I just thought of something else that hadn't occurred to me: this is a happy ending.

And I really must thank Blizzard for that. I'm so over the edgy contemporary BS (see Mass Effect 3 as the primary offender) where the ending has to be 'peace at grave cost'. Here in SC2 we got to take our cake and eat it too.


Quote I read on bnet forums. Agree 100%:

I have said it before and I will say it again:

SC1 = Game of Thrones
SC2 = Lord of the Rings

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 17 2015, 8:55 am by Oh_Man.

Billions of humans died. Shakuras, homeworld of the Dark Templar, blew up. Kerrigan redeemed herself, because she is a mass murderer that wipes out planets. It's a pretty epic scale within level of horror if you put some thought into it. It's a never ending holocaust... endless Zerg taking over planets, Protoss destroying planets, Terran nuking each other, nothing but death. To top it all of that, Amon's Hybrids are there to end everything.

And don't forget Zeratul dying too. I suppose it wasn't all happy endings. Oh and Tassadar was never actually alive in the void. He dead dead. Zeratul/Tassadar fusion dream = ruined.

But yeah that is a problem they had to work with when you have the three races all being allies - because now there's no conflict. So in each case you have to invent reasons to fight each other.

Terrans fighting Terrans Jim Raynor vs Dominion, or vs Mobeius Core.
Zerg fighting Zerg feral broods, or broods controlled by Amon.
Protoss fighting Taldarem Protoss, or Amon-controlled Protoss.

And all the combinations of that. Whereas in the original it was simply Protoss v Zerg v Terran, and no one was truly 'evil' they all had their reasons for fighting. So by allying the races up they were basically forced to create these other scenarios in order to get conflict.

Keep in mind that Valerian is the Emperor now, who allied with Jim Raynor. Umojan Protectorate are obviously now allied with The Dominion since Valerian is in charge. Kel-Morian Combine is still there. Independent Terran factions exist such as pirates, mercenaries and so on such as Mira Han, Orlan, and etc. United Earth Directorate would be too overpowered, so it wouldn't be fair if they're in.
The Overmind's dead corpse is obliterated, and cerebrates are all replaced by queens. The Queen of Blades made the Zerg queens to control the Zerg. Kerrigan already allied with Raynor, Artanis, and Valerian. It is possible if there are independent Zerg broods controlled by either cerebrates (if any) and queens.
The Protoss are all united: Firstborn/Daelaam, Dark Templar/Nerazim, Purifiers, except the Tal'darim. Although no alliance, it would be odd if Alarak would suddenly betray Artanis.

I'm like 90% there's going to be DLC out in the future that is Alarak betraying Artanis lol.

You made me realise an important question though: is it ever explained how Amon controlled the Zerg? The Protoss it was obviously through the Khala. The Taldaream apparently worked for Amon voluntarily (and didn't use the Khala somehow, so didn't need to sever their nerve cords??).

My understanding was the Overmind was a puppet to Amon. But with OM dead and Kerrigan in control I'm unsure how Amon controls the Zerg. Maybe the Zerg have the Khala too?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 19 2015, 2:02 am by Oh_Man.

you see, Amon controls the Zerg through essence, just like he controlled protoss through essence. Terrans also have essence, it's how the lineage of Mengsk will always stay in control of the Dominion, because their essence is the strongest. Essence is pretty much the key to the end of all things.

It's going to be strange, especially if Alarak will allow his followers to join Artanis if they want to.

I think it's simple. The Zerg are already controlled by queens mentally. Amon can control his Zerg mentally.

According to Tassadar, everyone misunderstood the Overmind. The Overmind lacked free will, so there's nothing but rage in his own mind. The Overmind decided to infest Sarah Kerrigan in order to give the Zerg a second chance. Why the Overmind wanted to go to Aiur is to eliminate all Protoss, so Amon couldn't create the Hybrid if it's only Zerg. Tassadar sacrificed himself so the Protoss can survive.

I am mad dissapointed.

As someone before me said, it was all Hollywood, nothing real about it. UNITE THE CLANS! ALLY THE ENEMY AGAINST OUR GREATER ENEMY! LEAVE PERSONAL FEUDS ASIDE FOR THE GREATER GOOD! type bullshit. Everything else is just a detail - Zeratul dying was just a tearjerker with no real effect on the story, as someone mentioned he could have easily severed artanis's nerve cord via cloak or something. Shakuras dying? So what, it had no effect on the story, all the protoss just went aboard the spear. Age old feud with the tal-darim? Nah best buddies now. Rogue Mobeius core terran faction? Easily exterminated despite our lack of army. Need Kerrigan to show up without coordinating anything with her to super secret Xel'Naga home that has been lost for eons? In fact, get there, not knowing you need her? She'll conveniently appear. Harassment from Golden Armada that bad guy now controls? Nah he'll just let the free protoss pitter patter around and amass some allies. Bring Fenix back? Just for some nostalgia feels, fenix literally did nothing useful. Oh wait he "helped" somehow with the purifier faction, as if a bunch of much older protoss purifiers would just instate this relatively young warrior as their faction king despite just being awoken from their time in which they had a massive beef with the normal toss. Memory-girl protoss? What the fuck was the point of her except for "Oh look old protoss were racist." She "sensed his plans" or something? Aka when they went to Aiur she told Artanis to kill the psi matrix that literally every protoss in existence already knows about?



Best thing in my opinion was the visuals, the compression didn't bother me I just liked to see protoss jumping around psi-blading shit and being protossy and glowy and stuff. The missions were generally fun, the army selection stuff was cool and I massively underutilized my spear of adun powers. So far only beat it on hard, dunno if I have the time (plus my mouse is only semi-functional right now) for Brutal.

If the OM had no freewill how could it create Kerrrigan?

Also remember that wasn't Tassadar giving that speech about the OM. That was Orous Xel Naga masquerading as Tassadar.

Yeah the whole twilight messiah subplot was pretty dumb, and even more so now that we know it was a xel'nigger this whole time. Khas is supposed to be the same thing as Tassadar, and even if Ourous was just Tassadar, that's a retcon of earlier in the game when Artanis says that none but Amon directly interfered with the Protoss - unless we're supposed to assume that Tassadar was an actual character and that his 'resurrection' was actually Ourous, but they don't specify, so we can only speculate.

Xel Naga looked so dumb haha. I kept thinking of a walrus or seal.

Also if Narud was a Xel Naga why did he need to resurrect Amon?

Is Amon just a regular Xel Naga that betrayed his kind, or is there something special about him?

This whole damn thing just isn't fleshed out properly.

Ourous was made to look like the leviathan from ME3 I believe, but their appearance is pretty dumb regardless.

Most of the story lacks the necessary details to qualify as 'fleshed out', in my opinion. Not enough time is spent discussing the important things. Or anything.

I just finished this.
Oh my god. This was terrible. Pr0nogo, I am sorry, I give you permission to shit all over LotV in this topic...

It was pretty disappointing. I agree, it was all... happy, it had no depth in the story and all missions were about the same. Protoss finding new units, Protoss making bros with ancient stuff, ancient stuff loves protoss again and unite. Repeat that 15 times and you're got those missions. The other mission was zeratul dying one which I am okay with. I still have no idea why he was suddenly a traitor. And the last 4 aiur missions were... meh.
I also can't believe they used the exact same mission from WoL. That's a whole new level of lazy. And why the fuck does everything run on solarite? Even motherfucking animals had solarite cores. I mean, why? Because fuck you, that's why.

Things I liked:
Protoss being "hacked" and having their khala turned against them. I found that a nice spin, specially when they all started to sever their nerves. That was cool.
Alarak was veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery cool. It's by far the best thing in LotV.

Things I disliked:
I BRING SALVATIOOOON. I WILL STOP YOUR SUFFFEEEEERRRRIIIING. I BRING END TO THE INFINITEEE CYCLEEEEEE
Artanis being a pussy when it came to fighting other protoss and also insisting so much on cutting Rohana's nerves.
Solarite. That was stupid. They came up with a good explanation for Terrazine and they it related to the void. Why not use THAT instead of complely making up something retarded?


Overall it has been $40 not that well spent. But oh, well, it did entertain me for quite a while. Which is less than what I'd spend in a night's out anyway.



I had the opportunity to play my last missions with voy and, jokingly, we started a drinking game, thus, I give you:
THE LEGACY OF THE VOID DRINKING GAME

[NORMAL MODE]
Everytime you awaken, save or power new units. Drink
Everytime Artanis refers to someone as Friend X. Drink.
Everytime someone comes back as a fucking robot or ghost. Drink.



[EXPERT MODE] (Spoiler alert: You'll die from alcohol poisoning)
Everytime something runs, has a core of it or uses solarite. Drink twice. Drink three times if it's a fucking animal running on solarite.
Everytime Artanis tries to convince Rohana to sever her nerves. Drink twice
Amon trash-talks, offers you salvation, to end your suffering or says he'll end the infinite cycle. Bottoms up! Drink the whole thing!


Does this drinking game make it more bearable? No. No, it does not. But chances are you won't even remember it the next day

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 29 2015, 4:13 pm by Corbo.

Just drink any time someone says Prophecy or Essence. You'll be dead three maps in and won't have to play through the rest.

Wish I could feel good about saying 'I told you so', but this title was such a trainwreck that it gave me permanent mental scarring and I will forever be more retarded afterwards, so I can't really feel good about anything anymore.

10/10 wish I could forget this post so I can read it again

Corbo basically summed up my thoughts on the game. Definitely the weakest of the 3, and I was already let down by HotS.

Thank you based John de Lancie, I don't think I would've been able to make it through the whole thing without Alarak. The mission design was incredibly repetitive and dull (with a few bright spots - the "tug of war" between Alarak and the other guy comes to mind). I liked being able to use abilities from the SoA and swap units around, it's just a pity there weren't fun missions to go along with it.

Corbo forgot "suicidal" mode which is drink every time they talk about the void. I know void energies were already a thing in SC, but they basically threw out all logic and reason in favor of space magic (whether that's Xel'Naga magic or void magic). SC:BW was about factions vying for control over the galaxy, and largely driven by political maneuvering and there are very few straight "good guys." LotV was about invading Hell to kill the Devil - it was largely driven by hackneyed prophecy bullshit, and everyone is a good guy who lives happily ever after in the end. Ugh.

Problem with prophecy is that any choices the characters make aren't actually theirs and have no meaning because it was all predetermined. They were always going to happen that way. When that's the case with your stories, your characters are no better than robots, mindlessly droning on until the prophecies are fulfilled. It doesn't belong in any genre, much less science-fiction, and especially not in a sci-fi universe which already has an established plot that you could easily continue if you had played Brood War. Seems that nobody on the design team had done that, though, so the decision from Wings of Liberty onward was to axe BW and treat it like it had never happened.

Maybe it got lost in the void.

The entire SC2 story is bullshit. I played WoL and it was the worst story I had ever had the misfortune of being told. HotS topped that. I don't need to play LotV, but I'll play it anyway just to drink in my own suffering!

It really did give me PTSD, and statistically you're more prone to that than I am, so I have to offer a legitimate trigger warning.

Shall I suggest the LotV drinking game, then?