< StarCraft II

StarCraft II/YMMV


  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Does Matt Horner represent Incorruptible Pure Pureness in the crew and the best hope for a better future in the sector ; or is he a Wide-Eyed Idealist who only manages to survive in a Crapsack World by pure luck?
  • Angst? What Angst?: While Zeratul's certainly got quite a bit to feel bad about, he just keeps on fighting, never letting it slow him down, instead finding minor ways to let his grief out; one of his "response" quotes in StarCraft II is "En Tarodine Raszagal", which very likely means "In Memory of Raszagal".
  • Anvilicious: The UNN clips are very un-subtle Take Thats against certain TV news organizations and personalities.
    • The game script contains this line, said by a freed Dark Templar in "Maw of the Void":

"Truly you bring freedom to all, friend Ray-nor"

  • Artificial Stupidity: If you set up an "even" team match involving AI—you plus computers versus other computers, with all computers set to the same difficulty level—your allies will nonetheless be dumber than your opponents. The opponents move out as a team, whereas your allies do no such and are only likely to send help (to you or each other) if your base isn't too far away. Even if they do help, there's also a disproportionate chance that the opponents will out-macro your allies as well and thus have larger armies. And finally, the computer doesn't need to scout to find the weakest member of your team; they just know.
  • Breather Level:
    • "Cutthroat." The first objective is to collect 6,000 minerals before your opponent who has four bases. However, even on Brutal difficulty his defenses around the three auxiliary bases is light so you can steamroll them, all but halting his collection and giving you his mineral fields, in addition to the fact you can just collect scrap scattered around the map to make the money. And once you get that objective you're rewarded a full second base with pretty much every building you could need except Starports, including two Barracks and two Factories, and a full army of mercenary-type units that have increased health and power compared to their normal counterparts.
    • "Maw of the Void" actually encourage you to take your time building up a huge force of nothing but Battlecruisers and then steamroll the opponents from one side of the map to the other one objective at a time. The fact that your base is on an island also ensures that the only assaults you'll face are from enemy air units and transports.
    • Also, "Whispers of Doom." In the midst of some fairly intense Terran missions, you get to play what is essentially a Protoss tutorial level.
    • "Engine of Destruction" gives you Tychus as the most powerful unit in the entire game as the Odin, a proto-type Super Thor. You can't command Tychus directly but he'll try to take out five enemy bases all on his own, and as long as you send a few SCVs and Science Vessels to repair him along the way he can do it too. Later on you'll want to send a squad of anti-air units when he faces Battlecruisers, but overall you can mostly take it easy.
    • "Media Blitz" is pretty easy, as well. Even on Brutal difficulty, you can use the Odin to singlehandedly wipe out one of the three bases and much of a second during the "suprise attack" phase. Once the regular phase starts, a repaired Odin can singlehandedly wipe out the remaining base with little to no micromanagement. With the bases destroyed, there will be no attacks anywhere until you try to control the beacons to broadcast the signal.
  • Broken Base: 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 Inheritance Cycle over Starcraft II's story. It's either a story of equal merit that steps forward in presentation and storytelling, or the final proof that Blizzard has jumped the shark and is Ruined FOREVER.
    • Now that it's out there's a bit of a Broken Base on the Zerg. Some thing they're the weakest race and are helpless before any competent Protoss or Terran, while others think they're fine and the weaker players just have yet to "click" with the race and realize their full potential and versatility. Patch 1.4 was a good example—it nerfed the Infester's Neural Parasite so it no longer affected Massive units (read: Thor, Colossus, Ultralisk), prompting some to complain that with the nerf they'll have an even harder time dealing with the other races, while others applauded the nerf for no longer allowing a handful of Infestors to incapacitate entire armies in seconds. Blizzard responded by nerfing it in a different manner, but the split was still there before they announced their decision.
    • It doesn't help that the Zerg are the Redheaded Stepchild of the franchise, as their reliance on Larvae gives them completely different timings from Protoss and Terran. Even if you know what you're doing as those two races, you might be utterly lost as the Zerg, and at least some players write them off on grounds of being too much work to figure out.
  • Cargo Ship:
    • Matt and the Hyperion—specifically His Bridge, which he is very protective of.
    • Tychus really likes the Odin, declaring it "the single greatest invention in the history of mankind," apparently so awesome it almost brought a tear to his eye.
    • Raynor is very attached to his jukebox, the novel "Devils' Due" covering how he risked a train robbery to get it off the train with their booty, and was enraptured by it the second he saw it.
  • Cliché Storm: All of the game. The ability of the characters to endlessly spout clichés is quite staggering.

Jim Raynor: Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now.
Valerian Mengsk: Because I can offer you... what you've always wanted.


Jim Raynor: We are who choose to be, Matt.


Zeratul: There is always hope.

  • Complete Monster: From what little we do see have him, the Dark Voice certainly qualifies. He orchestrates the extinction of the Xel Naga, and in the Bad Future seen in "In Utter Darkness", orchestrates the extinction of THREE other species, all to mold creation in his own twisted image.
  • Crazy Awesome: Tychus Findlay and Gabriel Tosh, brother.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Terran Up the Night.
    • The main theme.
    • Not precisely music, but the metal riff that plays when things get serious (the beginning of the The Dig campaign, when Tosh's Specters are released from New Folsom) is pretty dang awesome.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • The baneling has quite a following as the "cute" zerg unit, for some reason.
    • Karass. Generally considered to be "like Zeratul, but as a High Templar".
  • Epileptic Trees:
  • Even Better Sequel: Make no mistake, the first game was great, but the campaigns were repetitive and unoriginal, with 80% of the missions being nothing but "destroy the enemy base" (which was HUGE). Now, there are about four of twenty-nine missions like that (and of those, three are optional), and the rest of the WoL missions are muchmore original and funny—a Train Job, a race against the zerg, a race against a wall of fire, a scavenging mission, a Zombie Apocalypse, and many others. Although others believe that it would have been better with fewer such creative missions.
    • Most people agree that the missions are a definite improvement over the first game. The point where it becomes lacking is the story presentation, dialog, and delivery.
  • Fan Dumb: Some fans actually criticized Raynor in this version, claiming he was turned from an actually heroic character to a guy who ended up killing his bestfriend to save his now Complete Monster Love Interest. Even though it's clearly explained in the game that Kerrigan must survive for the Universe to be saved and that Raynor, being aware of this, had very good reasons to do so.
  • Foe Yay: Between Tosh and Nova. According to the graphic novels, she and Tosh shared their first kiss with each other, and both of them enjoyed it. In StarCraft II, Tosh has slid down the cynicism side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism while Nova completed her Ghost training and was resocialized.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: This 2008 video and its derivatives splice the Marine suit construction sequence from the teaser with the mundane outer workings of the barracks before showing the Marine being rapidly slaughtered by zerg. Funny in its execution, but come retail release, it turns out Tychus, the Marine from the cutscene, does get killed, except by Raynor's hands.
  • Game Breaker: Although you'll need such upgrades for the final missions of the campaign on the harder difficulties, it isn't hard to see why some of the campaign upgrades and abilities are exclusive to the campaign, and why some of them used to be in the multiplayer but were scrapped.
  • Goddamned Bats: Those annoying little broodlings that come out when you destroy a zerg building.
    • Brood Lords, period. They can spam broodlings while remaining outside of turret and goliath coverage. If you go into multiplayer with someone on the map playing Zerg, or if playing a mission where they're present, better amass a group of vikings as soon as you can- they're the only counter cheap enough to mass build on a short notice (and take out brood lords should the other player position the unit over terrains not reachable by land units).
    • The Scourges in the Lost Viking arcade game.
    • The Tal'darim to Raynor. In a couple of the artifact missions, the starting dialogue has the Tal'darim making flowery, over the top threats to Raynor, followed by Raynor being merely annoyed at having to fight them yet another time.
  • Goddamned Boss: No matter how many times you kill Maar or the Dark Voice, he will always come back (and each time stronger)
  • Good Bad Bugs: If you're having trouble deciding what to spend credits on in the Armory (because you're right—even if you get every research point and complete every mission in the game, you will not get enough credits to buy everything), then once you've gotten your protoss and zerg research maxed out, go redo any previous mission that gave you zerg or protoss research samples, and then check the research console in the lab. You'll gain extra monetary credit for the surplus samples you've collected so far, including the ones you've already cashed in.
    • There's also one in "All In," the Nintendo Hard final mission. Every so often during the mission, Kerrigan will attack your base and is almost guaranteed to do terrible, terrible damage when she does. However, there is a glitch that sometimes occurs (still not sure how it's triggered) that results in her approaching the base halfway and then turning back. If this glitch is triggered she'll do this over and over again for the rest of the mission, thereby making it a lot easier. Other times (if the player chose to do the mission "Shatter the Sky" instead of "Belly of the Beast") Kerrigan will find herself trapped by two or more Nydus Worms and will remain trapped so long as the player refrains from using the artifact to sweep the board. The dark side is that which of the two paths to your base Kerrigan takes doesn't seem to be properly randomized.
  • It's Easy, So It Sucks: Boring but Practical 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 (dismissively) allege that Marine-Marauder-Medivac / mass Mutalisk / mass Void Ray is practically impossible to win against.
  • Like You Would Really Do It: In the ending cutscene, Tychus is ordered by Mengsk to kill the newly-deinfested Kerrigan. We all know it isn't going to work (particularly since he'd have to go through Raynor to do it), but besides that it would also make about half the campaign missions a complete waste of time. And, not to put too fine a point on it, give away the ending of the game as a whole... It's also been mentioned in interviews and such that Kerrigan will be the main character for the zerg campaign. With that being said, while Kerrigan dying seemed pretty much out of the question, many fans were surprised when the cure worked or at the very least appeared to have (we won't know for sure until Heart of the Swarm, since it was largely assumed Kerrigan would still be infested in the expansion. That hair ain't dreadlocks, though.
  • Memetic Badass: Just looking at This Wiki shows how popular General Warfield is, even though his one appearance in the story essentially amounts to getting his ass kicked, although in an admittedly stylish way.
  • Memetic Mutation: TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DAMAGE!!!
    • SO MANY BANELINGS!!!
    • How do you defeat those invisible protis sniper-
    • At least he's not poohunter.
    • Pylo the Pylon. Appeared in a game between WhiteRa (DuckloadRa) and BratOk. Created by Husky Starcraft to name a Pylon near the front lines, Pylo has become a sensation in the SC2 community, recently spawing his own SONG. Pylo appears at around 9:03 here.
    • Hoes before Bros.
  • 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 Command & Conquer series and saw Starcraft as a rival franchise. Fan Dumb indeed.
  • Most Annoying Sound: Units now give a unique warning to players when they are being attacked offscreen, and it's always the same. Marines will cry for help, zealots will insist they "cannot hold," and so forth. They do this every time they enter battle; even if they're winning they'll call for help, and every unit does it, except for the zerg who don't talk. It gets very annoying very fast.

Adjutant: Base is under attack.
Player: I KNOW!! SHUT UP!!!!!

    • The worst ones, however, are definitely the ones you end up hearing more than usual during the campaign.

"Mmm... better send some body bags!"
"M-mah goose is gettin' cooked!"
"Can't hold 'em alone..."

    • Battlecruiser commanders shout "Abandon ship!" as soon as the bullets start flying. Even if they are part of a nigh-unstoppable twenty-unit group and the offending unit is a single wimpy hydralisk. Maybe the voice clips got mixed up—surely "Abandon ship" is meant to be what they yell when they get blown up?
      • Battlecruiser commanders follow the stereotype of the cowardly Russian submarine commander, and would understandably overreact to the slightest threat. They also yell "It's a trap!" every once in a while too.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: That guitar riff that plays whenever Swann announces a new unit for you, usually with a few free samples. For that matter, the "schwoom!" sound of getting a new Achievement.
    • Arguably, 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".
    • "Nuclear Launch Detected." That's assuming you were the one that launched it, otherwise it's another trope.
    • The sound that plays whenever you complete a mission objective in the campaign or challenge modes, especially if it was in one of the harder levels.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • The infested terran in general. The portraits are far more detailed and thus far more disturbing than the original game.
      • Zoom in on their death animation. Once their meter expires, they put their guns in their mouths and shoot themselves.
    • The mission "Piercing The Shroud" is terrifying. It starts off rather leisurely, with even the stronger zerg units fairly easy to kill, often due to being chained up. Then you cut the power, and the rest of the mission consists of a mad dash for the exit as you try to escape from the invincible Hybrid.
    • The entirety of the Ariel Hanson missions. At first you have to defend the colonists and evacuate them from the zerg. Then you spend a mission where every night (several minutes in-game) you have to retreat to your base as hundreds of infested terrans bear down on you. And depending on your choice in the final mission, you may see Hanson infested and crawling around the ceiling taunting Raynor to kill her.
    • Overlapping with Nausea Fuel, the Swarm Host in Heart of the Swarm has already been reported to be triggering trypophobia in players, resulting in requests for the unit model to be changed because people find it unsettling.[1]
    • The normally stoic, deadpan and fearless Tosh is clearly wigged out from the Hybrid's psychic "scream" after the raid on the Dominion laboratory.

Blinding. Searing. Like the sun burning in your face with your eyes squeezed shut. I have never felt such a thing before. I hope I never do again.

  • Paranoia Fuel: Between Duran, Raszagal, and that one short story about the zerg changelings, you'd be justified in going into the game suspecting everyone and anyone of being a sleeper agent for the Swarm. Just about the only people not worthy of freaking out over are Tychus because it's obvious who he's going to betray you to and Hanson. ...Oops.
  • Play the Game, Skip the Story: TV Tropes is probably the most you'll ever hear about the actual story of Starcraft 2.
  • Ruined FOREVER: Advocated by a large portion of fans.
  • Sequelitis: While the quality of the missions have improved, some question the changing of voice actors, especially for Kerrigan. Many players also feel that Brood War had a far better multiplayer 1 on 1 than the sequel.
  • Straw Man Has a Point: The Tal'darim are presented as fanatics attacking Raynor the moment he sets foot on their world. Raynor actually came to their worlds to seize the objects of their faith and sell them for money. Turns out the relics combine into the Phlebotinum Bomb, but Raynor doesn't know at the time.
  • Tear Jerker: Donny's breakdown. All the more compelling because up to that point Donny had been carrying water of Mengsk like it was going out of style:

"I had a brother on Tarsonis, I had a brother...."

    • From the next-to-last cinematic: M. Koiter.[2]
    • Though you may have had a pretty good idea that something like it would happen, you probably still felt bad when Raynor had to kill Tychus to defend deinfested Kerrigan.
    • The entirety of In Utter Darkness, with the Terrans technically extinct and the Protoss holding out in their last base, thanks to all that hammy dialogue. The thought that you must technically lose (let the Zerg destroy your troops and base) once the Archive is sealed and the Zerg kill counter has reached 1500 to win didn't help either.
  • That One Achievement: "Aces High". All In the final mission is made much more bearable by the fact that every so often you can just use a superweapon to take out all the zerg either attacking your base, or on the way to attack your base. Except that to get this award you need to beat it while only using that item once....
  • That One Level: "All In" and "In Utter Darkness".
    • "All In" pits you against waves of Zerg on two choke points, you have to defend the MacGuffin for the entirety of the mission, and you have to deal with regular attacks by either swarms of mutalisks or nydus worms. By far the worst part though is the Goddamned Boss that attacks every few minutes, and uses a One-Hit Kill ability and a Herd-Hitting Attack as spells in addition to a powerful normal attack. You can put four bunkers, three siege tanks and perdition turrets at a choke, and the boss will still break down the door. Once you chase it off for a few minutes, you then have to rebuild your defenses because the normal Zerg are still coming.
    • "In Utter Darkness" is an amusing example, as it's technically impossible to lose because it's impossible to win in terms of story—your only objective is to hold out as long as you can, even if you get overwhelmed in the first five minutes you win. The bonus research objectives however require you to defend a key building for 25 minutes, and kill a certain number of enemy units, and waves of Elite Mooks force you to micromanage your forces to deal with them. The Difficulty Spike is also more noticeable in this mission, because not only do your enemies become stronger as you would expect, but the number of kills for the bonus objective increases, effectively making the mission last longer.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Broken Base aside, there were a lot of complaints about the Siege Tank's acknowledgement and Stop Poking Me phrases not being equal as the ones of it's StarCraft counterpart.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: It's hinted at (and blatantly obvious early on) that Tychus is being threatened by Mengsk into eventually betraying Raynor. When he finally does, it occurs during the last cut scene of the game and the only thing it changes is that Tychus is now dead.
  • The Untwist: Tychus betrays Raynor. The hints are so obvious you'd have to be blind to not see them.
  1. ↑ Trypophobia is a fear of clusters of holes, specifically in the skin. This is what the Swarm Host looks like [dead link] . And those skin sacs pulse and throb.
  2. ↑ For those who don't know, Michael Koiter was an artist working at Blizzard on both World of Warcraft and Starcraft II. He died at 19 of heart failure.
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