Re:End

[Eligor]

Just another rambling review thread.

I think that theorycrafting is a bit pointless by this point because it's pretty clear that Blizzard themselves didn't quite know what to do and just haphazardly threw together Xel'Naga/Kerrigan/Prophecy stuff in the hope it sticks. If you don't pry too close into the hows and whys and accept it as it is, it's not bad and even enjoyable. Metzen is sure great at promising satisfying conclusions though.

Agree with the general consensus that it's the best of the three.

Killing Zeratul and shifting the threat to Amon as soon as possible was a smart narrative decision. I was afraid the campaign will be built like the previous ones where you spent two thirds of it doing relatively unrelated stuff with a sudden shift to the main issue in the last third. This ony actually has build up and pay-offs.

Great scenes: first speech by Artanis at the very beginning before commencing assault on Aiur, possessed Artanis vs. Zeratul, Artanis vs. Kerrigan vs Hybrid, Artanis fighting the Zerg with Zeatul's narration in backgroung, (lots of fighting scenes it seems) Artanis and Raynor sharing a moment in the ruined city (GREAT scenerey on this one, very atmospheric and beautiful).

Lots of repetitive and inane writing during middle to end, I understand that writing for games is hard and that they have to make sure that the player understands what's going even if he/she hasn't listened to ALL the conversation, but if I hear "Void energies" or "Keystone" again...

Another gripe: camera work. Same repeated camera angles/shots in all the numerous conversations with Karax, Vorazun, Rohana... Gets tiresome very fast and with all that they COULD do with a creative and dynamic camera a missed opportunity. They did go for a cinematic feeling after all, but this is an area where they dropped the ball.

Roahana and Alarak are the BEST written characters and have the best voice acting. Each of their scenes is believable, interesting, build towards something.

Artanis and Vorazun are an item. Or at least, hinted at being one. Impressed at how delicately that's carried off.

The dialogues with Vorazun about tradition and change on the other hand got kinda heavy handed and repetitive as well and there was the sense that they didn't quite know what to do with her towards the end of the campaign (yes Artanis and Vorazun could be an item, but they can't delve into it because it's a "Protoss campaign" and you can't have a love story).

The Fenix subplot made me roll my eyes at first but turned out to be funny and smart. Nice to see them introduce hard sci-fi/philosophical themes such as AI and the nature of consciousness and identitiy, even if in a cursory way.

Great designs: Artanis' armour, Karax's armour (Kirby-esque both of them), Rohana, Alarak, Spear of Adun, some Aiur map textures are very impessive, the new Hybrid designs such Void Threshers and the air units are creepier and tentacly-er, which I like.

Ulnar is a cool tileset. Not quite what I imagined Xel'Naga tech to look like but it is actually convincing as a higher intelligence's interdimensional base. Has the same complexity and beauty as a good set design in a film.

Xel'Naga are basically space Ohmu.

Man oh man, they should have left the mechanics of Xel'Naga reproduction to be revealed in the game instead of spoilering them in the Dark Templar books years ago. It was one of the really good ideas of SC II and pretty satisfying as far as "earth-shaking revelations" go. And they fired that gun too early.

Amon should have been much more fleshed out concerning his motives and personality. I know that this is not the most original thought, but I would have liked them to get over the idea that he went insane and schizophrenic after sitting alone in the Void for all these aeons and watching entropy do its job, "isolation can do that to the mind" kind of vibe (by the way, we suddenly learn that the Void is a dimension you can actually visit, not just an energy)
Amon's host body is a disappointment. You get to the big bad and he's just the same old Hybrid, just bigger and red coloured.

Actually like the ending, they decided to go all weird and cosmic with it which is a bold move. Kerrigan becomes a fire-angel and she and Raynor get to be together after all. I've mentioned Jack Kirby up above, if you take StarCraft II to be not a gritty space opera but a big, colorful Jack Kirby comic then it's actually rather nice.

[Visions of Khas]

And for all that, we still don't know how Protoss reproduce.

Artanis and Vorazun need to make a video...

[ragnarok]

And for all that, we still don't know how Protoss reproduce.

Artanis and Vorazun need to make a video...

You can ask Blizzard for that in the DLC

[sandwich_bird]

And for all that, we still don't know how Protoss reproduce.

Artanis and Vorazun need to make a video...

The internet got you covered for these kinds of things

But, seeing as they seem to hide their crotch with a piece of cloth, I'm gonna assume it's pretty straightforward.