Whispers of Oblivion: Campaign Released

[Visions of Khas]

In case you'd like to spoil things for yourself. ;)

Om_VoDxtFFo





I haven't watched anything beyond the intro. Anyone have a LotV Beta key they'd like to share? :p

[Nissa]

How dare you post this at three in the morning.

*thinks about staying up later*

...must....resist.....

:D

[ragnarok]

I already watched it, Vision.

Here is the review from battlenet (not by me).

Read it, and tell me if you agree with the following:

So, again something seems to have leaked from Blizz to us. Here's the video of the new mini-campaign we should officially see soon™:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om_VoDxtFFo
I've watched it all. I will try to avoid as humanly possible to spoil things.
In one word? We are back to square one. Even less, I fear. Cheesy lines, fantasy themes in a motherfriggin sci-fi saga, Amon referred as nothing less than a god. As if that wasn't enough, we still must rush (or semi rush in the second mission's case) to destroy one thing or a sequence of things, with the usual plethora of two-three side objectives conveniently placed near where our troops will be. And HOLY SHEIT: ZERATUL IS STILL FRIGGIN TALKING ALONE AGAIN IN THE LAST MISSION, THAT ALSO, TO WORSEN THE SITUATION, IS EQUAL TO THE FIRST CR@PHECY MISSION OF WOL!!!
Visual models are good, and so are the tileset. The Tal'Darim even got "personal" models for some units/structures.
We get some light at the very beginning about Duran/Narud, but in the form of Zeratul explaining things (TO HIMSELF) before starting the very first mission as if it was just a side thing to say and not a thing that could have been REALLY IMPORTANT IN THE STORY. Anyway... reassuming:


~ Finally we have our answer about the Duran/Narud "mistery", but for how it's told to us, it just feels like something thrown there without care.
- Amon referred as a god. THIS IS (or better, was) MOTHERFRIGGIN SCI-FI! IF I WANT "FANTASY" I READ LotR OR OTHER STUFF!
- Still cheesy dialogues. Nothing new sadly. some of them pretty terrible too, like "hear hear".
- Hidden timer, that we hoped to see no more, in the first mission and a declared one in the second. The "best" (only) strategy seems to be rushing.
+ A little sweet note when Zeratul uses a proper Dark Templar sentence to the young Adept (didn't get her name)
+ New and interesting tilesets
~ Some potential in the new mechanics (for the second mission) where you'll have to harvest Vespene Gas manually, but it's squandered because of another motherfriggin timer related to the availability of it (see above).
~ The alternative models for the Tal'Darim. They are far too easy to identify as the "bad guys". At least they got personal visual models for some units/structures.
--- The last mission is THE MOTHERFRIGGIN SAME as the first mission of the Cr@phecy ark of Wol. THE-SAME! You infiltrate the temple, you do some side objectives along the way to get more troops, you discover something, you escape to salvation with the "bonus" (malus) of [SPOILER] the sacrifice of the newly introduced character [SPOILER].
--- Zeratul is still talking to himself like a retard.
- Zeratul is still the all-mighty hero with a lot of abilities
- [Spoiler]Again Forceghost Tassadar comes in somehow and saves the day[Spoiler]



No good Blizz. No good at all.

[Nissa]

I'm sooo glad they made the Tal'darim structures black and red colored. How else would we know they're evil?

Yeah, basically what that review said. This is exactly the same stuff SC2 has always been. I don't understand why Blizz can't write compelling Protoss drama anymore. Just because the Protoss use fancy language doesn't mean their problems are any more complicated than than the humans. Why can't they have a gritty adventure too? Well, the silver lining of Aldaris being dead is that he's not dragged into this mess.

Zeratul....holy crap the dude is drunk. That's the only explanation for everything that's happening.

[KaiserStratosTygo]

The only things I liked about this were:
-The music inbetween missions is great
-There was an instance of SC1 Protoss music
-I like that Adept chick

[Visions of Khas]

How dare you post this at three in the morning.

*thinks about staying up later*

...must....resist.....

Sorry, Nissa. Got out of work really late, but I still had to make my daily StarCraft google before bed. :p



And, as I expected, I cannot read any of the replies to this thread due to spoiler-mines. *sigh*

[Nissa]

Sorry, Nissa. Got out of work really late, but I still had to make my daily StarCraft google before bed. :p



And, as I expected, I cannot read any of the replies to this thread due to spoiler-mines. *sigh*

Hey, my post didn't have spoilers. Well, unless you count the drunk Zeratul comment, but he's been nuts for years now.

[Drake Clawfang]

- Amon referred as a god. THIS IS (or better, was) MOTHERFRIGGIN SCI-FI! IF I WANT "FANTASY" I READ LotR OR OTHER STUFF!

The xel'naga have been called gods since the first game. Amon is a xel'naga. Go figure.

[ragnarok]

I'm sooo glad they made the Tal'darim structures black and red colored. How else would we know they're evil?

Yeah, basically what that review said. This is exactly the same stuff SC2 has always been. I don't understand why Blizz can't write compelling Protoss drama anymore. Just because the Protoss use fancy language doesn't mean their problems are any more complicated than than the humans. Why can't they have a gritty adventure too? Well, the silver lining of Aldaris being dead is that he's not dragged into this mess.

Zeratul....holy crap the dude is drunk. That's the only explanation for everything that's happening.

Oh please, crimson is used for evil too often. We would have known their evil anyway. You can make their color pink for all I care.

Zeratul's actions in the last mission is meh. It's SLIGHTLY better compared to the tutorial he gave in the Whispers of Doom mission, but considering how much just about EVERYONE hated him so badly for those quotes....

It would have been better if Talis was the one telling him to use those abilities. Granted not much, but still....


Hey, my post didn't have spoilers. Well, unless you count the drunk Zeratul comment, but he's been nuts for years now.

Not completely nuts, Nissa. I guess I was just upset to see the people feel the prologue campaign was a total failure yet again. It had flaws, but it wasn't complete crap.

[Turalyon]

This is exactly the same stuff SC2 has always been. I don't understand why Blizz can't write compelling Protoss drama anymore.

Hm, if it's "exactly the same old Sc2 stuff has always been", then it's clear they can't write compelling drama (let alone being of the Protoss type) because their writers just aren't any good.


Well, the silver lining of Aldaris being dead is that he's not dragged into this mess.

*Sigh* It's kinda unfortunate that being "dead" in the Sc2 universe now is nowhere near as final as one would think anymore.

[Nissa]

Well, given that Aldy was killed in brutally in front of several other characters, his chances of survival are slim.

....I suddenly just had horrid thoughts of a ghost Aldaris just like the ghost Tassadar. Unnnnnngh....as if Protoss powers weren't already enough of a rip-off of the Force.

[Turalyon]

Well, given that Aldy was killed in brutally in front of several other characters, his chances of survival are slim.

Stukov/Tassadar/Overmind was apparently killed in front of several other people, too, but that didn't stop them from dropping by to say hello. Amon was dead as well at one point. As far as I'm concerned, Sc2 has kinda taken the weight/drama out of death and made it kind of meaningless such that I wouldn't bat an eyelid now (I'd sigh... maybe) if it were revealed that any past character that "died" came back miraculously later.

[ragnarok]

Stukov/Tassadar/Overmind was apparently killed in front of several other people, too, but that didn't stop them from dropping by to say hello. Amon was dead as well at one point. As far as I'm concerned, Sc2 has kinda taken the weight/drama out of death and made it kind of meaningless such that I wouldn't bat an eyelid now (I'd sigh... maybe) if it were revealed that any past character that "died" came back miraculously later.

To me, Zeratul's blind faith in seeing Tassadar should backfire on him. Why can't he even bother suspecting that perhaps what he's seeing in that last mission might actually be a ruse by Amon?

[Alar]

That playthrough wasn't the easiest to watch a time or two. Like, they didn't get all the objectives in the last mission! :p This bothers me.

[KaiserStratosTygo]

Mengsk and Duke will be back to save the day, as the TRUE heroes that they were.

[Nissa]

Mengsk and Duke will be back to save the day, as the TRUE heroes that they were.

I'd like to see that. Throw in Zasz for good measure. Because it was "prophesied."

[Drake Clawfang]

To me, Zeratul's blind faith in seeing Tassadar should backfire on him. Why can't he even bother suspecting that perhaps what he's seeing in that last mission might actually be a ruse by Amon?

So Amon used Tassadar as a decoy to convince Zeratul to have Raynor spare Kerrigan, when in truth her living will help his plans and the twist is Zeratul has been duped like a fool.

That would actually be brilliant. Thus it cannot be true.

[ragnarok]

So Amon used Tassadar as a decoy to convince Zeratul to have Raynor spare Kerrigan, when in truth her living will help his plans and the twist is Zeratul has been duped like a fool.

That would actually be brilliant. Thus it cannot be true.

I'm simply saying you cannot over-rely on anything just because you think it's holy.

I still remember all the way back in 2000 when the Beast Machines transformers cartoon was out, and Optimus relied so heavily on the Oracle. He completely forgot that however holy it is, it's still just a supercomputer, and therefore can be corrupted and reprogrammed to serve the role of the villain as well.

And for the part in the WoL, that's hard to say. But the last prologue mission, THAT'S what I'm referring to.

I mean Zeratul had to have been blind not to consider it. Ma'lash was just speaking to Amon from that Catalyst literally a minute ago, and then Tassadar appeared from that same spot. Don't forget, Tassadar did not kill the Overmind on Aiur with ONLY Void energies, he used a combination of Khala and Void. Since the temple is connected to the Void itself, I cannot see this being Tassadar because this would completely disregard the Khala.

Don't forget, this is the LotV PROLOGUE. Which means at this point in time, Amon has not yet corrupted the Khala, as mentioned at Blizzcon last year.

- - - Updated - - -


Mengsk and Duke will be back to save the day, as the TRUE heroes that they were.

NOT happening, Stratos. I would rather see pigs flying in LotV than what you're saying.....

[Turalyon]

So Amon used Tassadar as a decoy to convince Zeratul to have Raynor spare Kerrigan, when in truth her living will help his plans and the twist is Zeratul has been duped like a fool.

That would actually be brilliant. Thus it cannot be true.

It's brilliant that Zeratul's a confirmed fool rather than being heavily speculated to being one already as his representation in WoL suggests?

Either way, even if it turns out this way, that sequence of events still seems like gimmickry for the sake of gimmickry.

[DonnyZeDoof]

Am I the only one who thought of this when I saw the new Tal'darim designs that emphasise red, black and a lot of pointy spikes:

http://www.rabbleboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/samuraiJack1.jpg

It looks like Blizzard has been watching old school Cartoon Network to get inspiration for their art design.

[Drake Clawfang]

Having played the campaign now, my thoughts.

- The best part of this is the first mission where the Terrans use modified pylons to Warp In. I found it a great call back to Duran controlling pylons and a surprising and interesting game and story mechanic. I hope this is remembered during the campaign, we see more campaign-exclusive terran units where they can use protoss tech. Hell, maybe the Kimmeran Pirates/Confederates are part of the Shadow Corps. Otherwise, mission was okay. Would have been more fun if the zerg were allied and in some points we had to ally with them to push past fortified points, then we split off for our different goals. Come on, Kerrigan, you're supposed to be reformed.

- Second mission was fun with its limited vespene, it felt like I had to take precious care of my vespene units and researching upgrades made me pause to consider it.. However, I think the execution was a bit simplistic due to still being rather liberal with the gas. Hell, at the end I warped in about six sentries. They should have reduced the amount of gas you find or make the eruptions happen further apart, so I really felt the pinch of fighting without it.

- On a whole, I like that the Tal'darim have unique models, the cliche color scheme aside. Their stuff generally looks bulkier and cruder and it works, like their stuff is more heavily armored or they don't have as advanced production as the Daelaam to produce such streamlined designs. Likewise, was cool with the different zealot models in the first mission for the captive protoss.

- Third mission was dull, just a rehash of the original prophecy mission. However, I did like the end escape. I'm the guy who, in installation-type missions, am like "no man gets left behind," I like to save every unit even if just for bragging rights and will reload if one falls. So when my High Templar can't blink across the gap, dammit! And then the neverending onslaught of enemies means I was very tense about losing my stalkers. The Shadows of the Void thing was cool, even if I have a lot of questions about the lore behind it.

- Interface in some places was a bit sloppy. The weapons of the particle cannons lists as 'unknown' and the icon for Zeratul's Void Armor says "Prologue Void Armor" when highlighted. Yes, I'm the kind of guy who notices these things. :p

- Would have liked some campaign-exclusive gameplay to get me hyped for the full game.

- The Duran/Narud connection felt shoved in, like Blizzard was like "okay, okay, we'll confirm it." It easily could have been worked in easier, Zeratul commenting on Duran's usage of protoss technology and then linking it to Moebius doing the same now.

Considering it's just incentive to pre-order a game many folks are gonna buy anyway, and is free to play, it's worth the hour or two, and I'm gonna replay it on Hard to get all achievements. But it feels like a standalone thing than an actual prologue to LotV, in terms of gameplay and story there's not much to connect them.

[Drake Clawfang]

On further thought, I realize how wasted the Tal'Darim Executor and Karass were in Wings of Liberty. Malash and Talis are basically the same characters given new names and portraits. Why not have the two survive their mission chains so they can return, Karass can be Zeratul's confidante and ally while the Tal'Darim Executor gives a continuous protoss villain.

[ragnarok]

Having played the campaign now, my thoughts.

- The best part of this is the first mission where the Terrans use modified pylons to Warp In. I found it a great call back to Duran controlling pylons and a surprising and interesting game and story mechanic. I hope this is remembered during the campaign, we see more campaign-exclusive terran units where they can use protoss tech. Hell, maybe the Kimmeran Pirates/Confederates are part of the Shadow Corps. Otherwise, mission was okay. Would have been more fun if the zerg were allied and in some points we had to ally with them to push past fortified points, then we split off for our different goals. Come on, Kerrigan, you're supposed to be reformed.

- Second mission was fun with its limited vespene, it felt like I had to take precious care of my vespene units and researching upgrades made me pause to consider it.. However, I think the execution was a bit simplistic due to still being rather liberal with the gas. Hell, at the end I warped in about six sentries. They should have reduced the amount of gas you find or make the eruptions happen further apart, so I really felt the pinch of fighting without it.

- On a whole, I like that the Tal'darim have unique models, the cliche color scheme aside. Their stuff generally looks bulkier and cruder and it works, like their stuff is more heavily armored or they don't have as advanced production as the Daelaam to produce such streamlined designs. Likewise, was cool with the different zealot models in the first mission for the captive protoss.

- Third mission was dull, just a rehash of the original prophecy mission. However, I did like the end escape. I'm the guy who, in installation-type missions, am like "no man gets left behind," I like to save every unit even if just for bragging rights and will reload if one falls. So when my High Templar can't blink across the gap, dammit! And then the neverending onslaught of enemies means I was very tense about losing my stalkers. The Shadows of the Void thing was cool, even if I have a lot of questions about the lore behind it.

- Interface in some places was a bit sloppy. The weapons of the particle cannons lists as 'unknown' and the icon for Zeratul's Void Armor says "Prologue Void Armor" when highlighted. Yes, I'm the kind of guy who notices these things. :p

- Would have liked some campaign-exclusive gameplay to get me hyped for the full game.

- The Duran/Narud connection felt shoved in, like Blizzard was like "okay, okay, we'll confirm it." It easily could have been worked in easier, Zeratul commenting on Duran's usage of protoss technology and then linking it to Moebius doing the same now.

Considering it's just incentive to pre-order a game many folks are gonna buy anyway, and is free to play, it's worth the hour or two, and I'm gonna replay it on Hard to get all achievements. But it feels like a standalone thing than an actual prologue to LotV, in terms of gameplay and story there's not much to connect them.

I liked that part with the pylons. It's not the FIRST time terrans have manipulated Protoss tech. If you had played the Enslavers campaign with Alan Schezar (I think that's his name), you know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm expecting to see more advanced Shadow Corps tech in LotV. After all, Valerian helped Narud found Moebius thinking it was for the greater good, and Narud tricked him, which meant a TON of funding was given to Moebius, when in reality it was all to help Amon.

The 2nd mission was a little better. Unlike the 1st (which was a lot like Smash and Grab from WoL), you're not really limited to a timer or anything, you're just forced to expand unless you're willing to wait for like 2 hours for the vespene to build up via the vespene vent.

Given the crimson color of the Tal'darim, I find it meh. WoL still had them as the normal blue, and HotS had them a dark emerald. I see little reason to change their color to red, we already knew back from HotS they backed Amon anyway.

Mission 3 I agree was like Whispers of Doom. Zeratul's dialogue, while SLIGHTLY better, wasn't much improved. The hybrids unfortunately were still weak. But then, Zeratul was fighting hybrid destroyers, which only had 100/500 shields/HP, rather than the hybrid dominators Kerrigan went up against, which had 1000/1500 shields/HP. Still, they really weren't much of a threat in that mission.

For Narud/Duran, I think this is because Blizzard might have felt too many fans were thinking they'd pull a cynical trick on us at the very end and have Duran appear again and then go, "Ah, but we never said Narud was really Duran, now did we?" As such, they might have felt it's time to put that suspicion down.

Zeratul's comment on protoss tech wasn't needed. He knew Duran was very intellectual anyway.

[Robear]

Yeah... just watched this (on 1.25 to 1.5 speed, which makes Zeratul sound normal!) and, eh, same opinions as all of you.

I kind of wish they hadn't done away with player characters in SC2. As you've all said, it makes no sense at the end for Zeratul to be talking aloud to himself about "Artanis, young hierarch of the Protoss." Obviously not all the players of the game would remember who Artanis is and that he's younger than Zeratul, but Zeratul knows it. On the other hand, if Zeratul were talking to a youngish Dark Templar (you) who was also a passenger in his ship, and had never met Artanis, then it would make more sense.

Also, I guess it's time to completely abandon all hope that Ulrezaj will ever have anything to do with anything. It was weird when the Dark Templar saga books were sort of marketed as a sort of prequel to SC2 and introduced the Tal'Darim and all that for it to all be never mentioned again.

[Drake Clawfang]

Yeah, apparently Blizzard has said that they tried to work DT Saga stuff and characters in, but it felt forced, so they're leaving it out. Because of course the Spectres and Stukov didn't feel like forced inclusions at all. But, okay, let's leave all the foreshadowing, plots and characters they built up six years ago up, because their writers don't know how to use them now.

[ragnarok]

Yeah... just watched this (on 1.25 to 1.5 speed, which makes Zeratul sound normal!) and, eh, same opinions as all of you.

I kind of wish they hadn't done away with player characters in SC2. As you've all said, it makes no sense at the end for Zeratul to be talking aloud to himself about "Artanis, young hierarch of the Protoss." Obviously not all the players of the game would remember who Artanis is and that he's younger than Zeratul, but Zeratul knows it. On the other hand, if Zeratul were talking to a youngish Dark Templar (you) who was also a passenger in his ship, and had never met Artanis, then it would make more sense.

Also, I guess it's time to completely abandon all hope that Ulrezaj will ever have anything to do with anything. It was weird when the Dark Templar saga books were sort of marketed as a sort of prequel to SC2 and introduced the Tal'Darim and all that for it to all be never mentioned again.

Blizzard will say that was just Zeratul thinking to himself, but you can hear his thoughts and what not.

You were still expecting Ulrezaj? Blizzard said back at Blizzcon he won't be in LotV. Though at the same time, they DID say characters will show up that you didn't expect.

That being said, I'm still not expecting Jake Ramsey, Rosemary Dahl, or Zamara to return.

Raszagal could appear via flashbacks, but that's about all.

[TheEconomist]

Nevermind

[Nissa]

Aw, Econ had blessed us with his opinion. Now I am disappoint.

[Gradius]

The biggest thing I've noticed while playing this is the fact that Blizzard learned absolutely nothing from the criticism of their previous games. We got exactly what we would have gotten during the Wings of Liberty era. LoTV will just be more of the same and my expectations can't be any lower.

- The craphecy arc is still in full swing. Completely unnecessarily shoehorned into the game yet again when it didn't need to be. Could have been so easily removed and instead we would have simply had some interesting exploration missions instead of more facepalm-worthy rants about the end of days. I like the hybrids, but this end of the universe crap really needs to be excised from the game.
- Kerrigan is still an evil bitch despite getting her "humanity" back. She'd kill Zeratul and his forces despite knowing that they're the good guys who are trying to save the universe. And why not join forces to save the prisoners and destroy the facility? She acts like a petulant child that will rage because you're not doing things her way. Ridiculous.
- It's cool that they finally confirmed that Narud = Duran, though I wish they hadn't because it's still hard to believe that Duran went out like a total chump in HoTS in a DBZ fight. And I still can't get over the fact that Duran literally in-universe just spelled his name backwards. In Wings of Liberty I thought it was an Easter egg and we'd never see the guy again. Like, I actually thought it was a joke. :$
- Amon's shadow-clone crap was just retarded and I hate this dark god theme. SC2 is now a blatant warcraft rip-off that is for all intents and purposes more a random series of events than a logical sci-fi plot.
- I have to admit that my inner fanboy felt a rush when I saw Tassadar appear in the void conduit. I always loved and Tassadar and despite the fact that his return is blatant fan-service for people like me, I wish Tassadar would actually do something than be a ripoff of Obi Wan. Like, go hold off or distract Amon while Zeratul escapes. Don't just pop in there like an asshole, whisper barely coherent mumblings and phase out. But of course, he's too weak to actually intervene, and in fact this entire mission reinforced how weak the protoss are yet again, just like the Prophecy missions in WoL.
- Talis was actually a decent protoss character. Blatant copy/paste of Karass's arc where they both had to sacrifice themselves, so it sucks we won't see either of them again.
- We will see Malash again because he warped out. And he has a name. So I actually like that. I kind of saw it coming though due to how much work they put into his portrait vs. that of Talis.
- I'm starting to get used to Zeratul's voice actor. He sounds kind of poetic at times like Jack Ritschel did, but still just not hitting it for me because all I can think of is Cairne Bloodhoof. And stop talking to yourself, Jesus. Save tips for the ingame tooltips! How hard is that? And while I can understand orienting new players, but you don't need to repeat crap that should be obvious to anyone who's paid attention during the last two games.
- Gameplay isn't bad. The first mission was actually really challenging until I figured out the waves move slower if you don't move out, and I can use Colossi. The rest were probably Wings of Liberty or HoTS difficulty. Zeratul's abilities in the final mission were OP as hell. 500 damage? I literally just sat there and sniped stuff with Zeratul while escaping with blink. Still, interesting tilesets, and overall not a bad "prologue".

[TheEconomist]

Gameplay isn't bad. The first mission was actually really challenging until I figured out the waves move slower if you don't move out, and I can use Colossi.

It was challenging until I realized that you can lure the Zerg wherever you want them to go with a few units like they had psi emitters. I noticed a lot of other problems like that in the missions. The whole thing seems rushed and amateurish like a custom campaign. Almost like Blizzard made a decision a few weeks before announcement to make a prologue campaign at all.

[ragnarok]

It was challenging until I realized that you can lure the Zerg wherever you want them to go with a few units like they had psi emitters. I noticed a lot of other problems like that in the missions. The whole thing seems rushed and amateurish like a custom campaign. Almost like Blizzard made a decision a few weeks before announcement to make a prologue campaign at all.

That's how I saw a LOT of people did on Brutal. Basically all you need is like 6 stalkers, put them right in the path of the Zerg attack path. Once they begin the assault, they'll follow you, so just keep blinking them until you reach the Moebius defenses on the path you're supposed to take.

The stalkers will be sacrificed, and the Zerg will do the dirty work for you.

[Jconant]

I had a hard time on brutal on that first , so i did it on hard first to see how id need to pace myself; a good deal of areas dont use detection, so I went hightemplar/dt tech first- stealthed in after key targets and feedback'd thors and ravens as I sent the rest in. If you push onto the expansion quickly enough you have enough time/ resources to take down the last terran base without having to worry about the zerg. other than that.....spammed zlots a lot so my high tech units wouldnt melt; terran use a lot of the same compositions as in Hots, except this time warhounds actually use their missiles on you.

[TheEconomist]

I just gosu micro'd my stalkers cus I like to do things the hard way. Did the same on the second missions. Second time, I went mass tempests and it was ten million billion times easier. Glad I went the Stalker route first.

[Jconant]

Did anyone find the senties' shield mending spell or hightemplar's psi attack helpful? For the latter they were at least not mindlessly moving ahead bc they cant attack.

[Gradius]

Everyone played the 2nd mission with mass void rays, right?


Did anyone find the senties' shield mending spell or hightemplar's psi attack helpful? For the latter they were at least not mindlessly moving ahead bc they cant attack.
Mending spell - no, because it's auto cast and now I don't have enough energy for guardian shield
Psi attack - yeah actually, because the high templar would stay back with the army and attack instead of wading into the fire when you a-move

[Jconant]

Carrier with tempest/void ray support. Did anyone get a bug where air attack upgrade doesnt boost voidray dmg?>

[TheEconomist]

Everyone played the 2nd mission with mass void rays, right?

After my first Stalker only play through, I went with Tempests and trollolololed the AI over cliffs and such. Only the Carriers were able to do anything, but they die easily to Tempests. To say it was easy would be an understatement. Blizzard really has no idea what Brutal means.

[Eivind]

I found the prologue to be a lot of fun. I can't see you guys complaining about the crimson color. :p I mean, come on, it looks really cool! (Please don't turn that into a discussion. I refuse to participate, anyway.)

As a mapmaker, I find myself using that perspective when playing. I really, really liked the first tileset. The red/black/white combination is really nice. The second was good-looking too, though kinda generic. The last one felt too familiar.

The missions were really difficult on brutal, much more so than HOTS. I restarted a lot in the first mission, until figuring out that Colossi > HTs. Second mission was a bit easier, though the final escape in the third mission was just insane.

It's not perfect or anything, but if LOTV is anything like the first and second mission, color me optimistic.

Btw, anyone catch the imprisoned protoss in the first mission saying they didn't know who took them? If Narud is indeed dead, who could it be? I'd have guessed Valerian, considering his Moebius connection, though I remember him earning his trustworthiness in the Flashpoint novel. Maybe it's someone we haven't met yet.

[ragnarok]

I found the prologue to be a lot of fun. I can't see you guys complaining about the crimson color. :p I mean, come on, it looks really cool! (Please don't turn that into a discussion. I refuse to participate, anyway.)

As a mapmaker, I find myself using that perspective when playing. I really, really liked the first tileset. The red/black/white combination is really nice. The second was good-looking too, though kinda generic. The last one felt too familiar.

The missions were really difficult on brutal, much more so than HOTS. I restarted a lot in the first mission, until figuring out that Colossi > HTs. Second mission was a bit easier, though the final escape in the third mission was just insane.

It's not perfect or anything, but if LOTV is anything like the first and second mission, color me optimistic.

Btw, anyone catch the imprisoned protoss in the first mission saying they didn't know who took them? If Narud is indeed dead, who could it be? I'd have guessed Valerian, considering his Moebius connection, though I remember him earning his trustworthiness in the Flashpoint novel. Maybe it's someone we haven't met yet.

The crimson color wasn't needed because we already know the Tal'darim are evil.

The 1st mission on brutal is only difficult if you chose the NON-luring Zerg option.

As for not knowing who took them, it's just the Tal'darim. I don't think Valerian would do that. Granted Narud played him for a fool, but still

[Eivind]

The crimson color wasn't needed because we already know the Tal'darim are evil.

I've missed this place. :o

[Nissa]

I've missed this place. :o

Welcome back, friend.

...I have no idea who you are.

[Gradius]

Another thing

- What is the final piece of the prophecy? In mission 1 Zeratul says "Only one piece of the prophecy remains unfulfilled: that on the world where Amon was reborn, the last light will be revealed."

There was no such thing in the Wings of Liberty prophecy. Where did this come from? Did they just retcon the prophecy? I thought this was done and over with during Wings of Liberty, but no, they literally just asspulled this out of nowhere for the prologue. Blizzard actually thinks it's so good they had to do it again. WHY? :$

[Turalyon]

^ Zeratul must have forgotton to take his meds again (or took too much)?

The only unfulfilled piece of the prophecy (the one the Preservers intrepreted) is the "devouring all light and hope/It ends in utter darkness" bit, unless you want to take the Overminds vision as fate. I assume what is meant was that there's just more verses to the prophecy than what we got. So, by "unfulfilled", he really meant incomplete? Who knows? Guess we can add "incoherent" to the growing number of adjectives to describe the writing.

[Drake Clawfang]

I remember the writers were like "well, it's not really a prophecy in that someone looked into the future. It was more, someone set events in motion and had incredible foresight, and said these events would cause these events to happen."

Okay, I'll buy that, the Xel'naga are super-advanced. If you tried to explain to a medieval knight that a weatherman can examine the atmosphere and predict the weather weeks in advance, it'll sound like prophecy.

And then comes the LotV trailer and we see a stone carving of Kerrigan in a temple. At this point, fuck you.

[The_Blade]

I want this arc to be a lie on Zeratul. I really would feel better knowing the BW didn't leave him right in the head.

[Aldrius]

I'm starting to get used to Zeratul's voice actor. He sounds kind of poetic at times like Jack Ritschel did, but still just not hitting it for me because all I can think of is Cairne Bloodhoof.

Honestly, if Zeratul was actually played by William Bassett he probably would sound a lot better. William Bassett genuinely sounds old, his voice wouldn't sound so put-on. Bassett's voice isn't really deep or ominous enough, though.

I like Fred Tatasciore in a lot of stuff, he's just so, so miscast as Zeratul. His voice doesn't sound naturally aged enough. W. Morgan Sheppard would have been PERFECT, and especially in 2011 would have probably been willing and able to do it. Or even their usual Jack Ritschel replacement Earl Boen would have been good.

I can list a bunch of other actors I think who would've been perfect really.

David Warner
Miguel Ferrer
John Rhys Davies

Among others. Even Jim Cummings (who I thought it was when we first saw the cinematic preview for WoL) would have been great.

[Jconant]

ive seen tricia helfer in other shows in which she is decent, yet in SC2 her voice acting for kerrigan is "whiny". Everything wrong with SC2 story can be boiled down to the directing and writing; its poor. I doubt Fred Tatasciore cant do zeratul well, its merely he is being dealt a bad script and not getting direction on how Zeratul is supposed to be like.