Yes, considering how long they obviously spent on the script, and the $$ they must've paid voice actors, they really didn't get much to show for it in the end.

I kinda agree with you in that the campaign is half-assed, and I kinda disagree with you in that the campaign is well-written.

The campaign itself is fun. Good delivery of the story, fun gameplay things like the energy nova and the Lost Viking and the mining laser.

The story is probably the most terrible (*#@&@(*%(@ thing about SC2. It's like a slap in the face with a fish covered in fecal matter and hooks. Even in the SC1 to SCBW transition there wasn't such a massive stupid cliffhanger. There was an EPIC feel of ending, of conclusion. There was build up, a sweet start, awesome climax (lul), and an epic ending.

SC2 is pretty much the reverse of that and an antithesis. It has an AWESOME beginning, because I've been waiting for a decade for this shit, and then it starts going down starting on the first mission with the terrible scripts and clear-as-day Big brother references. And the campaign gets worse. First, I'm trying to destroy Mengsk's hold over society, topple his Dominion. Then, I get this crap about saving Haven and helping Tosh and pick up artifacts. Most lame stupid campaign selection screen ever. The Hyperion settings were meh and the conversations stilted as Hell. There is NO tie into the story with Hanson and Tosh whatsoever. We never see what happens to Hanson's cure, we don't see the impacts of the freed people from the prisonworld. The choices that we made? BIG CHANGES, SIGNIFICANT TO THE STORY? LOLNO!

See, what those "big choices" really were were deciding whether you wanted a Spectre or a Ghost for the rest of the game. That's it. Zerg/Protoss upgrades? lolwhatyousmoking, there is an overabundance in upgrade points unless you suck and didn't pick up every single on in the other missions.

Hanson's cure for infestation could have been found throughout the campaign. Tosh's Spectres could have been used in the plot to see what happens to Mengsk's Dominion. We could have seen an uninfestation solution through a mix of terrazine/jorium and Hanson's cure. Instead, we have this shit tool of an excuse "artifact" THAT HURRDURR DOES EXACTLY WHAT THE PLOT REQUIRES IT TO DO.

You know, coming from this relatively new character Valerian Mengsk and his immediate build-up as a character (though he appears to be an interesting character from other media sources), you would have expected the artifact to completely shit on Jim Raynor's day and kill Kerrigan or something drastically evil. Instead, you get this "MYSTERIOUS ALIEN STRANGE" artifact that no one SHOULD know what it does (it's coming from some jumped up Moebius company hired by Val) that does EXACTLY THIS: KILL SUM ZERG & UNINFEST KERRIGAN. That series of events was just completely stupid.

And what happens to Hanson and Tosh? Absolutely useless filler and a waste of development time. They ultimately have no impact on the story unlike the side missions and such from the original SC1 and SCBW, and the final missions on Char aren't even that impressive. Who didn't see a failure of an invasion coming? It wasn't even a really epic failure of an invasion. There was next to no emotion or passion coming through in this section. Except through the Blood and Fire or whatever cutscene and a few marine screams earlier, it was overall pretty lifeless.

In SC1, there were many (well) hidden agendas and it played out like an epic tale. Generic, perhaps, yes; however, it was epic and wonderfully orchestrated. Everything seamlessly meshed together to become a cohesive plot and story. Wanna see a failed invasion? See: End of SCBW Zerg campaign. UED flight, DuGalle's suicide and his letter to his family. SC1 had emotion, it had significance, it was well-written. So well-written that there are other works that build on to the StarCraft universe.

Here's what I predict for fanfic for SC1 and SC2: where good SC1 fanfic built on to a pre-existing plot (because that's how awesome it was; there were many third-party maps, mods, expansions in development), SC2 will be about CORRECTING an otherwise TERRIBLE story.

Looking into SC1's story, I was expectant, I wanted to know what was going to happen next.
As for SC2, I was prepared to stab myself because I DIDN'T WANT TO SEE HOW THE WRITERS WOULD FURTHER SCREW UP SUCH A PERFECT GAME AND STORY. SC2's story is a bad joke. So many infested people, but why in Hell would the Zerg want to infest such a puny, weak race as humans? Perhaps to exploit psionic potential of the Terran? Feasible excuse, but ultimately, POORLY demonstrated. Infestation is a gimmick in SC2, compared to how significant it was in SC1. Hell, KERRIGAN WAS INFESTED. Guess what happens in SC2? Nothing. Nothing comes of infestation, you just turn into a zombie. I could have gone out to buy L4D if I wanted zombies, instead, I burned my money in hopes of seeing Blizzard come through with a good game (SC2).

Instead, all I get is a half-assed service to World of Whorecraft players. I wish I could upload an avatar, because it's message would be "SC1 > SC2". Blizzard's been a prick before, but now, especially after the merger, it's gone completely to Hell.

And, yea, I'm mad.

you people who say there is no retcon are full of %!#@.

First of all it was clearly stated that the overmind gained freewill and hid itself from the Xel'naga's detection, which shocked them as they never expected it. Explain this.

Secondly, the overmind attacked the xel'naga world ships and destroyed a large number of them, it assimilated the knowledge of the xel'naga, which is how it learnt of the protoss, and then it decided that its ultimate goal was to assimilate the protoss. Again this was clearly stated, there was no master pulling the overmind's strings, the overmind did it of its own will, not because the xel'naga programmed it to attack the protoss, in fact the xel'naga did not even see the attack coming and was caught completely by surprise, now they are saying the xel'naga are so all knowing that they predicted things thousands of years in the future? retcon.

Also, play the starcraft zerg campaign again, listen to the things the overmind says, and then tell me if he does not have free will and was forced to attack the protoss, what bull%!#@. I'm not gonna quote him because pretty much everything he says shows he has free will and how much he wants to assimilate the protoss, go listen for yourself.

You guys can't complain of plot holes and such until all three campaigns are released. After that, though, feel free to bitch. I probably will