pW's (Rather Comprehensive) Review

[pure.Wasted]

Wow. Can't imagine it's finally over. At least, the first run through, the seeing of everything for the first time, the first impressions. 12 years of waiting. All to this.

There's gonna be lots of talk here about stuff Blizz did poorly, and stuff they did only "OK," but that's only because we've come to expect nothing short of the impossible (or the highly improbable). In all honesty, taking the context of the gaming world into account, it was amazing from start to finish. Continuing SC2's trend of cowboy-ifying anything and everything, I hope you won't begrudge me my section titles.


THE GOOD

-Nearly all of the voice acting. Mengsk? Delicious. Findlay? Pitch-perfect. Swann? Endearing. Raynor? Better than ever. Horner was a train wreck waiting to happen, but Brian Bloom managed to inject surprising depth into the straight-lace prude archetype. (Props for the especially mocking delivery of "You have no idea who she is, do you Tychus?" in QOB)

-The cinematics. My God, the cinematics. All of them are breathtakingly good. I was going to list my favorites, but realized that's about all of them. The action scenes are phenomenal (Warfield bayonetting a Zergling before PUNCHING OUT A HYDRALISK. Holy shit. Anyone still laughing at bayonets?), the character-driven ones are biting and emotional (Queen of Blades, A Better Tomorrow), the funny ones (Nova, Brawl) are, well, hilarious. The score is perfect; the only possible misstep that comes to mind being the overly(?) sappy backdrop to "Fire and Fury," but that is more than made up for by the inspired and haunting melody that underscores Tosh's victory.

-The writing. ...most of it, anyway. The game is surprisingly funny (Swann's comments after a few of the early missions come to mind) without ever descending into farce. If there is anything I did not expect to make the transition 12 years into the future, it was the humor. And if I were to expect humor, based on most of the units' quote jokes from the Beta, I would have expected nothing but a barrage of references to science fiction that was aged when the ORIGINAL game came out. Instead, we get brilliant moments like Raynor and Swann arguing over the value of classic cars-- er, I mean, Vultures. The writing for Mengsk's speeches (once they pick up around the 1/3 mark) is exceptional, Valerian's sophisticated ambition (and the way it plays out in cinematic form) is a great surprise, and Tychus isn't wasted for an instant. Frankly, I don't know about you, but I was taken aback by how adult all of the writing was -- not just the humor, but the drama, the characters. After so many years spent in the WarCraft universe, I guess I forgot how good Blizz is with straight-up down-to-earth characters and settings. And this is probably their most down-to-earth effort ever. I was a little surprised by Tychus choosing to tackle a Marine into the wall instead of simply shooting the guy, since he seems like a "take no prisoners" type of guy to me... but then he pulls out his gun, aims the dude straight in the melon, and smiles. He didn't JUST kill him. He made a POINT of killing him.

-The gameplay. I still can't believe that out of 26 missions there are only 4 (depending on playthrough, maybe even 3) that are pure RPG; not only do the rest all feature building to some extent, but they are almost all fun. Pick any SC2 mission at random and it's likely to be more fun and interesting than the most fun mission of BW (nevermind SC Vanilla). Blizz must be applauded for their imagination when it comes to mission design, and their understanding of what makes single player maps work. Take, for instance, the fact that they removed the need to research abilities. The tiniest of changes, but it instantly makes every mission less of a chore because there is less foreplay, less doing the same old routine over and over.

-The characters. Tychus and Warfield (who'da thunk it?) are both guaranteed to be fan-favourites right out of the gate. Valerian and Matt may be more of an acquired taste from what I gather around the boards, but I think Matt serves his (limited) role perfectly, and Valerian has great potential as a future player. More intelligent, bold characters never hurt anyone. And even Mengsk, who was turned into a see-through non-entity in Brood War, has been returned to his former grandness. Hell, he's even got the first glimmer of new characterization since his inauguration -- showing some smidgen of respect for Valerian's ambition, even when it comes at the cost of his own power.

THE BAD

-Blatant lack of antagonism in-missions. Seeing Mengsk pop up on news broadcasts is awesome and all, but with the dubious exception of Kerrigan in the last 3-4 missions, you're usually far too distanced from the conflict. And that's a pretty big no-no for any kind of story. Which isn't to say they needed Mengsk to come at you in a Thor... but having more than one mission where you're being hounded by Warfield would have been a decent start. I would have liked to see Mengsk take a more active interest in Raynor -- not necessarily trying to assassinate him (they got around that one OK), but at least whittle down his forces some and keep him on his toes. For the majority of the middle section of the game, the stakes felt pretty darn low. It didn't help that the primary antagonist, Kerrigan, kept losing every single fight she got into. Smash and Grab? Check. Whispers of Doom? Check. Moebius? Check. Every single Char mission? Check! Evidently Blizzard forgot how they managed to make Illidan into a COMPETENT antagonist in TFT.

-Somewhat stale environment. The original Terran campaign, Rebel Yell, featured the following major character/alliance shifts: Duke as annoying superior > Duke as antagonist > Duke as annoying comrade > Duke as antagonist; Mengsk as ally > Mengsk as enemy. And that's with a cast of 4 characters! SC2, with a cast many times that, has Valerian + Warfield as background antagonists to foreground allies... and that's it. Spread over 25 missions instead of 10 to boot.

-Sometimes, less is more. This is a direct result of the somewhat stale environment above and comes into play during the latter stages of the midgame. Recipe: 1 part limited cast, 1 part static backdrop, and 3 parts heavy focus on characters... what do you get? Characters who are forced to talk at length about things that are best dramatically served with just a well-timed smirk or a grimace, instead of a paragraph (or five) of soul-searching character motivation laid bare. The time when Horner pulls Raynor aside and warns him about Tychus's deathtrap suit after the Odin mission? Great. Every single other time when the question of Tychus's allegiance comes up UNPROMPTED, past the first 4-5 missions? More like filler.

-Branching screws up pacing something fierce. Raynor makes love to bottle. Raynor dreams of Kerrigan. Raynor wakes up to find Matt admonishing him for being drunk a lot lately and for not having a handle on their priorities. Unfortunately, I haven't seen Raynor get drunk, and I haven't seen Raynor blatantly do stuff that Matt considers to be a waste of time, so all this does is make Matt seem like a total dick, instead of raising a legitimate complaint with Raynor's deteriorating leadership skills (what I imagine they were going for). The entire early-middle section is filled with episodic stories that don't properly set up -- or resolve -- much, because you just can't have a mutiny start on Raynor's ship when the player might next pick a mission whose briefing requires for all characters to be cooperating. I think branching was an interesting experiment, and not entirely flawed, but they need to make quite a few improvements to the system in time for Heart.

THE UGLY

-The Prophecy. Not only is the idea lame to begin with, the presentation of it was simply atrocious. For instance, Zeratul keeps referencing plot-relevant segments that we never got to see/hear, ie. that the coming of Kerrigan was 'foretold.' Where exactly...? The entire thing is a hand wave of massive proportions.

-The writing for Zeratul in general. Queen of Blades (the novel) attempted to interpret Zeratul as some sort of mystic riddler, and ever since Blizz has been shoehorning that re-characterization wherever possible. It doesn't fit. The Zeratul we fell in love with was a bad-ass warrior who happened to be a poet. This new Zeratul is a wannabe poet who happens to be a warrior. If Blizzard can't see the difference (or can't see why the difference isn't an improvement), they need to replay SC1.

-Speaking of writing: Kerrigan? Probably the biggest disappointment in SC2. Just because the campaign doesn't center around her is no excuse to make her anything but the magnificent bitch that she always has been. Brood War demonstrated that a thousand times over. She taunts Jim and Zeratul with cliche one-liners, demonstrating NONE of the bite she had 12 years ago. (Let alone the fact that all these taunts are also EMPTY, seeing as how she does not win a single engagement.) "Oh, and by the way, Admiral: Your friend Stukov was twice the man you are. I'm glad you saved me the trouble of having to kill him..." Nothing she says in SC2 even comes close, and that's not nostalgia talking. Not only is she not the same magnificent bastardress of olde, she isn't even competent. And that's a damn shame.


Having just finished the game, these are all my immediate thoughts. A lot of the stuff I'm still processing, and might add to the list later. There's quite a lot in the bad/ugly sections, but it says something about the quality of the stuff I did enjoy that, despite all of that, I'm still completely blown away. And if I know Blizzard, they're gonna take the lessons they learned developing Wings to heart. I think a lot of these problems we're not likely to see again.

[flabortast]

they're gonna take the lessons they learned developing Wings to heart

I see what you did there. Anyway, nice review.

[pure.Wasted]

I see what you did there. Anyway, nice review.

Only at 7 AM after a night of no sleep does someone do that unintentionally...

Although I really should just take credit, shouldn't I? Yes, indeed, my subconscious is quite clever.

[Eligor]

Best review I've seen so far. Precisely my thoughts on Zeratul and Kerrigan, as well as plotting/pacing issues.

I'd even say that WoL has the worst story and the best gameplay of all Blizzard games.

[pure.Wasted]

I'd even say that WoL has the worst story and the best gameplay of all Blizzard games.

I will agree that it has the worst story on the condition that we divide story and presentation (and I'm not just talking about gameplay here). WOL has very little plot, but what plot it does have is presented exceedingly well, and even when it has no plot it still manages to be immersive and highly entertaining (more than most games can dream to be) because of how far it goes out of its way to create a living, breathing world.

Take, for instance, a cinematic like "Queen of Blades." On the surface, it's complete filler. We know that Tychus doesn't know much about her, we know that Matt doesn't trust him, all it does is provide subtle exposition for newcomers. But it's beautifully, meticulously directed, animated, voiced. It's one of the best cinematics in the game, and that's a heckuva tough competition.

I suppose it's a case of the journey being worth more than the road you're traveling on.

[Spartan13]

Let me ask you one question P.W

U say that blizzard can learn a lesson from their mistakes on wol and i agree with that...but kerrigan is human again and that takes away ur magnificent bitch for good(i hope). Plus its not like everyone wishes for her to be zerg again(that would be lame...would be like alright wol was about kerrigan getting de-infested and hots will be about kerrigan getting infested again...riiiight)i for one sure dont wanna!

Anyway nice review man

[pure.Wasted]

Let me ask you one question P.W

U say that blizzard can learn a lesson from their mistakes on wol and i agree with that...but kerrigan is human again and that takes away ur magnificent bitch for good(i hope). Plus its not like everyone wishes for her to be zerg again(that would be lame...would be like alright wol was about kerrigan getting de-infested and hots will be about kerrigan getting infested again...riiiight)i for one sure dont wanna!

Anyway nice review man

On the contrary, I'm actually NOT one of those people who wants her to remain Zerg. I think that that story's already been told (and told well), and I look forward to the opportunities opened up by this bold move.

But while she was infested, I'd have preferred a little more consistency. She starts BW with a single brood at her beck and call and ends it basically ruling the sector undisputed. She starts this game in a position that should be total control and still manages to screw up every single thing she touches. It's like the Midas curse, only instead of turning everything to gold, she turns it into fail.

[Spartan13]

I see ur point there...yep couldn't agree more.

[Eligor]

Depends. There are good (as well as some bad) scenes and character interactions, the conversation Matt and Tychus had about Kerrigan on one hand (best scene in the game?) and the very anti-climactc introduction of the Hybrids on the other (but I did love the Protoss last stand mission), however they never really combine into a plot that feels like a complete whole, and the ending is very diappointing and inconclusive (that last cinematic would've perfect had it been put into the story as a dream of Raynor's rather than an actual conclusion), and Raynor's character feels rather disjointed because of the variable continuity. In fact, I disagree with so many of the writing decisions (Tychus for example is basically there to die without doing anything else, which is a grand shame) that I have great difficulty in accepting it as a legitimate continuation of the story, StarCraft ends for me with Brood War, I do hope that'll change with the expansions, but at the moment I'm very disappointed (considering what they could have done). Actually, I would gladly see flexible continuity and player choices dropped in the expansions in favour of a story with stronger structure.

With all that, I still have a great appreciation for the effort and ambition that clearlu went into making it. Of course the art direction is phenomenal, and the single player missions the most creative Blizzard has done yet.

EDIT:

Take, for instance, a cinematic like "Queen of Blades." On the surface, it's complete filler. We know that Tychus doesn't know much about her, we know that Matt doesn't trust him, all it does is provide subtle exposition for newcomers. But it's beautifully, meticulously directed, animated, voiced. It's one of the best cinematics in the game, and that's a heckuva tough competition.

I suppose it's a case of the journey being worth more than the road you're traveling on.

Damn, and here I just provided it as an example myself. Definitely one of the best scenes in the whole game.

[hyde]

Excellent review. I agree with almost all of your points and share the same thoughts. I like that your review is comprehensive , concise, and fair - probably one of the first on the forums too...a bit too much blind fanboy'ism around here me thinks.

However I disagree with one point, the cinematics.
Jesus they had horrible transition, poor planning, or just felt lame.

For example, when you embarg on Valerians ship, you just blast out of an airlock and gun down a few goons and reach Valerian?
Sure Valerian "planned" to let you in but jesus that was like the most quick and bizzare part of the game.

One second you're with Horner (Ohhh this is a baaad idea)
Next you're busting out of an air lock and gun down some marines with PG Rated Action
Then Valerian says I can cure Kerrigan...
Next you're suddenly back with horner in your stained white t shirt and just like "Yeaaah..."
Errhmm..Okay.

Or the Intro cinematic..
I didn't like how they recycled the reveal cinematic, then dubbed in Mengsk's entire cheesy gameplay with vague words about war and how he is basically a pawn.
It gave away the story, and it lead you to believe the game was going to be some epic brawl. When in reality, you were just a space cowboy helping out lil' old Dr. Hanson and being duped by Valerian.

The rally call cinematic before "ALL IN" mission
Uh yah ....the clouds magically parted away just for Raynor. This is STARCRAFT, not a FREAKING ANIME. Where is the darkness? The mood? The nitty gritty terran atmosphere?
Like crap, this is CHAR. A VOLCANIC WORLD. Not to mention there were probably less than a handful of dominion marines left. More cliche, it's like this was the final stand at the Alamo or some shit.

The Finale Cinematic
Meh. Tychus is dead and the hoe croaks and Jimmy picks her up. The whole thing was full of cliche, predictability, and cheese.

Sure there were a few that stood out, the Kerrigan betrayal, Tychus findlay suit up, and the Zeratul vs Kerrigan.
Funny though, those were the ones that were released in full to fans years ago?
Don't you guys hate movies when the trailer show all the good parts ? Because that's all there is to show.
Hmmm I'm feeling a connection...

And for the record, I felt the campaign was "barely satisfactory" - I felt that they concentrated a bit too much on gameplay. Yeah the missions had INCREDIBLE detail but the storyline/cinematics were "sub par" for the most part. Blizzard is famous for cinematics. This game has broken that track record for me.