I just happened to catch today's release of the cinematic opening of the next Starcraft expansion. I usually miss releases, because that's just part of this whole vintage gaming thing. But today, a beautiful video done as only Blizzard does it, with crazy attention to detail, emotion, and story.
First, a quick view of the dense gray capital, evocative of a future New York City, and perhaps even invoking recent real-world tragedy? A bit of a stretch, but I felt it, and its a great way to instantly raise a sense of danger.
Then, a lovely bit of detail as water droplets streak upwards on the cockpit canopy of a Viking in flight through a rain cloud, and some small charm dangling where the rear view mirror would be. Then suddenly, through the clouds, the source of this mounting dread - an alien invasion.
Other details abound, wondrous in their brevity, like the sacrifice of a Viking, rapidly transforming to ground mode to delay the enemy advance, and getting swept aside before it could even fully bring up its guns. Then the long tension builder of the enemy advancing through a great open public square; the defenders lined up and waiting. Not a single face is shown, but you can guess what's going on under those helmets.
OK, the Wilhelm scream as a Nydus Worm crushes a marine? That was goofy, and broke the mood a little. I've heard from multiple sources you need that sort of thing to keep breaking the tension, so you can build it up again. Annoying, but forgivable. Before you digest the reality and metaphor of Mengsk's statue toppling, there's a dying battlecruiser falling nose-first onto the city. A beautiful way to underline the scene, but also a little risky to the storytelling. After all, if a giant space ship is just going to crash into a city, wouldn't it leave a giant crater, rendering the whole invasion and battle moot? You need to remember that battlecruisers can fly through deep space, but they tend to also be used in close ground support (at least in Blizzard's way of use), and are usually hovering just above a battleground. So, bad times for whatever neighborhood that battlecruiser hit, but its hardly a city killer. And I know its excessively geeky to even mention it, but if you care about this sort of thing, this is what goes through your head.
After that, its just some stuff about the plot but who cares, let's just watch that battle over and over again.
