Starcraft 2 campaign review-SPOILERS!!!

[Epoetker]

So having just finished the single-player campaign, I had a few thoughts.

1. Tychus Findlay is the best character who gets absolutely no real backstory ever.

2. WHY DIDN'T RAYNOR KEEP HIS OLD COUNTRY BOY LOOK BLARGH! Not EVERY hero has to be Jesus! Not EVERY villain has to be Anti-Jesus!

3. As soon as I saw the big signs up saying things like "Submit for your own safety" or "Arbeit macht frei!" or whatever on the very first mission, along with the absurd Big Brother Mengsk holocrons, I knew the story would be a wee bit on the steeeewpid side.

4. WHY PICTURES NO TALK LIKE THEY USED TO???

5. Do blond guys ALWAYS have to be telegraphed as super-duper evil?

6. The much greater emphasis on keeping a small roving group of your forces alive is great! Now all the game needs is creep camps and hero inventories....

7. Can I get one game where religious people aren't separatist Protoss zealots? (Why should Starcraft copy Halo, anyway? Though in fairness the motivation for the Protoss religious zealots makes far more sense than the motivation for the Covenant.) Why does science fiction always have this problem?

8. The absurdly silly and multitudinous attempts to draw parallels to the Bush administration might have had me rolling eyes had Obama not attempted to out-do everything Bush did, and worse, in the past 2 years. Universalizing political mockery is always a good thing.

9. The Hive Mind Emulator is just another way of saying "That last mission just got a WHOLE lot easier. Laugh loudly as Kerrigan wastes her time on Broodlings while your bunkers and battlecruisers tear her to shreds! I want one in multiplayer!

10. Why haven't the Protoss had a sentient robot uprising yet?

11. It definitely was good to see the Terrans finally get some love, though. 3 1/2 stars.

[Darth Executor]

8. The absurdly silly and multitudinous attempts to draw parallels to the Bush administration might have had me rolling eyes had Obama not attempted to out-do everything Bush did, and worse, in the past 2 years. Universalizing political mockery is always a good thing.

Do they actually try to mock Obama too or is it unintentional?

[Epoetker]

I think the blond guy plays Obama. Or possibly Kerrigan, in a future game. Then again, this game has far too much Southern-with-a-capital S love to celebrate a boring old post-racial guy like him. (The new Marauders are now voiced by an extremely Southern black dude. And the Vultures now hilariously give their lines like they're on heroin instead of meth.) The one main character black guy has Morgan Freeman or Danny Glover syndrome-i.e., he's a black American Christian, which Obama is only veeeery obliquely (unclear on the 'black' part, given his elite East rather than West African ancestry and his completely non-black speaking style, unclear on the 'American' part due to birth certificate issues and the fact hat he was raised as much as possible far from America and Americans, unclear on the Christian part not due to any Islamic religious associations but being asked to seriously consider whether he worships anything other than himself.)

[newbie07tank]

I did campaign mission on a HARD MODE, everything was easy except on the last mission. That was so damn HARD and I don’t think its beatable. But after a few attempts, a long break and a few attempts more i finished it and even got the "hard" achievement as well. After I finish it I had no regrets or any questions bubbling in mind I just enjoy the game and wait on next campaign, for the meantime I do multiplayer game. I'm personally very satisfied with it, tho i do feel the $60 price tag is a bit steep and I need to sacrifice not to buy aion kinah for a month just to buy my own copy.

[newbie07tank]

On the second thought I still miss my toon at AION, well I think I need to buy more aion kinah to dress him a little bit.

[Seasanctuary]

I did campaign mission on a HARD MODE, everything was easy except on the last mission. That was so damn HARD and I don’t think its beatable. But after a few attempts, a long break and a few attempts more i finished it and even got the "hard" achievement as well.

That's the only mission-specific achievement I'm lacking. I keep losing at over 99% charge if I try to use the artifact only once. Just restarted on Brutal and will make better research choices. Should be much easier next time around.

Enjoying it all round, except that silly Tosh character.

[Jin-Roh]

I haven't finished the campaign yet, but here are the things I like

1. You actually get the feeling that you are traveling the stars, with a band of rebels, and within a your own capitol ship. This wasn't the case in the original Starcraft.

2. Not having to waste time, every single mission, to do upgrades like "stim packs" and "cloaking device"

3. Each mission, so far, has felt unique, and not recyling of "kill enemy base" win condition.

4. The mission where Tychus takes control of the Odin had me laughing nearly as hard as when I played the original Monkey Island.

5. Best dead-pan line so far: "You did the right thing and you know it. Friends don't let friends massacre civilians, Jim."

[Jin-Roh]

8. The absurdly silly and multitudinous attempts to draw parallels to the Bush administration might have had me rolling eyes had Obama not attempted to out-do everything Bush did, and worse, in the past 2 years. Universalizing political mockery is always a good thing.

I don't know if that is actually fair. The themes of the Starcraft canon where likely decided long before the Bush administration.

They did take a (amusing) cheap shot at fox news though.

[Seasanctuary]

Rocking a Kerrigan portrait after completing all campaign missions on Brutal.

(Just don't ask me to PvP. Yikes!)

[Jin-Roh]

oh... and am I the only one who thinks that Kerrigan looks like Felicia Day?

[Philosophickle]

Multiplayer is fun.
They remade DOTA....

[Seasanctuary]

Kerrigan with high heels was the worst thing in the entire campaign. Even worse than her vapid writing.

[Epoetker]

Are you saying that Kerrigan, or Arthas, or Illidan, or any one of the other Face Heel Turners Blizzard makes to maintain the racial status quo in their respective universes have actually had good writing before?

You write well when you have an ending in mind. You write small-mindedly when you're just stringing things along for the next sequel.

[Seasanctuary]

Player vs player turned out not as bad as I expected. Got my five-wins and five-wins-in-a-row achievements at the same time. Plenty of people at least as bad as I am!

(Mothership drops are very fun game-enders.)