Disappointing story.

There was only one thing that really took me when I played the original starcraft, that was the story. Without the great story and the universe of which was so carefully crafted, starcraft would have been merely a fun rts game with not much more to offer, and probably quickly forgotten. The original starcraft campaign and that of its expansion broodwar had a beautifully interwoven storyline, precise, concise and yet powerful and satisfying. At the end of Brood war I remember tears welling up in me.

Starcraft 2 by comparison is a joke. The most corny and stupid dialogue I have ever heard in a triple A title, characters I didn't give a rat's *** about and an extremely unfulfilling story conclusion. At the end of SC2 I was indifferent. So much of the dialogue and story was cliched. All this garbage about fate, prophecies, and this nonsense about capturing and/or turning kerrigan back human. The structure of the game, choosing which mission to do for example, also damaged the story, making it convoluted and jumbled. SC2 had ridiculously high production values, but to me it felt like a B hollywood movie with lots of explosions. I would take away all those fancy bells and whistles for a game that actually gave emotional value and characters I cared about.

 

Every word is true I myself registered here not long ago just to express the same feeling. What a downfall. The bigger the expectation the bigger the disappointment.

The missions were not that bad, but the story ruined everything.

 

**Spoiler**

I wasn't too fond of the story either. All the events felt, abrupt. The whole serious feeling from SC1 kind of diminished in SC2. Kerrigan has been hiding for YEARS, building up and preparing for an attack. Then Raynor and Valerian come all of a sudden and defeats her in practically 3 missions. It just felt too quick, not giving enough time for the story to build itself up... In addition, the bit of Kerrigan being the one to save everyone was a bit predictable and, unwanted for my part.

Here is my comparison, SC1 felt like a good "film," SC2 felt like an average "movie."

Hopefully Wings of Liberty was meant to be cliche and less serious, so that the next 2 expansions will blow our mind with unexpected, yet closely related turns of events.

They game itself is still great. So nobody here better say "well if you don't like, don't play it."
Shut up, I like the game itself, not the story.

 

Yeah, I am seriously hoping all of the characters focused on in Wings of Liberty die, so we don't have to hear them talk.

"A mans gotta do what a man's gotta do, Tychus!"
"I'm a man and I have manly things to do also!"
"I hear ya, pardner."
"Hell yeah, Jimmy."

A rough summary of every ****ing conversation between Tychus and Jim.

 

Guys, did you liked chapter I of starcraft? would you have liked chapter 2 witout chapter 1? Chapter 3 without the previous 2, and so on? Most of you would answer with a big, fat NO.
WoL is the fist chapter in SC2. You have kind of a backstory from the previous SC1 6 Chapters but the 4 year gap makes you wonder what happened. Like in SC1, in SC2 the whole story will unfold it's beauty just after all the chapters are out. I'm sure that HotS will be put in the same period (maybe beginning a bit sooner) as WoL and showing the events from Kerrigans point of view. I also hope that the events from the end of WoL will be at the middle or max at 3/4 of the story of HotS.
But we don't know what and when everything will be so just wait for chapter 2. Commenting on chapter 1 makes no sense IMO. It's like commenting on the first part of the movie Vantage Point. It makes no sense. You have to watch the whole movie, from everyones point of view, to enjoy it.

 

Actually, if we were to use analogies, I'd say SC and SC:BW would be the original Star Wars trilogy while SC2:WoL is feeling decidedly like Phantom Menace.

And yes, I did like chapter 1 of StarCraft (assuming you meant all the Terran missions). As an ending, Kerrigan "dieing", Raynor going rogue and Mengsk forming the Dominion is a lot more satisfying than re-humanizing Kerrigan on SC2:WoL. There are a lot more missions on SC2:WoL but a lot of those are just side quests. For me, the story on the original SC was better thought out.

 

How was it predictable?

The entire first half of the game seemed to lead up to her death, including all the dialogue between Tychus and Raynor.

Everyone says it is so predictable and cliche, yet no one seems to be able to give one specific example of evidence to show it.

I think you all just enjoy complaining.

 

Everyone knew Kerrigan would survive. Hence "Heart of the Swarm" expansion. So yes the outcome was predictable. Furthermore, many of us have been waiting what....10-12 YEARS for this game to come out & this is the best Blizzard could come up with?????? As a poster above pointed out, Kerrigan has been building up her forces for years, and somehow a few terrans manage to just drop down on the headquarters of Char in a afternoon & wipe out the entire planet? Umm no.

Lastly, I managed to beat the entire campaign on brutal in a weekend. For a game that has been anticipated for more than a decade, by the most wealthy gaming company in the world, yes I think I expected a little more.

 

Oh please, I think you just enjoy hating other peoples opinions that don't match your own.
See threw it right back at you.

I saw it coming, and it did. Stop thinking your chain of thoughts should represent us all. INFACT, someone predicted the ending before WoL came out in a previous post during the beta.

If you liked it, that's fine. I didn't like it, and that's fine as well.

 

While I didn't necessarily see Kerrigan's death coming, I kind of anticipated Starcraft 2 wasn't going to be so... top-notch in terms of storyline. Logically, we probably can't expect much more from the coming two installment. Why? Here's my logic:

With World of Warcraft we lost many, many of the old writers of the Blizzard world. Because of creativity differences or whatever their citations were, most are gone and have attempted to start their ownc companies. An example: the entire crew behind the branch of what was once Blizzard North have nearly all gone their seperate ways. [This is likely old news to many of you] The result, the new writers will likely not match the "flavor" of the old. And the lost writers? Well, right-o! Let's hire some new guys, this is the United States of America, with writers and psychologists a-plenty! Especially psychologists. It's not even a real science, guys.

Anyway! World of Warcraft sales were absolutely amazing! I'm sure this is also old new to you as well. Both the young and old alike came and paid their way to all sorts of fun adventures in the magical land of Azeroth, filled with purple elves and space-goats. Ah! But what did Blizzard notice as they were fulfilling their role of doing what all businesses should do? They looked at the average consumer on the market! And the average consumer was a 15 year old with a vocabulary of roughly 70 words. Why go through the trouble of making another product which satisfies a smaller crowd than the norm, which loves the stupid and pop-culture?

End result, they just picked everything out of traditional Hollywood cinema, cuz that's what the average WoW players wants. It's also easy. Music? Just go for the orchestra, it makes it sound epic. Throw some gibberish Latin in there too as a chorus, because no one knows Latin anywayz, and it makes it sound epic. Characters? Outer-space cowboys with gausses rifles who speak just like in those old, epic, Spaghetti Westerns. Add some Kerrigan angst in there too, because during the month or so Jim Raynor got to know her, it was hard-core love at first sight, epic drama. [Guys, where in God's name did he get that photo of her? I mean, come on, that is just scary] Also make her pretty Celt and appear naked a couple times. Teenage boys love naked women. Dialog? It doesn't matter, just keep it simple and make it fit the character, with epic lines. Aliens? Let's completely change the syntax and voice of the Protoss so they sound and speak like the King Jame's Bible/ Vortigaunts from Half-Life. Story problem solved, we made lots of money, turn it over to development, I'm going on my vacation now.

TLDR: The old writers are gone, the old Starcraft fan base is smaller than their current WoW one, cliche Hollywood Starcraft is easier than an avant-garde Sci-fi, they're going to take the same road for the next two sequels, the psycholgy majors made my freshman biology class an Egotist Hell.

 

Personally, I thought the ending was righteous and epic.

 

I don't know if Gaberl is right - I didn't get to play the game yet - but he surely sounds like he knows what he is talking about.

 

@Nuclear Launch
Even though I agree with Gaberl, don't take our word for it. You may like it, who knows.
When you buy the game try it out, then you can decide if you like it or not

 

Sorry if I came off as too negative. But thanks for not bashing me, haha.

The game really was fun, probably one of the most fun games I've played in the last 5 years [but I'm kinda picky ] The story really isn't -BAD- it just lacks that depth and originality Blizzard games had pre-WoW. It's still a fun ride, but I think we can say the original feel of Starcraft can RIP

 

Wow Gaberl - you almost made me shed a tear there ... I didn't realize most of the old Blizzard writers left the company. I hope to God what you said doesn't come true.

I'm okay with Wings of Liberty being a predictable and even Hollywood-esque... Like you said, it is the best way to grab newer and younger players into the game - and Blizzard does that quite a bit. After all, Tassadar ramming his ship into the Overmind in the nick of time did feel like Independants Day in Starcraft I - And the Humans, Orcs, and Night Elves banding together to beat Archimonde's forces in Warcraft III also felt sort of cliche... I really do hope Blizzard is setting us up for the expansions and not following through with a lame and cliche Hollywood ending - or a replica of the Warcraft III ending where all three races band together and win over the Fallen One/Hybrids.

*cringes at the concept of Starcraft II becoming a 3-game trilogy of Warcraft III in space*

My gripe with the story was the choice system, which made the story terribly fragmented and the bulk of the missions useless to the plot. If a player chose to race through the game, he could play it through to the end by completing only 19 of the 29 missions. Sure, having options is nice to have sometimes, but when you play 3-4 missions and interact with a character that disappears for the rest of the game soon after as if they never existed - that's just lame. The fact that you could pretty much take the 7 story arcs in the Liberty Campaign and mash them in any chronological order you chose because they had little relation to each other made the overall story weak - not the mention that a lot of the arcs seemed to end too quickly, leaving a bunch of loose ends for the players.

I still enjoy playing the game - but meh - I did feel the final set of missions came too quickly, that the rebellion set of missions didn't really resolve much at all, and that the new characters entering the game too little time to develop and significance to the plot.

 

Gabrel is more then right.

A good game is a combination of many elements - which makes story and plot a very important part. Starcraft was so good, not only because it presented a good gaming experience - but also because kerrigan broke free from the overmind, played a good girl turning everybody against the only force that could have stoped her, the UED, and then kicked them all togather. In the last mission Omega I remmeber the amazment I felt from the story which could match any sci-fic book and film.

And now, in a matter of 3 missions, a group of hunted rebels with a super artifact took her down on her own planet AND bombed her with a pink rainbow which made her all bubbles again! Yay! But wait this is a serious story.. I mean we have that life and death for humanity speach Raynor made! Oh how epic I'm going to cry.

And no the story cannot be saved from this point. It's too late.

 

if HotSis not a full continuation but takes partialy place during WoL showing the events from Kerrigans point of view, it (the story) MAY be saved.

 

I don't think Blizzard games generally have good stories, anyway. They are real masters at gameplay though.

 

Yeah SC2 highlights why rail RTS's are generally better than choosing your own adventure as it is easier for each mission to have a significant impact on the plot and the storytellers don't have to dumb everything down so that everyone gets the same experience. Gameplay wise though lots of different paths in rts's is awesome. I hope in the expansions blizz finds a way to balance these better.

Blizz writers need to learn how to macro (Create an overarching plot) and not just micro (Write funny dialogue/ interesting side quests).

 

I can see it now

Fallen One: I knew you would come... and I see you brought the mighty Kerrigan. *laughs* Her blood is mine.

*Raynor pulls out his pistol, and fires a few rounds at the Fallen One, who deflects them, and laughs.*

Fallen One: A worthy effort... but futile.

*The Fallen One uses a more story appropriate attack, perhaps a psionic ability, and throws Raynor against the wall.*

Fallen One: The boy thought you could be saved, but he did not know what burns within your soul.

*Kerrigan attacks, tearing a large hole in the Fallen One's torso, who then explodes in a blinding flash of energy, while Kerrigan struggles to remain standing*

*When Raynor comes to, he finds the Fallen One destroyed, and Kerrigan, dying, laying on the floor.*

Kerrigan: Jim, the haze has lifted. The infestation has run it's course.... I... have... freed myself.

Jim: No, old friend, you have freed us all.


Oh god I have predicted the ending to the trilogy!