Starcraft II : Heart of the Swarm

(This is a re-post from an old Google+ entry)

In five days, without really going #gaming   #nerd  , I finished the single player campaign of #starcraft2  : Heart of the Swarm

The Good:
- The gameplay and difficulty level are "just right": it's challenging, without a gaming journeyman like myself starting to cry. The different missions have a lot of diversity, and a lot of deviations from the standard RTS gameplay (build a base and conquer the map) are really, really fun
- The immersion, feel of the game, and general atmosphere is great: the cutscenes are really engaging, and the gaming sounds pull you into the world of a hive of bio-engineered organisms. My girlfriend at times looked at me disgusted from just hearing the sounds of the game
- The story progresses very nicely: even though the story reaches a closure-point, there's still enough going for me to really want to play the third part of the starcraft 2 trilogy... even though I can't stand the Protoss, or the way they play

The Bad:
- It's a bit too short: even for a "mere" €30 game I expect a bit longer playtime than... what is it, 10-15 hours ? I know there's a multiplayer aspect, but I didn't have to buy the second part to already have that.
- The Story (I'm really starting to hate Chris Metzen): not only am I as a player able to notice the holes in the story, the contrived situations and actings, and the deus-ex-machina constructions; but I'm getting the feeling the writers (led by Metzen) just plainly forgot what exactly was happening in the first part of the trilogy: Wings of Liberty. For example: the Xel'Naga artifact is clearly the Main Plot Line of the complete trilogy, but the writers FAIL to point out the connections between where it appears in the second installment, to where it was left in de first installment. Worse, they create confusion about it: is that device in the last cutscene the artifact ? If it is, it violates the storyline seriously, if it isn't then it's a look-alike deus-ex-machina... which makes it just bloody stupid

The Ugly:
- Having to be online, having to login to be able to play my single-player game. Luckily it's not as stupidly implemented as Diablo III or Simcity, and there's only the battle.net lobby you log into, without any repercussions to the game itself

So was it worth it... well yes, I'd still recommend it as a example of how a good RTS should be, I had fun, and I really don't regret buying it.