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[Sensei]

How much money do they spend on graphics? I'm sure they can afford an author.

[fenrif]

I don't understand why they wanted to turn her back (Blizzard, that is). Now her character has suddenly become really dull again. What is it with the need for redemptive story lines and happy endings? They saved her with a magic plot-proof rock ffs!

I'm really not asking much. Simple stuff like Planescape: Torment demonstrate that a nuanced story can entertain us poor simple plebs.

The sad thing is, having kerrigan go from evil monster queen to not evil monster queen makes her the deepest character in the entire game. Every other character is completely one dimensional (redneck, geek, hero, baddie, voodoo-dude, etc).

[Ignus]

I'm really not asking much. Simple stuff like Planescape: Torment

Yeah not asking much at all. One of the best RPG's ever with its main selling point begin original and amazing story.

I'm really not. The story is only considered deep when compared to other games. Compare it to an average novel and you suddenly drop the plot from "omgz amazing!" to "Cool". -Disclaimer- I love Planescape: Torment and am not knocking it.

It's fair to expect a decent level of story telling from them if they insist on presenting us with a game that just screams "look at the pretty storieeeez" at every turn.

[janekk]

Game is a game, book is a book. You are asking for pretty much best industry ever had to offer and call it not much. FYI I'm not saying SCII story is good or that there is no reason to expect more from Blizzard.

[Deon]

The Xel'Naga?  They brought back the Xel'Naga?  Those useless gits?  That sounds awfully lame.  I much prefer progenitor races that damned well stay dead.

The race is not dead, it's in its biocycle. It's currently in zergs and protoss. It was obvious that they are going to appear in the plot as soon as we've got HOW did the zerg and protoss appear.

Yeah, that's probably the biggest problem with the plot or story in general, is how much it focuses back on the "FOR GLORY, HONOUR AND EPIC!!!!!" aspects.

THat's what I expected from the "Wings of Liberty" game .
Also SC is generally about HONOUR AND EPIC for marines. It's not as "epic" as WH40k space marines are though .

I don't understand why they wanted to turn her back (Blizzard, that is). Now her character has suddenly become really dull again.

Yeah, I was surprised too. It's almost like if they would turn Arthas to human again .

But I guess now when she was affected by powerful Xel-Naga artifact, now she is still a human/zerg psionic hybrid, so it may be bad for them. They originally aimed for zerg/protoss union, I don't think they expected humans to interfere .
Knowing Blizzard I am sure we will get the full story, and Sarah will play a big role in it.


Now my opinion: the storyline was okay. Not perfect but okay for a strategy game. Now, considering the fact that even in movies zergs START FROM SURFACE INTO SPACE and battle-cruisers use FREAKING HYPERDRIVE FROM A PLANET SURFACE, and a big part of space marine fleet consists of JET HELICOPTERS we should notice that there's much less logical stuff in SC than a plotline .


P.S.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The appearance of Mengsk's son was weird too. Why did he waste his marines to talk to Raynor in personal (and risk his life) when he could talk to him via communication links? After that I expected ANY shit from plot writers . It was really stupid.

[Ignus]

But when a game starts trying to tell proper stories it is entering territory where it has to be compared to the other arts.

Films, novels, TV etc. are all judged to the same standards, why shouldn't games? Especially ones that attempt to imitate them.

[Deon]

I know, but knowing Blizzard, I wouldn't expect too much. Their plots usually look like child books, not real novels. They make good strategies though.

[Viken]

I don't think that's the case though.  The second game, Heart of the Swarm, will feature Karrigan in a more RPG-style, where she's trying to gain power.  I personally believe that changing her back wasn't a mistake, or a failure, but works it into the greater scheme of things.  If you watch the last scenimatic of the game, where Raynor is carrying Karrigan out, her skin is back, and her eyes, but her hair is still zerg-tenticals.  I think the artifact reversed the infestation, but not the powers it created by manipulating her genetic material.

It was also revealed the the Overmind had been put under the influence of this 'dark being' that had created these abominations of the Xel'Naga with the unholy alliance between Zerg and Protoss, which were supposed to be joined peacefully over thousands of years of co-existance to create their rebirth.  Instead, that plan got disrupted, and they all died prematurely.  But the Overmind created turned Karrigan from human Ghost into Queen-Bitch-Of-The-Universe to try to save itself, only to be destroyed before its plan to be inacted properly.

By turning her back, it reversed the process and yet still left her changed. *Nod nods* Its already been revealed that the stronger Kerrigan gets in the next game, the more of the swarm she can use.  No reason to believe otherwise.

[janekk]

But when a game starts trying to tell proper stories it is entering territory where it has to be compared to the other arts.

Films, novels, TV etc. are all judged to the same standards, why shouldn't games? Especially ones that attempt to imitate them.

You lost me there. Starcraft is trying to imitate book? Its strategy game with some story thrown in to glue missions together. When it comes to games trying to be books I would look at Gabriel Knight. If you were looking for story in strategy game (or Blizzard game for that matter, they always focused on gameplay) you are looking in wrong place.

[Ignus]

*snip*

What I mean is that they are using stuff from outside the form. Stories and cut scenes are not game mechanics, and therefore can be judged like any other story telling medium. And they are pretty poor in this case.

If they wanted to just glue the scenarios together, why not do something like Total Annihilation and just have a short expository blurb? You can't really do that wrong. When they start trying to add drama, depth and character development it's pretty obvious they aren't very good at it.

[Kagus]

This...  Pretty much goes against everything I thought I'd learned from the first SC.  The Xel'Naga were experimenting, attempting to create races that were "pure of form" (Protoss) and "pure of essence" (Zerg).

This started out fairly well, but the plan backfired when their creations turned against them and destroyed them.  The Xel'Naga had their mad genius idea blow up in their faces, as usually happens with mad genius ideas.

The Overmind, knowing of the Xel'Naga and their attempts, invaded Aiur so that it might consume the Protoss and unite the purities of both form and essence and thus become "perfect".


So...  Now they're saying that the Zergoss are, in fact, the Xel'Naga.  They planned the whole thing from the get-go, did they?  Needed to spend some time bisected into two different species that fought each other, eh?  Yeah...

I think I prefer my version.  And I still desperately need to play Planescape.

[Deon]

It was known before, I remember parts of the lore from Blizzard SC1 forums and from other sources like novels and those I don't remember now...

The Xel'Naga were experimenting, attempting to create races that were "pure of form" (Protoss) and "pure of essence" (Zerg).

They knew that their time is short. It was their lifecycle. They just failed this time.
http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/StarCraft:_The_Dark_Templar_Saga:_Twilight

"Pure form" and "essence" of THEMSELVES.

P.S. I must say that Dark Templar trilogy while is not a perfect book in many aspects still is much better than SC2 strategy plot line .

P.P.S. Although when SC1 was released I don't think that there was such a turn in the story... Probably Blizzard invented it AFTER they released SC1.

[Kagus]

http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/StarCraft:_The_Dark_Templar_Saga:_Twilight

Aha, Twilight...  No wonder things stopped making sense.

[Deon]

Hehe. Actually SC universe is something I enjoy without trying to "understand" or "judge its logic". I just like the atmosphere. The fact that from the beginning I didn't try to find any sense in a game (where organic species fly in space and stong brains make electric storms) helps too.

[Miggy]

I don't think that's the case though.  The second game, Heart of the Swarm, will feature Karrigan in a more RPG-style, where she's trying to gain power.  I personally believe that changing her back wasn't a mistake, or a failure, but works it into the greater scheme of things.  If you watch the last scenimatic of the game, where Raynor is carrying Karrigan out, her skin is back, and her eyes, but her hair is still zerg-tenticals.  I think the artifact reversed the infestation, but not the powers it created by manipulating her genetic material.

I can't imagine anything but the link between Kerrigan and the Zerg remaining, whether in trace form or in force, even after the anti-infestation thing. She wasn't just an ordinary human before she was infested, after all, she was a strong psionic ghost and could already use those sort of telepathic gizmoes.

It was also revealed the the Overmind had been put under the influence of this 'dark being' that had created these abominations of the Xel'Naga with the unholy alliance between Zerg and Protoss, which were supposed to be joined peacefully over thousands of years of co-existance to create their rebirth.  Instead, that plan got disrupted, and they all died prematurely.  But the Overmind created turned Karrigan from human Ghost into Queen-Bitch-Of-The-Universe to try to save itself, only to be destroyed before its plan to be inacted properly.

I thought the Overmind planned for itself to die all along? It was first when the Overmind died that Kerrigan actually went from being an agent of the zerg to become the ruler of the zerg, which is what let her use her powers in the first place.

And what is this with the protoss and zerg being made to peacefully co-exist? I guess that must've been introduced in the first game, which I haven't played. In SC2 it's mentioned that the zerg was created to destroy the protoss.