The metatorial review of SC2

[Louis]

Er? I loved what little they did with him in Brood War. Showed the amoral, mercantile and tenacious aspects of his character pretty well (foreshadowings of what an actual confrontation between him and Raynor could have been). Don't see any discrepancies in his character between the original and BW.

No discrepancies my ass. What's up with going from "If you ask me she's completely untrustworthy", to "But you said revenge was secondary to the UED!" in that almost childlike sounding tone of betrayal as if he really didn't see it coming?

He kept that bumbling idiot Duke in charge of the military who had done nothing but fail. It does not reflect well on Arcturus.

As for WoL, I don't know much about politics so I can't say whether or not it was dumb or not to allow Kate to live. Jim has some use to Arcturus who was constantly using him as a scrapegoat, it's just a damn shame that we didn't get that in the game instead of that terrible "killing me ewould make me into a martyr line". The martyr thing might have worked if it were written better, but I still think the scrapegoat explanation would be the most believable. He kind of lost his temper in the press conference about the recording studio, and I think most SC1 fans can accept the way he reacted in the context of Arcturus established history as a hothead with zero tolerance for disloyalty.

So yeah, besides Kate Lockwell, how was Arcturus acting dumber than usual?

[Gradius]

He kept that bumbling idiot Duke in charge of the military who had done nothing but fail. It does not reflect well on Arcturus.

"Without the services of General Duke, Mengsk will be easy to deal with." - Kerrigan

[Jabber Wookie]

Here's my real problem with the story...

I'm not that upset with the Matt Horner missions to reveal Mengsk for who he really is, although the dialogue could be better in all of the cutscenes. So I enjoyed Horner's missions (= 5 or 6 missions?). Although, Tychus' involvement with operating the Thor is completely in contradiction with his undercover mission.

The Tychus missions to recover the artifact are drawn out and a bit cliche.
The ultimate purpose of the artifact is somewhat interesting. I don't mind that the story resolved with Kerrigan uninfested, in fact, I was actually surprised by this ending, which means they did something right.

The Valerian missions are confusing as Mengsk seems to be childlike when his son steals half his fleet while he stares through a screen saying "You did what?!? Bah!" (portraying him as some cartoon villain that is easily fooled)

Zeratul's missions are interesting and fun despite the horribly fantastical introductions to each mission as his ship vibrates in the background. The cutscene of him searching for the artifacts and encountering Kerrigan is easily the best part of the entire game, amazing graphics and the dialogue is even better during that scene compared to the rest of the game.

The rest of the side-story missions were, however, utter crap. Fillers to make the first installment approximately 30 missions as the fans expected. This creates a problem regarding the "Trilogy" vs SC1 and BW style of having a story for each race in each game.

In SC1 and BW, there were approximately a total of 60 missions, all linear and directly relevant to meaningful plot as each campaign took place. Each faction's campaign flowed perfectly into the next. There were no meaningless side-stories or missions to satisfy the fans' quantity expectations.

In SC2, the first of three installments really only had about 15 missions related to meaningful plot. If this continues in the next two installments (i.e. irrelevant non-linear side stories to fill quantity expectations), then that leaves us with approximately 45 real missions in the entire trilogy.

So assuming that were to happen, I am dissappointed because the trilogy seems like a way to make more money while offering less story than the original and its expansion. That is ridiculous considering the time they have spent on this sequel and the fact that three games cost much more than two.

After experiencing the first installment, and if the next two are done in the same way, then I would much rather of had a sequel and one expansion with each faction having a linear campaing in both games. I think they jumped on the "choose your fate" ban wagon for more mass appeal to the gaming community, and that I believe is their biggest failure regarding the overall story so far.

If Blizzard listens to the many fans requesting linear expansions and pulls through, then I will have no problem with them having experimented with it in the first installment and correcting their mistake. In fact, I would only respect them more as a company.

[Eligor]

No discrepancies my ass. What's up with going from "If you ask me she's completely untrustworthy", to "But you said revenge was secondary to the UED!" in that almost childlike sounding tone of betrayal as if he really didn't see it coming?

Like all people who unconsciously view others' loyalty to them as an obvious and unquestionable due Mengsk is not someone who accepts betrayal lightly, even if he is aware of the high probability of that betrayal. And besides, this is one of the rare moments when Mengsk is lost and surprised and it actually shows, so the redundant and self evident question is quite natural (this is truly the first time in his life that his good fortune depends on someone other than himself, not something Mengsk is used to either).

He kept that bumbling idiot Duke in charge of the military who had done nothing but fail. It does not reflect well on Arcturus.

To be fair towards Duke, the odds were stacked quite heavily against him from the outset each and every time. He may not be the best tactician out there, but he's definitlely no bumbling idiot. And anyway, it's best not to judge a character's fighting ability too harshly when he's featured as an antagonist in most of the missions in the game (besides, the StarCraft manual directly describes him as "one of the greatest military minds in the Terran sector").

The Valerian missions are confusing as Mengsk seems to be childlike when his son steals half his fleet while he stares through a screen saying "You did what?!? Bah!" (portraying him as some cartoon villain that is easily fooled)

Yep. That was a particularly painful moment in the script.

[Turalyon]

Like all people who unconsciously view others' loyalty to them as an obvious and unquestionable due Mengsk is not someone who accepts betrayal lightly, even if he is aware of the high probability of that betrayal. And besides, this is one of the rare moments when Mengsk is lost and surprised and it actually shows, so the redundant and self evident question is quite natural (this is truly the first time in his life that his good fortune depends on someone other than himself, not something Mengsk is used to either).

I have to agree with Louis here about the difference between SC1 Mengsk and BW Mengsk. Mengsk would never have been "surprised" about Kerrigan's betrayal in BW. He would have planned for it and had precautionary measures in place. He's not the kind of person who takes things for granted if you know what I mean.

In Sc1 Mengsk is quite shrewd in his observations about the motivations of people - he knew exactly what to say to get Duke, Kerrigan and even Raynor to an extent, in line. The line about thinking that "revenge was secondary to the UED" really does make him look like an idiot in BW.