Monday, September 2, 2013

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm (2013)

So far its very much Blizzard style, and not just the artwork, but the operatic story. The stage is as busy and garish as a carnival, and not a character is allowed to act rationally. The story starts with idiot ball firmly in hand, and never lets it go.

*spoilers*

Why would Kerrigan believe the news report so immediately and completely, without any verification what-so-ever. Its a known propaganda channel - why believe anything it says at all. Sure, it gets the plot moving quickly, but its the fatal flaw of the whole story, and I'm only in the first quarter or so of the game. After taking over the swarm, she immediately sets out to to rehabilitate her enemy into a loyal servant, which feels suicidal.

I don't like where this story is going at all. Blizzard is cannibalizing bits and pieces of the original Starcraft story, and building this weaker, less interesting story out of it. Come to think of it, Blizzard is always doing this, far back as I can remember. Story always seems to degenerate over time, like they are handing the writing duties off to interns who only read the back of the box. Particularly, the Xel'Naga used to be the only Eldritch Power, and the Zerg were a new creation assembled over time from many places. The homeworld of the Zerg, if I remember correctly, was just another piece of the biological melting pot that is the Zerg, not an original Eldritch Power itself. The Zerg, like the Protoss, were built by the Xel'Naga out of primitive races, even more primitive then humans. Its a little thing, that most will not notice or care about, but it takes the wind out of it for me. Who gives a shit about this story now.

Of course Kerrigan needs to become Queen of Blades again, but she did so on some old power's say-so, and just hoped everything would work out. Maybe at this point in the story, Kerrigan just doesn't care anymore, and doesn't care about consequences. The Blizzard world seems to be made of these elements: interesting doo-dads, heroism, betrayal, and stupidity. And the best cut scenes known to man.



A few days later, I'm about halfway through. A random click on Kerrigan to hear the little extras that all characters say, reveals she's doing all this to save Jim. This is just batshit crazy - and not from the character, but from the writers. Kerrigan was definitely in a very vulnerable state, and losing Jim was what pushed her over the edge into crazy revenge. She did zero followup before deciding Jim was dead, but its not that bad because she later reveals she no longer feels his presence in the Universe. Knowing she is powerful in The Force, this at least makes her snap decision sound much more palatable now. Now that Mengsk taunts her that Raynor is still alive, she again makes a snap decision to believe this new turn of events? And now she's going to rescue him, and she expects anything other than horror and revulsion from Raynor? These characters aren't crazy, the writers are. Its frustrating, because the voice acting and animation are very high quality, but the author(s) of this story are not in the same league.

The game is becoming very much Warcraft In Space.

I'm finally getting accustomed to playing the part the Queen of Blades, v2.0, but then suddenly I'm playing a Terran mini-game. Just when the Kerrigan story started getting a bit too heavy, we're back to playing a light-hearted Tetris game with battlecruisers. And it seems OK.



I finished a few days ago. The game left no impression on me, and I immediately moved on to other things. Even now, a few days later, I hardly remember it. What was the point? Oh well.



More days later, I try single player variations against the computer. I can already tell that I'm mostly done here, but I might be playing rounds against the computer occasionally. I think this calls for a separate track. I will start a scratch page for the odd SC2 game; it doesn't really merit a new post until the next update of the game itself.

Age of Empires II (2013)

2024.01.15 Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition came out in 2019. Age of Empires II: HD Edition came out in 2013. I'm playing the older...