Line #52 YMMV/StarcraftII


1	See also:
2	* [[YMMV/StarCraft StarCraft's (series and first game/expansion) YMMV tab]]
3	* [[YMMV/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty Wings of Liberty's YMMV tab]]
4	* [[YMMV/StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm Heart of the Swarm's YMMV tab]]
5	* [[YMMV/StarCraftIILegacyOfTheVoid Legacy of the Void's YMMV tab]]
6	* [[YMMV/StarCraftIICoopMode Co-op Mode tab]]
7	* [[YMMV/StarCraftIINovaCovertOps Nova Covert Ops YMMV tab]]
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11	* AngstWhatAngst: A lot of the characters have suffered fates that would have utterly broken any real person, or at least given them severe PTSD. Yet most characters in [=SC2=] simply carry on with showing little more than an angry squint.
12	** 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.
13	** Raynor's entire life seems to be a TraumaCongaLine: he spends his youth as a criminal but regrets it deeply; his parents die in shame, only knowing his as a criminal; his best friend gets imprisoned indefinitely; his son is hauled off and dies in a [[TrainingFromHell shady training programme]] and his wife subsequently dies of sorrow; the planet he gets a job on gets consumed by the Zerg; he then goes to fight for Mengsk, who rewards him by feeding [[LoveInterest Kerrigan]] to the Zerg and go from freedom fighter to dictator; he witnesses Kerrigan get infested and later kill [[FireForgedFriends his friend, Fenix]], and he sees Mengsk rise to power and get away scot free while he himself is vilified with no hope of deposing him. Then [=SC2=] has him [[spoiler:kill off his best friend to deinfest Kerrigan, only for her to willingly reinfest herself later]]. [[MenDontCry And he never so much as sheds a tear]].
14	** Kerrigan also counts. Aside from getting betrayed by a man she trusted implicitly, fed to and infested by the Zerg, and then [[spoiler:get returned to normal]], suddenly able to look back on her [[InferredHolocaust butchering her way across the stars]] as the Queen of Blades from a normal perspective... that can't be easy. [[spoiler:And this isn't even mentioning how she later loses Raynor to a sniper bullet.]] [[MenDontCry Unlike the others]], at least she gets to shed a SingleTear.
15	* BizarroEpisode: The trilogy of novels ''Literature/StarCraftTheDarkTemplarSaga''. WordOfGod is they were written specifically to set up plot events in the trilogy, but none of the characters besides Valerian reappear and the events of the novel are not referenced ever again, and most of the backstory and lore it provides is either given again in the games, or are retconned. In the meantime, the book concerns a Terran that has to share his brain with a Protoss experiencing the memories of famous Protoss heroes as visions, Kerrigan's attempts to replicate her infestation on another Terran succeed (with no given reason for why after another novel had her repeatedly failing), we deal with Protoss ''drug addicts'', and we have Ulrezaj the dark archon draining the souls of other Protoss to sustain his life.
16	* BrokenBase:
17	** Unfortunately, this was expected. The game created this before it was even released. Features such as multiple building select split the fanbase early on on the development cycle, followed by debates over how protoss display team color, if the lurker should have been removed or not, and more. Not to mention the arguments that broke out when it was revealed that Blizzard was changing the voice actress of Kerrigan from Glynnis Talken to Tricia Helfer. And now that the game is actually out, the base has become extremely polarized, nearly to the extent of the Literature/InheritanceCycle over ''VideoGame/StarCraftII's'' story.
18	** Early in development there was a Broken Base on the Zerg. Some thought they're the weakest race and helpless before any competent Protoss or Terran, while others thought they were fine and the weaker players just [[DifficultButAwesome had yet to "click" with the race and realize their full potential and versatility]]. A related point of contention was the Infester, a unit so powerful it was considered a necessity for Zerg to have a chance, but perhaps was ''too'' powerful. Then Patch 1.4 talked about nerfing the Infester's Neural Parasite ability, and cue the arguments. Numerous fixes to the race come ''Heart of the Swarm'' helped mitigate the problems.
19	** The release of ''Legacy of the Void'' broke the base in a similar manner on the Terrans. The Marauder nerf, along with addition of the Adept and Disruptor to the Protoss, and the Lurker and Viper's Parasitic Bomb to the Zerg, made the Terran's bread and butter strategy, MMM (Marines, Marauders, and Medivacs) much weaker. Some Terran players complained they were now the weakest race since MMM couldn't handle the late-game armies of the Protoss and Zerg, and Terrans have a harder time transitioning into later-game Factory and Starport-based armies than the other two races. Protoss and Zerg players responded by mocking the Terrans are just upset they "have to learn how to ''really'' play", since MMM had been the backbone of most Terran strategies since ''Wings of Liberty'' and Terran players spent five years getting good at it. Over time balance tweaks largely mitigated these complaints.
20	** The Swarm Host is the source of many arguments. Some players consider them overpowered, as when used properly their locusts can deal a surprising amount of damage and be used to snipe bases and ambush armies with little risk to the Swarm Host itself. And because locusts cost nothing but time to produce, every battle fought using locusts is economically favorable to the Swarm Host player. On the other side, players point out that Swarm Hosts cost a lot of resources, time, and supply, their locusts don't last very long compared to the cooldown to spawn them, and the Swarm Host is not very maneuverable and needs a Nydus Network to be effective, which all means they require a substantial investment and the player must sacrifice the size and sustainability of their army, leaving them more vulnerable to counterplay when their Swarm Hosts are out of position or on cooldown. The Swarm Hosts were considered overpowered in ''Heart of the Swarm'', then reworks to them for ''Legacy of the Void'' saw them become much less effective and they were almost never used; it is hotly debated if it's possible to buff them in any way without tipping the scales back to overpowered.
21	** In the [=2020s=], the Terran Ghost began to be the source of arguments, particularly in Terran vs Zerg games. Steady Targeting lets them kill every Zerg unit except the Brood Lord or Ultralisk in one shot (and Brood Lords are still left heavily weakened), EMP lets them drain Infestors and Vipers of their energy, and with Cloak they force the Zerg player to keep Overseers around, which Ghosts can still kill with Steady Targeting. Critics of the Ghost point out they're too versatile and mass Ghost counters everything the Zerg could throw at the Terran unless they resort to mass Banelings, the Ghost's biggest weakness, but this is both expensive and can be microed against to mitigate their potential. Defenders of the Ghost point out that they're very expensive to build and take a long time to tech up to and upgrade, so the Zerg player shouldn't let the Terran's economy get to the point they can afford to go mass Ghosts, and Brood Lords and Infestors and Vipers would easily roll over the Terran's other late-game unit compositions without Ghosts, so the Terrans ''need'' the Ghost to support their armies against them.
22	** Some of the [[{{Woolseyism}} non-literal translations]] in the Latin American Spanish version. Are they surprisingly good references to Native American languages, or they don't make sense at all?
23	** The writing and delivery in general is a major divide amongst the singleplayer fanbase. Some fans 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 feel the story repeatedly [[ContinuitySnarl breaks continuity]], ignores the core premise in favour [[RomanticPlotTumour poorly written love story]], reduces characters to one-dimensional archetypes, and has a script consisting of nothing but a giant ClicheStorm. A third group yet considers ''both'' games to have a subpar story and writing [[ClicheStorm full of tired cliches]] and hold that the multiplayer is [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory the games' only worthwhile quality]]. Then come the newer fanbase who've never played [[VideoGame/StarCraft the first game]] and don't understand what all the fuss is about.
24	* CheeseStrategy: The single-player campaign had hilariously overpowered upgrades (to the point where in [=WoL=] you couldn't get them all in a single playthrough and subsequent games gave these upgrades to the AI to counteract the new, utterly broken Zerg and Protoss units).
25	** Unlike previous games, you can finally gives commands to your entire army instead of one 8-unit group at a time, making Zerg Rushes much easier.
26	** Each game has an ability that lets you gather vespene automatically, freeing up workers for other purposes or getting more combat units.
27	** VideoGame/WingsOfLiberty:
28	*** Most Zerg missions become a cakewalk once the Reapers are unlocked, as they combine high speed, the ability to jump up and down ledges, high anti-Light damage (that is, most Zerg ground units) and devastating anti-building damage. Building up a large force of Reapers and a few medics becomes a near-unstoppable deathball that ravages infantry swarms and bases alike. It's helpless against air units, but with enough Reapers this isn't much of a problem (especially when combined with an upgrade that lets you train them two at a time per building).
29	*** The Science Vessel allows you to heal mechanical units for free, and flies. This alone causes most players to take it instead of the Raven, a turret-placing robot.
30	*** One upgrade lets you choose the Hercules dropship or the Predator, a robot panther that deals area damage. However, the Hercules can carry huge armies and several Thors and deposit them behind enemy lines, making it a much better option.
31	*** One upgrade lets you choose between making units attack faster with every damage upgrade, or get more health with every armor upgrade. The former is much more powerful thanks to using CriticalExistenceFailure (most units function as Glass Cannons, so increasing their damage output is much more important than keeping them alive longer).
32	** VideoGame/HeartOfTheSwarm:
33	*** Zerglings can now spawn in groups of three, Banelings (spawned from Banelings) now have an upgrade that lets them jump cliffs and over other units. Drowning the enemy in explosive death is immense fun.
34	*** Kerrigan's abilities let her (among others) summon banelings into enemy troops, drop a small Zerg army on the field or essentially use a psychic nuke.
35	** VideoGame/LegacyOfTheVoid:
36	*** Almost every mission lets you call down orbital bombardments. This only increases with time as the ''Spear of Adun'' gets more powerful abilities like stopping time or sending down a superpowered robot.
37	*** Tempests are flyers with the range of artillery, letting them annihilate entire bases with near-impunity. And unlike other artillery flyers, they can actually defend themselves against other air units.
38	* ContestedSequel: For the multiplayer, it's really a matter of opinion if the original game or this one is superior. For the singleplayer campaign, most agree the gameplay and presentation are significantly improved, but the writing has taken a downward turn, albeit improving in its own way by ''Legacy of the Void.''
39	* CreatorsPet: The macro booster mechanics -- [=MULEs=]/Chrono Boost/Spawn Larva -- have always been a touchy subject for skewing the game balance in different ways. [=MULEs=] provides a ridiculous boost to Terran mining, allowing Terrans to run much fewer workers than other races, and they can recover from losses of workers much easier than the other races since [=MULEs=] can be dropped to mine anywhere. Spawn Larva on the other hand requires Zerg players to constantly monitor their Queens and Hatcheries to make sure they're producing extra larva, and prior to ''Legacy of the Void'', Spawn Larva could not be queued multiple times on a single Hatchery, so any time lost ''not'' using Spawn Larva was time that could never be gained back. A poll was set up on [[http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/closed-threads/494703-poll-macro-booster-community-feedback Team liquid]] to ask the community's thoughts on them, and an overwhelming majority voted "no macro boosters", yet Blizzard chose to retain them and try to balance them in other ways.
40	* EnsembleDarkhorse: The baneling has quite a following as the "cute" zerg unit, for some reason.
41	* EpilepticTrees: Early in the trilogy, some fans suggested that "The Voice in the Darkness" from the ''Frontline'' graphic novels was Amon; they're both Void-based entities, the Voice was apparently killed/sealed by the Xel'naga ages ago, it refers to them as false gods and itself as the one true god, it was unsealed by Moebius Foundation, and it shows some ability to control the minds of Terrans and Protoss. WordOfGod has said outright the two entities are different, but it hasn't stopped speculation on other potential connections between them.
42	* FanNickname:
43	** The Overlord's ability to produce creeps is referred to by fans as "Diarrhea".
44	** Anything [[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Arthas]]-related for Valerian.
45	** Some people like referring to Rory Swann as a "Space Dwarf" since he's short, stocky, bearded and good with machines. He does spend all his time in [[VideoGame/DwarfFortress Bay 12]]. No Scottish accent, though.
46	** Watching commentary replays of pro-level games requires learning an entire fan ''vocabulary'' of names for the different build orders and strategies used, especially since several terms sound similar but have different meanings, such as six-pool[[note]]A Zerg player creates a spawning pool with his sixth drone[[/note]], 4-gate[[note]]A Protoss player builds four gateways before focusing on anything else, regardless of worker count[[/note]], and one-one-one[[note]]A Terran player builds one Barracks, one Factory, and one Starport, racing up the TechTree to air units as fast as possible. Occasionally called the Destiny Cloudfist Build by Creator/HuskyStarcraft fans.[[/note]].
47	* FranchiseOriginalSin: Although many complain about the romance between Kerrigan and Raynor, many forget that it was featured already in [[VideoGame/StarCraft the first game]]. The only difference is that there, it was only a [[TokenRomance minor subplot]], whereas here, it forms a core part of the story.
48	* GameBreaker:
49	** The Zerg Infestor has become the most despised unit in the entire franchise for its immense versatility and power. However, since they were also the only midgame unit that could stand up in direct battle combat for the Zerg, Blizzard refused to nerf them. They ironically nearly broke the game and kept the Zerg from falling apart at the same time. The unit got nerfed in ''Heart of the Swarm'' once the other Zerg units had been fixed.
50	** Another issue in multiplayer is the Terran [=MULE=]. It's a WorkerUnit that can be summoned by an Orbital Command Center for 50 Energy (of 200), does not take up Supply, and brings back 7 minerals per trip where standard [=SCVs=] bring back 5. It only lasts for 90 seconds, but if a Terran player can focus his economy in the midgame, he can build a ton of Orbital Commands and basically replace all his [=SCVs=] with [=MULEs=]. ''This'' is where things start going OffTheRails. In the late game, a Protoss player has probably dedicated about 60 of the 200 Food in his ArbitraryHeadcountLimit to Worker Units; Zerg are expected to run more like 80. A Terran player spamming [=MULEs=]? He can get by with ''20''.
51	** In Co-Op, Zeratul is even more broken than Tychus. Despite the fact he's recommended for experienced players, he's both one of the most powerful and the easiest commanders to use. His gimmick is that he has to find artifact fragments in the world itself by the use of an ability, but once he does, all his units upgrade automatically. He's only got 1 tech structure you really need (Whereas other commanders have 2 or 3) unless you want to build specyfic tier 3 units. Not that he needs them, Zeratul as his Stalkers, Sentries and Immortals are more than enough to destroy anything the enemy throws at him. The Stalkers boast good health and damage on top of an automatic dodge teleport which eliminates the need for micro on any difficulty except Brutal, the Sentries keep the army alive by being portable Shield Batteries, and the third erases air units from the map with 2-3 shots. His only real weakness - swarms of Zerg units - can be negated by building Tesseract Monolyths, a free and instant turret with insane range, Detector capabilities, and splashing stun. Three of them can stunlock entire armies, and with just the 2nd artifact fragment they can be "projected" onto the battlefield for about a minute, essentially giving you global control over the battlefield (so long as you have vision in the area). A half-decent player can do Brutal missions with this guy as early as level 5, which is the "free to play" threshold.
52	* SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming: The Starcraft II World Editor is surprisingly versatile; mods have ranged from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFbFCTziw28 a racing game]], [[https://youtu.be/ON0Qbbxm1tI?t=17m21s a Futbol game]], and so on.
53	* GoddamnedBats: Those annoying little broodlings that come out when you destroy a zerg building.
54	* HighTierScrappy: Swarm Hosts' 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.
55	* ItsEasySoItSucks: BoringButPractical units are derided for their effectiveness (at least in earlier levels of skill, wherein players don't know much strategy beyond attack-moving), with some going so far as to ([[{{Scrub}} dismissively]]) allege that Marine-Marauder-Medivac / mass Mutalisk / mass Void Ray is practically impossible to win against.
56	* LowTierLetdown: The Mothership has been hated since Day One. Players hated the concept in the first place because it was deemed too reminiscent of ''Warcraft III's'' focus on hero units instead of armies. The Mothership takes a long time to tech up to, costs a lot of resources, moves slowly, doesn't deal much damage, is easily focused down and killed because of its size and sluggish speed, and it needs time to build up energy reserves so it can use its abilities. The result is that they virtually never see play in the competitive scene except for niche and novelty strategies. ''Heart of the Swarm'' added the Mothership Core as a stepping stone to the Mothership to try and make them more viable, but it had the opposite effect since the Mothership Core had the same abilities but was much cheaper and lower on the tech tree. The Mothership Core was ultimately removed two years after the release of ''Legacy of the Void'', and the Mothership had a massive rework (not the first time, either) in 2023, to try and bring it up to par.
57	* MagnificentBastard: Alarak from the ''YMMV/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid'' expansion. See that page for details.
58	* MemeticBadass:
59	** General Warfield punches Hydralisks to death and would rather his medics chop his arm off so he can stay on the battlefield than retreat for proper medical attention. [[spoiler:And losing his arm barely slowed him down since he came back one mission later with an ArmCannon. Even being impaled in the torso with ''several'' steel beams didn't kill him, and he was ''trying to pull them out!'']]
60	** Alarak would have you know he is by far the most powerful being in the galaxy and could crush anyone who defies him beneath his heel. The fandom agrees.
61	** ''Egon Stetmann'' became this when he got added as a Co-op commander, fielding an army of mechanical Zerg that combine traits and abilities from all three races, like his "Mecha Battlecarrier Lord", a mechanical Brood Lord with "locustceptors" and a "Stetmato cannon". It's been declared that Stetmann and his Mecha Swarm are the ''true'' fusion of the races over Amon and his Hybrid, and Stetmann achieved what Amon could not.
62	* MemeticMutation:
63	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKZlcgOzi_E TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DAMAGE!!!]]
64	** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfl8c4ZtGp0 SO MANY BANELINGS!!!]]''
65	*** "[[Creator/HuskyStarcraft Banelings, banelings, banelings woaaahhh...]]"
66	** How do you defeat those invisible protis sniper-
67	** At least he's not poohunter.
68	*** If there is a solarite in Amon's body, Legacy of the Void will end prematurely.
69	** Pylo the Pylon. Appeared in a game between [=WhiteRa (DuckloadRa)=] and [=BratOk=]. Created by Creator/HuskyStarcraft to name a Pylon near the front lines, Pylo has become a sensation in the [=SC2 community=], recently spawing his own [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ4XpUKjtgk SONG]]. Pylo appears at around 9:03 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtUT-IAy4sA&feature=related here]].
70	** The objective of _____ [[SarcasmMode is super unique]]. There are X _____ scattered around the map that need to be _____. Each is guarded by a progressively stronger force of enemies. [[labelnote:Explanation]]While more varied in style compared to [[VideoGame/StarCraft the first game]] and its simplistic "destroy all enemy forces" and "reach a certain area" missions, some players have noted that this game's campaign and co-op missions can also turn out to be incredibly formulaic at the end of the day. A very large amount of them can be summarized the way [=GiantGrantGames=] described it in his challenge runs: the objective is split into multiple objects all over the map, you have to do the same thing (generally destroy it) to each of them, and every object is better defended than the previous one you reached.[[/labelnote]]
71	%%* MisBlamed: Early in the game's development EVERYTHING that the fans didn't like was blamed on Dustin Browder, to the point some accused him of trying to ruin the game on purpose because he used to work on the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' series and saw ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' as a rival franchise.
72	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
73	** The siege tank's shbooom noise is this for terran players. What it says is "group of enemy units just got their teeth kicked in".
74	** "Nuclear Launch Detected." That's assuming you were the one that launched it, otherwise it's [[OhCrap another trope.]]
75	** In the Co-op mode, any time your ultimate ability comes off cooldown comes with one:
76	-->'''Adjutant''': Pulse Cannon online.\
77	'''Protoss Advisor:''' [[OrbitalBombardment Solar Bombardment]] available/[[TimeStandsStill Time Stop]] online.\
78	'''Alarak:''' I am ready to [[OneManArmy be empowered]]/The Death Fleet is standing by.\
79	'''Stukov:''' An [[{{Robeast}} Apocalisk]] is ready for spawning.
80	* MotiveDecay: Arcturus Mengsk goes from a MagnificentBastard who shrewdly manipulated everyone around him into helping him achieve his goals, to a one-note villain willing to sacrifice ''his only heir'' just to kill Raynor. It's never really elaborated upon ''why'' he hates Raynor enough to [[StupidEvil destroy his own dynasty]], he just does.
81	* {{Narm}}:
82	** Zeratul talks to himself ''a lot'', mostly to recap gameplay mechanics or plot points he already knows very well. It's there to exposit to the player what he's doing and how his abilities work, but this doesn't change the fact ''he's talking to himself'' and pulling AsYouKnow on himself. Coupled with his LargeHam tendencies, it results in a silly habit of giving dramatic monologues to thin air.
83	** Several of the Zerg portrait quotes you can't help but unintentionally laugh at. The Zergling and Infestor's quotes particularly where the former has a moment where it sounds like the Zergling is letting out a brief fart, while the latter sounds like someone working at Blizzard had just recorded a person taking a dump on the toilet almost the entire time.
84	* NightmareFuel:
85	** The infested terran in general. The portraits are far more detailed and thus far more disturbing than the original game.
86	*** Zoom in on their death animation. Once their meter expires, they put their guns in their mouths and ''[[AndIMustScream shoot themselves.]]''
87	* 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. Others play the main campaign, but skip the cutscenes entirely.
88	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: ''Starcraft II'' re-balanced much of the gameplay in an effort make competitive play more unpredictable, but also improved campaign gameplay over time as well.
89	** 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.
90	** 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 even with ideal micromanagement skill. 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.
91	** 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.
92	** 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.
93	* RomanticPlotTumor: Many who disagree with the direction of the story in [=SC2=] see the romance between Kerrigan and Raynor as this. Although this was [[FranchiseOriginalSin already present in the first game]], it received very little screen time and so looked more like a TokenRomance that came to a tragic, premature end. Kerrigan's [[CompleteMonster subsequent actions]] further cemented the death of their romance when she had Raynor's [[FireForgedFriends Fire Forged Friend]], Fenix, [[MoralEventHorizon killed]], whereupon Raynor handed her a ReasonYouSuckSpeech and [[ItsPersonal swore be the one to kill her]]. So when Blizzard then decided that ''Starcraft'' had apparently [[OrwellianRetcon "always been a story about a boy and a girl"]][[note]]This being an actual quote from one of the developers from the making-of video of VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty.[[/note]], it understandably pissed off a lot of fans. This was made even worse by neither Fenix nor any of Kerrigan's crimes ever being brought up even once in [[VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty the first installment]], with [[ContinuitySnarl every character acting as if they never even existed]], making it look like they were [[RetCon retconned out]] just to make a forced romance work.
94	* SequelDifficultyDrop: The game comes with four difficulty levels, compared to the single (and NintendoHard) difficulty in the previous game. The removal/tweaking of some frustrating mechanics (such as ArtificialStupidity and the unit selection cap) and the addition of more user-friendly ones (such as the ability to tab through each type of selected unit for abilities and descriptions for said abilities) augment this more so.
95	* {{Sequelitis}}: Whether because of changes to multiplayer, singleplayer, or both, there are a large number of fans who view ''[=StarCraft 2=]'' as inferior to [[VideoGame/StarCraft the original]] for one reason or another. Some find that one of the particular installments is to blame for the failure, others dislike all of them to various degrees albeit not necessairy in order, and some simply dislike [=SC2=] as a whole, viewing all the installments as equally bad.
96	* StopHavingFunGuys: In multiplayer, a lot of older or higher ranked players will rather play with other players of equal ranking and have hate on newer ranked ones, especially newcomers (ie noobs). Some will go through great lengths to abuse the new player until he/she quits the game. Apparently they'd rather have a lower chance of winning than have a newcomer on their team. This even happens on unranked games. If you bring it up in the forums the answer is often "play multiplayer only when you can play 4v4 against the computer on brutal". Ouch. Also, a lot of players believe in specific tactics and you will be terribly bullied if you choose to play in a way that do not conform to any known tactics.
97	* StrangledByTheRedString: People who have only played the games and not [[ExpandedUniverse read the books]] will be somewhat surprised by how much Jim Raynor wants to save Kerrigan, as the last time they met Raynor was swearing revenge on her for Fenix's death.
98	* StupidEvil: Many detractors of the story view Arcturus Mengsk as having turned into this in [=SC2=], in contrast to his MagnificentBastard role in [=SC1=]. Surely, deciding to kill off your one and only heir, when you rule a hereditary monarchy, must count as a colossally stupid idea. Even more so when you do it [[SkewedPriorities just to kill off ''one'' ineffectual rebel who deserted you]] because you fed his girlfriend to the HordeOfAlienLocusts.
99	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: BrokenBase aside, there were a lot of complaints about the [[EnsembleDarkhorse Siege Tank]]'s acknowledgement and StopPokingMe phrases not being equal as the ones of its ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft I}}'' counterpart.
100	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
101	** The Protoss as a whole are put on a pretty big backburner before they were finally brought into the spotlight when the ''Legacy of the Void'' expansion rolled around. The primary example being that it takes awhile for the Daelaam Protoss to actually get going in [=SC2=] due to how insignificant they are to the main stories of ''Wings of Liberty'' and ''Heart of the Swarm''. One can only wonder how different, or more interesting, the story would have been had they taken part in Valerian's attack on Char to cleanse Kerrigan, or when Kerrigan invaded Korhal with her Zerg Swarm to kill Arcturus. In addition, the Tal'darim didn't fare much better as they were basically a shallow one-dimensional villain that existed purely for missions to fight against Protoss. It's not until ''Legacy of the Void'' that the Tal'darim were finally provided some much needed depth.
102	** The Hybrids ended up not having much going for them outside of being a [[{{Mook}}s fodder army]] for Amon. What's especially damning is that they weren't given a single recurring character to act as the representative of the race. At first, ''Wings of Liberty'' played around with the idea of having named Hybrid characters, such as Zeratul going up against one named [[OneShotCharacter Maar]] during "A Sinister Turn," yet it turns out that this was the ''only'' time that the player faces off against a named Hybrid. In the end, Maar's appearance is so out-of-place looking back on the campaigns as a whole that it wouldn't be surprising if it turned out that the developers decided to ditch the idea of giving the Hybrids characterization for the sequel campaigns.
103	** Tychus Findlay features heavily in [[VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty the first installment]] and was perhaps the most well-liked new character in the entire game. Many would probably have liked to see even more of him in the subsequent installments. [[spoiler:Instead, he was [[DroppedABridgeOnHim unceremoniously killed off]] at the end of ''Wings of Liberty''.]]
104	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
105	** Unlike previous RTS games from ''Creator/BlizzardEntertainment'', there's no definitive villain campaign for ''Starcraft II''. This plays a huge part as to why [[BigBad Amon]] and his Hybrids are some of the least interesting and underdeveloped characters seen in the franchise as you never get to truly see their EvilPlan unfold from the villain's point-of-view.
106	** One common criticism of the ''Starcraft II'' storytelling is that it doesn't do that good of a job bridging the storytelling of where ''Brood War'' left off with the start of ''Wings of Liberty''.
107	*** The last we saw of Raynor, he believed Kerrigan had crossed the MoralEventHorizon and vowed to kill her for betraying him and Fenix and all the other lives she had ruined. Come ''Starcraft II'', Raynor mourns for Kerrigan as the love of his life that he regrets being unable to save, and his desire to kill her is gone.
108	*** The Dominion was a broken shell after the [=UED=] invasion and Kerrigan's betrayal, with many of their worlds suffering mass destruction, their military being crippled, and General Duke being killed. At the end of ''Brood War'' it's said that Arcturus retreated to Korhal to lick his wounds and try to rebuild. In a short four years between the two games, the Dominion is stronger than ever and Arcturus is secure in his power and controls a majority of Terran worlds.
109	*** The Protoss on Shakuras are barely even mentioned outside of Zeratul's mini-campaign in ''Wings of Liberty'', which is only a vision of the future. It wasn't until ''Legacy of the Void'' that they got any real focus, with webcomics and novellas left to fill in what had been going on with their civilization in the six years since ''Brood War''.
110	*** The overall storytelling outright ignores any impact that the [=UED=] invasion may have had on the Koprulu Sector to the point that everyone acts like said invasion never happened. The only time the UED is even mentioned in ''Wings of Liberty'' is in the description for the Spartan Company Goliath mercenaries, which is something that can be easily missed while ''Heart of the Swarm'' has Stukov mention a throwaway line regarding Earth.
111	** When the ''Covert Ops'' mission pack was announced, some players were interested in further mission packs to follow up on lingering plot threads leftover from the main trilogy, or to continue telling the story much like ''Brood War'' had done with the original ''Starcraft''. ''Covert Ops'' ended up being the only mission pack produced.
112	* UnderusedGameMechanic: Several universal cases throughout all the ''Starcraft II'' campaigns.
113	** Gone are the days when the player used to have to fight through multiple factions [[note]]Like the infamous Kel-Morian-Combine mission from Brood War that sets the player up against ''six'' enemy Terran factions[[/note]]. A vast majority of the missions tend to pit the player against a single enemy. This can largely be explained away as a case of TechnologyMarchesOn. Due to various restrictions in the game code, most notably the ArbitraryHeadcountLimit and the need to populate the entire map, Starcraft I enemy was divided into multiple allied AIs each with their own 200-supply headcount. As Starcraft II no longer had this restriction, and relied less on "wipe out the map" missions, such an approach was no longer necessary.
114	** Resource expansion is also quite scaled back throughout these campaigns. Most of the missions tend to have just a single expansion beyond the main base to expand to.
115	** Rich resources is very seldomly used throughout the campaigns. Only a select few missions have the gold mineral fields, and the purple gas geysers don't appear ''at all''.
116	* VindicatedByHistory: The trilogy was rather divisive upon release and completion, citing poor writing as one of the narrative's primary flaws. In the years to follow, given the absolute ''trainwreck'' of story and game releases for Blizzard's other works like ''Diablo'' and ''World of Warcraft'' along with the abandonment of ''Heroes Of The Storm'', many players were just glad that the ''Starcraft'' series was able to give itself a decisive conclusion and quit while it was still ahead instead of being run to the ground.
117	* {{Woolseyism}}: The latin american spanish translation of the trilogy went a little liberal and redubbed certain names with native american words. For example:
118	** The Firebat is called Camazot, one "z" away from the name of the mayan bat god, Camazotz. Furthermore, the K'iche' tribe, whose mythology originally did not include Camazotz, was eventually adapted as being the same as the K'iche' fire god. Essentially, the [[MeaningfulName fire bat]] god.
119	** Similarly, the Reaper is Yum-Kimil, taken from the name of one of the mayan death gods, making the name equivalent to Reaper.
120	** The Baneling was renamed Uetzi. Uetzi means "roll over" in Nahuatl, the aztec language. This fits with the way they move in the battlefield.

Context YMMV / StarcraftII