Campaign Creations

Campaign Title: Fall From Grace
Creator/Developer: Des

Fall From Grace is a short campaign, about the length of the original Starcraft precursor campaign, detailing the life and times of a protoss templar called Rond. As part of the first wave of noteworthy campaigns with custom voice acting, this little gem had it all for the protoss fans out there: a Tassadar-esque brave Templar, a Zeratul-ish wise old guy, an evil Judicator who could have easily been one of Aldaris' younger brothers-or-whatever all acting out a pretty straight-forward but nevertheless interesting storyline. The player is thrown in the middle of the action set in the original Starcraft protoss campaign and assumes the role of yet another nameless and opinionless Executor. That's a good thing, since this campaign focuses so strongly on Rond that at times it almost seems like you're him. That's how well this campaign handles character development. You'll think of Rond as a hero, a fool, a chickenshit, a traitor and a hero again... all in the span of a handful of playable missions.

The Special Edition features some eyecandy and some added earcandy, and allows Fall From Grace to run automatically and very smoothly. Of course it should be noted that most of the 'goodies' this campaign had to offer back in the day are outdated now, but that's Starcraft campaigns for ya!

If Antioch Chronicles is the mother and father of voiced protoss campaigns, Fall From Grace is the firstborn child. Go get it, you bastards!

Despite being very short-living, Vile Egression is yet another example of Starcraft professionalism that shines this twelve-years old game, even in the nigh arrival of it's sequel.


So, Starcraft II is on the move, close to release.  But what works like Vile Egression, for it's quality, and especially Vile Egression, for launching so close to the coming of Blizzard's 1998 famous game sequel, teaches gamers, modders and map-makers is:  Just because something new is coming, it doesn't mean people can't work on the old.  This is an exceedingly rare example that delivers high-quality, great gameplay and unexpected creativity that can be considered a golden closure to one of the most memorable RTS (Real Time Strategy) games of all time.  Players could easily say "It's just a Starcraft campaign", but that would be selling it too short.  Vile Egression is played mostly on a micro-management style and effectively combines this and macro-management with a solid story with outstanding graphics, incredible atmosphere and a quasi-expert use of sound effects, voice acting and music.

The work and boot-on-the-door kickstart for the newcomer Laconius and his career inside the Starcraft fan-site Campaign Creations can sound also, for some confused people, like a mix-up of several other campaigns, from other people, however.  This is noticeable from:  Metathrom's (or simply 'Meta') complexity from "Aeon of the Hawk" and "Flame Knives", Legion's "Dark Swarm" expert sound use and IskatuMesk's expertise on Starcraft's IceCC core component.  Maybe?  But what then?  At least it can be said it's a good mix-up, and one that's done just right.  At any rate, you do not need to be afraid to play this campaign, as it will purge all signs of pessimism you have.
The setting for Vile Egression would be traditional and easily remembered in Desler's "Fall From Grace" as it deals once again with the transitional period of the alien Protoss between their original cradle world, Aiur, that fell to the xenomorph Zerg invasion, and Shakuras, shelter planet of the Dark Templar exilees, banished from their own homeworld and now playing host to their punishers.  The difference here, besides complexity and all this is that, instead of fighting to rebuild Aiur, the Protoss here adopt what Johnny Depp said in his work, Pirtates of the Caribbean:  Fight... to run away.  Attention on this campaign is purely focused on the Protoss, with secondary Zerg presence and no Terrans (Humans in a short term) at all, but this is one far too little shortcoming to worry about.  The campaign itself makes you forget about such details.

There are far too many quirks to consider, but they all add up to escalate Vile Egression through the hall of fame.  The main points are:  Each character has it's own voice, as much as in responses as in dialogues, and look, giving his/her unique feel.  In addition to units already introduced in Starcraft II, like the Stalker and the Immortal, the campaign also delivers a variety of new units to try out, like the tripod Trilobyte, that fires multiple plasma rounds and may sound overpowered, but it isn't, and the Stormcrow gunship, in direct contrast to air-only Starcraft units like the Terran Valkyrie and the Dark Templar Corsair.  Vile Egression also improves known gameplay situation by making it more unpredictable, actually demanding that players themselves take their part in turning the tides in their favor, and, as predicted, with fewer and fewer units at your command.

When the gameplay comes to fighting "bosses", similar to games like Dawn of War 2 and campaigns like "Legacy of the Confederation", creativity and balance is a quirk for Vile Egression.  These situations are neither too abusive nor too cheesy to deal with and are even enhanced with a gameplay style that you can quickly adapt to.  One example is where you face a Dark Templar boss as well as his reinforcements, and you must decide which of the two gadgets available to the player in the scene must be used.
However, if the game has any shortcomings, there are too few of them to be mentioned and that CAN be considered, the first being the absurdly short time for playing it.  Like the time people get to sleep, you can only get a roughly five-hour playtime with this campaign.  A let down for something with the highest quality ever.  Another is that such campaign is driven towards a public more veteran with Starcraft, people who already are experienced with micro and macro-management.  In a matter of saying, even the easy mode provided by the campaign will demand players to have had played Battle.net and the vanilla Starcraft's single-player campaign.  But, if you can ignore these two flaws, you'll find that Vile Egression is a game worthy of your time.

The story and dialogue itself are rather well structured, albeit sometimes it's a rather too poetic for a straight to the point manner of speaking the Protoss have.  Still, this doesn't alter the general original style, as it is easier to understand the numerous words.  Very references and comebacks are very well used and pointed, like the famous Protoss religious ethnic intolerance shown in campaigns like "Enslavers: Dark Vengeance" and "The Antioch Chronicles", in which, during the course of the missions, you find out you're not battling only the alien foe, but your supposed-to-be allies as well.  Also, during the campaign, a good number of references and even characters from other campaigns are mentioned, but are done so in a harmless way, and a rather respectful one to the other campaign authors.

In the end, Vile Egression is everything a Starcraft player would expect:  Terrific single-player, inventive new addition to the Starcraft universe, new visuals and well-developed characters.  Given the very short campaign, the memory space it occupies may seem indeed a bit high, but the fun generated with the new units more than repays that space.  It is mentioned that a sequel to this campaign is underway.  In a honest way of saying, if Vile Egression is this state-of-the-art campaign, it is worth to hold the breath for Vile Egression II.
GREATEST FORTHCOMINGS:
- SOLID, WELL-COMPOSED STORY:  Story, for a Starcraft campaign, can be the typical good guy versus bad guy cliché.  However, the campaigns that are awarded this Forthcoming are known not only by core-plotting, but also complexity, dialogue, the possibility of multiple stories or simply badass characters.
- BALANCED AND WELL-PACED GAMEPLAY:  Gameplay is core and butter of the campaign bread, and thus it not only needs balancing, but also a way to keep up the heat of the player's hand on both keyboard and mouse.  Campaigns awarded with this Forthcoming have delivered this and much more.
- INVENTIVE TERRAINING:  This Forthcoming is a special honor for all the hard work and hours put into an editor, regardless of what may be.  This applies so much for estetic beauty as for technical usefulness, or both, if the that is the case.
- REMARKABLE, LEGAL REFERENCES:  Sometimes a campaign can make nostalgic moves to further enhance it's public image.  Such mention can be either from other campaigns or from vanilla Starcraft itself.  Still, campaigns that not only obtained legal authorization, but also made so in the best and correct way possible recieve this award.
- FINE USE OF UNITS AND GRAPHICS:  In few words, when it comes to a custom campaign, especially one that involves it's own custom modification, a new good-looking or useful thing can be the critical turning point for recieving this Forthcoming.  However, fun is also a factor to be considered, after all, it's no point having that beautiful-looking stuff and absolutely no use for it!
- BEST BOSS BATTLE CONSTRUCTION:  Campaigns once in a while decide to go video game-ish and set up some interesting fights.  They can be far too basic or complexive.  But those who can be remembered with that relative ease in later years deserve this Forthcoming.
- FULLY SOUND-DRIVEN:  There are campaigns with sounds only.  There are campaigns with music only.  There are campaigns with original voice acting only.  And there are campaigns with both three.  In fact, the latter is so rare these days a Forthcoming is automatically issued for the sake of this threatened species, hehehe.

GREATEST SHORTCOMINGS:
- SHORT-LIVED:  Campaigns can be good, but lenghty can help.  This shortcoming is no punishment but a reminding to the maker of the players' disappointment:  They'll be wanting for more, which can only be solved with a sequel or expansion that delivers what this campaign delivered.
- VETERAN DRIVEN:  Obviously, no one wants that cheesy stuff, but let's not get to the other extreme as well.  The reason this campaign gained this shortcoming is it's excess of complexity that wouldn't be so healthy to the novice player's patience and lack of experience.

Final score: 9.3 (Recommended)