History YMMV / StarCraftII

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: BrokenBase aside, there were a lot of complaints about the [[EnsembleDarkhorse Siege]] [[DropTheHammer Tank]]'s acknowledgement and StopPokingMe phrases not being equal as the ones of its ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft I}}'' counterpart.

* AngstWhatAngst: While Zeratul's certainly got quite a bit to feel bad about, he just keeps on fighting, never letting it slow him down, though some pieces slip through the cracks; one of his unit quotes is "En aru'din Raszagal", or "In Memory of Raszagal". It's also painfully apparent how much he's suffering from CantKillYouStillNeedYou where [[spoiler:Kerrigan]] is concerned.

** The writing in general. Some people like the direction the series went in, with a more Mass Effect-esque space opera feeling, and the change to Kerrigan and the Zerg's motives. Others... did not.

* LowTierLetdown: The Mothership has been hated since Day One. Players hated the initial concept on arrival, since it reminded too much of ''Warcraft III's'' focus on hero units instead of armies. After release, the only thing it was liked for was the Archon Toilet[[note]]make a lot of Archons, have the Mothership use Vortex on the enemy army, and send the Archons into it; the enemy units will emerge all clumped up and be crushed by the splash damage of the Archons[[/note]], which was nerfed heavily after ''Wings of Liberty''. Otherwise they take far too long to tech up to, cost a lot of resources, move slowly, don't do much damage, are easily focused down and killed, and need a long time to build up energy reserved to use their abilities. The result is they virtually never see play. The Mothership Core was added in ''Heart of the Swarm'' as a stepping stone to the Mothership to make them more appealing, but it actually made them even less appealing since the Mothership Core has the same abilities at a much more manageable cost and much lower tech requirement, and it builds and moves much faster making it easier to replace. The Mothership Core was ultimately removed two years after the release of ''Legacy of the Void'', with its recall ability added to the Nexus instead.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: While there are many constructive criticisms of the game's story, one of the common fan complaints is that [[LighterAndSofter the sequel is not as "dark" as its predecessors]]. As of ''Legacy of the Void'' however, it's increasingly gotten darker.

* TierInducedScrappy
** The Mothership since Day One. Players hated the initial concept on arrival, since it reminded too much of ''Warcraft III's'' focus on hero units instead of armies. After release, the only thing it was liked for was the Archon Toilet[[note]]make a lot of Archons, have the Mothership use Vortex on the enemy army, and send the Archons into it; the enemy units will emerge all clumped up and be crushed by the splash damage of the Archons[[/note]], which was nerfed heavily after ''Wings of Liberty''. Otherwise they take far too long to tech up to, cost a lot of resources, move slowly, don't do much damage, are easily focused down and killed, and need a long time to build up energy reserved to use their abilities. The result is they virtually never see play. The Mothership Core was added in ''Heart of the Swarm'' as a stepping stone to the Mothership to make them more appealing, but it actually made them even less appealing since the Mothership Core has the same abilities at a much more manageable cost and much lower tech requirement, and it builds and moves much faster making it easier to replace. The Mothership Core was ultimately removed two years after the release of ''Legacy of the Void'', with its recall ability added to the Nexus instead.
** Swarm Hosts. Their ability to endlessly create waves of locusts to pressure the enemy indefinitely means they can force a stalemate if a player can't find a way to push back against them, and any units lost to their locusts are an advantage for the Zerg player because they lose nothing if their locusts die. The hate for them got even worse in ''Legacy of the Void'' when their locusts were allowed to ''fly'', making them base raiders to boot, able to unleash locusts on worker lines from across chasms without fear of reprisal.

* MemeticBadass

* MagnificentBastard: Alarak from the ''YMMV/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid'' expansion. See that page for details.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Artanis was considered an uninteresting character from the first game, struggling to stand out against Zeratul, Tassadar, and Fenix, who were seen as much cooler and better developed. His starring role in ''Legacy of the Void'' and the development he got there saw him firmly break out of this mold and establish himself as the modern face of the Protoss.

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: Website/TVTropes is probably the most you'll ever hear about the actual ''story'' of ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft II}}''. A huge number of people picked up the game and went straight to the multiplayer.
** In addition, many people playing campaigns are ignoring cutscenes and interaction between characters completly - both to save time and because many consider plot of the game to be terribly written ExcusePlot and disgrace to otherwise quite charming and interesting lore.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** A criticism of the ''Wings of Liberty'' campaign was that the developers included too many units, with every single mission dedicated to a unit. This not only created a massive tech tree (almost two dozen units in total), but some of the units weren't that good, even in the missions that focused on them -- on the other hand, there was criticism over many missions being ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman, being tailored to the strengths of its spotlight unit and coming off as gimmicky and easy. ''Heart of the Swarm'' dialed back on the unit count heavily, had several levels that didn't focus on one unit, and the levels that did focus on a new unit did so in ways that felt more organic and didn't try to shoehorn the unit into things. ''Legacy of the Void'' technically had more units than even ''Wings of Liberty'', but many of them were variants of existing units and existed to add variety to the player's army, not to be used heavily in a single spotlight mission.
** While ''VideoGame/StarCraftI'' had praise for its solid CompetitiveBalance, one of the quirks the game had was that it had powerful spells, abilities and units that could render some units almost obsolete. This was most noticeable with Terrans infantry compositions which were considered too weak to stand up against opposing Protoss and Terran armies at the professional level. Terran players could use Siege Tanks and Spider Mines to quickly eliminate infantry while the Protoss had Reavers and Psionic Storms that made infantry a joke. ''Starcraft II'' re-balanced a lot of spells and abilities while keeping them still crucial to playing well, and reworked Terran infantry into a viable force that is no longer only useful for fighting against Zerg opponents. Now Terran players don't have to deal with un-dodgeable bursts of splash damage rendering infantry uneconomical and can choose between Infantry and Factory-Mech builds more flexibly, making the Terran faction more unpredictable and dynamic. Many spells are now balanced around reaction time, with skillful micromanagement being rewarded with taking reduced or no damage.
** Supporting fliers like the Corsair, Devourer, and Valkyrie wern't useless, just very situational with the Corsair seeing the most use but its Disruption Web requiring the costly fleet beacon to unlock and still being a niche spell. These were respectively replaced by the Phoenix, Corruptor, and Viking, and had some way to engage ground units. The Phoenix is able to inately lift up all but colossal units so that other Phoenix units may attack them, the Corruptor is able to attack structures or morph into Brood Lords to attack any ground units, and the Viking is able to land to attack ground forces.