What things did you like/dislike about WoL/HotS campaigns? Would you change something?

Campaign Discussion
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Hey guys. Happy Christmas. I’m curious to know what aspects of SC2 WoL/HotS you liked/disliked and if there is anything about them that you’d change. Let’s keep it at these two because I haven’t played LotV yet (no lotv spoil please, thx).

Also, what things did SC1 do better than SC2 and vice versa?

Personally, I enjoyed the cinematics a lot in SC2 and the overall gameplay throughout these two campaigns. Although the story in SC1 felt a lot more immersive to be honest, probably better written as well, not sure why though, since it’s basically the same person who wrote the plot for SC2.

2

Merry Christmas!

Well I would change a whole lot of things, but let us go through my comparison between SC1 and SC2. Now I must admit, I only have a limited experience with SC1, having only played two thirds of Rebel Yell so far, so this should be fairly short.
I really like the fact that we are the protagonist, and not a named character. This makes it easier for the game to make otherwise hard or stupid/divisive choices. There’s a lot of potential in a story like that because all the characters can operate around us naturally without making out-of-character actions for the sake of moving the story forward.
I also enjoy the scale of SC1 (so far) more, focusing on very small portions first, and gradually increasing the scale of the resistance, and all that. This ties in to the story which is pretty damn good so far. I actually feel like some sort of high tier junker when I play Terran, having very much not flashy but functional buildings, armors, etc. which helps with the idea that I’m trying to survive next to two powerful alien races for the sake of survival. This was something I was missing (even without playing any of SC1 at the time) in SC2.
As far as mission go, I think SC1 beats te sequel for one very simple reason. I think it was a bad idea to let the player mix up the different missions. Not having a fixed order creates a bunch of annoyances. I also have something against choice missions where one side is decided canon. Bite me.
The characters so far also seem interesting to me. One issue I had with WoL and HotS is it felt like all the other characters outside the protagonists were there to add a comment that was worth nothing a good 90% of the time. Jimbo always had to have the last word too.
As far as missions go, so far I enjoy them in SC1. It feels like I can have a strategy and pull it off the way I want, because all units have their strengths and weaknesses. One problem can be optimally - and this is the important word here - worked around multiple ways. I use a lot of Wraiths with Science Vessels to back them, but Marines, Siege Tanks, and to a lesser extent Goliaths are also fine. I actually use Goliaths as a Marine support, instead of massing them Swann style, like in WoL.

Now as far as SC2 goes, it has its own strengths. The visuals are more pleasing, and the gameplay is smoother (though I love the Remastered version’s fake 3D sprites). It also has a big variety of units, but many of those units are hardly worth anything, and it makes me feel like the rosters were bloated for the sake of having more, whether those are worthwhile units or ain’t. I’m looking at you, Reapers and Diamondbacks.

Now then, the things I would change. I would get rid of the prophecy of course, so Jimbo doesn’t have a reason to play for Team Kerrigan without the writers having to invest actual brainpower. If you want that to happen you gotta commit to something worthwhile. I am also not opposed to an enemy that people need to unite against, but I’d rather not have that. If I have to have it, well, the Xel’naga as a race are a good start for it. Yeah, honestly, I’d just remake the story and once I’m done with that I’d look at the campaigns, how they are built up, mission counts, etc.

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SC1 vanilla had different “second in command”. I mean, writing team is more than one person, so I guess that’d be the reason.

Loved or liked about WoL

Colonist arc if ended by Haven’s Fall

Whole Covert arc regardless of outcome, even though Tosh is way better

Soundtrack and Cutscenes in general.
Soundtrack isn’t as distinctive as in LotV, but it’s great.

Piercing the Shroud for going full horror movie and best depiction of Hybrids being the ultimate threat

Actually using detectors even if only occasionally.

Mercenaries and Graven Hill’s voice

Tychus, Tosh and Horner complementing one another.

The Dig, Evacuation and Oubreak as missions that are not challenging, but I look forward to playing each replay.

Branching missions on Char, because it’s the only branching that affects primarily the gameplay not the story.

Cellular reactor for improving caster viability.

Diverse mission design.

Lost Viking

Hyperion feeling more lively than Leviathan and spoiler ship

Ads and lower bar news.

Rebellion arc, because it felt “Raynory”

Second Medic upgrade. I love keeping my troops alive.

Gameplay and only gameplay of Safe Haven.

Better tomorrow cinematic

Warfield as a decent Dominion character

Valerian joining the cast, even though he was still rough around the edges.

Mira Han

Hanson not showing up after WoL

Things I didn’t like or hated

Prophecy

Safe Haven

Prophecy missions having only Multiplayer units without any cool campaign stuff.

Overmind’s vision.
I am saying it wasn’t Overmind, but

Spoiler territory

Ouros just making a vivid vision to further his goal

Raynor washing his hands over Tychus

Some units and upgrades being completely useless after their initial mission or even during the mission. For example if you play Engine of Destruction after Haven, it’s pointless to play Wraiths instead of Vikings. Diamondbacks and Reapers see very little use later on as well.

Firebat, Hellion, Vulture, Predator being the same role

First Medic upgrade

Not enough raiding mission where you could utilize transports, Diamonbacks and Reapers.

Hanson acting like Raynor is evil for killing Infested on Haven, when Meinhoff was completely fine.

Disappearance of Infested if you choose Safe Haven.

Nyon is a joke.

Yawn, I mean Maw of the Void is the second most tedious mission in the saga.

Prophecy again

Someone thinking that Duran having reversed name was clever.

Donny Vermillion most of the time. I don’t mean the part where he spouts propaganda. I mean the part where it’s a joke.

Lack of confirmed WoL canon order. Which kinda follows up on Donny breaking down after Media Blitz and then returning like nothing ever happened, because you can play many more missions after it.

In Utter Darkness. I hate the mission design. And it took me ages to get this mission on Hard and Brutal, because it was literally the last thing for me to complete. Challenge is one thing. This wasn’t fun.

Nyon being joke.

Tosh not showing up after WoL.

Safe Haven. It’s trash.

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I’ll just mention the things that I wish they developed more.

  1. I wish Tosh’s Covert arc led into other parts of the WoL storyline. The end claims that Tosh and the people freed at the prison will help with the war, so actually show it!
  2. Media Blitz should have been a multi-parter (sneak onto the planet, do Media Blitz, escape). Should have at least been 3 parts.
  3. HotS’ should have had evolutions for the Queens, Infestors, Abberations and possibly the Drones and Overlords. It just felt too weird having some units left out of getting another form.
  4. The lack of transportation play in HotS and LotV was just odd. Where the heck were the island hopping missions?
  5. AI’s lack of spellcasting was disappointing. I knew Brutal mode was a joke the moment I saw Wraiths/Banshees refusing to use their cloaking field, or how Infestors only ever spawned infested marines.
  6. Macro map layouts were pretty lame. So many times you just had the main base with a second expansion close by, and that was it. Why was it so rare to have multiple expansions around the map?
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Liked about HotS

Zagara

Abathur

Stukov

Kerrigan vs Narud cutscene

Fire in the Sky

Missions without Kerrigan’s unit

Niadra

Opening cutscene’s music

That Viking from the same cutscene

Broken horn Zergling

Dehaka, sue me. I admit Primals were underdeveloped though.

Valerian’s development.

Didn’t like or hated

Izsha

Bland mission design.

Waking the Ancient having fliers. They ruined wonderful mission design from Welcome to the Jungle.

No Corruptor and Overseer

Short

Evolutions having clearcut winner (Brood Lord vs Viper? Come the frick on)

Cheap rehash of Siege of Dalaran.

People who think Izsha is an actual character.

Kerrigan being too OP and having like 2 viable builds.

Too easy.

Kerrigan’s hypocrisy on Kaldir.

Everything that gave Charmed material to talk.

Hybrids becoming a casual threat.

The lie about Umoja and KMC trully showing up. We saw a ship and a planet.

Kerrigan steamrolling everything in the story as well.

Lack of great stuff. It has less mistakes than WoL, but WoL has many redeeming traits. WoL tried, HotS didn’t.

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To be fair, Tosh probably meant Spectres, but it would be nice if Tosh appeared again in the story, now that we know he lives.

Also, please let the vaccine fail and infest Hanson.

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Hey, if you don’t know how to utilize the amazing unit that is Reaper, then it’s your fault! They’re cheap mobile early game unit capable of deleting an entire base. They’re good against early game light unit. They ability to jump up and down cliff can gain them an unfair advantage over other ground unit. Or skip that entirely and just decimate all building.

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Where are the Reapers cheap? They is expensive and slow to train.

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Or just use Marines, Marauders and Medics.

10

Well, they’re not marine cheap, but 50 mineral and gas isn’t that expensive, either.

@Brother Bifrost

Yeah, there is that…

11

Well, no, that is extremely expensive. Minerals are hardly the problem of course, Vespene is. You can get a Goliath for 50 Vespene, or a Medic, or two Marauders or two Firebats. And their training time, well, it is longer than that of a Firebat, Medic or Marauder.

Reapers are just not worth it, as cool as they are.

12

For the vespene price of 4 Reapers, you can get 2 freaking Siege Breakers. Or Dusk Wings.

Instantly.

Reapers suffer from lack of merc as well.

I wouldn’t have the same desire to upgrade Firebats and Goliaths. But Spartans with weapons upgrade and double targetting… Devil Dogs with more splash and armor…

SIGN ME UP.

13

Yeah, it pains me to say it, but Reapers are just a swing and a miss. Still think that a non-RTS StarCraft game should be about Tychus and his Heaven’s Devils. Crooked Sam for the win!

14

Why do you have to be so well reasoning? Now, you just ruin one of my favorite early game unit…

15

Brother, it pains me greatly to conclude what I just did. But just because a unit is borderline useless it don’t mean you can not or should not use it!

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Tell me which one you think is the obvious choice, because I don’t think that one is obvious at all.

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I thought he means the Brood Lords. But I think the Raptor-Swarmling or Hunter-Splitter ones are more obvious.

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Brood Lords, because they are good without you doing anything at all.

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Who needs Brood lords when you have KerrIWINgan :smiley:

20

Well I usually go for two pronged attack late in the campaign.

1.Kerrigan + Leviathan.
2. Torrasques, BLs, Hydras, Viles.