Hello everyone.
Before we begin I'd just like to point out that this discussion is about the SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN. As we all know, the multiplayer is already stellar and is always being scrutinized in order to make sure everything is balanced perfectly. Our focus, however, lies on the campaign - the story.
This will contain heavy spoilers. You have been warned.
The campaign was a disgrace. There's just no other word for it. The story was even cheesier than Wings of Liberty (something I did not think was possible unless you were trying to accomplish that on purpose) and just generally predictable and subpar. The supporting cast was just...there. With the exception of Abathur (if we're being generous), they had absolutely no personality, served little to no purpose and had absolutely nothing of value to say. And when they do open their mouths it's generally poorly acted and the script is so bad it will make you wonder if they could've have just hired a 14-year-old fanfic writer and gotten the same result for free. It's worth pointing out that the humans have great voice actors, and their characters have a far more interesting dynamic. Too bad we hardly see them, and have to make do with bugs who try to sound scary but end up sounding like an old lady with a sore throat.
I think that sums up the characters nicely in this story - no one has anything of importance to say. Dialogue is just there to fill in a few blanks. Everything seems forced and out of place, as if characters react because they were ordered to do so, not because it's the logical course of action - For instance, Kerrigan instantly believing the most corrupt news channel out there and directly head to a Zerg ship (lucky they had plenty of those to spare, right?) and heads to a frozen planet to slaughter a bunch of Protoss. What? And then she starts talking about how she needs to increase her power just to take down Emperor Mengsk, a normal human being whose army has been torn down and defeated time and time again, and she's the ruler of a more or less limitless army. So naturally she goes to a planet just to get her own powers enhanced and is restored to her Queen of Blades look (you know, the monster look where she has organic high heels and some kind of material going through her buttocks in case we thought we were dealing with a woman who was not being objectified), making the player doubt whether or not there was any reason for completing Wings of Liberty in the first place, where we made her human again.
Another problem in the story is that there's no real tension. The moustache-twirling villain Mengsk, who is a supposed genius, is inevitably going down. Easily. You know that from the very beginning and the story never seems to offer any twists along the way, making you doubt whether or not you'll actually succeed. The 'real' villain who is more or less a god, is not even introduced. They only talk about his power levels and that's it - we get it, he's strong, but that doesn't make a good villain, nor does it make for a good story. There's little to no intrigue surrounding him whatsoever, and the characters in the game don't sound frightened when they talk about him - hell, Kerrigan and Stukov (yes, the guy we killed in Brood War is inexplicably back and infested) sound excited when they talk about him.
So with no real opposition, what is the challenge in this game? None, zero, nada. The entire campaign might as well have been called 'Kerrigan steamrolls the universe' because that's exactly what she does. With no real effort or challenge she decides to kill millions of people in order to get to one man, have her petty revenge and then...yeah we're not told that until later where she decides to go kill that god Amon who we know nothing about and who is about as interesting as a rubber duck. Sure you might think it's a fun idea at first but after five minutes you'll end up bored and want to throw it away. Especially if it's like all the other rubber ducks coming from the same factory. - We can name those rubber ducks Sargeras, Diablo and Amon - three different rubber ducks but they're oh-so similar and made by the same company you're left wondering why you bothered to buy three of them in the first place.
Another problem is Kerrigan herself being an absolutely disgusting and boring character we're SUPPOSED to feel bad about but we end up thinking of her as a bitch anyway. And for a bloody good reason - she doesn't even think twice about going on a rampage with the swarm we thought we had damaged in Wings of Liberty (again, why did we play that game again? Everything we did was just for naught) and kill everyone she comes across just to get to one man. It's idiotic. Revenge is also one of the least interesting motives a character can have, if you ask me. Not to mention it's very hard to do right.
But hang on! What about Jim's and Kerrigan's relationship? Surely that subplot makes everything more interesting?
Allow me to laugh. Not only did Jim and Kerrigan hardly spend any time together in Starcraft one, but their relationship has mostly been delved into in external media, a very popular method for explaining lore at Blizzard these days, and one I will never support. - However, even if you DID read all the books and WANT to know what happens next in their relationship, you'll be severely disappointed. There's no dynamic between them, they hardly exchange any dialogue with the exception of the first and the last mission and it's just so very cheesy you will start worrying about whether or not you'll need to take an extra bath today to get rid of the stench of cheese on your clothes.
Oh, and to top it all of, the game is short. The one saving grace this game's single player offer had was that the campaign level design was great - too bad it has absolutely nothing to do with the story however.
TL;DR - The game is cheesy, could be called Kerrigan Steamrolls the entire universe, has a horrible story that for the most part makes absolutely zero sense with bad writing and poor voice acting. It should just be avoided at all cost if you care at all about the story of Starcraft, and hope that they write a better story for Legacy of the Void, although I doubt that, if you consider how things went with Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft's story too.
What did you think?
Before we begin I'd just like to point out that this discussion is about the SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN. As we all know, the multiplayer is already stellar and is always being scrutinized in order to make sure everything is balanced perfectly. Our focus, however, lies on the campaign - the story.
This will contain heavy spoilers. You have been warned.
The campaign was a disgrace. There's just no other word for it. The story was even cheesier than Wings of Liberty (something I did not think was possible unless you were trying to accomplish that on purpose) and just generally predictable and subpar. The supporting cast was just...there. With the exception of Abathur (if we're being generous), they had absolutely no personality, served little to no purpose and had absolutely nothing of value to say. And when they do open their mouths it's generally poorly acted and the script is so bad it will make you wonder if they could've have just hired a 14-year-old fanfic writer and gotten the same result for free. It's worth pointing out that the humans have great voice actors, and their characters have a far more interesting dynamic. Too bad we hardly see them, and have to make do with bugs who try to sound scary but end up sounding like an old lady with a sore throat.
I think that sums up the characters nicely in this story - no one has anything of importance to say. Dialogue is just there to fill in a few blanks. Everything seems forced and out of place, as if characters react because they were ordered to do so, not because it's the logical course of action - For instance, Kerrigan instantly believing the most corrupt news channel out there and directly head to a Zerg ship (lucky they had plenty of those to spare, right?) and heads to a frozen planet to slaughter a bunch of Protoss. What? And then she starts talking about how she needs to increase her power just to take down Emperor Mengsk, a normal human being whose army has been torn down and defeated time and time again, and she's the ruler of a more or less limitless army. So naturally she goes to a planet just to get her own powers enhanced and is restored to her Queen of Blades look (you know, the monster look where she has organic high heels and some kind of material going through her buttocks in case we thought we were dealing with a woman who was not being objectified), making the player doubt whether or not there was any reason for completing Wings of Liberty in the first place, where we made her human again.
Another problem in the story is that there's no real tension. The moustache-twirling villain Mengsk, who is a supposed genius, is inevitably going down. Easily. You know that from the very beginning and the story never seems to offer any twists along the way, making you doubt whether or not you'll actually succeed. The 'real' villain who is more or less a god, is not even introduced. They only talk about his power levels and that's it - we get it, he's strong, but that doesn't make a good villain, nor does it make for a good story. There's little to no intrigue surrounding him whatsoever, and the characters in the game don't sound frightened when they talk about him - hell, Kerrigan and Stukov (yes, the guy we killed in Brood War is inexplicably back and infested) sound excited when they talk about him.
So with no real opposition, what is the challenge in this game? None, zero, nada. The entire campaign might as well have been called 'Kerrigan steamrolls the universe' because that's exactly what she does. With no real effort or challenge she decides to kill millions of people in order to get to one man, have her petty revenge and then...yeah we're not told that until later where she decides to go kill that god Amon who we know nothing about and who is about as interesting as a rubber duck. Sure you might think it's a fun idea at first but after five minutes you'll end up bored and want to throw it away. Especially if it's like all the other rubber ducks coming from the same factory. - We can name those rubber ducks Sargeras, Diablo and Amon - three different rubber ducks but they're oh-so similar and made by the same company you're left wondering why you bothered to buy three of them in the first place.
Another problem is Kerrigan herself being an absolutely disgusting and boring character we're SUPPOSED to feel bad about but we end up thinking of her as a bitch anyway. And for a bloody good reason - she doesn't even think twice about going on a rampage with the swarm we thought we had damaged in Wings of Liberty (again, why did we play that game again? Everything we did was just for naught) and kill everyone she comes across just to get to one man. It's idiotic. Revenge is also one of the least interesting motives a character can have, if you ask me. Not to mention it's very hard to do right.
But hang on! What about Jim's and Kerrigan's relationship? Surely that subplot makes everything more interesting?
Allow me to laugh. Not only did Jim and Kerrigan hardly spend any time together in Starcraft one, but their relationship has mostly been delved into in external media, a very popular method for explaining lore at Blizzard these days, and one I will never support. - However, even if you DID read all the books and WANT to know what happens next in their relationship, you'll be severely disappointed. There's no dynamic between them, they hardly exchange any dialogue with the exception of the first and the last mission and it's just so very cheesy you will start worrying about whether or not you'll need to take an extra bath today to get rid of the stench of cheese on your clothes.
Oh, and to top it all of, the game is short. The one saving grace this game's single player offer had was that the campaign level design was great - too bad it has absolutely nothing to do with the story however.
TL;DR - The game is cheesy, could be called Kerrigan Steamrolls the entire universe, has a horrible story that for the most part makes absolutely zero sense with bad writing and poor voice acting. It should just be avoided at all cost if you care at all about the story of Starcraft, and hope that they write a better story for Legacy of the Void, although I doubt that, if you consider how things went with Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft's story too.
What did you think?