This game just isn't that good (Campaign)
HotS took so long to come out that most of us pictured hundreds if not thousands of developers working diligently to perfect the much anticipated game so as to if not exceed WoL, at least match it in quality. I was eager to see how they could improve on one of the greatest games ever. Well, they didn't. Rather than years of hard work, it looks more like the development team went, "Oh crap, is it March already? Better get working on this thing."
If WoL was a 10, HotS is barely a 7.
It's slow, it's boring, it doesn't draw you in or make you care about the outcome of anything. It's also very easy. They dumbed it down to attract new players. They give you a bunch of new alterations to the zerg we already know, but then you never end up needing to use them. I had it set up where each zergling spawned 3 zerglings. And my base would auto-spawn 15x3 zerglings every 10 seconds at 0 cost. So why would I think to use any other unit when I have 300 lings being replenished for free every few seconds? This led to zero strategy on my part. It just ended up being a game of A-click on whatever point of interest highlighted next.
Instead of talking to interesting characters in interesting locations between missions, I get to hear boring generic zerg slowly prattle on about the benefits of evolution. The locations don't even change. You just stand in a mouth and the background screen changes. Each character has to try to act zerg-like so they drag each syllable out painfully slow. Evvvvery wooooooord sooooounds liiiiike thiiiiiissssssssssss.
They basically took the scheme from WoL and substituted new characters into each role. Your next-in-command taking all the ship orders from you (replacing Matthew) is a Jar Jar Binks look alike. Instead of a Jamaican spectre, we get a Russian (why?) infested terran? Tychus becomes a brood queen, and instead of teaching him/her a lesson through beatings, you use morals and dialogue. Your nerdy scientist is a blob that talks through a vagina chest. It's the same scheme, but not as well executed.
Each time you talk to a character, it uses the exact same camera angle. Switch it up every once in a while, would ya?
The biggest disappointment is the plot. In WoL, you scraped together what you could and held on as long as possible against the unending power of the swarm. You constantly were barely escaping with your life. It was massive battles on an epic scale and when you beat it on your 3rd or 4th attempt, you gave a sigh of relief and satisfaction. In HotS, you gather the swarm, absorb the most epic zerg creatures so you can become 10 times as powerful as before, so that you can defeat... Mengsk? Really? The bumbling pretend-leader that was mocked for his inability to do anything in WoL? Kerrigan could have taken on Mengsk's entire force in her human form and won. Why did she wear a ghost uniform in the beginning of the game? That's a Dominion job. Why would she don the uniform of the man she was betrayed by and planned on killing?
Each mission is a hand-holding, step by step A-click-athon. There is no challenge. There are no epic battles. You aren't challenged at all. Even the achievements came easier. You used to have to really work to get all the achievements. Now I'm averaging 6 achievements a mission.
The multiplayer is better. Great new units and improvements. But I was hoping the campaign would rival its predecessor. It failed. And don't give me crap about it being an expansion. SC2 is split up into 3 equal parts, telling the tale of each race. If it was an actual expansion, it wouldn't cost 40 bucks. I was expecting a Zerg WoL. I was disappointed.