She just does it because she feels like it, and because it's a good excuse to introduce Swarm Hosts. This invalidates the entire 'Wings of Liberty' campaign - which Blizzard would probably argue is the point. I'm proud to say in this 'Heart of the Swarm' campaign review that the biggest twist in the game, Kerrigan's transformation back into the Queen of Blades (a dumb name retconned from 'Infested Kerrigan' in 'Wings of Liberty'), a human-Zerg hybrid, is really, really stupid. She just decides to become Queen of the Zerg again. It comes out of nowhere, and she doesn't for a second think to actually investigate the truth. The story goes downhill at the end of Umoja, the tutorial planet, with Jim Raynor's 'death,' an obvious and transparent ploy apparent to absolutely everyone except Kerrigan. It starts out strong, but campy (which is just fine - 'StarCraft' was campy too. The 'Heart of the Swarm' campaign significantly expands on that unfortunate element. But 'StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty' made it more of a space opera.

The problem is that 'StarCraft' was a gritty, naturalistic science fiction universe. Stories get recycled that's not the problem. The return of the Fallen One and his control over the Zerg are essentially identical to the return of the Burning Legion and their attempted control over the Orcs. More problematically, the overarching plot developed in the Zeratul missions in particular was lame and a carbon copy of the 'WarCraft III' plotline. Raynor's sudden romantic obsession with Kerrigan certainly didn't come out of nowhere, but it was a bit saccharine-sweet. Let's start our 'Heart of the Swarm' campaign review with the worst elements: the story and characters, which we've covered on a planet-by-planet basis (see Umoja, Kaldir, Char, Zerus, and the rest to come). The Queen of Blades, as a name, is stupid. Kerrigan becoming the Queen of Blades again is stupid.

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