History VideoGame / StarCraftIINovaCovertOps

[[caption-width-right:344:And the adventure continues!]]

* TheAllSeeingAI: In the final mission, any time Nova tries to call in a nuke, the enemy will ''immediately'' do a comsat sweep right over her exact position and nearby units will swarm to attack her. This will happen even if she had previously gone undetected getting into position, and even if she's out of vision range of enemy units or structures -- no matter how stealthy you are, once the nuke is targeted the AI knows exactly where she is.

* BigBad: [[spoiler:General Davis, the Dominion general who is the secret leader of the Defenders of Man]].

* HistoryRepeats: [[spoiler: Psi Emitters are once again used in attempts to lure zerg to terran worlds.]]

** BonusBoss: Two of them in Mission 5, as optional missions that Nova can take alone and battle a giant monster for bonus equipment.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the aborted ''Starcraft: Ghost'' first-person shooter. Nova had originally been created and billed as the player character before it folded, and much of the plot that had been written for that game was adapted into the story, which is why it features many locations from the original ''Starcraft'' campaign such as Tarsonis and Antiga Prime.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: None of the rescued Ghosts are mentioned after the first mission until the seventh mission where you find out that [[spoiler:two of them are currently being mindwiped and the third has already undergone the process and is trying to cut you off from your target]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: You can find a [[spoiler: psi emitter]] behind the Zerg base in the second mission.

* WeaponOfChoice: Subverted, because for the first time since her debut, she can use something other than the canister rifle.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Putting [[JumpJetPack Jump Jets]] on Siege Tanks certainly sounds like an awesome idea, allowing them to move up onto otherwise-unreachable plateaus to rain down death upon all nearby enemies with no fear of reprisal... except they're still just as helpless against air units, and putting them up on those otherwise-unreachable areas generally leaves them out of support-range of any of your anti-air defenses (at least before Nova gains access to her air force), leaving them ''very'' exposed. That being said, Jump Jets can be useful for microing your Siege Tanks away from enemies like you would with the Stalker's Blink ability, but using them as the game clearly wants you to is a pretty good way to get them killed.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Putting [[JumpJetPack Jump Jets]] on Siege Tanks certainly sounds like an awesome idea, allowing them to move up onto otherwise-unreachable plateaus to rain down death upon all nearby enemies with no fear of reprisal... except they're still just as helpless against air units, and putting them up on those otherwise-unreachable areas generally leaves them out of support-range of any of your anti-air defenses (at least before Nova gains access to her air force), leaving them ''very'' exposed.

* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Putting [[JumpJetPack Jump Jets]] on Siege Tanks certainly sounds like an awesome idea, allowing them to move up onto otherwise-unreachable plateaus to rain down death upon all nearby enemies with no fear of reprisal... except they're still just as helpless against air units, and putting them up on those otherwise-unreachable areas generally leaves them out of support-range of any of your anti-air defenses (at least before Nova gains access to her air force), leaving them ''very'' exposed.
** Starting on the penultimate mission, Battlecruisers can be given cloaking technology, meaning they can warp in undetected and rain hell upon enemies. Unfortunately, cloaking takes energy which is better spent on Yamato Cannons. In the end, it's better to give the cloaking technology to Liberators, Reapers, or Banshees, particularly since the latter two become permanently cloaked with the upgrade.

%%* SpreadShot

* RealityEnsues:
** The campaign deconstructs TheGoodKing trope. [[spoiler:Valerian finds out that even with him being an objectively better emperor than his father, there is still resistance to his rule, resistance that may one day need to be dealt with through overt violence. It's up to Nova to save his reputation. It seemingly got so bad that he abdicates the throne at the end of the sixth mission, but it turns out to be a ruse to capture the leader of the Defenders of Man.]]
** Nova reminded Valerian that [[spoiler: General Davis was loyal to his family, and ''not'' to him personally. Through this, it is implied that Davis was a beneficiary of the corruption within the Dominion under Arcturus's reign, and that she and others like her will fight to resist Valerian, whose reforms would almost certainly mean the end of easy money/power for them.]]
** [[spoiler: Nova being forced to [[SaveTheVillain save the Defenders of Man from the Tal'darim]] in the fourth mission since letting them be destroyed would leave the planet defenselessness predictably leads to them taking all the credit for saving the planet under attack by the Zerg. Helping villains win a battle to save innocent lives unfortunately really helps their [[VillainWithGoodPublicity reputation]].]]
** The final battle with the BigBad [[spoiler:General Davis ends with a single attack, rather than a boss battle. Davis is only a normal human in a dress uniform, whereas Nova is a OneManArmy with PowerArmor and high tech weapons]].

** One of the possible upgrades allows a unit that normally requires a tech lab (such as Marauders or Siege Tanks) be built without it. Dull but it lets you build two at a time from the same building with a reactor. In fact, giving it to Marauders means you no longer need tech labs for your Barracks at all.

* TheAllSeeingAI: In the final mission, any time Nova tries to call in a nuke while, the enemy will ''immediately'' do a comsat sweep right over her exact position and nearby units will swarm to attack her. This will happen even if she had previously gone undetected getting into position, and even if she's out of vision range of enemy units or structures -- no matter how stealthy you try to be, once the nuke is targeted the AI knows exactly where she is.

* HolyShitQuotient: In-universe, Nova has such a moment when she realized that she could equip jump jets on her ''siege tanks''.

* DevelopersForesight: The seventh mission has a part where players need flashbangs to pass a sensor. If they don't have them, they can use the goggles they just picked up to mind control an enemy into blocking it. Likewise, the second half of the mission has several alternate routes based on your loadout along with a few spots to change your gear.

* BadassInCharge: Nova is an undeniable badass, and she's in charge of a Covert Ops crew.

** SpacePlane: Unlike [[ISOStandardHumanSpaceship]] most terran spaceships]], it looks nimble and streamlined like a supersonic jet.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Putting [[JumpJetPack Jump Jets]] on Siege Tanks certainly sounds like an awesome idea, allowing them to move up onto otherwise-unreachable plateaus to rain down death upon all nearby enemies with no fear of reprisal... except they're still just as helpless against air units, and putting them up on those otherwise-unreachable areas generally leaves them out of support-range of any of your anti-air defenses (at least before Nova gains access to her air force), leaving them ''very'' exposed.

** SpacePlane: Unlike [[OurWeaponsWillBeBoxyInTheFuture most terran spaceships]], it looks nimble and streamlined like a supersonic jet.

* RevengeBeforeReason: [[spoiler:General Davis would rather destroy the Dominion than serve Valerian, whom she blames for his father's death, and Alarak completely ignores the fact that the Dominion's Emperor and innocent civilians are in the firing line when he attacks the Defenders of Man's compound.]]

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: The seventh mission has a part where players need flashbangs to pass a sensor. If they don't have them, they can use the goggles they just picked up to mind control an enemy into blocking it. Likewise, the second half of the mission has several alternate routes based on your loadout along with a few spots to change your gear.