$30,000 Credits
He looks both compassionate and friendly.
You’d think that would be a criticism of good old Zeratul – and we use “old” in the best sense of the word here – that dude is straight-up ancient, but we actually have nothing but praise for this veil-wearing vigilante.
From the moment that he shows up on the Hyperion – hurting from a less-than-cordial meeting with the Queen of Blades, you just know stuff is going to get AWESOME.
Not only does he stalk up on Raynor, creepily, in a hallway – by using the old “turn off all of the lights in sequence” horror-movie trick (Zeratul is a big fan of the “Scream” series, apparently), but he hands over an Ihan crystal that lets Raynor see his memories.
And by “see” we mean “play a series of bad-ass Protoss missions”.
Tight.
Really, it is. And smart, on the part of Blizzard. The “Zeratul missions” start off with just Zeratul himself, seeking a prophecy that – shockingly – portends the end of the universe itself. The great thing about Zeratul is that he’s actually super-useful, just as the homophonic section of the last part of his name would indicate.
Not only can he rip stuff up with his sweet dual arm-blades, but he’s permanently cloaked. As the mission goes on, he gains the ability to both Blink and to suppress the Zerg enemies that he finds, rendering them immobile for 12 seconds.
Blizzard does a good job of making him feel heroic, while periodically throwing in non-heroic Stalker units to help keep the action moving. Since you’ve had practice using Zeratul’s Blinking action by that point, using it with the Stalkers feels natural.
As the Zeratul mini-campaign continues, it shifts away from controlling Zerty – he likes that little pet name, we checked – and toward controlling a Protoss mini-base. Again, smart on Blizz here – they give you some units and buildings to start off with and don’t make the requirements to onerous to build ones.
While it appears that the Zeratul missions are not absolutely essential to the overall mission arc – they don’t give any sweet credits, after all – they are fun to play and give a glimpse of what the Protoss campaign may be like.
In a game that has been criticized for only presenting 1/3 of the whole story, it only makes sense for Blizzard to tempt us with what could be.
Somehow, we can’t help but enjoy it, even though we know we should be mad.
30,000 credits is a bargain for something as useful a Zeratool, even if it isn’t made by Swiss Army.
Those arm-blades, though? They can totally be used to open bottles.
