Clunky dialogue to continue in HotS?

[Eligor]

A whining thread! Something for me.

As of your problem, I had the same feeling with Kerrigan lines.

For instance this:
I'll kill all of you before I let that happen.
And this:
I will rebuild the swarm. I will make it stronger, better. And then I will crush Mengsk under my heal.

It seems to me from that lines like Kerrigan's intelligence went down a little from Brood War, but maybe it is only a bad impression from the few lines we saw in this preview.



This could be the reason.

Don't see any contradiction here, since what Kerrigan's basically saying is that she'd rather destroy the Swarm than see it fall under anyone else's control, she does want to rebuild it and make it stronger, but after she gets in charge of all the broods. Now, the delivery of these lines is oh so flat.

The little snippets of Abathur and Iszsha dialogue seem actually to be quite cool, writing and acting wise and are very much in style of SC 1 Cerebrates. They sound somewhat remote and stilted but that only serves to emphazise their alien-ness.

Kerrigan's VA is really, really flat and emotionless though (worse than WoL even). And she's the character we're supposed to emphathize with here! Glynnis Talken is sorely missed.

Don't really like the Protoss line either, even though "The Golden Aramada" is a pretty bad ass name for a space fleet.

All in all I don't expect the writing to be much better than WoL (especially if the leaked ending is anything to go by).

[mr. peasant]

Oddly enough, the dialogue I find most troubling is the one from Turalyon's original post:

Protoss Templar: The Queen of Blades! But you are so weakened! What has happened to you? Protoss! We must inform Shakuras. They will send the Golden Armada – they will destroy you!

The Protoss Templar called the other Protoss 'Protoss'. That would be like us calling our friends 'humans' when talking to them.

[Eligor]

Oddly enough, the dialogue I find most troubling is the one from Turalyon's original post:



The Protoss Templar called the other Protoss 'Protoss'. That would be like us calling our friends 'humans' when talking to them.

Protoss in SC 2 do seem to have gained a predilection for shocked melodramatic exclamations. Same goes for Zeratul's numerous exclamations of "By the Gods!" and "Gods!" in WoL, and overtly theatrical cryptic warnings.

So I guess it's just a feature of the current lead writer's style that we'll have to live with.

[sandwich_bird]

What are you referring to? I don't remember anything like that.

It was during the beta if I remember correctly. Even Gradius was thinking the same thing. I'd have to go and find the old thread...

[Kimera757]

It could be worse.

"...And we shall feed them diets of steel!" (King Varian in the Warcraft comic.)

It could be much worse

[Hav0x]

Kerrigan's VA is really, really flat and emotionless though (worse than WoL even). And she's the character we're supposed to emphathize with here! Glynnis Talken is sorely missed.

The voice in the previews is NOT Tricia Helfer. It's a placeholder VA until they get everything nailed down and can bring in Tricia and the rest of the cast. I'm sure having Tricia come in and do VO is not cheap.

[GnaReffotsirk]

If I closed my eyes and imagine the CG acting, it's okay. I guess it's the gap between these two that gets in the way.

Tricia or not the scenes could look better if at least the CG character clinched her fist, turns her back, or whipped up a nasty gesture of disgust.

[Turalyon]

It could be worse.

"...And we shall feed them diets of steel!" (King Varian in the Warcraft comic.)

It could be much worse

The fact that it could actually be worse does not really calm my sense of unease...

[Blazur]

Too soon to be criticizing dialogue and voice acting. However, I do hope they improve the quality of voice for Kerrigan based on what we've heard from WoL. So far I'm not impressed with the voice acting of Tricia...she sounds too forced. This could party be because I'm biased and still wish they kept Glynnis.

[ZealotPowerade]

Really? Terrible? The writing may not have been amazing but I wouldn't call storymode terrible.

It was terrible with a capital T. They managed to take characters that had depth and run them over with a steamroller until they were flat as a pancake. The worst part is that the core concepts really weren't that bad. It was the delivery. The first time Kerrigan showed up in WoL I was ready for a verbal battle between her and Jim that would really show off each character to any newcomers of the sc universe. Instead my sc newbie friend kinda chuckled and said wtf was that? Everything felt so forced. Rinse and repeat that sort of dialogue and you have the rest of WoL in a nutshell. Story presentation gets a 0.001 out of 10. Gameplay was awesome... but the actual story had me feeling like they just destroyed my childhood.

Back on topic:

Looking forward... I think I will have to accept that blizzard has become a victim of it's own success. We will never see the kind of story we saw in brood war simply because they want to sell more copies of the game. Admiral DuGalle committing suicide to classical music playing on an antique hi fi while he narrates his final letter to his wife... that's just brilliant. Things like that wont be allowed in HotS or LotV because anything too controversial will drop sales. It's a pity that they've traded artistic integrity for more $$ but I suppose it's something we all have to get used to. I blame Activision.

/end rant.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'll have to try to enjoy HotS for what it is... A cheesy B movie that I wouldn't go to the theater to see but might rent if extremely bored.