Jim's first love. Or lust. Whatever.
Jim and Sarah, sitting in a tree.
Z-E-R-G-I-N-G.
First comes love, then a discussion of a life together after “this is all over”.
Then, Sarah Kerrigan probably rips Jim Raynor’s head from his body as her instincts as the Queen of Blades take over.
Love hurts.
We’ve been playing the Terran Campaign in SCII (finally! We know, you’ve been chomping at the bit for our commentary. We’re not saying you’re horses, mind you, just that your mom put in that bit ‘to keep you calm’. Shhh. Shhh. We’ll get you a carrot soon.) and one thing that has really stuck out for us so far is the fact that a large part of it seems to revolve around Jim Rayonr’s unrequited love for former Ghost operative and now-totally-badass leader of the Zerg, Sarah Kerrigan.
It all starts when the campaign picks up in Joeyray’s bar on Mar Sara. If you choose to look for it, you’ll see a picture of Kerrigan in her pre-Zerg days on the bulletin board behind Jim. If you choose to click on it, you’ll get a sad little monologue from your fearless hero, and it goes from there.
If you don’t want to learn about their romance – too bad – you’re going to have to hear about some of it, simply by virtue of the storyline. However, you can choose to delve more deeply into their troubled personal life if you so desire between missions by talking to other characters on the Hyperion or randomly clicking on objects.
For our part, we’re interested in just what makes Jim tick, and we like hearing about his sad story. His banter with Tychus and budding romance with sexy scientist Ariel Hanson gets our motor running, in part because we are totally man-crushing on Jim’s GIGANTIC ARMS and sweet tattoos. Oh, and the pack of cigarettes rolled up in his sleeve – fantastic.
We’ll be honest – we’re finding the campaign a ton of fun, just as we were promised it would be, and we’re doing our best to learn everything we can about the universe and the people in it. Blizz has crafted a good story here, and the even the voice of Jim Raynor – done by veteran voice actor Robert Clotworthy – is an interesting take on what appears at first to be a rugged tough-guy of a Terran.
Clotworthy’s Raynor is hard, but with a hint of “I like puppies” in his voice. It perfectly suits the game, and is a testament to the high production values that Blizzard has been determined to maintain through their Starcraft universe – both because that’s what a good, dedicated company should do and because it helps them to make gobs and gobs of money.
To sum up, love is in the air in Starcraft II, but we suspect there will be some sort of terrible, relationship-sundering event before it’s all over.
Just like real life – as soon as you get close to someone, aliens have to show up and eat people’s heads.
Bastards.
