I finished it.

[sandwich_bird]

As the title say. Here's my opinion:

Overall, it was good. Especially the part on Zerus. The fight against the ancient one reminded me of Diablo 3. I'm also glad that they changed the dialogs in the leaked ending for the better. The level designs are just as good as in WoL.

Story wise, it's as poor as WoL. At this point though, I don't really care anymore. I just enjoy it for what it is; B-movie with cool stuff. At least, some stuff makes more sense now like the fact that the Tal-Darims actually worship Amon(that's the name right?) and the fact that Raynor didn't forget Fenix (I got nerd chills when he said his name). I was expecting Narud to explicitly reveal that he was Duran before his death though. But meh, we all know he was. Apart from that, Stukov was outplace and really ''cartoony'' but he was still my second favorite ally. First place goes to Abathur though. I wish they would have expanded a little bit more on his back story.

One thing that really pissed me off was that I kept getting disconnected for no reason so I only got half the achievements that I should have... I just hope that I won't have to deal with that when I replay the whole thing on brutal...

[AvixK7]

Just finished as well. While there are a few cheesy moments, I enjoyed the story quite a bit. A lot of little things I had hoped to see between Jim and Sarah happened. Would have liked to see a little more of Zeratul but it was good to see them chat for once without actually trying to kill each other.. much. Some nice surprises but nothing mind blowing. It hit the right emotional bits when it needed too. While WoL plot was a bit of a letdown, HOTS made me feel giddy at times.

Overall I like where the story is going. I like Sarah's progression. She remains one of my fav game characters. On that note, Tricia Helfer did great on voicing Kerrigan this time around, minus the occasional flat line.

I'm a happy gamer.

[Genopath]

I think I agree 100% with sandwich_bird. My main points:

Recycled Content from franchises: That fight was exactly like Belial only easier. Personally, I didn't like the Zerg feral/pure mini campaign. It looks way too much like WarCraft III. Art-wise, the ancient boss has the same face model as Deathwing and one of the other bosses used a model very similar to the Crypt Lord. Furthermore, the air I got from it was that the monsters were droll, gawky and approachable (you talk to all of them at some point). I think this is out of place as it doesn't fit the more pseudo-realistic SC universe. I wonder if this is symptomatic of a lack of creative resources.

Some learned lessons: Gameplay was an improvement. I am glad they didn't stick to the traditional "destroy the enemy base" campaign (which I believe many people have loathed). However, the gameplay was just as easy as WoL even on Brutal and the achievements are easier as they are on an easier difficulty (same as WoL). I do feel I didn't get to use Zerg air in general except for a couple of missions. Ironically the devs haven't addressed this problem on multiplayer (see their comments on skytoss).

Story - "the big picture": The story is still in a bad shape. Overall, the story per se on HOTS is not as bad as WoL. The problem is that it has to deal with a lot of bad dialogs, logic and reasoning of the first game in particular the story surrounding Mengsk. Also, they did go for the spoiled ending that got leaked two years ago. They only superceded the probe that was on Kerrigan's brain with the Xel'Naga artifact. What happened here? I remember when I was reading SC:L, TL and other forums how poor that ending was. Who knows why they decided to stick to this ending.

Story - Breadth and Depth: Some of Kerrigan's dialogs were very vague (see when Kerrigan explains "vision" to one of her Broodmothers). Two years ago when I was at the press conference I saw some references to the Broodmothers and I was wondering if they were going to delve deeper into this subject as it was a partial recon according to some SC:L staff.

I don't know why they didn't mention Durand/Narud connection directly. That would have been something nice for the people that played BroodWar. Was it too hard to actually make the model? they didn't get a hold of the VA? I don't know. This is a little detail that could have been better. Not even a single mention. Speaking of mentions there were no mentions of Artanis, the Dark Voice, Hanson or Selendis. Right now Hanson can be considered the same way as Schrödinger's cat

On another note, there are lots of interesting characters but the dialog doesn't highlight their significance. Stukov? Nice to see him, but really disappointing they barely touched on what he has done after UED. Similar things can be said about the perfunctory explanations of the origins of Iszha and Abathur, who seem to have been around just as long as the Overmind. Lastly, Zeratul's interaction with Kerrigan was very limited. The only thing the player learns is about some obscure references to the Xel'Naga and why he is going to be judged. This might suggest one mission set of the next expansion.

TL;DR: Story is still bad but there are gameplay improvements.

[Alar]

I personally enjoyed it. The story was better than what I was expecting, though perhaps not as good as I'd hoped for. As described by others, writing fell flat in some places and dialogue felt odd, but otherwise it wasn't excruciating. Things seemed to be more 'serious' this time around, which was good. I'm actually very happy with the direction they took Kerrigan in. She's willing to kill and murder and do what it takes to survive and succeed in her goals, but she actually has a 'Heart' and is no longer indiscriminately slaughtering everything in her path. Plus, the good note she and Jimmy parted on made me smile a little.

Some of the campaign wasn't... not necessarily bad, but it felt like a let down when I just got access to new powers and abilities and wanted to try them out, only to have Kerrigan unavailable in that mission or something, or being unable to tap into the new stuff until the mission after.

Narud/Duran probably isn't dead. Why? She leaves the body of 'herself' there in the damn chamber, for crying out loud! She doesn't hack it up in to little bits to make sure it's dead, she just stabs it and walks off. As far as I'm concerned, he/it was feigning death until she left.

The Ancient One was indeed a direct copy from Diablo 3, and the Psi Destroyer field was very much like Arthas' attack on Dalaran in Warcraft 3, only instead of slowly degrading your armies and making you rely on mercenaries, it kills them almost instantly and forces you to use unaffected allies.

Overall I enjoyed it, and may screw around with it a few more times. I had wished Kerrigan would've received upgrades from the Evolution Chamber, but giving her 6 armor by the end might've been a bit much (of course, it also would've made me concentrate on a power house build for her and just have her solo the crap out of everything with Fury/jumping lightning/Mend).

Time to fiddle with the multiplayer~! ^_^

[sandwich_bird]

It looks way too much like WarCraft III.

This. This whole campaign felt really really warcraft-ish. It isn't warcraft in space but it's getting closer to it. As far as the art style goes, I wish I could slap Samwise for every unnecessary spike he put on stuff.

see when Kerrigan explains "vision" to one of her Broodmothers

Haha when her broodmother said that she didn't understand I was like ''well no shit! Even I don't know what the hell she's talking about!''.

[RetlocLive]

I set my expectations extremely low after how bad WoL's storyline was so I'm not going to deny that at first glance, I enjoyed HotS. But only because the gameplay was still top notch. It's still a pretty flawed campaign though.

Brutal mode is still flawed as all get out. In addition, it's probably a lot easier then WoL's Brutal mode. The fact the AI STILL fails to use spells/abilities outside scripted events still pisses me off. Seriously, how can it be considered Brutal mode if enemy Banshees/Ghosts/Wraiths don't even utalize it's freaking cloak!?!?

I also didn't mind the raid-boss-like fights which seems to be a pretty big debate on the B.Net forums, but I will say that what I personally disliked about it was that it was too painfully obvious that they were influenced by D3 and WoWs fights. Not only was the boss fight against the Ancient One an almost exact carbon copy of D3's Belial fight, but one of the three Primal Lord fights looked exactly like a copied cut-out of a Warcraft crypt-lord...ya.

As for the storyline, the dialogue still comes off mostly elementary level and cheesy, and I found the Zerg characters other then Abathur to be extremely forgettable; even Stukov wasn't anything special. I did find Swann during his limited screentime a litte more likable this time around though, mainly because I didn't hear him mention ''cowboy'' once.

I also didn't like the ice planet arc, because it felt like it's own closed off story and disjointed from the rest of the campaign, but after thinking about it, it's basically a set-up arc. The Broodmother being left on the shuttle is basically an origin for Protoss vs Zerg in LotV.

And yes, there are plot-holes. One that was brought to light on B.Net was at the beginning when Raynor and Kerrigan were ''forced'' to split up at the bridge before the shuttle hanger. It's not like Raynor could of just waited for Kerrigan to clear the hanger herself then take a quick swing around with the escape shuttle to pick Raynor up instead of him going off and getting trapped somewhere, or even have Kerrigan use her levitation powers to carry Raynor across the broken bridge. All around, it's just a badly placed plot-device to get Kerrigan and Raynor separated.

[DemolitionSquid]

I'm in line with everyone else here.
Story bad, gameplay better.

[Drake Clawfang]

I'm up to the final missions on Korhal and pretty much agree. The story still isn't an epic, but it's better than WoL. It has more focus by ironically having less focus, rather than four or five subplots we jump around in we have Kerrigan rebuilding the Swarm to fight Mengsk and preparing for Amon, it's simple and it worked. I liked that each planet was like its own sub-plot too, it gave individual missions focus while aiding the overarcing story.

I LOVED Stukov's return, he was really mischaracterized I think but it was awesome to see him, and for him to stick around too. I also like that they brought his story back to Duran, and in doing so linked all the secret missions, it felt natural for Stukov to fight against Duran again, and adds a cool idea that perhaps Duran killed Stukov with intent all along to infest him. For what purpose, dunno, maybe to take control of the Swarm? Abathur did say Stukov was close to Kerrigan in how he was infested more intimately than usual...hm....

Some of the story was cheesy, but it worked. Like, the Narud mission where he and Kerrigan have their Beam O' War, it was ridiculous but it was cool seeing the giant energy blasts going across the map and a display showing him slowly overpowering her. The Amon-Duran-Hybrid plot has come together pretty well, though there are plotholes to be resolved (why were the Tal'Darim stopping Raynor from gathering the artifact pieces if Duran controls them and was the one having him collect them?), but I'm actually pretty hopeful LotV will solve those. We got real answers in this game, answers we've wanted for a long time.

I also liked the primal Zerg missions and the revelation of the Swarm's "corruption", I never did understand that, how the Khala and the Hive Mind are so similar for two races supposed to be diametrically opposed. Now it makes sense, the Swarm's power is in adaptation and evolution while the Protoss's power is in their psionic powers. It also creates a nice parallel to the Aeon of Strife when the Protoss lost the Khala and reverted to a tribal mindset.

My biggest gripe with the plot - the return of the Queen of Blades. I pretty much knew they were going to go there, and for how they did it it wasn't as terrible as I thought, the glowing aesthetic bits, the characterization of Kerrigan, and some minor stuff like the Adjutant unable to classify her power levels made it clear that she was not the same...though I do question why she looked the same as before. The problem I have is I think it came too early, it should have been saved for later in the game.

I disliked that some of the powers for Kerrigan and mission gimmicks were recycled from WoL, Kerrigan in particular just leveled up exactly like the Research objectives, but others were more unique and cool. I also loved that in pretty much every mission Kerrigan is on the front lines. The only thing I disagreed with was the way unit upgrades were used, it seems unfitting for the Zerg. I actually think it would make more sense to switch this system with WoL, Raynor changing his forces's equipment between missions because he can't afford to give them all possible options, while the Zerg evolve and integrate more and more useful changes into their strains.

Overall, something I found myself thinking is that in story and in gameplay, the game had a very Zerg-y feel to it. I liked the little cutscenes of Kerrigan commanding brood mothers and delegating to her aides, it felt very much like when the Overmind commanded the Cerebrates and Kerrigan commanded Duran and her temporary allies in early BW. It gave the sense of a larger world out there, the missions we see with Kerrigan are just one piece of a larger war between the Swarm and the Dominion. The Evolution missions and many missions with their optional objectives reinforce the Zerg methodology of gaining power from whereever they can, by adaptation, freak accident or assimilating other species. I would have liked more missions like the Kaldir one where you kill the Ursadons to become immune to the storms, rather than all optional objectives just being to power up Kerrigan (or for nothing but an achievement), but the Evolution missions worked for that on their own. By contrast with WoL, I never really got the sense of Raynor being a rebel leader with limited resources, here, I believed Kerrigan is the leader of the Swarm commanding a vast army that we only see one part of it. Even Dahaka, Stukov and Zagara joining her felt Zergy, as the Swarm assimilates useful DNA, so does Kerrigan gather useful and varied allies.

Overall I'm quite pleased, the story is a step-up both in the actual story and how it's presented, the gameplay is still awesome and most of the gameplay features felt fitting for the Zerg. The game is a nice improvement from WoL in pretty much all respects.

[PhanttoM]

As I mention in the "Leaked ending confirmed finally" thread - I'm finding HotS to have a slightly better story than WoL, due to higher stakes and better sense of direction (plotwise).
WoL still has better characters, both quantity and quality IMO.

Speaking of WoL, from a gameplay perspective I absolutely loved the new Hyperion mission (With friends like these) as well as broodmother Niadra's mission (Enemy within) - I really wish that those types of missions were part of Wings, since they had that 'limited' forces feel.

[Twilice]

So I was the only one who actually found the story enoyable? Not just much better than WoL but actually enyoyable compared to other games/stories.

For all I know, I'll be waiting for Legacy of the Void with excitement to know how everything will be finnished.