I love StarCraft, its story, its world, its lore, but to be honest I can't say their storylines have ever been especially creative. Ever since the cinematic with "The Xel'naga are returning, but do they come to save or to destroy?" I've been dreading that this trilogy would end up with some "united against the common enemy" crap that ended WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos. The original StarCraft was annoying enough in that regard (you can count the number of missions that pitted Protoss against Terrans on one hand - one in the original Terran Campaign, two in the Expansion Protoss Campaign, and one in the Expansion Terran Campaign - plus the secret bonus mission and the optional 10 Wraiths and a Battlecruiser you can kill off in the original Protoss Campaign.) The retcon about the Overmind makes me dread this in StarCraft II. I mean, nothing says it had to be good to want to free the Swarm from the Dark Voice's shackles, but it certainly creates an opening, like the WarCraft III "Oh, the Orcs were always a good, noble shamanistic people possessed by the Demons! You are so prejudiced not to accept them just because they razed most of the continent and wiped out a significant number of your kingdoms." The deinfestation of Kerrigan allows for similar developments.



Yeah, in popular culture redemption can only be bought by human sacrifice or something. Anyway, Kerrigan's deinfestation was a great ending for Wings of Liberty, but it's dreadful grounds for Heart of the Swarm. On the one hand, either she's still in control of the Swarm (or capable of controlling it), which would not only diminish the value of Wings of Liberty's story, but also mean that we're still surrounded by Terrans, as I doubt Raynor will just abandon her again. In a campaign about the Zerg, I'd want to be immersed in Zerginess, not more Terran. And of course, there'd be the previously mentioned making the Swarm good.

On the other hand, if we play as somebody else and Blizzard's claims that we'd be controlling Kerrigan were just a ruse to not spoil the ending of Wings of Liberty, then who does that really leave us with? The Zerg desperately need more characters. Ever since the original Campaign, where we had a nice roster with the Overmind, Daggoth, Zasz and Kerrigan, there's been a shortage of good Zergs. In the Expansion, Kerrigan (herself an infested Terran) dealt with Terrans, Protoss and whatever Duran is supposed to be, but we had no genuine Zerg characters, aside from Kerrigan herself to an extent. And now, with Kerrigan gone, who would we play as to get a good Zerg feel for the campaign?

So yeah, I'm a bit leery of what Heart of the Swarm has in store for us.