StarCraft II: Campaign Collection

2018.06.20
On sale, got it. Now I can play Legacy of the Void.

Start up Starcraft II, long long list of all achievements goes by.

I was going to replay Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm, but reading my review of HotS really puts me off. Listening to this old Starcraft (original) music in the background makes me really nostalgic for the old game. Maybe I should have just spent the $15 on the remastered.

Suggested resolution is 1680x1050 but its really chunky. Trying native 1920x1200.

Legacy of the Void. Prologue. New campaign. Hard.
Amon, the Dark God? I forgot who the big bad was. Or that there even was one.

2018.11.27
So much for attempt one, I don't think I played for more than a few hours and now haven't touched it in half a year. I'd like to just get this over with, but I'm not going to set it to Easy just yet.

Watch Story So Far again; even in brief, that sure is convoluted.

I had it set to Hard, playing now on Normal but it seems a little too easy. Oh well, making progress.

Leave and come back, can't open save file, some sort of bug, posts about it go back for months. At least each campaign mission passed is unlocked as you go.

OK, so now I'm done with prologue, ready to start actual campaign...?

I still remember the emotional depth of the original Starcraft, I haven't felt it in so long... so it is interesting that they should kill off such a long standing character, one from the old days. I know it is the nature of this kind of space opera, even this early in the story. And yet... I will miss this one especially.

2018.11.28
It seems the best way to fight the save file bug is save often and if you start getting errors just restart your session.

I replay a mission so I can get that last achievement in it, to get five more points in the magic shop. I like the counselors on the ship metaphor, its a simple but effective way to manage the game. You have all your advisers handy to give their perspective, and you have an armory to choose your equipment, and a store to purchase little magic extras. I think it made the most sense in the Terran campaign, but it still works (especially as the Protoss lose their psionic instant messaging).

I like to purchase things that extend life and defenses, as I am a turtle at heart. Like playing at sandcastles on the beach, I love building defenses and just barely holding off the enemy. After this campaign I may check out what's going on in tower defense maps for this game.

2018.12.04
I think I'm about halfway through. Of course the good guys will win, the only question is who dies. I like that it could be any or even every named hero. I don't feel so good that the enemy is now some big outside other. Part of what made Starcraft such a good soap opera was that everyone was constantly making alliances and betraying each other. That got tedious after a while, but at least you knew everybody and it was all in the family. Maybe there will be some twist, like the big boss will turn out to be xel'naga after all, or maybe this is all the real test for ascension of the first and second races, or maybe everybody dies stopping the enemy and humans are the only ones left.

2018.12.11
Last mission: The Host.
First try I made it to 83%. I'm glad its not too easy.
Second time around much easier and more fun.
That's it, vanilla ending, no twists? We banish the big bad and the Protoss get to rebuild? What about the other races? No last appearances from the other heroes?
Ah, a message from Kerrigan, and then an Epilogue. OK, this is more like it.

2018.12.12
That's what I wanted: a way forward for Kerrigan (and Raynor) no matter where it goes, a resolution to the prophecies that have been made since we met the Overmind, and a fitting end to this xel'naga civil war.

And now I'm playing as Terran again. OK, can't mind that, just takes some getting used to.

2018.12.14
Hardest mission yet, escalates quickly. Must escalate faster on my second try...
It's always more fun when you understand the map, I almost want to run it again, but there's still another map. And now I play as the Zerg? It makes sense. This final battle kind of makes sense. And just like that, its over.

I like seeing Raynor back at the bar where it all began, and he's reminiscing the way characters do in movies (looking at photos, you hear bits of old dialogue, etc.) and then in walks Sara and he goes off with her. I've been turning it over and over, and you can come up with a dozen explanations easily, but it is unsatisfying. The denouement was fine until someone might actually feel some kind of sadness or loss, and then an unambiguous happy ending is dropped on it like an anvil, killing any last chance at this story being memorable in any way.

I dutifully sit through the credits, wondering how a city worth of people is required to make this game. Back to the Campaign screen where you are told in no uncertain terms "The saga of StarCraft II has ended. Thank you for playing." Was that extra finality needed for some reason? Am I completely done playing? It seems to think so, and it is probably right; this was a good product but I can't imagine taking the time to go through it again.

Let's see where this Nova Covert Ops fits in. Good thing I waited, it definitely takes place after the main story.

As suspected, since it features a named hero, its a hero mission; its probably all hero missions. I just realized I didn't get to use a single observer unit in all of the Protoss campaign. That was one of my favorite things to do as Protoss, coat the map with observers so I could see everything.

Next mission - hey, I've got a base. And spider mines, in a tower defense kind of situation. Nice.

2018.12.17
Last mission. Its painfully obvious Nova is going to kill Mrs. Mengsk and junior is going to banish her.

Well, basically that's it, though no mom confirmation. I felt more of a reaction at the end of the Nova story than the entire Protoss campaign. I want more adventures of Nova and her pirate scientist crew, rather than any more epic galaxy scale stories.

Was there supposed to be something at the end of the credits? Just endless rotating star field, so I hit escape after a while.

Now that I am spoiler free, I can read whatever I want about StarCraft.

!
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/StarcraftII
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/8501031
(broke, see https://web.archive.org/web/20161203145603/http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/8501031)