The metatorial review of SC2

[protoswarrior]

Wow... what utter crap and a complete waste of my time.

This article is beyond biased on personal opinion-made-fact "because I said so"...

The storyline of WoL ties in more with the books (esp The Dark Templar Trilogy which was deemed canon by Blizz - per Chris Metzen when he referred to Christie Golden's writing at Blizzcon) and the grander scope of the story that was alluded to at the Blizzcon 2010 panel. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as they said, and the rest of the story will be a lot deeper and fleshed out.

As an INTRODUCTION, Wings of Liberty does a perfect job. Why does this surprise a lot of you?

[Turalyon]

Everyone is biased toward their opinion, but he does have a point.

Besides, the story of the game should be able to stand on its own without having to rely on outside sources to prop it up. A more cynical person would say that it's a weak-sauce excuse to try and get people to buy their books.

[protoswarrior]

What "point" are you referring to?

The story was bound to be "propped" since Blizzard took so long to release the game. Meanwhile, fan-made and writer-based fiction emerged that affected the way we see the story. Even, without the books, the introduction to the new storyline is very complete in Wings Of Liberty. You don't need the books to know that there was a possibility of a rise of the Hybrids, and that there is the hand of a higher power in it. That was established in Broodwar, and WoL just continued along that line.

From the Terran perspective, there needed to be full detachment from that to emphasize the emotional states of all major characters involved. And, Blizzard completed that task with complete professional expertise, using subtle ripples of emotions and intriguing dialogue (at times) to nail a certain point down in the player's head.

The theme of WoL was Terran going on a merry ride to kicking Mengsk's ass, but eventually they converged to the more important and bigger picture. Zeratul was the tie-in, and his side of the story is a complete universe in itself, and because the focus of WoL is not on the Protoss, there was very little that could be shown of the Protoss.

What people aren't liking I think is the fact that they didn't get to play with all 3 races as they did in SC Vanilla and Broodwar... They are approaching this story with pre-conception. That isn't the fault of the makers, nor of the story itself, if there is no "suspension of disbelief", just as it is with anything new.
The story has a lot of things going on, and I am sure that in the subsequent chapters, we are going to see a very big plunge into this unknown world that we have only been shown a tiny sliver of.

Everyone played the campaign and went, "meh... not what I expected..."
But, that's exactly their mistake. Go into the campaign without expectation at all. Just use your knowledge of Broodwar and SC Vanilla to fully discover the new SC2 storyline.

The books I mentioned aren't really crutches, but supports to strengthen the already strong backbone of the main story in WoL. The books themselves are kind of like spin-off prequels to Starcraft 2 as a whole, not just the first installment.

[Turalyon]

The point of all his rhetoric is to simply say that the story leaves a lot to be desired.

What people aren't liking I think is the fact that they didn't get to play with all 3 races as they did in SC Vanilla and Broodwar... They are approaching this story with pre-conception.

That maybe true for some but you shouldn't generalise this to everyone who didn't like the story.

Everyone played the campaign and went, "meh... not what I expected..."
But, that's exactly their mistake. Go into the campaign without expectation at all. Just use your knowledge of Broodwar and SC Vanilla to fully discover the new SC2 storyline.

SC2 story actually met my expectations - but that's because I expected it be crap in the first place. It's difficult not to have expectations but I doubt having no expectations would help. A complete noob to the SC universe may appreciate the story for what it is but those other noobs who dig deeper would find the story has a disjointed narrative flow amongst many other things that others have mentioned (not the least of which is mentioned in that metatorial). To each their own I guess.

[Norfindel]

Actually, i agree with the review. The antagonists were empty cardboard characters. Mengsk was irrelevant, the Tychus deal didn't resulted in any tension, and added a lot of nonsense, Kerrigan had few, bad lines. Zeratul lines were also horrible, and so on. That's undeniable, introduction or not.

Nobody is arguing that there are some loose ends, but that the story was badly managed and presented.

We know it's an introduction. The problem is that it's a bad introduction. The Terran part of SC1 is also one, and is a story much better told and more self-contained than WoL.

[DemolitionSquid]

I have no issue with not getting to play all three races in one campaign go. I have no issue with the story being told in 3 parts. My issue is with the fact I waited 12 years... for what? To be treated like a child? To have these characters and situations hollow and shallow and predictable? To be so bored with a vapid, hole-ridden plot and lackluster writing and dialogue, that the only reason one could possibly have to replay the campaign is for meaningless achievement points?

[KadajSouba]

I find this fascinating...

[GnaReffotsirk]

When I made a submission for a campaign contest before that involved Kerrigan wrestling with her human side, the overmind embedding instructions within the last cerebrate for Kerrigan to consume, and Kerrigan striking a deal with Raynor, and all of it was thrown at the gamer's face without building it up, ...

...I got a bald captain kirk facepalm, and summoned violence from sc-fans.

It was never clear back then, what it meant.

[Zeraszana]

I have no issue with not getting to play all three races in one campaign go. I have no issue with the story being told in 3 parts. My issue is with the fact I waited 12 years... for what? To be treated like a child? To have these characters and situations hollow and shallow and predictable? To be so bored with a vapid, hole-ridden plot and lackluster writing and dialogue, that the only reason one could possibly have to replay the campaign is for meaningless achievement points?

You mean replay it because you paid 60$ for it right?

[DemolitionSquid]

You mean replay it because you paid 60$ for it right?

I'd of happily paid 50$ for just the multiplayer at this point, and only because of the editor. The campaign was, to me, not even worth 10$.