So it was mentioned over on the CGsociety forums and I gotta agree that the voiceover is really weak compared to the rest of the cinematic. Ever since Diablo III I've had the impression that Blizzard cinematics have gotten more and more 'on the nose' in terms of their subject matter/story and especially dialogue. The Black Soulstone cinematic, while looking fantastic and having incredible images also featured one of the most generic voiceovers along the lines of "I'm bad and I'm gonna do bad things muahahaha *mustache twirl*"
I don't even know why I get upset about this because the cinematics themselves are fucking gorgeous every damn time. Maybe it's a double edged sword though that BECAUSE the rest is so gorgeous, the dialogue should follow suit...
Holy crap, easter egg alert! in the flicker at the start, where it shows the blizzard logo, is a picture of a bunch of the devs that make the cinematics! Follow an artist on deviantart, and one of his comments was to pause at 0:08 to see some devs. haha
Blizzard's cinematic team is fantastic imagine a feature length film... I always wished they would be worth going to, make it 3D (sterioscopic) 60fps 4k redcam... :P
The CE this time around seems like kinda a rip off. Last one came with all the same stuff PLUS that flash drive with SC1 on it...I STILL PREORDERED IT THOUGH!
I remember an awesome hype trailer before wings of liberty... Then I played the game only to hate it's story. Loved the missions tho, hopefully blizzard got their writers to do a better job this time... Either way it'll be a great game.
I almost play the Starcraft games solely for the cinematics, not bashing any of its design or gameplay mechanics, I just want to see the cinematics in context as quickly as I can.
After the story in Wings of Liberty I sworn to myself to wait for reviews. There is a little devil on my shoulder screaming to preorder it, but I will wait for reviews. With hope the writing will be as good as visuals.
After the story in Wings of Liberty I sworn to myself to wait for reviews. There is a little devil on my shoulder screaming to preorder it, but I will wait for reviews. With hope the writing will be as good as visuals.
lol I already broke down and pre ordered. I know I'll want it for the multi-player if nothing else. Looks like they finally got around to attempting to fix b.net 2.0. :P clan support w00t!
nice as usual from them but yanno they better make up for first's horrific storyline.. I musta facepalmed myself for a solid 10 minutes at the end of the first one..
nice as usual from them but yanno they better make up for first's horrific storyline.. I musta facepalmed myself for a solid 10 minutes at the end of the first one..
I'm really curious aswell what was horrific about the ending of WOL , Raynor shooting his best friend?
Hm, I always thought that throughout the whole campaign Raynor's main motivator was to get Kerrigan while Tychus seemed the one bent on revenge. I was under the impression they worked together because their paths were similar.
let me backpeddle to the first starcraft storyline.. where the main thesemes were stopping the Zergs from overrunning all of known space, the terrans and the protoss making sacrifices to beat them. No one character in that storyline was indispensable, lots died but in the end the Zergs were stopped. the way the story was told in the first fit the format of the RTS game it wasnt about a single person it was about the survival of a race. The player had to churn out hordes of units over the course of the campaign to eventually win.
fast forward back to SCII.. to me it seemed like a wild goose chase to save kerrigan for starters, without knowing what value she held as a possible hybrid military or tactical asset against the zergs. and the storyline was certainly not aiming at her being a tactical asset either. To me it stank of a guy trying to save his bit of fluff (and the link between the two wasn't really that well formed from the first). And for me that kills the whole race against race angle of the first.To me it was this that made the first game so compelling.
Tychus was awesome his attitude is absolutely right when your species is facing extinction, there shouldnt be any room for sentimentality..
However I hope that Raynor will be proved right and that he made the right choice by saving her as she in time becomes a weapon against the zergs in some way or she murders him and seriously cripples the terrans as a result. the storyline seems out of whack after the first chapter and something needs to put the storyline back on track.
Its downloading now.. cant wait to see what it holds.. I just hope not more face palming..
Picked up the collector's edition last night at midnight. It's not quite at the same level as the Wings of Liberty CE, but is still quite good. The WoL CE came with plenty of great extras, but what really put it above and beyond was the USB drive it came with. A USB drive that looked exactly like Jim Raynor's dog tag from the game, lit up when you plugged it in, and came with a playable copy of the original Starcraft pre-installed on it.
The big draws for the Heart of the Swarm CE are the art book, and the Blu-Ray/DVD behind the scenes. The mousepad is a decent mousepad with a really cool shot from the opening cinematic printed on it. But who uses mousepads in this day and age? The soundtrack is also nice, but is almost expected from a CE like this.
Installed it last night and played through the first introductory mission. So far so good.
Its downloading now.. cant wait to see what it holds.. I just hope not more face palming..
I've seen HotS storyline, and well, depending on how far you've put your hopes up for this game your palm or face may suffer some injuries soon. If you think WoL was bad, you haven't seen anything yet.
@ZacD:
Yeah, that's what struck me more than anything about the storytelling in that game, the cinematics looked great (pre-rendered or in-engeine)
@roflness
Interesting, I definitely see your point. Maybe that's an artifact of its time though, I could see them trying to make the story more about a conflict rather than a certain person just because you'd need a significant amount of character development for us to care which probably wasn't very easy to do at the time. Now that Starcraft 2 has badass ingame cut scenes, I think they tried to narrow the focus a bit to allow for that character development (the execution of which is questionable as you pointed out).
It baffles me that people dont like the story. I love the story! In fact, SC2, both WOL and HOTS are the only games that i can remember playing through the entire game in the last 10 years or so.... I suually get bored and quit, but these games are just so bloody good, and the story i love.
Given, yes, i havent finished HOTS, yet, but i probbly will tonight. Only have probably 3 more missions left.
@ slipsius, I'm playing through now, and one thing that I feel is missing (only halfway through currently) is something similar to the bonus missions from Wings of Liberty (playing as Zeratul). Is there anything like that on the horizon?
@ slipsius, I'm playing through now, and one thing that I feel is missing (only halfway through currently) is something similar to the bonus missions from Wings of Liberty (playing as Zeratul). Is there anything like that on the horizon?
Sadly no. Im not sure which missions you HAVE to do, and which you can skip (if any), but the side missions, no, not that ive seen.
There are a total of 7 story arcs, according to one of blizzards message things that shows up when you load the game. Im on the 6th.
I finished the whole thing when I got it yesterday in one sitting! Being a big Blizzard and Zerg fan I can say that I really liked it. The missions were varied and you get to see lots of different units and locations. I still think I prefer Warcraft 3 as my #1 Rts story experiences to HotS and WoL but I think it was definately an improvement compared the WoL campaign.
The prerendered cinematics and the ingame cutscenes were just a step above and beyond pretty much every other game I've seen on the market.
On the story;
Having Kerrigan kill millions and instantly reverting back to being the Queen of Blades 'just' to get revenge on Mengsk and / or being with her James was a bit overdramatic on the whole and made about as much sense as when James did the same for her in the WoL campaign.
Gameplay;
I liked that they included boss fights and I think I would've liked to see more of that during the Kerrigan missions. I wish they hadn't used the Bel'ial boss encounter from D3 for the Ancient one though. It felt like they could've tried something new for him. Still a fun fight but it was literally just lifted from D3.
I love the attention to detail and the quality of the game overall. In one mission I went out of my way to wreck a shiny car and a marine popped up and screamed that he'd just finished paying that off. there's probably tons of easter eggs like that that I missed. I noticed that some humanoid npcs had unique names during another mission as well.
Was anyone else disappointed with the lack of segway into the protoss xpac? You saw protoss in 1 mission, and this one kind of ended with the queen going off to kill the hybrids. But, the next one you play as toss, so where the F is the segway? Compared to WOL into HOTS, its got NOTHING
On a side note... I wonder what blizz is going to do without Vitaly and Fausto De Martini. I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure they both have left the cinematics dept. Which kind of depresses me because they're stuff is epic. I know blizzard has many, many amazing artists but I've always thought their eye for design fit perfectly with the blizz style.
Is is just me or did nothing happen in this entire game? In WoL you defeat the zerg, fly around battling with the rebellion and save kerrigan. In HoS you undo ALL of this; you rebuild the swarm, the rebels are mia, and kerrigan is the queen again after an afternoon of being human. At the end of WoL you know the hybrids are trouble and theres this looming prophecy....at the end of HoS you know the hybrids are trouble and theres this looming prophecy... Looking at the overall story arc, nothing happened in this game? Im really let down
On a side note... I wonder what blizz is going to do without Vitaly and Fausto De Martini. I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure they both have left the cinematics dept. Which kind of depresses me because they're stuff is epic. I know blizzard has many, many amazing artists but I've always thought their eye for design fit perfectly with the blizz style.
Ive noticed alot of people arent there anymore, I dont know what happened, but there were only an opening and closing cinematic to this game, usually there are 3, so that makes me wonder if there were production issues?
Is is just me or did nothing happen in this entire game? In WoL you defeat the zerg, fly around battling with the rebellion and save kerrigan. In HoS you undo ALL of this; you rebuild the swarm, the rebels are mia, and kerrigan is the queen again after an afternoon of being human. At the end of WoL you know the hybrids are trouble and theres this looming prophecy....at the end of HoS you know the hybrids are trouble and theres this looming prophecy... Looking at the overall story arc, nothing happened in this game? Im really let down
Ive noticed alot of people arent there anymore, I dont know what happened, but there were only an opening and closing cinematic to this game, usually there are 3, so that makes me wonder if there were production issues?
Mentioned earlier, but I think this story arc was focusing on:
redeeming Kerrigan's human side. Remember, she was willing to do the tests that Valerian was running on her. She only turned back to the power of the Zerg when she heard Raynor was dead. Once she found out he was alive, she did a lot more "human" things:
- Sparing the Terrans that were escaping from Char after taking out Warfield's forces
- Not rushing Valerian/Orlan to hack the Dominion system
- Avoiding civilian centers in the final mission so Valerian could evacuate the prisoners.
Now the Zerg are led by a redeemed and focused Kerrigan, one that wants to destroy Amon, and not the rest of the galaxy. Before they were rampant, now they follow her.
Was anyone else disappointed with the lack of segway into the protoss xpac? You saw protoss in 1 mission, and this one kind of ended with the queen going off to kill the hybrids. But, the next one you play as toss, so where the F is the segway? Compared to WOL into HOTS, its got NOTHING
Finished it earlier too! Awesome game, loved the story. Enjoyed it far more than the WoL. There are a few really fucking cool missions and boss-battles in there!
I think it set it up perfectly for the next xpac. Kerrigan and Raynor kinda made up and/or are in mutual respect of one another. Zaratul got the shit beat out of him, and has to go back to the Protoss to face judgement for helping Kerrigan (imagine will be the start of the next game). Amon-whoever is alive. Shit's going to hit the fan. Lots of dudes are going to fight with dudes and possibly other dudes to kill one big bad dude and his baddies. *shrug* BRINGG ITTTTT
only thing i did miss from SP, was a) controlling 2 races in a mission; and b) more of those zel'naga guys. Amon "is awake," aparently, but felt like there should at least be some escalation from WoL to now with them. Hybrids are neat and all... but they were honestly push-overs. Remember really liking some of those final WoL missions with the ZelNaga in them.
I did have happy "Up" tears at the end there. Raynor & Kerrigan are so charismatic together, the Cinematics team did a fucking incredible job with the acting of these parts. Every one of those cinematics was amazing, really stepping up the game!
Replies
I don't even know why I get upset about this because the cinematics themselves are fucking gorgeous every damn time. Maybe it's a double edged sword though that BECAUSE the rest is so gorgeous, the dialogue should follow suit...
Haha, that was an excellent description of the generic villain rant :thumbup:
However, you forgot the raised eyebrow
Wings of Liberty is for Terran
Heart of the Swarm is for Zerg
Legacy of the Void is for Protoss
The story will arch over all three expansions.
Great news, happy and proud to ear that.
lockked and loadedddd
This. I saw it, realized it's less than a month away, and clicked BUY.
oh wait...
...I can feel somthing growing inside me,
either its the sc2 addiction or a baby alien that will eventually burst through my stomach. : ) !
sick trailer
....also Im pretty bad at RTS games
Can't wait!
lol I already broke down and pre ordered. I know I'll want it for the multi-player if nothing else. Looks like they finally got around to attempting to fix b.net 2.0. :P clan support w00t!
It's supposed to be an 18 hour long show(or something like that) from all parts of the world.
I'm really curious aswell what was horrific about the ending of WOL , Raynor shooting his best friend?
fast forward back to SCII.. to me it seemed like a wild goose chase to save kerrigan for starters, without knowing what value she held as a possible hybrid military or tactical asset against the zergs. and the storyline was certainly not aiming at her being a tactical asset either. To me it stank of a guy trying to save his bit of fluff (and the link between the two wasn't really that well formed from the first). And for me that kills the whole race against race angle of the first.To me it was this that made the first game so compelling.
Tychus was awesome his attitude is absolutely right when your species is facing extinction, there shouldnt be any room for sentimentality..
However I hope that Raynor will be proved right and that he made the right choice by saving her as she in time becomes a weapon against the zergs in some way or she murders him and seriously cripples the terrans as a result. the storyline seems out of whack after the first chapter and something needs to put the storyline back on track.
Its downloading now.. cant wait to see what it holds.. I just hope not more face palming..
The big draws for the Heart of the Swarm CE are the art book, and the Blu-Ray/DVD behind the scenes. The mousepad is a decent mousepad with a really cool shot from the opening cinematic printed on it. But who uses mousepads in this day and age? The soundtrack is also nice, but is almost expected from a CE like this.
Installed it last night and played through the first introductory mission. So far so good.
[ame="
I've seen HotS storyline, and well, depending on how far you've put your hopes up for this game your palm or face may suffer some injuries soon. If you think WoL was bad, you haven't seen anything yet.
Yeah, that's what struck me more than anything about the storytelling in that game, the cinematics looked great (pre-rendered or in-engeine)
@roflness
Interesting, I definitely see your point. Maybe that's an artifact of its time though, I could see them trying to make the story more about a conflict rather than a certain person just because you'd need a significant amount of character development for us to care which probably wasn't very easy to do at the time. Now that Starcraft 2 has badass ingame cut scenes, I think they tried to narrow the focus a bit to allow for that character development (the execution of which is questionable as you pointed out).
Given, yes, i havent finished HOTS, yet, but i probbly will tonight. Only have probably 3 more missions left.
Sadly no. Im not sure which missions you HAVE to do, and which you can skip (if any), but the side missions, no, not that ive seen.
There are a total of 7 story arcs, according to one of blizzards message things that shows up when you load the game. Im on the 6th.
Ok, thanks.
The prerendered cinematics and the ingame cutscenes were just a step above and beyond pretty much every other game I've seen on the market.
On the story;
Gameplay;
I love the attention to detail and the quality of the game overall. In one mission I went out of my way to wreck a shiny car and a marine popped up and screamed that he'd just finished paying that off.
Ending Spoiler
Ive noticed alot of people arent there anymore, I dont know what happened, but there were only an opening and closing cinematic to this game, usually there are 3, so that makes me wonder if there were production issues?
Blizzard always make good looking cutscenes ^^ one of my favorite from Wings mainly because Zeratul is in it
Mentioned earlier, but I think this story arc was focusing on:
- Sparing the Terrans that were escaping from Char after taking out Warfield's forces
- Not rushing Valerian/Orlan to hack the Dominion system
- Avoiding civilian centers in the final mission so Valerian could evacuate the prisoners.
Now the Zerg are led by a redeemed and focused Kerrigan, one that wants to destroy Amon, and not the rest of the galaxy. Before they were rampant, now they follow her.
Ya, this bugged me a bit too.