Well having just completed the game today I have to say, I am fairly impressed with the storyline (gameplay is superb as always) and only had minor complaints.

*The difference between Sarah Kerrigan and the Queen of Blades was not well defined for me. In BW and WoL was she a different QoB than she was in HotS? How come? What exactly did that artifact do, change her whole mindset? If she was the same QoB then why did she camp at base for four years instead of going after Acturus Mengsk as soon as she smashed them all in the last BW mission?? Some inconsistencies in character motives there.

*Nice they finally gave the Raynor/Kerrigan shippers their due! Also good to have them split and then reconcile epically at the end of the game too. My money in Legacy of the Void is on Kerri working together with the others until partway through where Amon (Evil Xel Naga dude) deinfests her and takes control of the Zerg. That way Amon gets an army (as opposed to getting one out of nowhere) and Keri and Raynor get to live happily ever after. Oh and I'm guessing the Tal'darim will work with Amon too.

*Disappointed that in both this game and the previous we see very little of the 'good guy' Protoss. Apart from Zeratul we have no idea what the main body of the Protoss force has been doing (Selindis, Acturus, etc.) and really they don't interact with the rest of the 'cast' at all. The last expansion is gonna be pretty far out of left field in that respect.

*Nice that we got to see Stukov and then kill Nurad (aka Duran). Disappointed both in Duran and Mengsk's deaths they basically say the same things "you will never defeat me!" "oh no you defeated me! Well - you won't defeat THIS!" "oh no, you defeated that", etc. Diablo had the same sort of 'bad guy dialogue' and its cliche and lame. Especially compared to SC/BW Mengsk, Duran who were incredibly intelligent, tenacious individuals who were pulling all sorts of strings and plotting all sorts of schemes. Cut to HotS and they are just generic dumb bad guy villains.

*Another complaint is that, Blizzard doesn't seem to realise how much a voice actor personifies a character. Seeing Duran, Zeratul, Stukov again it just doesn't feel like a reunion, but instead you are seeing entirely new characters - because their VO and appearance is all different and hell I think even writing-wise their personalities are different. So it is like they have the same names but are basically completely different people, so a bit of a let down there.


Anyway that is my thoughts guys, what do you think?

Also, as far as I know - no secret mission in HotS.

1. She was a different Queen of Blades because in her original incarnation, she was designed by Abathur and under the influence of Amon; in HotS, Amon's influence had been cleansed by the artifact and her new form was directly from Zeras.

2. Raynor/Kerrigan first kiss d'awwwww <3

3. I guess that's what the protoss campaign is going to be for

4. Duran's death seemed a little underwhelming to me, but he and Mengsk basically just ran out of shit to pull. I don't really think there would have been another way to kill them off. Besides, Mengsk's death finally let Jimmy do his knight-in-shining-armor routine for Kerrigan again, and this time he actually saved her from Mengsk, unlike on Tarsonis. Also, I shat bricks when Stukov showed up. STARCRAFT 64 CANON HOW

5. Yeah, I was really disappointed with a lot of the voice acting, especially Kerrigan while she was still human. She was really monotone compared to SC1 Kerrigan, and it kind of seemed like a lot of the characters had that same problem. Zeratul having a new voice actor was unavoidable because the original died, but I don't think the new guy really does him justice. Raynor and Horner were pretty much the only main characters whose voice work I was satisfied with.

Holy crap I loved the Stukov reveal. At first when I heard the voice I immediately thought "Oh what, Narud isn't Duran?". I, too, was underwhelmed with the Duran death but I think I was hoping he'd change into the iconic Duran form at some point before getting killed off finally.

http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Voice_in_the_Darkness_(entity)

"Yes, it's called the dark voice and a god and it makes your eyes pitch black under possession and completely evil.... but it's not Amon."
That irks me.

Really liked the campaign.

Yeah, Stukov's character was off, as was the voice acting, and his appearance.

The whole thing with Narud really really pissed me off, he's obviously Duran, and both Stukov and Kerrigan spent a lot of time around him, but neither of them remembered him at all. Likewise he knew exactly who they were, but never said or hinted at it at all. Very odd choice on Blizzard's part IMO.

The primal zerg was a bit silly; since it involved retconning the origins of the Zerg significantly - according to SC1 manual, the Zerg started as a tiny larva that was morphed and extended by the Xel'Naga, and it spread across numerous worlds collecting different life forms. But in HotS, all of the Zerg archetypes originated on Zerus.

Overall the storyline was a lot better, more sensible and tighter than WoL. Also there was really much more of a progression of things happening, whereas WoL just seems like a series of unconnected events with no real payoff at the end.

It never said all the zerg archtypes originated in Zerus, I figured they each went their own way and coincidentally ended up on the same path. If you recall Abathur was all buthurt over how the zerg were only there for a few hours and the primals were already copying them.

Yeah, specifically hydralisks.

No, it never said that, but that's clearly what was shown. The primals don't evolve as a collective, but only as individuals after they kill something and take it's essence. Yet there were hordes and hordes of proto-ultralisks, proto-roaches, proto-zerglings and proto-mutalisks already on Zerus in the first mission, the one where you awaken the ancient. The only way this makes sense is if they all originated on Zerus. Note that in SC1 lore, the Overmind was trapped on Zerus until it sensed a fleet of now-Overlords travelling through it's system, so it lured them to the planet and assimilated them and left. With no over-riding will on Zerus and according to previous canon no endemic species capable of interstellar movement, they've clearly retconned the origins of the Zerg.

He talked about the hydralisk, so we should consider all of the other ones were there already.


I played it all on Normal, and there weren't really any difficult missions at all. The same was fairly true of WoL, but in that one there were at least missions that "kept you busy" the whole time, like the one with the protoss bases and the mining laser that you had to keep using to ward off the protoss attacks. Also the final Char missions in WoL were all somewhat difficult. In HotS basically I just built up my base, massed lots of whatever the most powerful unit I had at the time was, and A-moved into the enemy base and won. I guess Kerrigan was quite overpowered as any annoying targets likes tanks, thors or bunkers that would typically require extra strategy, I'd just blast and kill instantly and carry on. The last couple of missions were very uneven in difficulty as well, particularly the "Planetfall" one which seemed like there was no real terran resistance at all, while the last episode cranked it up to 11 with constant attacks by the terrans, although generally only on the right-hand side.

Yeah, in terms of the difficulty I massed swarmlings in every mission and won. For the last few where the Terrans had air, I just ignored them and kept charging past. I still had fun playing them, though, so that's a plus.

Hmm, using swarmlings would make everything end even faster, since there's no base or vespene requirements there and they spawn instantly. Did you also get that Kerrigan power that revives the zerglings?

Yeah pretty much. I'd basically get gas for (ultimately unnecessary) upgrades only, but for the most part I'd get enough minerals to max out my overlord space on swarmlings and then watch the ball of death kill everything. It was totally overkill, but I got a kick out of watching it each time. It took me longer just to mass them despite how unnecessary it really was. And yeah, definitely had that power going as well.

Why go swarmlings when you can go muta/teleporting swarm host? In the last several missions, that's basically all I did: tech up as fast as I could, then spread creep everywhere and locust everything to death. I probably should have played on hard, but I wanted plot faster. :<

I just used swarm hosts for defense. They'd probably be better in offense if I'd gone with the "burrows" evolution, but I went with the "attacks air and ground" one instead.

It probably takes the same amount of time to mass swarmlings as it does to just spread the creep.

I could tell you the same with just going stimpack Hydra and resurrecting Ultralisks supported by leaping, dashing, healing Kerrigan with rage (= higher attack speed after each attack). Also, I used automated extractors to be able to get maximum gas very early in the missions to immediately get upgrades, tech and units.

I played brutal for like the first 5 missions but then played through hard the rest of the way. I got annoyed on brutal difficulty I would actually run out of minerals and have no where else to mine and could therefore no longer raise an army, whereas my opponents were clearly given minerals by triggers or some shit as they always replenished their forces.

I played only one mission on normal and that is on Char when Warfield was sending the massive Battlecruisers at you. That was very difficult on hard but way too easy on normal (the gorgon moved much slower).

Have you tried just using kerrigan for that? I had her kill everything while i had a couple of lings back in base to defend. I used the queen hou free to poop out creep tumors till she inevitably died cause i f2 a-moved.

Yer I'll give it ago some time soon.

I was reading Blizz forums and a guy said something which I thought hit the nail on the head with regards to SC1 vs SC2 writing:

Basically in SC1 even though you won the mission it still felt like you lost (something worse would then happen) and it was all bleak and hopeless until you get the big 'against all odds' victory in the final mission. Whereas in SC2 every mission you end up better off and you are unstoppable until the final mission's outcome feels like an inevitable win.

Using the Master Archives, you can replay earlier missions on Brutal and get later-game units and Kerrigan powers while doing so, and it still gives you the Brutal achievements. Kinda cheap. But that's what I'm doing now

Just finished up the frozen protoss ones; killing the shuttles on Brutal without mutalisks would've been nasty, but with them it was pretty easy. Also Twin Drones makes it so much easier to get started; I usually find the limited resource is Larva and have to make another hatchery.

Actually, replaying it like that would make you a slightly higher level because it will play out as if you completed all the other world options first.

The shuttle mission isn't really a problem even on brutal since that was the mission where you get hydras. Usually when you are introduced to a unit you can clear the mission just massing them.

Twin drones is a must have for any mission though so replaying is still very usefull if you're having difficulty. I've been useing it to get the normal achievements that i couldnt get on my brutal playthrough.