[FSJhedjuka]

MAJOR SPOILERS incoming. If you haven't finished the campaign yet then DON'T read this post!

As far as difficulty goes, I didn't start my Brutal run yet, but when most missions could be CRUSHED on Normal with nexus wars swarmlings, and mutas, then swarmlings and torrasque ultras on a rallied 1-A there's something wrong with the game. At no point did I feel that it would be possible to lose the game. Game-play wise it felt like a combination of Diablo 3 and Warcraft 3. It had a fresh feel to it, though some of Kerrigan's abilities once unlocked are UTTERLY BROKEN and make a normal play of the game laughable. I have already decided which upgrades to pursue for my Brutal run and I imagine it will not feel as difficult as Wings did. After I've played hard and brutal I can comment better.

Evolution missions ... these were a PERFECT chance to test players on usage of the new units. Why not make it a limited resource micro mission with a lot more depth, and BOTH unit types that need to be used in conjunction to complete the level. Overall I was bitterly disappointed at the wasted potential.

With regards to the story, I like some parts, hate others. I like that overall the story has a sense of direction to it, even though it does feel quite stagnant and linear at times. From Raynors Execution, Reuniting the broods, Primal evolution, Rescuing Jim, to Killing Narud, and Invading Korhal the game has a bit of a rigidity in it's transitions ... frankly, it could have done with being longer given several of the "missions" you complete are actually evolution missions that offer little to no challenge at all.

Raynors Execution. This was good storytelling. The referral of Nova to whichever choice you made in the WoL campaign was also nice, though I think it doesn't really alter anything. Kerrigan's decision to embrace the swarm following the news broadcast gave a strong direction to the plot however and made me INSTANTLY want to know what comes next.

Primal arc. This was a cool idea and added a nice tactical element that was completely ignored to the invasion of Augustgrad. Had that mission involved multiple bases it would have made for a better challenge and better management of resources.

The inclusion of Stutkov I REALLY liked given I got to play the Resurrection IV map on Nintendo 64 though I wish they'd given more consideration to his appearance than they did. Just appearing in the leviathan was anti-climactic and rang kind of hollow. He warranted a better back story explanation especially given the fact he will likely have a MAJOR role to play in Void.

Duran/Narud could/should have been the final point of this game ... From the time his character gets introduced, until when you kill him it's 3 missions. This is a tough pill to swallow as his character and legacy has much more of an epic feel to it. Primal or otherwise, Kerrigan should have had a harder time to finish him than "Kill all the shrines". This man is supposed to rival than the old queen of blades in terms of power and cunning, killing him as a prelude to the anticlimactic leaked ending to the game just feels wrong. Given BLizzard were aware that their ending was leaked a long time ago I hoped they would have done something to alter the storyline.

I feel that moving the actual ending of Swarm to the beginning of Void, and making the pursuit of Narud and prevention of the resurrection of Amon the key focus of Swarm would have been better.

Overall I'm ambivalent about the game. It had a lot of nice throwbacks to older game mechanics, but wasn't challenging enough, and in terms of storytelling it both had some epic moments, and some disappointments regarding plot points. To summarize it in terms of movies, this is Matrix 2, but instead of leaving everything open, it tried to close too many plot points, and ultimately suffered for it. Leave Raynor dead and Mensk alive until Void, and make naruD the main focus of Swarm, and I feel it would have had a better feel to it.

Quick Comments

Cyanide:

+1 for spelling "climactic" right. =X