Was it really so poorly received? I gotta admit I enjoyed SC2 and was happy to finish out the story, but was much less critical of games etc in my younger years, and have not gone back to play it again since. The ending on diablo 3 though, boy was I unimpressed.
People, myself included disliked the star crossed lover turn 2 went with following Brood War. Sharp shift from Raynor pledging to kill Karrigan to then being a depressed drunk wanting to save her. That added to the tone being way lighter. Protoss became maybe too high elfy
Terrans, I feel like they flanderized around a basic cowboy western aesthetic rather than anything the confederacy or UED were like in Brood War. A lot more competitive politics for the Terrans in the first game. A bit off that the UED didn’t return.
Zerg became a lot less interesting in my opinion. Kerrigan was redeemed. No overmind or cerebrate intrigue. I think many had way higher expectations for a hybrid/xel’naga faction
I remember a lot of complaints about the first 2 games story being long treks to make kerrigan not Zerg and then Zerg again. I don’t mind the end or what the Xel Naga ended up being, just the journey not having the weight of the first game. A lack of anger. Faction politics didn’t match up the anger of the first game. Felt more high fantasy to me than sci-fi
Yeah you’re totally valid in all of that, can’t argue with any of it.
There may well have been a subconscious reason I didn’t go back and play it through again.
Blizzard were clearly on the decline by that point and seem to have basically jumped off a cliff rather than just increased the gradient on which they were sliding. Sad times.
Was it really so poorly received? I gotta admit I enjoyed SC2 and was happy to finish out the story, but was much less critical of games etc in my younger years, and have not gone back to play it again since. The ending on diablo 3 though, boy was I unimpressed.
People, myself included disliked the star crossed lover turn 2 went with following Brood War. Sharp shift from Raynor pledging to kill Karrigan to then being a depressed drunk wanting to save her. That added to the tone being way lighter. Protoss became maybe too high elfy
Terrans, I feel like they flanderized around a basic cowboy western aesthetic rather than anything the confederacy or UED were like in Brood War. A lot more competitive politics for the Terrans in the first game. A bit off that the UED didn’t return.
Zerg became a lot less interesting in my opinion. Kerrigan was redeemed. No overmind or cerebrate intrigue. I think many had way higher expectations for a hybrid/xel’naga faction
I remember a lot of complaints about the first 2 games story being long treks to make kerrigan not Zerg and then Zerg again. I don’t mind the end or what the Xel Naga ended up being, just the journey not having the weight of the first game. A lack of anger. Faction politics didn’t match up the anger of the first game. Felt more high fantasy to me than sci-fi
Yeah you’re totally valid in all of that, can’t argue with any of it.
There may well have been a subconscious reason I didn’t go back and play it through again.
Blizzard were clearly on the decline by that point and seem to have basically jumped off a cliff rather than just increased the gradient on which they were sliding. Sad times.