![]() There was some angst online when it was announced that the storyline for Starcraft 2 was going to be split into three full games, of which Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty was the first. Never invite the player to think his or her actions in the game are meaningless. But you should make sure that the mission the player just spent time and effort completing makes a difference. Maybe completing the mission has a good effect. ![]() Players like knowing that their actions are making a difference. ![]() Knowing you are doing this to save the space princess from the space bugs gives the power fantasy a nice little kick. Killing fifty space mans with your space gun is already awesome. One of the best things to do with the story in a video game is to make the player feel all badass. What a waste of precious storytelling space. So that was four whole missions (two to gather supplies, two potential missions for what happens to them), a whole seventh of the game, getting stuff and then destroying it, achieving exactly nothing. I choose to believe her, so I spend a whole mission laboriously destroying the supplies I spend the earlier missions gathering. Then a pretty space girl with psychic space powers comes to me and tells me I need to kill him. In the story, some crazy guy has me spend two missions gathering materials for some super space gun or something. I'm sorry, but this is not the best use of your dramatic material. Instead, it's the story of how a bunch of guys went to Madagascar to find the three parts of a magic laser that would win the war by killing Hitler. It's like if I was telling the story of World War 2 and never mentioned anything about D-Day or the Battle of the Bulge. You don't engage the bug creatures in a big, meaningful way until like 90% of the way into the game. You are gathering supplies for some crazy guy so he can do some thing. You're gathering parts of some crystal artifacts. You're learning about some Protoss prophecy. Most of the stuff you do in the game has nothing to do with the war. There is limitless drama in the story of a war.īut, in the story of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, the war itself is usually only seen in cutscenes or on the news show you can watch on the TV in the bar. War is one of the most fascinating things you can tell a story about. The whole game is basically about a war between people and bug creatures. He might have a point," I can die happily knowing I made the world a better place. If one real game writer working for a real company reads what I write and thinks, "Hmmm. There are two things I would do to fix a storyline like this. And, considering that this is the story of how an endless horde of bug-creatures eats nine-tenths of humanity, making it kind of dull is a real achievement. Aimless storytelling where very little interesting happens. The western theme, the mood, the accents, the train-robbery mission, even the dang music cues.īut the story itself is pretty painful. I swear, the writers of Starcraft 2 wanted to be making a lost episode of Firefly so bad that it was almost poignant. The story to Starcraft 2 is what you would get if the stories of Firefly and Gears of War had a drunken hookup. Also, Blizzard spent a ton of money making that story, with the cutscenes and the voice acting and whatnot, so it's fun to ask whether they got their money's worth. If you take my time up with something, it's worthwhile to ask whether said time was worth spending. Well, to answer your hypothetical question, imaginary reader, whenever a game makes you spend time experiencing something, it is fair to evaluate that experience. The story and the missions.īut, you might ask, why bother to review a story in a game like this? I mean, sure, games like this and Halo and Gears of War have goofy storylines. Also, computer games can be art, but, secretly, nobody really wants them to be. Really dopey story, but it doesn't matter, because in games like this all the story has to be is a placeholder, a floppy useless thing that hangs off the side and is ignored by everyone. I'm still trying to remember which button makes me build a barracks, and when fifty laser ninjas are crashing through my perimeter. I'm only reviewing the single-player portion, as playing the game on multiplayer for more than 15 seconds makes me feel like I'm going to have a stroke. This is pretty late, but I've taken some time off from writing my games to produce a quick review of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty.
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