Vrii]

Given that the first screen you get on loading the game explains what the name is and that it's permanent, I think it's a bit ridiculous to criticize them for "only" giving one free change.

Besides, how often do you plan on changing it that this is a big deal to you?

 

[@Li3n]

I for one found the story to have potential that was ruined by some weird choices... Matt telling Raynor about Tychus being booby-trapped and then it's never mentioned again etc.

And after they split the SP in 3 parts i don't get why they got rid of this stuff (from 3 years ago too):

 

[Chibibar]

I for one found the story to have potential that was ruined by some weird choices... Matt telling Raynor about Tychus being booby-trapped and then it's never mentioned again etc.

And after they split the SP in 3 parts i don't get why they got rid of this stuff (from 3 years ago too):

I was wondering about that. I was hoping that Jim could try to rescue Tychus, but never got around to it, or Jim didn't want to help his buddy.

 

[ScytheRexx]

I definitely agree about Tychus. He seemed like a character that had a lot more room to develop with the whole "booby trap" thing going on, but it never was capitalized. I think they tried to weasel in the comment to explain why he never takes it off just in case people skipped the opening cut scene, and then just washed their hands of it till the ending came and revealed the purpose for the "booby trap".

 

[Chibibar]

I definitely agree about Tychus. He seemed like a character that had a lot more room to develop with the whole "booby trap" thing going on, but it never was capitalized. I think they tried to weasel in the comment to explain why he never takes it off just in case people skipped the opening cut scene, and then just washed their hands of it till the ending came and revealed the purpose for the "booby trap".

skim over?? that is sacrilege!! If Blizzard made a movie, I would go see it.

 

[ScytheRexx]

Oh, I agree, I am just trying to think of a reason for having that comment and never really going with it anywhere.

I think in the end that was my biggest issue with the single player campaign. They had a lot of room to do some cool things with the various storylines that never really ended up materializing. For example, Dr. Hanson, you just do her final mission and she either leaves or is dead, without anything further connecting back to the storyline and no promise that she will even appear in future games.

Also, I kind of wish they utilized the "hero" characters a bit more in actual combat situations.

Basically the big thing I wanted was the choices I made before the final mission to add more then just different base units and extra research upgrades. Yes, those did a great job of altering how the game plays from playthrough to playthrough, but look at some of the other things they could have done.

Hanson vs Protoss
If you choose Hanson, she appears in the final mission on a small convoy and drops down her latest research into Zerg infestation. This can do anything from increase damage to survival, or even add a special unit or building.
If you choose the Protoss, you find that they had a small force watching your progress, and they end in two carriers and a Mothership to help hold the line at the last second.

Tosh vs Nova
If you choose Tosh he enters the battle as a special unit with his base abilities plus extra abilities. If he "dies" he actually just cloaks and runs back to the merc center to "rest" and then comes out fully healed.
If you choose Nova she appears later under command of Valerian and basically is the same as Tosh otherwise, a strong hero unit for the fight with all her base abilities plus some extra.

Stuff like that would have been great to really tie all your choices together. I still think is was a great game though, just it definitely could have been better (but any game really can be).

 

[@Li3n]

And another thing that annoyed me was that they didn't have more story events in the mission themselves... i know they think the engine made cinematics where replacing that, but they made SC1's missions feel so much more as part of the story.

All-in-all the story could have been better integrated in the SP gameplay, and scripted better so it doesn't feel like you're jumping from one plot point to another. Especially since they removed the other 2 campaigns for the 'toss and zerg to work on the terrans more, which left us with an incomplete story anyway.

 

[Raemon777]

Bleh. I have been waiting for a month to read this thread, and I was hoping it'd be 40+ posts discussing awesome storyline plot threads instead of mostly bitching about the expansions thing. Seriously dudes, it's the same amount of content. I'm sorry the content was not divided the way you wanted it to be, but in no way are you remotely getting "less." My complaint is not that we didn't get Zerg missions, but more along what Scythe has touched upon - there were plot threads that could have been expanded better, possibly within the same number of missions, possibly with one or two extra missions

I actually felt the ending was a little rushed. When Raynor's giving his inspiring speech that has everyone looking through their blank suit-masks... I really wanted to be all excited. Everything about the scene was done correctly. It's just that you had only been on Char, fighting the zerg for realz, for two missions. I think I needed to see one extra mission that really showcased how terrifying and oppressive the Zerg are. Kerrigan taunts us with "Infestation" in the Gates of Hell mission. I think we needed a mission where the Zerg are not merely killing your units but permanently infesting them. (I think Swanson would have been a good character to lose to Infestation. You never quite get attached to him, but as such you wouldn't be expecting it as much).

Char had been established as such a badass place.... for a scrappy band of rebels to take it down in an afternoon was just ridiculous. For that matter, for an experienced general like Warfield to honestly expect them to have a few hours to begin a generic frontal invasion was silly.

I didn't think SC1 had any more "story" embedded in the mission. If anything I thought each mission here much more flavor storylines that interacted with the gameplay.

The thing that bugged me the most? WHY THE HELL WERE THE IN-GAME CINEMATICS "IN GAME?" (referring to the high-res shipboard cinematics, not the actual in game ones).

Each of them had beautiful custom done animation, to the extent that there was no reason for them to be done using a real-time engine when you could have just rendered them in Maya or whatever, hit the "smooth" button" for the organic models so that they didn't have such awkward pixelation, and anti-aliased it. If you're going to put in that much effort for your cutscenes, why wouldn't you just put another few days on rendering them at max settings so that a) people without Omega Computers can watch them in good quality, b) even the people WITH Omega Computers won't have to wait for a level to load instead of just watching an instantly loaded .avi file.

There's no reason Hyperion needed to be realtime at all, instead of a few pre-rendered looping animations.

Barring that, we couldn't possibly let the computer set up two separate graphics settings, one for actual gameplay and one for Hyperion?

 

[SpecialKO]

Barring that, we couldn't possibly let the computer set up two separate graphics settings, one for actual gameplay and one for Hyperion?

This, a thousand times this.

Just because my comp couldn't maintain 30fps at max settings with a zillion zerg running around in the middle of huge explosions doesn't mean that it can't render the cinematics at max. Because it can and it did, I just didn't want to re-adjust my video settings each time.

 

[ScytheRexx]

I agree with most of the points, but there is one I must disagree.

Char had been established as such a badass place.... for a scrappy band of rebels to take it down in an afternoon was just ridiculous. For that matter, for an experienced general like Warfield to honestly expect them to have a few hours to begin a generic frontal invasion was silly.

Really, it was not a scrappy group of rebels, but over half the Dominion fleet, and most of them died in the process. Don't forget it was also mentioned that the reason they did the attack was because the vast majority of the hives were out in space, destroying the fringe worlds for Kerrigan. They make mention of this during the final missions when they say how all Zerg in the sector have started back for Char, an act that would obliterate them if they didn't finish the job quickly. Remember, later on when the Dark Voice takes over the bulk of the hive, nothing can stop them.

There are other things to consider, like now we know "Sarah" was still somewhere inside Kerrigan, and so she may have subconsciously spread her forces out far and wide in the hopes that Raynor would be able to do what he did. There are just to many variables, but it still remains that what they did was still not easy.

 

[Raemon777]

The scrappy band of rebels wasn't all they had to start with, but they gave a strong impression that they were all that was left after the initial massacre. The fact that they had enough people to establish a forward base, which somehow survived any length of time WHILE they could send half their troops back UP into orbit.... strains credibility. (I briefly looked at the Kill-The-Nydus-Worms mission afterwards and I think that arc made a bit more sense - leaving most of your troops to defend the base camp and setting a tiny team to do some guerrilla ops seemed more like Raynor's style and would be more likely to actually work than splitting your forces in half.)

I could argue about individual points, but ultimately it doesn't matter much because it's the emotional arc I'm mostly concerned with. Having a bunch of reasons why an attack on Char is feasible doesn't help when those reasons aren't entirely clear and in some cases we don't even learn till the very end, when it's not important that we be scared anymore. The deaths of all the dominion troops pretty much happened off screen. I'd have liked to have a mission wherein we got to see Warfield actually doing a decent job of reacting to the surprise attack, so that we see that the Dominion troops weren't just wasted - he actually used them effectively to get SOMETHING done.

Maybe they meant to imply that, but if so they didn't really give it enough oomph to sink in. At least not for me.

 

[Adam]

Or hey, it's possible that it's just one of Blizzards first badly written games.

 

[Vrii]

I wouldn't say it's badly written. They experimented with non-linear storytelling, and there are definitely shortcomings there. They didn't fully flesh out some of the points they raised, and there are a few gaps between BW events and what's happening here. All that said, the story is still compelling, the characters are interesting, and I was definitely interested in what was happening from start to finish.

Is the writing worse than some of their other releases? Sure. But it's still better than 95% of the games I've played.

 

[Chibibar]

I wouldn't say it's badly written. They experimented with non-linear storytelling, and there are definitely shortcomings there. They didn't fully flesh out some of the points they raised, and there are a few gaps between BW events and what's happening here. All that said, the story is still compelling, the characters are interesting, and I was definitely interested in what was happening from start to finish.

Is the writing worse than some of their other releases? Sure. But it's still better than 95% of the games I've played.

I agree. The "side missions" (like Tosh and Hansen) could have work out more. I would have like to know more about Tychus. There was a definite cliff hanging about the trap suit but that was it???

 

[Raemon777]

Is the writing worse than some of their other releases? Sure. But it's still better than 95% of the games I've played.

Honestly, while the writing here is far from perfect, if you think other Blizzard games are better, you are probably looking at the past through rose tinted glasses. Even StarCraft 1 (which I consider the best instance of Blizzard storytelling to date), while decent, was not a flawless scripted masterpiece. I think this matches StarCraft 1 scripting, and dramatically improves the voice acting/animation. The disappointment is not that it's worse, but that our expectations are higher.

 

[Raemon777]

Just wanted to repost this exchange from the StarCraft 2 Campaign forum:

"Dude, Raynor just shot his friend so he could hook up with his ex. That's lame. Bros before hos dude."

"But.... millions of lives were at stake! She was going to save the universe!"

"Whatever."

"Dude, Bros before Hos, but Cosmos before Bros."

"..."

"..."

"lol"

Also wanted to ask... was I the only one that WASN'T upset at the "twist" with the Overmind? Maybe I'm assuming they will do this better justice than they will, but I thought the notion of the Overmind as something vastly intelligent but NOT having free will was a concept that was interesting in an alien (as opposed to lamely humanizing) way.

Most folks on the Blizzard forum seem to disagree with me though.

 

[@Li3n]

Bleh. I have been waiting for a month to read this thread, and I was hoping it'd be 40+ posts discussing awesome storyline plot threads instead of mostly bitching about the expansions thing. Seriously dudes, it's the same amount of content. I'm sorry the content was not divided the way you wanted it to be, but in no way are you remotely getting "less."

Well when we get some awesome storyline plot threads we will... (well the fact that Narud is something backwards is one at least).

And the biggest problem to me was that the E3 2007 campaign demo they showed had way more potential then what we where given (like Raynor actually showing distrust of Tychus instead of looking like he's ignoring the warning signs etc), which is BS considering that they said the reason the didn't put in the other campaigns was that they wanted to concentrate on the terran one, and it looks more like they just didn't want to spend the manpower on the other 2 instead of MP...

Actually it all boils down to the fact that there are too many moments where you can look at the story and think of a way they could have done it better... SC1 has way fewer of those.

Also wanted to ask... was I the only one that WASN'T upset at the "twist" with the Overmind? Maybe I'm assuming they will do this better justice than they will, but I thought the notion of the Overmind as something vastly intelligent but NOT having free will was a concept that was interesting in an alien (as opposed to lamely humanizing) way.

I think they presented it wrongly, by making the Overmind look too "nice"... it making Kerrigan as a way to try to screw over whoever gave him his "hunger" works without that.

I think this matches StarCraft 1 scripting, and dramatically improves the voice acting/animation. The disappointment is not that it's worse, but that our expectations are higher.

R U high?!

SC1 wins hands down on scripting just because the story flows better... and it's not just the non-liniar mission thing at work, even if you only take into account just the main story missions, it feels rather disjointed (Tychus is boby-trapped, lets not mention it again ever, even when we find out Valerian owns Moebius). And way to tell us from the middle how the campaign will end Blizzard... giving the artifact an unexpected side effect would have been a way better twist.

And of course voice acting, unless it's horrible, it's a matter of opionion, but SC1 wins for me because the Terrans had great accents... man, Arcturus simply doesn't sound crazy enough in #2, and doesn't have that hungry look anymore either. And 6's voice simply doesn't fit Keriggan...

Nice graphics though.

 

[Adam]

Kinda curious about all the claims that "SC2 is a WAYY bigger campaign than SC1". SC1 had 30 missions, SC2 has 29.

Anyways, wife and I enjoy playing cooperative against the AI. We've progressed up to medium opponents. Still haven't ventured into the online arenas yet, wayyy too many good players out there.

 

[ScytheRexx]

Kinda curious about all the claims that "SC2 is a WAYY bigger campaign than SC1". SC1 had 30 missions, SC2 has 29.

It is nearly equal in size of missions, but much more in depth when it comes to cinematic quality, unique play changes like upgrades and research, interactivity, etc... I don't see anyone claiming it is "WAAYYY" bigger then SC1, but it sure was not "smaller" like many others wish to claim.

 

[@Li3n]

Well it did have more things to research, but moving them from the buildings to in between the missions wasn't that big of a change overall...

And it did feel smaller because in the end it still was 1/3 of a story, while SC1 actually had a satisfying ending. And the lack of scripted events (at least story impacting ones anyway) in most maps made them feel a bit empty...

 

[ScytheRexx]

And it did feel smaller because in the end it still was 1/3 of a story, while SC1 actually had a satisfying ending. And the lack of scripted events (at least story impacting ones anyway) in most maps made them feel a bit empty...

It didn't feel smaller to me, but I admit it didn't feel complete either. I am fine with that. I never felt like Fellowship of the Ring was to small when it was only 1/3 of the story, and I won't feel it here either. I just hope in HOTS they improve a bit on the story flow a bit.

 

[@Li3n]

LotR was one book, the 3 volumes where all the publishers doing...

And Non-linear missions always seem to suffer from a disjointed story... i too hope they make HotS with a better story flow.

Also, too bits make a lot...

 

[ScytheRexx]

LotR was one book, the 3 volumes where all the publishers doing...

Yes, but making it three books didn't hurt it, it was still a good story as a "whole". I am saying I don't care about the fact I only got 1/3rd of the story because I know down the line I will have the other 2/3rds, and I will enjoy them.

I actually feel in the end I will get more StarCraft then I was expecting, as Blizzard has a habit (At least outside of WoW) of only ever making one expansion, and this gives them a reason to release two.

And Non-linear missions always seem to suffer from a disjointed story... i too hope they make HotS with a better story flow.

It seems to me that they won't be able to do the whole "walk about and talk to people" as much due to the nature of the faction. I even think one of the reasons they had Kerrigan get reverted at all was to just give her some people to talk with other then the screeches of Zerglings while you walk around a hive.

Really, I think HOTS would be the perfect campaign to reapply the "hero" mechanic for the single player. It would be a good fit for Kerrigan regaining her powers over the course of the campaign.

 

[@Li3n]

Yes, but making it three books didn't hurt it, it was still a good story as a "whole". I am saying I don't care about the fact I only got 1/3rd of the story because I know down the line I will have the other 2/3rds, and I will enjoy them.

but reading it all in one go feels better, don'it...

I actually feel in the end I will get more StarCraft then I was expecting, as Blizzard has a habit (At least outside of WoW) of only ever making one expansion, and this gives them a reason to release two.

Well one expansion was the norm for quite a while there. Besides HoMM3 i can't think of any games from the old days that had more then 1 expansion.

Now with DLC for everything, and Relic's DoW the situation is different.

And Non-linear missions always seem to suffer from a disjointed story... i too hope they make HotS with a better story flow.

It seems to me that they won't be able to do the whole "walk about and talk to people" as much due to the nature of the faction. I even think one of the reasons they had Kerrigan get reverted at all was to just give her some people to talk with other then the screeches of Zerglings while you walk around a hive.

Really, I think HOTS would be the perfect campaign to reapply the "hero" mechanic for the single player. It would be a good fit for Kerrigan regaining her powers over the course of the campaign.[/QUOTE]

Oh God, that's exactly what will happen, isn't it, except that this time Arthas isn't still evil, so we won't get to play the bad guys either. Dammit Blizzard, look into some other stock plots already...

 

[Raemon777]

but reading it all in one go feels better, don'it...

Well, sure. But waiting an extra 3 years isn't gonna feel that great either.

Oh God, that's exactly what will happen, isn't it, except that this time Arthas isn't still evil, so we won't get to play the bad guys either. Dammit Blizzard, look into some other stock plots already...

This was the complaint I was making... back when WarCraft III came out and it was WarCraft III cannibalizing StarCraft's plot. I also thought WarCraft III did a lousy job of executing its story (both Arthas part and the Burning Legion/Titans/Dark Voice/Xel'Naga part), so if they can do the same story better now.... well, there are worse things they could be doing. The more I read about what we've learned about the Fallen One from the StarCraft novels, the less thrilled I am, I admit. But I see the Kerrigan story as the continuation of the ORIGINAL story that WARCRAFT stole, not the other way around, and I have few qualms about it.

I would just like to note, things I did NOT like from StarCraft I:

•* Kerrigan's Portrait/Voice (never liked it at all, always felt like she was supposed to look and sound almost exactly like she does in StarCract II, even 10 years before the game was released).
• The fact that the Overmind creates Kerrigan specifically to develop a means to fight the psionic protoss on their own terms.... and then leaves her on Char when it actually goes to fight the Protoss.

• The fact that Zeratul talks SOOOOOOOO SLOWWWWWWLLLLYYYYYYY (this has been replaced in StarCraft II with him speaking faster, but repeated the same useless information over and over, which is a bit of a step down I admit)
• The fact the Zeratul claims he has served Raszagal for countless millenia, when he is less than a thousand years old (I realize this is nitpicking. Still, always bugged me).
• The fact that everyone's so proud of Tassadar for sacrificing himself... which didn't strike me as any more noble than the hundreds of other protoss who died so that I could make my way to the Overmind.
• The fact that, in Brood War, Kerrigan becomes such a psychotic bitch for basically no reason. Her desire to manipulate and counter-betray Mengsk made sense. The way she treated Jim and the Protoss did not. I understand her personality getting overwritten with Zerg priorities, to expand and assimilate. But she seemed to take a particular glee in tormenting Jim and Fenix that had no basis, either biologically or plotwise. Her storyline in the original was only slightly better (I liked the implications of "Okay Jim, look, I don't really have empathy or compassion any more, but I remember that you helped me in the past so if you just stay out of my way I won't bother you"). But her personality seemed to shift between Terran and Zerg campaigns in a way that was neither emotionally compelling nor justifiable simply via zerg biology. (By contrast, the Overmind and Cerebrates had GREAT personalities. One of the crowning features of StarCraft I was doing justice to such an alien mindset. Interesting that Metzen seems to have an easier time writing alien hive minds than... a woman).

So anyway... while I stand by StarCraft I being one of the best games of all time, the story was not perfect there either. StarCraft II fails in a lot of ways that StarCraft I did not, but I see that as largely because StarCraft II is trying to do far MORE than StarCraft I did.

 

[@Li3n]

but reading it all in one go feels better, don'it...

Well, sure. But waiting an extra 3 years isn't gonna feel that great either.

Huh?? Are you talking about the game coming out?!

C'mon, no way it was going to take that long to do SP, only reason it took this long is that they had to get MP right from the get go.

And you're still waiting 3 years to get an ending... and, for me at least, aving to wait for a resolution is worse then waiting for a story...

This was the complaint I was making... back when WarCraft III came out and it was WarCraft III cannibalizing StarCraft's plot. I also thought WarCraft III did a lousy job of executing its story (both Arthas part and the Burning Legion/Titans/Dark Voice/Xel'Naga part), so if they can do the same story better now.... well, there are worse things they could be doing. The more I read about what we've learned about the Fallen One from the StarCraft novels, the less thrilled I am, I admit. But I see the Kerrigan story as the continuation of the ORIGINAL story that WARCRAFT stole, not the other way around, and I have few qualms about it.

Wait, i didn't want to make it sound like WC3 didn't just redo SC1's story, it did.

But the part where it depowers the corrupted character wasn't in BW, even if the rest was similar.

•* Kerrigan's Portrait/Voice (never liked it at all, always felt like she was supposed to look and sound almost exactly like she does in StarCract II, even 10 years before the game was released).

I hear they have meds for that now...

Really, the portrait was different from the art and campaign selection model we got in BW, which was more detailed then just giving her what looked like a facial tattoo, but they where both great... now she's just a bit too boney (but her model is fine).

But the voice was perfect, it was cold and dangerous, made her sound inhuman, now not so much...

• The fact that the Overmind creates Kerrigan specifically to develop a means to fight the psionic protoss on their own terms.... and then leaves her on Char when it actually goes to fight the Protoss.

He left her to hunt down the Dark Templar, who where actually capable of killing off cerebrates, hardly a waste of resources.

• The fact that Zeratul talks SOOOOOOOO SLOWWWWWWLLLLYYYYYYY (this has been replaced in StarCraft II with him speaking faster, but repeated the same useless information over and over, which is a bit of a step down I admit)

Voice actor existence failure at work... but at least the voice is closer in tone then Kerrigan's.

• The fact the Zeratul claims he has served Raszagal for countless millenia, when he is less than a thousand years old (I realize this is nitpicking. Still, always bugged me).

At the time i think the timeline wasn't very well done, there are other references about the Xel'naga experimenting on the Protoss a longertime ago then current lore says etc.

• The fact that everyone's so proud of Tassadar for sacrificing himself... which didn't strike me as any more noble than the hundreds of other protoss who died so that I could make my way to the Overmind.

Eh, are you serious?! that's exactly how war works, the guy that does that one thing that is more visible or helps more always gets more credit then the countless smucks that just get shot.

• The fact that, in Brood War, Kerrigan becomes such a psychotic bitch for basically no reason. Her desire to manipulate and counter-betray Mengsk made sense. The way she treated Jim and the Protoss did not. I understand her personality getting overwritten with Zerg priorities, to expand and assimilate. But she seemed to take a particular glee in tormenting Jim and Fenix that had no basis, either biologically or plotwise. Her storyline in the original was only slightly better (I liked the implications of "Okay Jim, look, I don't really have empathy or compassion any more, but I remember that you helped me in the past so if you just stay out of my way I won't bother you"). But her personality seemed to shift between Terran and Zerg campaigns in a way that was neither emotionally compelling nor justifiable simply via zerg biology. (By contrast, the Overmind and Cerebrates had GREAT personalities. One of the crowning features of StarCraft I was doing justice to such an alien mindset. Interesting that Metzen seems to have an easier time writing alien hive minds than... a woman).

Ehhh... in the original, and BW too actually, it's implied she lets Raynor go because she had feeling for him still... classic forshadowing.

And i don't remember her personality changing that much between the BW terran and zerg campaign, it's was pretty obvious she was going to betray you even then, she was just putting on a facade. Maybe it's just because i was expecting it though...

 

[Raemon777]

Sorry, to clarify: Kerrigan's personality changed between the original Terran campaign (where I thought she was reasonably well written character) and the original Zerg campaign (where her actions still made sense, but in a rather one dimensional way). And then in Brood War, the change in character was amplified to the point where it just didn't make any sense. (Pretty much all of Brood War falls in this category). Why the hell did she have any personal interest in capturing Raszagal and tormenting Zeratul? The former never did anything to her, and all Zeratul did was kill Zasz (a Cerebrate she never liked anyway) and played some role in destroying the Overmind, which seemed to be a net+ for her.

If they wanted to depict her as actually ANGRY at the Overmind being killed (which I admit would have been justifiable in some ways) they needed to spend some actual effort doing so.

 

[@Li3n]

Sorry, to clarify: Kerrigan's personality changed between the original Terran campaign (where I thought she was reasonably well written character) and the original Zerg campaign (where her actions still made sense, but in a rather one dimensional way). And then in Brood War, the change in character was amplified to the point where it just didn't make any sense. (Pretty much all of Brood War falls in this category). Why the hell did she have any personal interest in capturing Raszagal and tormenting Zeratul? The former never did anything to her, and all Zeratul did was kill Zasz (a Cerebrate she never liked anyway) and played some role in destroying the Overmind, which seemed to be a net+ for her.

Because playing with your food it's what predators do... she was just enjoying herself while getting rid of the forces that could be a threat to her taking over. Plus, Zeratul&Tassadar tricked her... and she is the Queen Bitch of the Universe, she couldn't let that slide.

And her personality changing was the whole point of infesting her... making her ruthless was needed so she could lead the swarm better... remember that the Overmind's mind control was more about making her loyal then actually controlling her thoughts.

They tried to just make her pure evil, and that usually leads to a rather one dimensional character... but she was pretty fine for such a character.

 

[Raemon777]

she is the Queen Bitch of the Universe, she couldn't let that slide.

"Being the Queen Bitch of the Universe" isn't a justification. Arbitrarily making her that was the thing that annoyed me in the first place. My issue is that not only is pure evil boring, but they had plenty of opportunity to create a character that was evil in an incredibly interesting way, and instead made a flat stereotype. The fact that said stereotype was entertaining some ways (I disagree about how entertaining she was, even for an evil person) doesn't help much.

The Overmind was interesting specifically because it was not evil in all kinds of random, cliched ways. It was easy in a very specific way - it was biologically programmed to assimilate all life. All of its other actions followed logically from that. Different cerebrates had slightly more specific types of evil-ness due to their particular function. Kerrigan should have been given a particular function and gotten personality traits to match. "Bitch" is not a valid evolutionary niche.

 

[@Li3n]

Yes it is, she's biologically programmed to destroy anyone that stands in the way of the swarm... and that isn't something that makes you a nice person.

And the Overmind being the Great Devourer didn't strike me as all that original, i guess it depends on what you've been exposed to.

But whatever your issues with SC1's story, i still don't see how you think SC2's was better... frankly "Tychus is booby-trapped, let's never mention it again" is at least as bad as Kerrigan being one-dimensional.

 

[Raemon777]

I don't think the new one was better. But I think the old one had flaws, the biggest of which was that Kerrigan was never, ever interesting to me so people complaining that she's suddenly bland kinda baffle me. I also think the new one was trying to accomplish more than the old one was. It failed in many ways, but that doesn't upset me when I consider that the old one didn't even try to accomplish the things that the new one failed at. I don't think they failed that badly either, and I suspect that the next one will improve on those issues.

And the Overmind being the Great Devourer didn't strike me as all that original, i guess it depends on what you've been exposed to.

The line I particularly liked was "we shall become... perfect." The way he says it has a certain reverence to it. It gave me a real sense that this truly was his life's purpose (and by extension, mine) and that he cared deeply about it. I don't think he was mindblowingly original, but I prefer an honest attempt to craft an alien mindset to generic bitchiness any day. Unless the bitchiness is actually interesting, which I didn't think Kerrigan was post-infestation. For the most part anyway. (One line I do remember liking is Duran's "do you think they expect anything, my queen?" to which Kerrigan replies "of course! They're not STUPID!")