StarCraft® II

So I just finished the campaign.

It was pretty bad.

I don't mean the actual gameplay. The level design was absolutely mind blowing. I can't praise blizzard level designers enough for it. How they managed to make 29 missions for a single race remain fresh was pretty amazing. Much Props to you guys <3.

I mean the narrative. It was really bad. Of course, Blizzard is hardly known for their original, dramatic stories, but generally their past narratives, while derivative, still enhanced the overall game play experience. SC2 fails in this department, The Wings of liberty storyline was nigh-unbearable.

And I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that. Its a pretty common criticism amongst fans and critics alike.

Alec and Quinn, respectable reviewers from RPS (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com) note:

...Raynor is a terrible, terrible character and I’m amazed they hung so much of the game’s presentation and marketing around him.
Quinns: Raynor’s fine on paper, as are the rest of his crew. The haggard rebel, the criminal, the nerdy scientist, the by-the-book spit-and-polish captain and his antagonism with the criminal. But in execution it’s boring

Liquid'Jinro, of TL.net notes

Good missions, but the way it was resolved just felt like I was watching an 80's pre-show recap of events

And more from Starcraft fans on the internet.

The missions and units and everything except how the story was presented was good. The news reporter thing was stupid and I only clicked it b/c I click everything anyway. The game felt a little too much like being an errand boy rather than progressing the story sometimes. Most of the game really felt like WoW quests rather than an awesome story. I played most of it on Brutal, a lot on hard, and on the last mission I got 66% on brutal and died so I was like Ill just play on casual so I can get to the last mission. Oh wait that was the last one. Yeh so really good except too many quests that didn't really matter. ANd talking to the people on the ship felt like a chore rather than fun 90% of the time.

I find the cut scenes to be agonizing to sit through. Glad to hear that at least some people share my opinion. They are well rendered, but the writing and delivery are pure pain to me. I agree with people who view it as Wing Commander with a bit more polish.

Of course, it certainly isn't unilateral consent. But it certainly represents a very legitimate criticism. And while Blizzard games have been criticized for everything ranging from inaccessible learning curves, lack of learning curves, derivative designs, inability to emulate predecessors, a host of other issues, incidentally, unbearably terrible narratives were not among them.

So what exactly makes WoL's story so unbearable? Is it, as Veronica of another thread on the B-net forums voicing a similar concern notes? That:

After 12 years and countless millions earned from WoW Blizzard's writing has actually degraded

?

Well, in all likelihood, probably not. The issue lies in blizzards particular style of writing (and design in general), and how it simply doesn't translate into a character driven narrative.

Blizzards always done things by "the rule of cool". Apparently, that why every single set of shoulders in WoW have so many long metal spikes that they should be classified as lightning hazards and why everybody emits purple light from their eyes. Even the horses.

This is surprisingly bearable, even "cool", in a game like Wc3 or SC1. Its works great in those games because there are so many characters, and each have only a few lines. In order to make them memorable and distinguishable, they HAVE to be caricatures and stereotypes who just spout one liners all day. Which for the most part, they were. Raynor and Kerrigan and Zeratul were fantastic characters, but only work when presented as story elements, not 3 dimensional characters. Because as far as there presentations goes, they weren't. Instead, they worked because they implied 3 dimensional characters lurking behind their roles as story elements.

Objectively, the writing in SC2 isn't any worse then it was in Sc1. But Sc2 doesn't go for a similar presentation as Sc1 or Wc3. It attempts to be a character driven narration, while the writing is still a relic from when characters were simply story elements. Yet at the same time there is some awareness of this, but it simply dilutes the factor so not only are the characters not, or ever were, complex characters, but they're not even cool anymore.

The end result is probably is a narrative that is sadly, the worst one blizzard ever wrote.

So all i got to say Blizz, for your upcoming expansion pack...

plz fix. Lets kick this writing department into overdrive mmk?

and fix b-net 2.0 while your at it :p.