StarCraft 2: Wings Of Liberty Retrospective, Actually A Good Sequel

[@kalimatronix]

Oh, did you missed the secret mission? On Media Blitz, there's a research facility in the low right corner of the map. Destroying it leaves an item that, upon picking up, unlocks the secret mission.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

My life is over this week!! Seriously, thank you, I'm so glad people know these things! You can't see me in my office chair, but I literally gasped quietly, thinking how cool this little detail is! Hope all is well!

[@ZoOlja]

If you keep Tosh alive, during one of his banters on Hyperion he mentions how he can sense Tychus' inner turmoil, that hes hiding something he desperately does not want commit to (alluding to the deal he made with Mengsk to kill Kerrigan). You could say the real reason he is so opposed to going to Char is because it would mean he'd have to choose between betraying Jim or forfeiting his own life since Mengsk has his finger on the kill switch. Enjoyed watching the whole thing, hope to see more!

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this and watch the video! Much appreciated! Wishing you the best!

[@Destorath666]

Thats one of the interesting things about tychus. Tychus plays himself as a cold blooded mercenary but even after everything that has happened between him and jim he still considers jim a friend and doesnt want to hurt him.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

@ yeah I very much enjoyed their back and forth throughout the game, especially since we knew Tychus was cooked from the beginning

[@Forestcult]

I was only recommended the StarCraft+Broodwar retrospective video just yesterday, I subbed and watched more. I wondered when StarCraft 2 would be covered next, and I’m so glad I didn’t have to wait long! Keep it up! I love the content and how it’s covered.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

This means so much to me! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to take the time to watch and share this. Wishing you the best, and will continue improving my content and covering more content in the future! All the best, Dog Dad

[@Cessquatch]

Same!

[@danielpace13]

Same.

[@rendurai]

Algorithm works in misterious ways, happened the same to me.

[@svenheinrich4333]

Same here greetings from germany

[@clan741]

If there is one thing I miss from the older games, it’s the aesthetics. What I mean is the art change and design of units between 1 and 2 loses some of that grunge the older version had. Terrans had a worn look to everything, and had that late 90’s scifi techno futurism. Now it’s mostly all clean and smoothed surface holograms and touchscreens that look like any other sci fi. Zerg I don’t mind as much but they definitely went all in on them being space bugs while starcraft 1 was a mixture of bug and just bio-organic nightmare. Wasn’t always just chitin, the queen and ultralysk and muta managed to look like soft alien flesh and still match the zerg artstyle. Even the way the building construction animations feel toned down, used to be a gross pile of growing intestines but now its a bubble. Protoss I feel were given more justice in a lot of things in starcraft 2, but I still think some of their structures are too smoothed and rounded rather than the imposing angular and intimidating look they had in 1. Their buildings used to look imposing and the upward sharp angular curves gave them the impression of being larger than life, and I feel thats been lost.

[@Fedorchik1536]

Zerg in SC1 were more like Aliens' xenomorphs, if anything else. Out of units clearly bug-likes were larvae, drones, broodlings and defilers.

[@starcraft2f2p77]

StarCraft 1 units are a joke😂

[@Urbrainongaming]

This series will always be my favorite. They did such a good job with both games.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I agree! Even though they are different and I understand why some who grew up on the original would dislike the sequel; I think it does such a good job and continuing the story of the first games as well as being more modern in gameplay and visuals. Happy to have both : ) and so excited for heart of the swarm

[@othersatern1347]

StarCraft 2 is one of if not the first video games I ever played and for that reason it has a very special place in my heart one thing I’ve noticed (and maybe this is only me) is that during the bar fight Tychus says that Raynor always runs and for most of the campaign it feels like he’s right at least against the Zerg but Char is the first time it feels like your truly making a stand and fighting against the Zerg and for that reason I think the Char missions have always hit different for me that and the fire and fury cutscene is my favorite of all time in any game, in other words I love this game with all my heart and I’m glad someone is taking about it.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I really appreciate you writing your memories down and sharing with us! It's so fascinating to see where people start their journey in this universe and I like your perspective on this scene! Did you have a favorite mission from the campaign or Char specifically? Which did you go, Nydus network or Air support? All the best, Dog Dad

[@othersatern1347]

@ when I first played I always did nydus worms because the missions was a lot of fun for a young me nowadays I mostly do the air missions because its truly a spectacle to play other than that all in is my favorite mission in the game by far it just feels so good to play especially on harder difficulties when every thing is crumbling around you and the artifact finally reaches full charge truly a masterpiece in mission design both thematically and gameplay wise

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

@ thank you for this : )!

[@admiralmurphy1543]

53:30 Jimmy and the Tal'darim actually have no relationship before WoL, since no Tal'darim has lived on Aiur for most of Protoss history. They were never enemies of the Overmind either. Raynor's friendship with the Protoss was founded off of how instrumental he was during the Fall of Aiur. His alliance with Tassadar and Zeratul kept the three of them from getting murdered by Kerrigan (the aid of Zeratul being necessary to defeating the Overmind and it's Cerebrates), he assisted Artanis (little known fact he is actually the executor from the first Protoss campaign) and Fenix in rescuing Tassadar from Aldaris, and he participated in the final assault on the Overmind and the final evacuation of Aiur. It's incalculable just how many Templar and Khalai caste lives he was responsible for saving. But the Tal'darim weren't involved in any of that and aren't even a part of regular Protoss society until LOTV.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

So is the female Protoss from the purifying colony mission tal darim or regular Protoss? Since she knows of jimmy’s exploits and talks highly of him?

[@Testbug000]

@@Dog.Dad.Studios Daelaam Protoss. Auir.

[@purpleisthesneakiest]

The Tal'Darim were, when Blizzard conceived them, originally an extremist group on Aiur formed after most others fled the planet. They were super hardliners, but wouldn't have been any of the Protoss who actually worked with Jim Raynor; they'd have definitely belonged to clans that fought against Tassadar. They feature in the Ulrezaj plotline. The Tal'Darim in SC2 are an entirely different group, as you have described. It's unclear WHEN Blizzard started to consider them as being from Slayn with all the LotV lore, but the Wings of Liberty Tal'Darim were definitely a part of the Slayn Protoss when looking back in retrospective. Selendis is a Protoss from Aiur. I've seen talk of her being the Brood War executor.

[@LegendStormcrow]

He's not the same executor. At least not according to ingame dialogue, unless you switch characters mid campaign. We might have even fought against Tassadar in SC1 because he was promoted as soon as we sided with Tassadar.

[@LegendStormcrow]

​@@purpleisthesneakiestif she's the Executor in BW, she's the playable executor in SC1. I know the demo commander was glassed by protoss and the cerebrate was gotten rid of, but I wonder about the magistrate. Did he pass away from old age?

[@errtuownsyou]

I think Wings of Liberty by far had the strongest, most cohesive, and most sensible story out of the three sequel games. If I had my way, all three games would've still had Jim Raynor as the focus character while still engaging with the armies of the other factions and playing through their individual stories (like Arkantos in Age of Mythology). Zagara makes it clear that there's lots of potential for 'rogue zerg' factions that are willing to oppose Kerrigan. No need for a cosmic horror big bad, the people we already know are already plenty evil enough. My penultimate episode is de-infesting/rescuing Kerrigan, conclusion is going after Mengsk and finally ending everything he started. I also would have implemented a system of multiple endings based on choices Jimmy makes over the course of the campaign, with possible conclusions like rescuing Kerrigan and running away with her, putting her on trial for her crimes (pre and post infestation), shooting her on the spot, etc, all depending on how ruthless and uncompromising he might be in a quest for vengeance and all that. Sorry Mengsk, no endings for you except for being blown up.

[@ACEYGAMES]

Sounds a heck of a lot like dawn of war 2. Admittedly I'd change a lot of sc2's campaigns if I could, but I still think WoL and NCO were the best storywise. Sure there's plot holes and weird choices but they shaped up well and felt good rarely slowing down long enough to question their weirder choices. Speaking of, why does Valerian introduce himself to Raynor like that? His men shooting Raynor and getting killed for nothing, himself betting Ray wont just shoot mengsk in the back of the head ect. Like come on all the main characters could have died there all based on a mis-communication.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

After just playing the remaster of AoE, you’re so right and I’m flabbergasted they didn’t do it his way.. thank you for writing this!!!

[@elfireii328]

Agreed. We could have had some parallel with Kerrigan basically becoming the new overmind with some rogue Zerg factions being cut off from her. No need for zeras or whatever.

[@nugget6820]

@@elfireii328 Actually, I think Zerus could work, by introducing it, we could create another faction, imagine a scenario where Kerrigan goes to get more powerful to fully control the zerg, but by going to Zerus, a Leviathan, and other space faring zerg are devoured by the primal's, giving them the ability to go out into space to collect more essence, it would essentially create a fifth faction, one where individual units get stronger the more kills they get

[@elfireii328]

@@nugget6820 true. But it shouldn’t be the “birthplace of the Zerg” though. Maybe some offshoot pre brood war. Can work though.

[@phaneros]

re: The Starcraft 1 in Starcraft 2 mod, there's actually two projects in that vein. The first is Mass Recall, which is older, completed, and a little jank. As someone who was used to and came to enjoy sc1, Mass Recall was not a replacement, but it's still great to try out and I know many people that really love it. The second mod is Evolution Complete (aka Project Koprulu), which is ongoing and still early-days as far as implementing the campaigns but have a higher degree of polish and have delivered a sc1-factions-in-sc2 melee mod that you can play in the arcade (multiplayer or with AI). As far as I know, only the prologue Loomings campaign is implemented with them, but I'm really looking forward to their future missions and their models are high-quality and available for other mods to use, so they deserve a shoutout. re: Wings of Liberty and talk of the story decline, I think Wings of Liberty on its own stands up incredibly well, but the story is definitely less good afterwards and when you observe the three expansions as a whole, many flaws originate from decisions in WoL even if they don't harm WoL's story directly that much. The big one people harp on about is Raynor flip-flopping on whether he likes Kerrigan or not, though within the story you can kind of see signs of a change of heart within the story and it at least feels like there's a process going on under the surface. It ties into the decision to redeem Kerrigan, though, which I think is what bothers most people, wasn't handled the best in HotS, and wasn't really necessary. Centralizing all the conflict around a single Big Bad in the form of Amon also hurt the vibe of the setting as a dynamic place with many factions pushing in different directions, instead forcing all of them to work together and leading to missions where you fight the same mixed-race random mess of units (which are also more often spawned-in in HotS and LotV). That said, the campaigns are still on the whole very fun to play and replay, and I think it's a good sign when people can still have differing opinions on which is the best and can understand other peoples' opinions; it shows that there's enough there for a lot of people and it's not just a one-hit wonder. And then there's the campaign modding scene, which at this point can probably fill a few years of an RTS lover's gaming diet.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this! Could you suggest to me a good video or site that I can learn about modding StarCraft II, the more and more people talk about it, it sounds great; and I love modding games (Fallout/Stalker/Skyrim etc..). I look forward to Heart of the Swarm and Void, two games I really don't remember that well. My Mom got diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in '12, and I fell into a WoW binge at that time. Hoping for some decent payoffs, but Wings Of Liberty will always hit home for me. Wishing you all the best, and I truly appreciate you. Thank you!

[@Daldalusda1st]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/novJeJyYnNiCiM0si=GdposEGzzliySSi9 Video about community StarCraft 2 Modding stuff. May I also recommend checking out the twitch trolls grant fund raising videos.

[@sewertendo]

Excellent retrospectives (just watched the sc1 and sc2 videos). Brought me back to how hyped I was to play WOL, I don't think I can ever get that excited for a game again. I stayed up for the announcement of SC2 in 2007 when they did the trailer and demo in S.Korea, I was constantly on the SCLegacy forums and everything speculating about the game. I got the collectors edition at midnight. My whole headspace in highschool was basically occupied with anticipating this game, lol I was so obsessed. I mostly agree with your assessments on the tone. I always felt that the tonal shift SC2 took was a byproduct of having a higher budget and Blizzard itself being larger. That's not to say it's better or worse, but I can definitely say we will never see anything like it again. It was so unique to have an RTS game that got that much time and resources put into it and truly felt like a complete and cinematic experience. Truly, I think it was 'old' Blizzard's last masterpiece.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thanks for taking the time to share this! Truly appreciate your kind words and thoughts on the videos! Wishing you the best!!

[@bass-dc9175]

I think many of the people that call SC2s story a "miss" refer to anything but Wings of Liberty. Heart of the swarm was ... okay but suffered heavily from double-takes on story events, especially when it comes to Kerrigan. Aswell as many missed oportunities with legacy characters. Like Kerrigan having some beef with Zeratul, which makes sense if she remembers her times as the Queen of Blades. But that would mean she has to come to terms with the monstrous acts she did and that would taint the "hero kerrigan" the writers wanted, so she can not remember her QoB times. Which then makes the Zeratul interaction completely nonsensical. She only ever met him AFTER she was turned into a zerg. Then there is Duran ... How they masacered my boy. I would gladly sacrifice the DBZ lazor fight mission (no: Serriously, that happens) in favour of one that fully uses him being a shapeshifter. Like having to fight through a protoss commander / terran one. Only to slay them and suddenly: They are back in the next mission. And then you get taunted by Mengsk into an ambush. Then Raynor asks for your help. Then Fenix shows up to fight you once more. Then Narud lures Kerrigan into the ventilation shafts of the station, only for a ghost to EMP you from time to time and disappear, ending with Duran showing up. THAT would have been interesting, showing how smart that character is and how he uses the guilt of Kerrigans past action. ... But no. Giant lazors it is ... Legacy of the void is also fine, but suffers IMENSELY by having to link itself to the most lackluster piece of SC2 writing: Amon. Amon is ... the burning legion. Just a nebulous "badguy" in the back. Heck: Even Narud (Duran) dieing is similar to demons in Warcraft. In that they don't really do, but rather get sent to the Nether and then they can be slain. Legacy of the Void has some nice characters (A certain Red Protoss comes to mind) but so much of it gets dragged down with everything having to do with a character that only ever says how he loves to be Evil instead of doing smart acts. It was a waste of a good settup.

[@astutebanana2949]

You’ve probably already been given this comment a ton but I love StarCraft so much I just need to leave it here. There are a few books with extra lore that have stories with Jim and Tycus that show how they got close and what made Tycus go to prison, but they also flesh out Jim and Kerrigan a good bit. A big part of the reason she got left behind at all was because Arcturus saw her and Jim getting close as they all campaigned together and didn’t like it so he decided she wasn’t useful enough if she started making plans behind his back and made the plan to get rid of her. The stories aren’t super long but they do give a little extra character to a lot of the important people and I loved them!!

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I haven’t touched the books but that has huge implications about why Mengsk left her! Thank you for this!

[@TheAzureGhost]

To add to that, Kerrigan was one of the Ghosts who assassinated Mensk Family (though she does not remember that due to ghosts getting their minds wiped between missions) He only kept her alive for his revenge plot against the confederation, and her trusting him so much comes from him rescuing her from a lab where the confeds experimented with her influence on zerg larva. So when she started to become more independend due to raynor and michael liberties (among others) influence, her worse as a tool dropped and the risk of her going against him and his plans raised to a level of her becoming dangerous to him.

[@LegendStormcrow]

Jim Raynor is a lot like old school Western lawmen. Part of that is he was once in fact a criminal. When he joined the Confederate military he fell into Tychus's unit, and well, they were all but wiped out. Tychus seems to never quite gotten over how Jim escaped and turned his life around for a bit. While Tychus was in prison, Jim had a whole life, married, the whole 9 yards before he lost it all before SC1. As it stands, the only reason he did as well as he did right before SC1 is his old freind the Magistrate got him a job, ironically wearing a tin star.

[@admiralmurphy1543]

Jimmy and Kerrigan did spend just four missions together... but that's acutally a longer period of time than it seems. The Sons of Korhal were fighting on Antiga for many weeks between the Confederates, the Zerg, and rescuing Duke. Not to mention gearing up towards Tarsonis. There was downtime between each of these missions and even originally a cut Antiga mission that would have been our first introduction to Tassadar. The relationship between them never had the chance to grow beyond flirtation but Ghosts aren't very social people to begin with, they're generally seen as creepy because of their psionics and telepathy. The mere fact that they were friendly with each other in spite of the stigma between telepaths and normal people does speak volumes.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Great write up! Thank you for this!! And that last line, perfect. I sometimes forget the context with that, especially since they also advertise taking physic babies ( so like public enemy #1, but also dominion loves its assassins). Hope all is well!

[@gejamugamlatsoomanam7716]

That cut mission is playbale in mass recall which has a playable duke in a siege tank

[@DeranRoute-vu5jy]

From a gameplay perspective StarCraft 2 absolutely nailed everything from custom games to the campaign to multiplayer. But story wise….it really fell apart after wings of liberty.

[@LegendStormcrow]

The UMS games were great IN SPITE of Activision Blizzard. It would have been 50x bigger, but Kotick wanted ownership of the games. DotA2 upset him

[@admiralmurphy1543]

The story did really pick back up with LotV and Nova Covert Ops was interesting.

[@Cardnal_Knowledge]

Knocked it out of the park again friend! Story is so good and can't wait for the Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void videos! Great content as always. Keep it up!

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thank you so much! From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate you and your words. Wishing you and your loved ones all the best in the last weeks of the year!

[@counterfeitsaint7479]

I enjoyed Wings of Liberty when it came out, played through it a few times, once on brutal, got all the achievements (except one I think). I enjoyed the game, but my memory of it is really soured by the next one. I remember being kind of annoyed back when it was announced that SC2 would be split into 3 separate full priced games, but ultimately I think WoL on it's own was worth the cost and a fun game. The retcon to make Jim so hopelessly in love, still pining for Kerrigan after 15 years was a bad call, and a lazy motivation for most of the game. Making Kerrigan a generic chosen one character was also a bad, overplayed story beat. It's not just their limited interactions previously, but those interactions never moved beyond Jim thinking some dirty thoughts and a bit of harmless flirting. Worst of all, their last interaction ends with Jim furious, swearing that no matter what it takes, he will kill her for what she's done. Guess he forgot. It's a shame that most of what this game accomplishes, both in story and the good will created among the players, goes up in flames in the next one.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Oh man I can't wait to play Heart of the Swarm, for good or bad.. I appreciate you! Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment : )! Hope all is well.

[@nicholasfactor]

Great video! Fun fact: You can play the entire Wings of Liberty without recruiting Ariel Hansen.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

That’s wild!

[@Starcraftgamer97]

You can also essentially take her all the way to the final mission and get a lot of different dialogue with her in the lab. For me that was cool. It reminded me of recruiting Liara late in Mass Effect 1

[@TobiHReact]

Loved this love letter to the game! Please make one for the 2 other campaigns when you get around to play them 😊 Also a animated starcraft movie would be amazing, If starcraft 2 would be released on steam it would really boost the sc2 community so much.

[@cpMetis]

Gotta be honest, I'm not sure I've EVER seen that scene with Doc Hanson. Even when I first played this game with little to no context from SC 1 and hadn't yet settled on playing toss, I ALWAYS sided with Selendis. Maybe it's the influence from Halo, and I was thinking of the Zerg in terms of the Flood - "One single Flood spore can destroy a species. Were it not for the Arbiter's counsel, I would have glassed your entire PLANET." WoL is by far my most played SC campaign, and easily my favorite. It works hard to stick to an old west righteous outlaw vibe while incorporating StarCraft's special "southerners in spaceships" style. Tychus is great, Tosh is great, Matt is great, the news is great, Warfield is great when he's there, and Stetman deserves more screentime. Sure there's not really much in the way of villains like SC1 ignoring Tychus since Mengsk and Kerrigan are mostly so out of the picture working as masterminds of glorified timers (and THESE taldarim, unlike in LotV, could honestly be automated robots), but that never bothered me since it always felt like it was the heroes vs the galaxy anyways. What a shame it was followed up by HotS. Abathur, Dehaka, and Stukov can only pull the weight of that game so much when the only human character is HotS Kerrigan. BW made her a bitch (positive) at the head of the alien scary Swarm and WoL kept her at arms' length so as to not characterize her too much more, but HotS was just like "okay but like what if we do a super good job o humanizing her at the start then almost immediately have her return to doing the same type of basically unnecessary shit now without any of the mustache twirling evil manipulator charm?" At least LotV kinda brought it back. It kinda felt like WoL without the classic western theming, which could be criticized, but I think it ended up being almost as strong for similar reasons. Few characters were very complex, but they did their jobs well just like with WoL, and there's a reason everybody loves Alarak. He's that same sort of "mustache twirling directly in front of you because he knows he can" that Kerrigan was in BW, but with the added badassery of being actually on YOUR side (mostly).

[@Razzusamadesu]

Of all the three SC2 campaigns this wings of liberty is my favorite. I just love the voice acting so much

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thank you for sharing this : ) any particular favorite?

[@iamthehobo]

Well it was in a way impossible 4 Starcraft 2 to live up to Starcraft 1 I think they did a great job with all three campaigns and I enjoyed my time with them

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Do you remember a specific part that you enjoyed the most?

[@iamthehobo]

@@Dog.Dad.Studios favorite had to be wings of Liberty. Finally revisiting all my loved characters after all those years it was just incredible. Extremely overpowered Kerrigan in Heart of the Swarm was also fun all the way through. I didn't dislike legacy, but evil space God versus Kerrigan savior of space was probably the weakest part for me

[@HappysSkillingVids]

Great vid! Always glad to see another creator with love for old Blizz IPs, SC especially. And yes, WoL is a great sequel. EDIT: Although a few pointers. First, Mira Han was "won" as a prize in a card game by Matt Horner, as they both keep talking about. So of course Mira knows the Hyperion boys. Also, Zeratul did not astrally project himself. He was really there. Tosh remarks on his appearance, sniffin around, saying he smells a protoss. It is expanded in the additional materials that no, Raynor and Kerrigan did not only go on four missions together. And that they definitely were shacked up behind the scenes.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Howdy! Thanks for taking the time to watch and write this! Truly appreciate it! Ah that makes more sense on both fronts! Thank you!! Hope all is well

[@HappysSkillingVids]

@ More than well, great vid, currently going through your SC+BW vid, also lovely. And thanks for the reply. Wish you the best!

[@starcraft2f2p77]

SC1 didnt tell a lot of stories. It is incomplete mess.​@@Dog.Dad.Studios

[@Robert-du8yp]

IMHO Starcraft 2 is a proper sequel. Thanks for putting in the time for this video and OG retrospective.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Absolutely : ) looking forward to hopefully closing out the series before the end of the year! Wishing you the best!

[@jonesy279]

StarCraft 2 being 14 years ago makes me feel absolutely ancient 😂 I just finished your previous SC 1 and BW retrospectives and I’m loving your work. Thanks!!

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I can’t believe it either, but here we are ahahha : ) I appreciate you so much, thank you for your kind words!

[@admiralmurphy1543]

I would recommend you try picking Tosh next WoL playthrough. His mission's end cutscene actually has a lot of contrasting themes being expressed between Matt, Jim, and Tosh in conversation. And it's a genuine treat to factor into Raynor's character arc. (Oddly enough the next time you play as the Raiders you get Specters and not Ghosts regardless of what you picked. There are canon outcomes for New Folsom and Haven.)

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this, I'll be sure to go back an experience this, I appreciate you!!

[@TheMock5000]

I remember my dad got this and played through SCII. I remember him reaching Char, and seeing the holdout menu, which i thought was so fkn cool. I didn't get to play it till 3-4 years later when i bought it, then got Void, then got Swarm for Free. But damn it was satisfying doing All In. It really did feel like a last stand of sorts. Building up bunker walls with turrets, seige tanks in the back, missle turrets and vikings dealing with flyers, and battlecruisers supporting everything from above. Also 31:25 WTF Raynor, I thought you said you don't leave people behind?

[@danielbruce9750]

Excellent review! Probably gonna reinstall SC2 this weekend now 😂 keep up the good work my dude!

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thank you for your kind words, it’ll keep a smile on my face today, which I greatly appreciate : ) Wishing you the best!

[@marshalleastin1753]

I played through the whole campaign again last year and hearing you say things like "people thought this game was shallow" baffles me. it has such a rich story and characters

[@forcelightningcable9639]

Oh yes been waiting for this

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Hope you enjoy : )! Wishing you the best!

[@forcelightningcable9639]

@ thanks, I did enjoy it, actually. Forgot how much I missed this game

[@lurgas404]

Still in love with the sc2 wol campaign. Thanks for these retrospectives. Looking forward to the next 2 campaigns from you :-) If you're up to it I mean.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Starting HoTS this week : ) stay tuned! Hope alls is well!

[@LegendStormcrow]

In all honesty, I feel like each expansion was worse than the last. I also hate some skins and love others. Cerberus? That's a blast from the past. They were the Confederate group that Arcturus knew were researching Zerg. How does the player know? Only by playing the SC1 demo. WoL was really good, HotS was pretty good, while the 3rd was just good. The Nova missions were all over the place, but mostly good, other than the fact Tyrador exists.

[@GrendelMTL]

@1:20:59 It's a StarCraft II modpack called "Mass Recall"

[@davidm2031]

You can replay missions from some kinda terminal thing on your ship. You can play the other mission you missed out on by siding with Nova. That way you can play both without replaying the campaign. Its pretty cool, its like a custom map. You only control your ghost and as you fight from base to base, it auto spawns units to fight with you. Its kinda like a MOBA just single player

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I’ll have to look into that! Pretty cool they made that feature for people

[@ryanwasiak7050]

I was 15 when this released. I thought it was great when I first played it back then and still will come back to it every now and again. All achievements are done besides the epilogue on brutal/hard. Will likely come back to it again to get the rest of them

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thanks for sharing this : ) wishing you all the best!

[@theeviloverlord7320]

46:01 Zeratul can teleport short distances and has a spaceship, its possible he could have just flew next to the hyperion and blinked aboard

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thank you for sharing this! Also love the user name Overlord : )

[@rfactor1502]

So, I do want to lead up with this being a great retrospective on the game and story so far (as was the big SC1 and Brood war one) I do want to point out, yeah, Jimmy and Kerrigan were together for four missions... out of ten. In a campaign that had to split with the other two in basically one game's worth of content, where SC2 made the core game and each of the expansions focus on one of the three playable sides (and their various subfactions, because lets be fair, there's infighting among all, so there's no one 'unified' faction in the story). I feel like there is a lot of downtime stuff that we won't even really see, and only implied, that there was something of a relationship that did develop at some point between the two. I would love to see the alternate universe where we got to see a SC2 style version of the story from SCI where each side got basically an expansion's worth of content per story... but man, that would mean base SC would have actually been a game and three expansions, and BW would have been three more. That's an amount of expansion content typically reserved for MMORPGs. It's also why I'm a bit forgiving of BW's story in general. I get the idea of what they're trying to get across, but the betrayals feel so rapid, and the Dark Templar still working with Kerrigan after a good batch of them. It feels like there's an idea that she is trying to play galactic speed chess, but it feels rushed and slightly out of order. If the campaign say... didn't force you to play just one faction at a time, but just did missions in slightly scrambled order, and had some dialog cleaned up, it would be an actual strong story. And yeah, some people say SCII is goofy and cheesy, and... I mean it is, but so was SCI and BW at times. There's probably plenty of plot holes and oddly changed character motivations between them, but at the same time, there was a massive gap between the games, and even if Blizzard had all the same writers on the job (which probably not), it was also those same writers years later with new ideas, and their line of thinking when writing the original SC story not being fresh in mind anymore. Plus the influences of stuff like Firefly stand out, but given when the story was written, it comes by it honestly. Wings of Liberty, story wise, I feel like it works fine, it's a good time to be had.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I appreciate you taking the time to write this! Thank you!

[@elfireii328]

51:37 I think it would have been cool to give you the option of downloading the data first. And then destroy it. You would need to hold a spot similar to the odin mission on korhal. 1:05:15 what’s funny is there’s video out there of a Terran version of this mission being by able to go on forever. In addition, someone was able to figure out a way to actually make this mission last forever by using overseers to replace enemy supply

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Absolutely agree with this!

[@DreamVikings]

The thing I could never like about wings of liberty is that it did not have any normal ass “use all the units you have until now” battle. Every mission was a unit tutorial except for a few holdout missions. It needed something like the epic Broodwar battle of Kohral or the Flight of the Emperor missions. Aside from that, game was pretty solid.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

This is a very good point, and I have been mulling it in my head since i read it last night. Yes your right about the tutorial style missions, and I think they heard you, at least for the start of HoTS, since its much more focused on setpieces than any other RTS I've played. Wishing you the best, thanks for taking the time!

[@TheAzorg]

You can't just say Raynor messed with protoss 3 times when we're talking about Tal'darim. Afteral, at smash&grab i belive, it's been said "these are not your buddies you fought on Aiur" or something like that. On another note - i understand that Tal'darim weren't as fleshed out as in protoss campaign but i just hate that they are "normal protoss" in terran campaign.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Very fair point! Thank you for articulating this well!

[@RoyleVegeta]

Yes, SC2 video out! now to make a comment before I watch it, that possibly will be answered lol have you looked into mods for SC2, just asking if you play SC2 Mass Recall a fan port of SC1 and brood wars into SC2 engine, with new models and in-game cinematics it's so pretty lol

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Someone also mentioned it and now I have to play it : )

[@os1r1s_210]

The RA2 soundtrack was a nice touch

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

You have good ears : )

[@jplayer073]

The vast majority of players liked Starcraft 2. Even if the story isn't great, it's among the best single player campaigns in an RTS. The game was financially and critically a huge success.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

And then blizzard realized they could sell a multicolored dragon in WoW and make the same amount of money lol 😂 I agree, absolutely one of the best campaigns, I would love to see what they would do in 2025!

[@evantone4757]

The oam soundtrack making me happy

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

It's such a good OST

[@Tyranidus7]

Wings of Liberty’s story is good/fine. Yes the “love story” is added and Raynor’s exclamation of murdering Kerrigan is glossed over to facilitate that love story. Heart of the Swarms story was also fine, depends on how much you can accept Kerrigan’s “redemption”. And finally Legacy of the Void with the Epilogue unfortunately just falls flat on its face. The threat of the Hybrids I feel is never truly fulfilled and their boss just sucks as a villain. He’s a boring big bad guy with no charisma or interesting reason to be evil. That and Kerrigan becoming basically Starcrafts Jesus was just lame. I thought maybe needing Kerrigan alive was more about keeping the Zerg out of the control of the Hybrid rather than any direct action but unfortunately, she goes super saiyan and the galaxy is saved. Blizzard tried, but failed in my opinion. Good world building and writing all along BUT when you don’t stick the landing, all of that work is wasted.

[@zacharybrogden3038]

I always sided with Tosh. Party because I like him a lot, but mostly because it’s revealed Nova lied to you if you do his mission instead.

[@frankjansson7563]

Amazing video

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thank you : ) hope all is well!

[@flazzorb]

General notes: WoL is great in terms of details and gameplay, with the story on a mission to mission level being great, however, I do think that on the wider level the story has some nasty issues. I find it genuinely disappointing how much of a tone clash there is between how the story is centered on our big protagonist _(who do nothing within most missions beside talk)_ and the utter meatgrinder that some missions can turn into, but _those marines_ were unnamed so they don't matter. Also, Amon, in general, I do not like the Amon story and he first shows up in the protoss crystal missions. I do want to point some good things. For one, Tychus. In the opening cinematic Tychus is inexplicably released _by the emperor_ and just happens to immediately show up at his old rebel buddies hangout, and at multiple points Tychus says suspect things which you can not only not notice but not even see if you aren't intentionally talking to all of the characters between missions. I find this incredibly ironic considering how they tried to do something similar with Amon but that fell flat. It's also important to mention how Raynor _almost_ shoots at Tychus at the start of the campaign. Donny Vermilion and Kate Lockwell are both really funny and interesting characters. Donny is initially shown to be a shill, but as the story goes on it's shown that he was a genuine full faith believer in Mengsk, to the point where he breaks down when he realizes that his brothers death was due to Mengsk's direct actions. Kate, on the other hand, is shown to be a genuine journalist, who's reporting Donny handwaves as not being compelling enough to dissuade his views, and who amusingly and justifiably celebrates Donny's mental breakdown. Specific notes: (Yes this is essay sized, I got carried away.) 17:02 I don't mean to be mean, but you are calling the second easiest difficulty option "too easy" while mentioning you played ladder. Yes, it is easy. The devs probably weren't allowed to name easy difficulty "Baby mode" or normal would've probably been labeled easy. 17:53 Nitpicky on my part, but there is a gamespeed slider in the options. 25:28 Gamespeed slider. 26:03 Hill genuinely feels like a missed opportunity to me. He has essentially no character and exists solely to get you mercs. They don't even have him say anything *at all* about the Mira Han mission (Cutthroat). His first name is Graven by the way, that feels unreasonably fitting. 29:30 Technically, the protoss did because the auto-refinery is literally using the warp technology of the protoss to warp gas the _15 feet to the command center._ Are conveyor belts that complicated? 29:45 I'm sure those won't be coming up again in some sort of mission pack later down the line. 31:56 I don't know if I missed something, but I think this is Raynor talking about Nova, which I don't think we actually see him interact with outside of _once_ in the start of HotS. I want to be clear, this is a *good* thing. I don't understand the modern compulsion that *every single solitary thing referenced once has to be fully explained in detail with a full length book or TV series.* 32:11 He-he, heal bus. 33:20 You can trivialize this mission with reapers. *Every* enemy has the light tag, and your wider objective is blowing up buildings. _(Yes, by the way, WoL aberrations are light tagged)_ 34:03 I never noticed before, but Donny seems genuinely upset that the refugees are looking to rebels instead of the Dominion. _(If you're wondering, I thought he just casually ignored her with a neutral tone.)_ 34:30 To be fair, I think the refugees are supposed to have named Haven. 35:56 Obligatory "You are on the second easiest difficulty" note, but you aren't wrong, diamondbacks really don't have much going for them considering they're just bigger, somewhat faster marauders. 36:35 Obligatory "You are on the second easiest difficulty" note, these are going to show up any time a mission is called easy, or simple. 37:09 Moderate plot hole, but why did Mengsk not just... have it destroyed? I'm not sure there was any reason not to just have it blown up on site. 37:15 Ajunt. Okay I'll try not to make fun of any other mispronunciations. 37:36 Added layer of irony, the Sons of Korhal was _Mengsk's group._ 38:33 My brother in christ she tells you in the cinematic that she's telling Raynor for Matt's sake. Her "husband" (long story), she even goes by Mira Horner as shown by the Aliases list *in the cinematic.* I do not know how you could miss this. 40:46 Background note, but at the end of the newsreport used as B-roll, Donny mentions zerglings being allergic to lemon juice. Later in the first mission of HotS, on hard and brutal difficulty, the gas turrets will do damage to zerglings (they actually don't on easy/normal) and are noted as using lemon juice if you click on them. Abuthur can also mention trying to fix the zergling lemon allergy if you hang around and listen to his idle dialogue. 41:14 Nitpicking, but although Mengsk did a grand scale atrocity, it wasn't a genocide as it wasn't deliberately targeted on a group. I'm only nitpicking this because this sort of misuse of the word is how some genocide deniers try to weasel out of the thing they're defending being genocide. Look into the Rohingya genocide and learn the horror of how this isn't a dead issue by any means. 41:39 My brother in christ they tell you the issue is with the _active zerg infestation,_ they literally spell that out for you in the exact cinematic you are using as B-roll. I do not know how you could miss this. 44:10 2010. What? You asked what year it came out in. 45:47 My brother in christ, he wasn't astral projecting, he was literally on the ship and he physically gave Raynor the crystal. He's a dark templar, him slinking around is entirely normal. He does the exact same thing in HotS. I do not know how you could miss this. 46:27 Man, he looks just like the son of another Blizzard game monarch, I wonder if he'll show up as an alternate skin in a game which inconveniently has the exact same acronym as a SC2 DLC. 47:28 Gamespeed slider. 48:46 You use simplified command card? *Disgusting.* 49:29 Fun background note, Keno and Liberty are only ever named in the subtitles and barely exist. It's just slightly funny to me that they have names just for the sake of the subtitles and nothing else. 49:35 Welp, It's not like I can blame you for calling it genocide anymore. Point stands on how misusing the word only help genocide deniers. 49:58 Based Kate Lockwell moment. 50:21 When was the game made again? But with not quite as much as due seriousness, can you blame the writers for not having considered that? 51:00 As a weird note, you can tell the animators didn't smoke cigars considering they forgot to cut the cigars. Basically imagine trying to breathe through a block of wood and that is an uncut cigar. The weirdest part of this whole note is fact that I do not, and have never smoked a cigar. 51:30 HEAL BUSSES! 53:38 Not all protoss! Not my highlord! 55:40 Sorry Tosh, but campaign ghosts are just straight up OP. 57:01 Common lore on Voodoo dolls is that their made with the target's hair, meaning that _somehow_ Tosh accidentally got the hair of Tychus. If I'm not mistaken, just a pin in the head would at least be supposed to just give someone a headache. Oh, and if anyone is curious, to my understanding voodoo dolls aren't a wholly malicious thing, and maintaining a well cared for voodoo doll is supposed to cause someone's like to subtly improve, as though they were being supernaturally looked after, because that is very literally what you'd be doing. 58:09 Foreshadowing. 58:30 Fun fact, the wall of fire is actually an invulnerable unit walking across the map _very_ slowly. 1:00:16 Interesting note, Valerian owns mobius. This definitely won't cast incredibly glaring questions about his character in the next campaign. I'm not sure whether or not to call this a plot hole though, more a very glaring note. 1:02:56 .siht tuoba yas ot gnihton evah dluow duraN limE erus m'I 1:03:35 Oh my god, it's Jesus! Wait no, just Tassadar. 1:05:01 Oh my god, it's the Jailor! Wait no, now Amon doesn't seem so bad. 1:06:35 Second easiest difficulty. 1:10:05 Fun note, this is not actually a plot hole to my understanding. Leviathans and overlords are the only zerg which can actively hang out in space long term, and leviathans are the only zerg that can go to warp, but other zerg fliers absolutely can go into and move through space. How do winged creatures move in space though? Damned if I know. 1:12:41 Canonical Banshee move speed. 1:13:00 Canonical Landed Viking. If only they were half as cool in gameplay. 1:14:32 Rip M. Koiter, he's named so he matters. 1:17:32 Silly Tychus, those bullet only pierce the armor of unnamed marines, and you hit the most named marine of them all.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I appreciate you so much for taking the time to watch and write down your thoughts and opinions! This is amazing and I can’t do it justice back. The one thing I cringe on for myself is the speed! Yes I wish I could go back and change the past, but it’s there! Also I should have played on hard, but I did try to explain my choice. Wishing you all the best, and seriously thank you for interacting with the video so methodically! Wishing you all the best! Dog Dad

[@angrychicken2874]

super early on a hour long well edited StarCraft 2 analysis the entire theatre is empty hell yeah

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Hope you enjoy : )! Thank you for this comment! Hope all is well

[@Elite_Tauren_Chieftain]

I really enjoyed SC 2 WoL campaign many times. The characters and cutscenes are great, the missions are cool, and the Terran as a “race” are not just another lame and boring human faction, they are actually fun and have cool design, lines and soundtrack

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Well said!

[@jarskiXD]

that char cinematic was epic :D

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Blizzard always gives their best in this regard

[@pakkazull8370]

I think it's actually emblematic of everything that is bad with the storytelling of SC2. Compared to the Brood War intro it is so dumb and cheesy.

[@gmradio2436]

I think that the StarCraft 2 Trilogy might ne served well with a remaster and design unification. Stuff like using proper subfaction models throughout the entire Trilogy. It might help remove some confusion in the story.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

That’s an interesting viewpoint. I still feel like character assets, even in the original, are okay to spot. I’m not mixing up a vulture for a tank ( an example), and I could totally see better unit assets and more specific to the modern graphics

[@gmradio2436]

@@Dog.Dad.Studios Sorry if I was not clear, I was talking about porting the models from later games back to earlier events. The Tal'da'reem being my primary example. They use the basic Protoss skins in the first game, a shaded version in the second, and their red and black in the third. If they were red and black from Wings, it would have been simplier to tell they were their own faction. A couple other examples are the varous subtypes of Marines. HotS starts on an Umoja planet for example. Again, sorry if I was not clear.

[@matteofontana_]

Did you... Did you play on dormal game speed!?

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

lol 😂 the game never told me about that… I guess Brutal is locked in at fastest, I was scratching my head ahahaha! Good to know for HoTS

[@matteofontana_]

@Dog.Dad.Studios remember they fastest is the standard: p

[@evancraig5148]

absolutely loved wings of liberty when it came out

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Would you share one of your favorite parts from that time? Or one that you remember fondly?

[@ZeroMetalSonic]

You didn't mention the secret mission and alternate mission choices. Do you plan on talking about them in a future video?

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Howdy! No I did not, my retrospectives are usually blind (i.e. not looking up things) for a more organic experience. I just completely forgot about them this time around; I'll see if they warrant a whole video, but if not, I'll try to mention them in HoTS. Wishing you all the best, and thank you so much for watching!

[@alexlewis5365]

I know a lot of brood war people hate sc2. But for me, I just prefer the second one for the most part. The campaign is so much fun. They make the missions much more diverse. And I love the fast paced action in both single and multiplayer. Sc2 was my freaking jam during the HotS era. I think the only thing that brood war has over 2 is that story is way better, darker, and grittier. The tone shift between the two games can be very jarring to me, especially when I'm doing a playthrough of one and two. And dialogue is a lot better, way less cringier in bw. So I think overall, the BW campaign is better. But at least for me, the sc2 campaign is still so much fun.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Couldn’t have written this better myself, thanks for sharing!

[@sirsaltzalot9369]

Well, I'm subbed. Waiting for HoTs and LOTV

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I appreciate you! As for your other comment, absolutely, will start playing this week. I might have a review for the new Indiana Jones game first, we’ll see how this weekend pans out, wife wants to host people! All the best, Dog dad

[@tuni5630]

The protoss are fine with raynor fighting against the taldarim cause they got corrupted by the hybrids. And what you mean exactly with the game has sexism in it?

[@gmradio2436]

So the reason Mira spilled the beans is her last name is Horner. Like the Hyperion's captain Matt Horner. She is married to Matt. He won her hand in a card game last time he was on the planet.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Ah that’s what Jimmy referenced! Thank you!

[@gmradio2436]

@@Dog.Dad.Studios It will come back in HotS.

[@Mstr4Pltrgst]

15:40 the poster reminds me of fable 3 posters

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Great comparison!

[@Twilight5007]

Wings of liberty slaps, all on is still one of my favorite rts moments.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I love it! Can you share one moment or specific that makes it one of your favorites? I think the first time seeing Horner save Jimmy with the battlecruiser is epic and something my 7 year old self would have loved back in StarCraft 1. Wishing you the best

[@EnderPryde]

Paused at like 10 minutes in (planning to watch in chunks since hour twenty is a bit of a doozy) For my two cents: Wings of Liberty has that classic Blizzard polish that is oh so good, and it feels great to play. The story... I actually disagree with you there. The main problem with the story is that it's part 1 of 3 for SC2 and the rest of SC2 is... *very* not good as a story, with a lot of random plot cul de sacs, and individuals behaving fairly out of character given what we wind up finding out about them. Front and center for most of those issues is... well, Kerrigan. This isn't a misogynist "ermagerd, stwong woman bad waaaah", but more "but what even is the point of half the goings on here?" Kerrigan in SC1 is patient zero for Blizzards "hot dangerous sniper that gets consumed by evil and gets a weird skin color before becoming more ambiguously morally aligned" (Kerrigan, Sylvannas, Widowmaker. To a lesser extent Leah/Diablo) so I'm not going to harp too much on their hyperfixation. But I am going to say that their implementation of that character arc is *super* weird with Kerrigan in particular because it requires retreading ground the story has already dealt with on several different occassions. The fact that she had to have a void-infused superweapon used to undo the mind control of two different nigh-immortal ancient entities (the Gantrithor destroying the Overmind and the Artifact blasting her) each time spending considerable time bringing her rivals to heel while consolodating her control over the swarm... it really paints WoL part in the wider story of SC in a really negative light because it's conclusion winds up being just a big ole narrative reset button.

[@EnderPryde]

57:20 The thing to remember is that this technically isn't canon in the lore, so it's kind of irrelevant. Per Blizzard themselves, only the A side (left side) split decisions in WoL are actually canon - so they save the colony by siding with Ariel, Jim sides with Tosh, and the gang winds up going underground to blow up the nydus networks. All the other split choices (siding with the protoss, siding with Nova, blowing up the mining station) are all B canon which doesn't match the in-universe decisions that matter for the non-game media like the Novels and Comics.

[@TheLolimbored]

when i saw gameplay for this game when i was a kid, i thought to myself "this looks too cartoonish compared to BW" and never looked back.

[@gmradio2436]

I wonder if that is more an effect of moving from pixel art to polygon. Or is it a more subtle art shift?

[@ambostralian]

I love your videos. Ive been playing starcraft 2 ahain and listening to you inbetween play sessions. One thing, the volume is quite low, you need to record a bit louder, i jave the volume at max but it's barely loud enough

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Howdy! I appreciate you taking the time to watch my content. What device are you using? I test on my iPhone, Sonos speakers, Sony studio headphones and a regular tv and did not have any trouble hearing my voice at half volume. Thanks for writing back!

[@mintx1720]

How WOL would be in 2024: Jim: Media blitz! Arcturus: Fake news! Jim died.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Yeah they didn’t account for half the dominion actually agreeing with Mengsk using the emitter ahahahaha what a day to be alive

[@Jasiuuu]

new dog dad video? AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU !

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Sound the trumpets, get cozy, and hopefully you enjoy! I appreciate you and wish you the best : )

[@empire0]

The story might be meh, but the gameplay is so damn good. I like SC1 more, but I play 2 more just because it feels so much better

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

It does really feel "great." Super fluid movements, steady framerate, nothing wild bug wise. Great mechanical game!

[@shiniblackrose]

StarCraft: Mass Recall, if you thought Brutual was difficult, try nightmare Mass Recall 😂 Mass Recall is the game you were talking about in the end. It adds certain game play mechanics i wish and should have been; in the original. Like, adding Heroic units to most missions. Why wasn't James and everyone down in the final mission. No Norad II or Hyperion?!?

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I'll look into it! Thank you so much!! Hope all is well!

[@seawind930]

The gameplay was fun but it was just a repeat story wise. Toughened Rebels take on evil government except this time they have to fight the MC's evil girlfriend too. It was basically a "Force Awakened" type of deal

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Interesting take! I understand this

[@pakkazull8370]

I'm at the beginning of the video and imo the gameplay and progression mechanics of SC2 are THE gold standard for an RTS campaign, but I also think the writing is incredibly trite and clichéd, and I especially hate how Raynor went from "I'm gonna kill you one day" to a massive Kerrigan simp. I guess we'll see if you can change my mind on that.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

It’s all about the prophecy : ) enjoy!

[@ScorpionTechReviews]

The story was absolutely stupid. The zerg are back, the dominion is hunting the hell out of you and things are circling the drain, and depressed Raynor says screw it and goes to save Kerrigan. After she killed his men several times over. After she kills his best friend Fenix and so many others. After Raynor swore he'd kill her, he hated her that much. But no, screw all that, all he cares about is Kerrigan. This screams "idiotic teenager rom-com" a galaxy away. And the character development is... laughable, to be extremely charitable. And yeah, I explored every single pixel of Starcraft 2, trying to find a decent storyline somewhere in there. And what's worse, the engine can render extremely detailed graphics (expertly shown in the cutscenes and so on), but the units and buildings look like inflatable crap in the missions. That completely ruins the feeling of the game. Everything looks like a bubbly bad joke, the grimdark feeling of the first game is gone, dead, buried and desecrated. And what's worse, everyone perceived this as an intentional design choice to attract as many Asian players as possible, which basically makes you feel like you're really not the audience. Nah, Starcraft 2 failed hard because it wasn't the same Blizzard making the game and that was painfully obvious. And what's worse, it's clear that without the creative inspiration coming from Warhammer 40.000 (the first game was originally made as a Warhammer 40.000 game, go look into it), Blizzard doesn't have the writing talent to come up with a storyline of the same caliber.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Howdy! Firstly thank you so much for taking the time to watch, and comment, I do appreciate it! I understand where you’re coming from and your view point with the first two points. For the third, that being StarCraft is just 40k, there is no evidence of that; they take place in space and thousands of games have “space marines” “biological foes” and “advance alien races” Even if blizzard asked to make their proof of concept in the 40k universe, they didn’t come to an agreement, and no legal actions were ever taken, nor formal action ( unless you can find that evidence which I could not). But I think it comes to the reaction. Why not be happy about two fantastic universes and games? I agree StarCraft 2s writing can be hit or miss, but also it does have heart and character; most people don’t work at the same establishment for more than 20 years, so that’s just a fact of life. I’m a cup half full person, I’m glad we have both game franchises and them as a whole. Look at 40k, so many good titles with great genre spectrum

[@gmradio2436]

I like the StarCraft setting and series. I don't get some of the hate for the story as it has been a Chosen One story since Amon was added. The indavidual character arcs do yend to be more intresting. Jim is Redemption. Seeking it, snd letting go of old grudges. Karragan is Revenge and what you give up along the way. Artanis is about letting go of the past and letting go of Nostalgia. Or at least those are my reads.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I like this!

[@gmradio2436]

@@Dog.Dad.Studios Thank you for the comment.

[@ilililililili563]

46:57 KIROV REPORTING!

[@Fedorchik1536]

I have to agree that SC2WoL campaign is actually good. I don't like the whole story reset, but campaign itself is good anyway. What I really don't agree is the angle the whole story took on Kerrigan. She's not some kind of teenage love story interest for Raynor, she is a galactic level threat. They had almost no history together, she was kinda ass when she served Mengsk, she was a major threat as an agend of Overmind and she was an absolute evil by herself. Why would they retcon all of this is a complete mystery to me (well, other than wanting to sell more of that ass to the audience...) The whole crux of the story should've been in Zeratul and his prophecy. This should've been the decision that was eating at Raynor despite all of the spite he should feel towards Kerrigan, not what we got instead.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thanks for taking the time to write this! I would disagree with the “selling ass part.” Hope all is well

[@horsesteam9173]

Its kind of insane that you can beat this entire campaign without losing a unit... wait wrong KZbinr

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Is this an actual challenge for the game? I don’t even know how it would be possible lol 😂

[@slayerboi7008]

Tychus . . . He never had a chance

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

He was licked before he even started

[@slayerboi7008]

@Dog.Dad.Studios kinda wish he was on coma for a month after the shot. Then near the end of this trilogy of starcraft 2 while Raynor was holding the line for his waifu from the skies tychus would show up. "Good thing your a good shot Jimmy" "Hell, Tychus, it's about time"

[@graphixkillzzz]

this is like what Disney is doing, waiting for the people to forget about the flop, then they try to gaslight everyone into thinking it was actually good. if it were actually good, then it wouldn't have flopped; it flopped, so it's actually bad.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Define flop? 6 million copies sold? Millions of dollars of tournament winnings? A competitive ladder for a good amount of years? The story is another thing, but you’re in your own head with this one

[@Gunthersby]

I think Wings of Liberty was very promising but that Heart of the Swarm was kinda mid, especially Kerrigan is overall not as good as she needed to be; it's a popular sentiment I agree with

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I can’t wait to start it soon and see what it has to offer, if anything. Wishing you the best!

[@admiralmurphy1543]

At least the HotS missions were fun. And while Kerrigan's characterization wasn't amazing she was successfully depicted as a person at their absolute lowest point with nothing left to lose.

[@phaneros]

(I'll try to be vague enough that I don't spoil much, but I'll mention certain map elements in the second paragraph and a couple of story beats at the end of the first) I remember HotS was the campaign I enjoyed the most on the first playthrough, and then enjoyed the least on every subsequent playthrough. Kerrigan is so overpowered that having any idea of how to build her well and how much you can rely on her just trivializes most missions. The increased dependence on spawned-in enemy attack waves means it feels less consequential to interact with enemy bases. There's many new concepts introduced, but not enough missions to explore them and not much matchup variety (only 4 ZvZ missions, one of them is a no-build; only 4 PvZs, also 1 of them a no-build). Story-wise, I didn't really like the direction they took Kerrigan in even before factoring in that they occasionally seem to forget that direction from mission-to-mission; Kerrigan is letting the wounded escape on Char, then in Infested and Conviction she infests them (and Valerian is apparently just cool with it). That said, it does a good job on some of the things it set out to do, spectacle and pushing the limits of the editor and engine. With Friends Like These isn't a great mission design-wise, but is still really cool to look at the first time you see it. The DBZ laser mission was silly but again, really cool. The Diablo 3-style bossfights in Supreme revealed something new that we hadn't really seen much of in RTS and made it look elegant. There really isn't a _bad_ sc2 campaign, but HotS is definitely the weakest.

[@martinsvendsen1665]

There are VERY phew games Ive played through more than once.. This one

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Can I ask maybe or or two of your reasons why? I did as well : ) thanks for watching!!

[@martinsvendsen1665]

@@Dog.Dad.Studios I guess one reason is that one of my first seriously impactful games on my 386 25mhz monster was Dune 2 :D Damn im OLD lol.. I was very into the first SC but in my late teens.. But this was the first massive variant of those types of games :) And I think both the story and gameplay was at this point the best.. And these are one of the first games I bought (our secret lol).. Times were different ;) Im not really a casual gamer but have three four times a year where I go nuts and drop everything else.. Getting harder by the years though :)

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Thank you for sharing this : ) I truly appreciate it!

[@pablogarcia1476]

hell yeah

[@HelminthCombos]

you also need to do Nova Covert ops

[@maxpayne2323]

WoL was great. Even on launch! The story is at least on par with SC1.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I enjoyed both stories for different reasons

[@JackTheNoober]

In my opinion the original StarCraft 1 is the best story wise, Wings of Liberty the second, then broodwar and then the heart of swarm and whstever was the protoss one.

[@ChrisConfrey]

YESSSSSSS!!!

[@gejamugamlatsoomanam7716]

Kerrigan being turned into a hero and not getting her cuppance ruined the story

[@merlinmonstrosity]

Hhahaha when you nonchalantly said "I chose to save the colony to roleplay Jimmy having horrible choice making when it comes to women." Hilarious aside bro. This video makes me want to replay the campaign because of flashbacks and nostalg... who am i kidding to perpetuate your version of Jimmy with bad taste and nostalgia. Ps. Thanks for bringing light about the wonders of wings of liberty. How dare you choose Nova 😅 mr. Jimmy 2.0.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Glad It brought back good memories for you, appreciate the love, and have a blast replaying! : ) highly recommend! What happens if you pick Tosh do you remember?

[@merlinmonstrosity]

@Dog.Dad.Studios Vaguely.. You would get spectres rather ghost. And instead of getting killed by nova, he lives, gives you a mission playing as Tosh alternate to Nova, and vamoose soonafter like Dr. Ariel and Nova lol might there be tosh exclusive units I'm unsure I hope so as I replay.

[@Xagii1]

When you hear people complaining about the story of Starcraft 2 they probably refer to the epilogue, wich is consider so bad it eclipsed the great story of the campaigns

[@pakkazull8370]

No, I'm referring to most of it when I call it bad.

[@somethingwitty3647]

It was heart of the swarm and the protoss one that felt rushed

[@truthert]

Its a shame you picked ghosts over tha cannon choice (shown in what Nova says if you never played this campaign before playing the zerg one)

[@SuperiorAmericanGuy]

I assume you all love the StarCraft storyline compared to the Disneys Star Wars story due to StarCraft is a better story compared to the sequel trilogy of Star Wars.

[@ryanreyes4622]

siding with tosh was a better option

[@maryrose2676]

WoL was a good game for me. The story is cheesy but it is what it is. HotS perfected unit upgrades, but focused too much on one character. LotV dropped the ball though.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Why do you think LotV dropped the ball? Thanks so much for taking the time!

[@ggvls3281]

We willw8 for the next entry pls

[@spencer1980]

It was a very well made game. Warcraft 3 can feel clunkier than starcraft. StarCraft 2 is very well made game.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

It felt so good to play, and honestly had me hankering for some more! Looking forward to playing Warcraft 3 though!!

[@Bobrob1597]

WOL was really good. I didn't enjoy the other two as much.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

What did you not like about them? Anything specific?

[@Eurynomos326]

'Actually' what? No one doesn't like this game. Broadly regarded as the best single player experience in the genre. Everyone knows that.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

lol okay? Not the story, it’s the hypothesis of the whole video

[@Merknilash]

StarCraft 2 has a fun campaign But the multiplayer was a massive failure of overly specialized units and apm sinks There are very few examples where sc2 did units better than sc1 And many examples of changing things just to change things

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

Lol I read overspecialized units, but then think of how two barracks marines was an unstoppable force at one point, then medvac drops etc.. and I do think SC2 did a better job mainstreaming those niche units rather than BW that just gives you dark archons without any knowledge of their spells ( if you didn't have the manual and read it). I agree with the fun campaign, its a spectacle, and is entertainment! Wishing you the best, thanks for watching and commenting!

[@Merknilash]

@@Dog.Dad.Studiosthey just kept making up weird units to sell expansions Disrupters , cyclones , widow mines, ravagers, oracles - they just kept making up stuff that stepped on the roles of other units

[@SceptrumVirtuale]

You need to read heavens devils and the other StarCraft books. Heavens devil is the groundwork to StarCraft 2. Must read. Same with the book that takes place during the first campaign

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

I’ll give them a shot! Thank you and to the people previously who have suggested them. I’ll ask my wife to pick them up for my Christmas present : )

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

Respectfully disagree.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

On?

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

@@Dog.Dad.Studios Sc2 being a good sequel.

[@Dog.Dad.Studios]

@ can you elaborate on a particular point? Or constructively criticize something I used as evidence for my hypothesis on the subject?

[@Darlf_Sevil]

They make few characters worst and evrything else was kick to the sky... Fair price for me .. but they should fix co op befor leaving game, it popular you need pay for most heros and brutal + is broken like nucks in your base mutadors that work weaird even below you can bug your flying untis betwen big walls