Favorite HoTS Arcs

[Turalyon]

Char for me. It's the most straight-forward, honest and down-to-earth representation of Zerg there is. It's probably the most centred arc that focuses on the limited story that is Kerrigan's myopic quest for revenge. If you do Zerus first, it also represents a strong middle segment of the story (often the hardest thing to do without going on random or new side diversions) that bridges the start and finish and flows together unlike WoL, where the start and end where the strongest (in terms of narrative) but had a very up-in-the air, floating middle that deflates the momentum from the start and causes a suddenly lurch when going into the final act.

Compared to the others arcs: there's no fancy love story/excessive hand-wringing sentiment, no mystical mumbo-jumbo, no ancient primal things, no gimmicky all powerful plot devices like magic pools and non-Primal specific zerg killing psionic shields to artificially move the story forward, no pointless side-tracks, no fan-service in terms of sudden reappearance of past characters and inane over-the-top duels.

[FanaticTemplar]

Most facepalm moment was the Kerrigan sad eyes in a cinematic. God fucking damnit. God. Fucking. Damnit.

More than Kerrigan's angelic ascension into the heavens at the very end?

I laughed out loud at that one. And I'm fully capable of accepting Raynor's weather-controlling speech powers from Wings.

[TheEconomist]

I had forgotten about that. Why did you have to remind me?!

[ragnarok]

More than Kerrigan's angelic ascension into the heavens at the very end?

I laughed out loud at that one. And I'm fully capable of accepting Raynor's weather-controlling speech powers from Wings.

That was only the Leviathan sucking all the Zerg up into its belly, nothing more.

[RetlocLive]

Still looked like shyt.

[Hawki]

Last post, I swear.

So...Heart of the Swarm...it's hard to articulate a lot about it. WoL, I loved from beginning to end, and while it has shortcomings, so did the previous games and on similar levels at that. HotS...well, I read The Rise and Fall of Final Fantasy awhile back, so taking a leaf, here's my best take:

HotS on a Good Day: A story about a woman who transcends the boundaries placed on her, achieves self-sufficiency, confronts her demons, and develops as a person.

HotS on a Bad Day: A story about a woman who shows the universe she can't act clear headed without a big strong man by her side, and gets away with mass murder.

In reality, I'd say that HotS in concept falls into "good day" territory, but every so often there was a "bad day" moment that dragged the game down for me. So, with that said (from worst to best):

Kaldir
Space
Umoja
Char
Zerus
Skygeirr
Korhal

By way of explanation:

Kaldir: ...sorry, I got nothin.' Let me list the issues I have with this:

Killing Protoss: Yes Kerrigan, massacre a whole bunch of protoss. Y'know, I can kinda see this working if one goes Kaldir-Zerus-Char (where her moment of mercy with Warfield works better in a story sense), but it just feels...mean spirited. The protoss have plenty of reason to want Kerrigan dead already, them learning about Kaldir probably won't change much. Yes, it's kind of explained given Kerrigan's weakened state, but it just feels...iffy.

Zerg Blood on Protoss Hands: Shut up. Seriously, shut up.

Lassara: Remember the original arc planned for her? Yeah...forget it now.

Starships: Send your shuttles to the warp gate thing...yes, Gorgons do that as well, but the Gorgons have the benefit of being invincible. The shuttle idea is great in theory, but it just feels too...stupid. Y'know, I never had a problem with the protoss in WoL - the Tal'darim were fanatics, Selendis's actions are reasonable in themselves, and their absence was otherwise appreciate in what is a Raynor/terran story (no protoss glassing planets to save the day this time). But these actions...ugh.

-Though that said, Niadra's gameplay mechanics were pretty fun.

Space: Great ending cutscene, levels of stupid (attacking Mira, ineffectual self-destructs) prior to that. Even if attacking Mira is highly enjoyable from a gameplay standpoint.

Umoja: ...eh? I have to ask why if Kerrigan can control the zerg she's let out (shouldn't it be the other way round?), and...I dunno. It was just meh to me, and the last cutscene didn't help. But I got the kiss I was waiting 15 years for, and the second mission was pretty fun, so that's something.

Char: Char is...bleh, for me. Gameplay-wise it's great bar the first mission, but storywise...well, there were the Gorgons (great gameplay mechanics, iffy storytelling), Zagara (quite fun) but I guess what put me off is that it felt too samey. I've been to Char. SC1, zerg kill terrans on Char (Dominion). BW, zerg kill terrans on Char (UED, though granted, the UED killed a lot first). WoL, zerg and terrans kill each other on Char. HotS...Char...again...Warfield...again...gah! I'm sorry, but I'm just over Char, and the Char arc didn't do anything new. Char in WoL had the benefit of it being a watershed for the terrans as a whole, but while I'm okay with that gain being undone (it's the SC universe, shit happens), it just felt...well, too much like deja vu. That said, the ending cinematic? Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Kerrigan goes to contempt, to rage, to mercy, to sorrow, in the span of minutes, all without saying a word. Like I said, brilliant.

Zerus: Oh boy...okay, there's a lot to like about Zerus for me. I love the concept of the primal zerg, I loved Zurvan, and Dehaka was fun enough to listen to. On the other hand, there's the little issue of Zerus being a few months travel AT MOST from the Koprulu sector, that it's no longer a lifeless rock, that apart from Dehaka and Zurvan every other primal was plain boring...Zerus would be higher for me if it wasn't for the travel issues. I guess what gets to me is that it could have been solved so easily (warp gates, Void travel, make Zerus a different planet closer to the K-sector), but wasn't. Which exemplifies HotS really, given all the story elements that were cut from development (the original Abathur, Lassara, and Iszha concepts, metamorphs, the original Zerus concept itself, etc.)

-Skygeirr: There's not a lot bad to say about Skygeirr. The gameplay is pretty fun, Stukov is a blast to have back, the hybrids remain as menacing as ever and...I dunno. Aside from the first mission, there's something...mystic, about it. It's hard to describe, but being among xel'naga architecture, the Tal'darim's darker colour scheme, Narud (more on him later), there's something...'dark,' about it. And of course, the cinematic only adds to that feeling. The reason this isn't higher on the list is that there's the matter of Narud himself. If he is indeed Duran (which I doubt myself - I don't doubt that was the original idea, but the removal of the original Duran lines and the lack of any Duran mention gives me pause, and fits with the development cycle of HotS as per the points I raised above), then it's a letdown. But as a villain in himself, he's quite servicable. Not deep, but creepy, powerful, and...well, creepy. Oh, and did I mention how awesome that fight scene was?

Korhal: This. Was. Awesome. If Kaldir I had to list everything wrong with it, Korhal is where I get to list everything right with it. So, on that note:

-The buildup. Excellent. If Char is the watershed of WoL, Korhal is the watershed of HotS. One feels how important this is, in terms of characterization, and for the history of the sector.

-The opening. Sacs, gunfire...I've said before how SC1 had this disconnect in the zerg invasion of Aiur (as in, it feels like you're the only cerebrate on the whole planet), but no such disconnect feels here. Like SC1, lore-wise, it's a massive invasion. Unlike SC1, it feels like it.

-The gameplay. I've spent the entire game shaping my swarm, leveling up Kerrigan. Time to let loose. For most of Korhal (bar the Psi Destroyer), I had the feeling that I'd 'earned' the right to have a carte blance approach. Don't get me wrong, I love the objective-focussed nature of the WoL and HotS campaigns. But Korhal had an SC1 feeling, and in a good way. I could fight as I wanted, and live or die by my own tactical merits (or lack of them - I'm a lowly bronze after all).

-The banter. I liked Mengsk in WoL. I liked him in HotS. I liked him even more at Korhal because of the banter, and the tactics. To use an analogy, Mengsk strikes me as a Robert Baratheon-type character. Great at fighting for something, not great for holding onto it. In WoL, we saw him rule. In HotS, we saw him rule. On Korhal, we saw him command. And while in BW we got just a few lines of dialogue with him against the UED, this was something else.

-The characterization. Or rather, Kerrigan's. While her actions in HotS are...schizophrenic at times, this felt quite solid. Her bowing to Valerian's wishes demonstrates good character development, because it shows how far she's come. In theory at least, given said actions of randomly killing protoss and terrans. But in the scope of what HotS is meant to be, and in the scope of the arc itself, it's very well done.

-The cinematic. God damn, the cinematic. I...really can't fault it. Okay, I have to ask about the artifact and why it wasn't used in its nova blast (and if it can't, that could have been easily been explained in a line of dialogue), but it's the type of thing Mengsk would do. Care about his own safety. Risk everything to kill Kerrigan. Spend as many lives as needed to achieve that goal. Oh, and the final exchange between Kerrigan and Raynor? Beautiful.

Other notes:

-I've commented before that HotS and SC1 share similar problems in regards to cinematic segregation. In SC1, the cinematics can't keep up with the story, are trite, and generally irrelevant. In HotS, the cinematics outpace the general story and do more justice to Kerrigan's character than the game itself does.

-HotS's gameplay mechanics remain enjoyable, though a bit easy compared to WoL.

-Abathur's still awesome.

[Turalyon]

That was only the Leviathan sucking all the Zerg up into its belly, nothing more.

How come there's no other stuff being sucked up as well? Oh that's right, it's a Zerg-only vacuum evolution that they can research for Leviathans. Silly me.

[TheEconomist]

That was only the Leviathan sucking all the Zerg up into its belly, nothing more.

I like how he thinks that is a respectable explanation.

[Gradius]

Guys, Kerrigan can telekinetically smash battlecruisers into the ground and create giant storms visible from orbit. I think that she can fly. :P

But can and should are two totally different things.

The worst is definitely Zerus. I don't remember having any particular problem with Kaldir... I've only played the game once (because I hate the hero-centric gameplay of Heart of the Swarm) but I remember the Protoss being quite clear that they were keen on killing Kerrigan while she was vulnerable. A position I am entirely on board with, of course (HINT HINT The Insurgent Zeratul) but it does explain why she felt she had to eradicate them. However, I'm getting the impression that this goes differently if you go to Zerus first?

Here's my spiel on why Kaldir is blatant genocide:

Kerrigan slaughtered an innocent group of protoss on Kaldir for no valid reason. Kerrigan's only mission on Kaldir was to reclaim Nafash's brood. This was accomplished by the first mission when she found out that they were destroyed by the protoss. The only valid reason for her to stay into the second mission would be to get the hydralisk strain, to which my response is simply to go get it somewhere else. Hydralisks aren't exactly rare specimens. Dozens/hundreds of worlds infested, and this is the only place in the galaxy where you can find a blasted hydralisk? Ridiculous.

Lassara echoes these sentiments:
"You do not have to do this. You could leave. Be away from this moon before the Golden Armada arrives."

And Kerrigan responds with an illogical non-sequitur:
"I can’t run. I know that now. My enemies will never stop coming for me. All I can do is fight."

You came to THEIR planet, and so did the Brood Mother before you. To say that they attacked first is asinine, because any rational person would have also attempted to stem a zerg infestation to prevent themselves from getting overrun. The zerg have destroyed the entire sector, and people are not to blame for defending themselves from planet-destroying monsters.

To add insult to injury, Kerrigan pretends that SHE was wronged in some way:

"I justify nothing. There is no moral high ground here. Your people have killed billions of zerg. We are all covered in blood. There may be more on my hands than yours, but in the end we are both killers."

They "killed billions of zerg" because zerg are disposable genetic clones who have ravaged the entire sector and are only given enough intelligence to perform their required function of killing people. Of course they killed them; Kerrigan killed them too back when she was still a human. What the heck kind of argument is this really?

Even when Kerrigan comes to Kaldir as the primal Queen of Blades, the Executor's logic for attacking her is still "you should not have ventured so far from your main hive". A problem easily solved by leaving instead of perpetrating mass genocide. Fact is, the protoss are conscpicuously missing from both Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm. The only time they show up in Wings of Liberty is to cleanse a planet that's by protoss space. They don't CARE about the ongoings of the Koprulu Sector, and they don't CARE that Kerrigan is deinfested. Everyone insists that they DO care, but nobody can provide evidence of it. The protoss already know that the zerg power structure has collapsed, because they'd be idiots to be ignorant of such an important event, and the evidence so far is that they did nothing. Thus, Kerrigan could have simply left, and nobody would have cared. Artanis will not launch a giant manhunt just because one colony saw Kerrigan... who is now gone. They could have done that back in Wings of Liberty on Ulaan.

She knew that the protoss were there before she even went there, and she deliberately chose to kill a whole slew of hyperadvanced beings just to get revenge on one guy.

Never mind the fact the myriad logical failures of the premise itself.

1) Mengsk contacts Kerrigan on Zerus 50000 lightyears away and speaks to her directly with a two-way communicator that a queen dropped off. But Kaldir is still in the koprulu sector, and the most advanced race in the galaxy can't even have a conversation with another planet in that same sector without 3 powerful high templar channeling into 3 different enormous towers for a ridiculously long period of time, and still failing. It makes protoss look like complete morons.

2) Every single protoss building is a warp conduit. Gateways and Stargates warp units from Shakuras. Just step into the gateway instead of sending ridiculously slow moving shuttles halfway across the map.

3) Get a random ship to fly to Shakuras, like the runner of Marathon.

4) Dead protoss warriors warp to a safe haven. Maybe one of the zealots could have told Shakuras what was wrong.

5) A single larvae bringing down an entire protoss ship makes the protoss look like idiots again.

6) Like I said before HoTS ever came out, the most advanced race in the galaxy is severely crippled by what is essentially a gust of wind. What is the point of plasma shields?

7) You have 3 giant warp conduits that Kerrigan can't destroy because "it would alert Shakuras to our presence". Again, why the ridiculously slow-moving shuttles? Why not: a phoenix, an observer, or just everything at once? Kerrigan sensed the protoss minds on other side. Why doesn't somebody just stand in front of it and yell? In one of the frontline comics, when a high templar needed help on some random planet, did he have to jump through any of this garbage? No, he literally just screamed as loud as he could, and the main protoss body got the message.

8) We have to collect roach and hydralisk specimens (two ridiculously common zerg breeds that you can get anywhere else), and that's somehow an excuse to commit genocide. Collecting Matriarch yeti essence is also pointless because Abathur admits that Leviathans and Mutalisks already have these adaptations.

[FanaticTemplar]

4) Dead protoss warriors warp to a safe haven. Maybe one of the zealots could have told Shakuras what was wrong.

I always thought that was a shorter range teleport, and that they'd warp back to base, so if you wiped out the Protoss from the map, you killed all the injured Protoss too. That's just speculation though, and doesn't change anything to the whole lot of stupid that was Kaldir.