User blog comment:Hawki/Nova Covert Ops, part 3 - Reflections/@comment-250398-20161201052518

Good writeup, and I agree mostly. I feel at this point all we'll really get is "unnecessary sequels," since they seem to have wrapped up the main plot and want to tell side stories. But they even admitted the main plot thread is done, hybrids stopped, Overmind dead, Kerrigan a space angel. But also StarCraft doesn't have many dangling threads left for a third installment aside from the UED, so we'll likely get small conflicts and engagements and personal stories.

Having said that I commend them for making a new faction with its own feel in the Defenders of Man. I hope this isn't the last we see of them, maybe even in a more pro-Dominion vigilante fashion similar to Nova. One of the problems I had with SC2 is it finished as many factions as it expanded on. A lot of people were hoping they tied into the UED or Confederacy, but allowing them to be a mirror of the old Arcturus days gave us some nice insight into Valerian. Having said that, between this, the DT Saga, I, Mengsk, HotS, Evolution and now the Keep I REALLY wish they'd find another story arc for him that isn't "I'm not my father." He's finally eeked out his own development with this and Evolution, but even then it always seems to end back at Arcturus.

I see the comparison to Rebel Yell, and I get what you're saying with the inverse of it, but I don't think the last level has too much in common with The Hammer Falls. I get they both involve taking on superweapons, but as far as general feel and theming goes one's about a fighting retreat and the other is about the last stand of a dying revolt as it tries to cripple Valerian as it putters out. You could argue it's the birth of the Raiders vs the death of the Defenders maybe, but that feels unintentional. I think the secret shipyards being above a populated planet is just a gaff, I think the only "full planet backdrop" they had was the one from Sky Shield so they used it.

As far as gameplay goes on the higher difficulties the last level is MUCH harder than The Hammer Falls in my opinion, though it's much quicker (as is the case with almost all SC2 missions, no three hours To Slay the Beasts). Having said that a lot of these levels have the problem of being grindly difficult until you find the one cheesey combo that makes them nearly trivial.

As far as the ending goes, I agree with you that it came out of nowhere and it didn't really feel like it got much buildup. Having said that that saved the story in my eyes. I mentioned in one of your earlier posts that my biggest fear was a return to status quo all around. Everyone goes back to their plants and next game all of the characters can act like nothing happened. And as far as the Dominion went they basically did that, but this completely changed the arc of Nova. Now you can't tell a story with her without referencing what she did with the Defenders of Man. Now the story actually has meaning and has impacted the state of some of the characters. It's like the protoss retreating to Shakuras after Brood War, that was memorable because while most factions went back to status quo that was a radical change to how they now had to operate.

With the Reigel and Crew thing, I think that's the inherent problem with RTSs, and that doesn't excuse it, but hey. I had the same problem when Raynor's crew was on the verge of mutiny, and then he punches Tychus a few times and his entire rebellion is suddenly ok with working with the Dominion. Something where you command large armies you end up having to have a lot of faceless mooks; there isn't enough time or resources to show leaders interacting on a personal level with the troops that they do with individual characters (though some chatter like at the beginning of WoL or in the Iron Fist would have helped). I think it's particularly bad for Nova though if only because there wasn't much time to even give her crew much personality (her crew is all the same model of Earl wearing a fancy helmet) and also in Nova's case if one crewmember decided "no I really don't think that abandoning the Dominion is a good idea" and sold her out she'd be pretty far screwed.

One last thing I thought was weird about the ending though; NOW she decides to rebel against the Dominion? Valerian's given her all this freedom and shown he's a benevolent leader. Arcturus sent her out to kill anyone who looked at him funny. Why does she have a problem with taking orders now? Maybe it's because she thinks Valerian would be more accepting of her being a vigilante? Still that's a pretty glaring misstep for me.

All in all, I thought it was good, probably just below LotV in my eyes, maybe tied or just below WoL. I enjoyed it a lot, it had some glaring missteps and I think the length and wait time between packs really hurt it, but I don't regret playing it and am legitimately sad that we likely won't see any more mission packs in the foreseeable future. Having said that Blizzard still seems to be pumping out story content unlike the drought that was 2014, so we're still in business as far as lore goes. But I left the pack excited to see where Nova's story goes from here, which was in stark contrast to their announcement where I went "oh come on really? You picked her?"