Does This Mutation Make Me Look Fat? Let's Play Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm

[The Glyphstone]

Way back in the hoary and ancient past that was 2010, I took on a project of doing a Let's Play of Starcraft II's Terran campaign. To amuse myself and stay interested, I decided to do it as an in-character journal, inventing an airheaded and thoroughly brainwashed young reporter to be my in-universe PoV. The whole thing turned out to be surprisingly popular, and somewhere in the middle my narrator began to take on a life of her own until it was pointed out that I was basically writing a fan-fiction parallel to my Let's Play. When it finished, I teased a Part 2 but ended up failing to deliver as inspiration failed and life took me into other works, until recently. I stumbled across a link to the old thread and decided to re-read it; I'd forgotten how much fun it was writing Nora, and in the review figured out a way to continue her story into Heart of the Swarm.


The rules here will be the same as in my previous LP - I'll update once a week, and in the meantime people will be presented with voting options on which mission I do next, and/or which upgrades I select. Heart of the Swarm doesn't have a research lab, but you'll get to choose my unit Mutations and Evolutions, as well as Kerrigan's abilities.


Part 1 can be found HERE: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...n-Mode!-(DONE) - the pictures are long-since deleted, sadly, tied to a Photobucket account that no longer exists, but the narrative segments are intact.

Not much else to say, so let's see if the continued adventures of Nora Colby still spark a following...

Spoiler: Update 1: In Which Exposition Is Dumped And Careers Derailed

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January 10th, 2506

Dear Diary:

It feels like it's been ten years since I wrote anything here, even though I know it's only been a year. I had a lot of catching up to do after I returned to Korhal, especially since I didn't want to tell anyone I had spent that time with Raynor's Raiders. I wish I could say I'm an award-winning author now, but my idea for a book about Protoss-Zerg hybrids didn't pan out. Some two-bit hack named Arvin Rudna beat me to the idea, churning out a few terrible action novels before disappearing with the copyright. So it was back to the night shift, at least until that documentary about the Battle of Char came out last month. It was very good at showing the heroism of the Dominion military troops and General Warfield's leadership, but they completely ignored any mention of how the Raiders had assisted. Well, to be honest the Raiders had done most of the work in the end, but the Dominion helped them get there.

So I gritted my teeth and went to the only person I thought might listen - Kate. A followup special showing the battle from another side would be great for ratings; it was all unseen footage from my personal camera, a scoop none of the other networks could claim. And that bitch, she laughed at me! Said she had heard I was trying to write fiction now, but this story about 'heroic' terrorists saving the sector wasn't going to get any readers. I stormed out, of course, and the very next day Head Office was sending me on assignment to a remote research base near the Umojan Protectorate. It's unbelievably boring here, but I can't help but remember Kate's face as I left. For a moment she looked really scared, but that doesn't make any sense. She's always been the brave twin, that's why her career's gone so much better than mine.

January 13th, 2056

Dear Diary:

Well, life just got weird again. I had just finished another mind-meltingly dreary interview with the chief nerd here about the groundbreaking work they're doing to increase nutrient yield in orbital station algae tanks or something, and got dumped off in an unused office to wait. Whoever normally used it had left their terminal logged in, and I started browsing through security camera feeds to pass time. It turns out there's a whole sublevel to the base I've never been allowed on, and one of the labs had Jim Raynor and Crown Prince Valerian in it!



The test chamber had a woman in it – she looked vaguely familiar, and then the Prince called her 'Kerrigan'. It was the woman Raynor had carried out after the big battle, and also the Queen of Blades who had been leading the Zerg? The artifact we found must have de-Zerged her or something, because she looked human to me. I wonder if she feels bad about trying to eat all the humans?



The Prince wanted to be sure, though, asking her to try and control some wild Zerg they had captured. She didn't like the idea at all, but took one little drone and made it obediently turn into a hatchery. More drones started eating the minerals and growing other things, building a little Zerg hive right below my feet! The Kerrigan lady was right, this had to be a bad idea.







And then thing started going wrong. Either the Zerg broke loose from her control, or maybe she was still secretly evil all along, because a bunch of Zerglings started running amok and smashing sentry robots! The Crown Prince was yelling at Kerrigan to stop, she kept lecturing him about how Zerg are dangerous. Duh. Who doesn't know Zerg are dangerous?



Robots were getting torn to pieces left and right, though the Zerg weren't paying any attention to the human scientists running away. They mostly focused on wrecking every piece of machinery in reach, freeing other Zerg from holding cells.





I probably should have gone and warned someone, but there weren't any alarms going off around me, and after trashing a big super-bot the Zerg all went quiet and meekly marched back into their cages. I guess Kerrigan isn't evil after all? Nobody died, at least, except for a bunch of Zerg.



Diary, I have no idea what just happened. But I'm not getting eaten by rampaging Zerg, so I'll call that a win for now. I added my mini-comp's ID to the station security net, though, in case anything else happens down there in the secret labs.



January 16th, 2506

Dear Diary:

If I die, I'll never forgive Kate for getting me sent out here. I know it was her fault somehow! Alarms woke me up in the middle of the night – evacuation alarms, the serious 'this is not a drill' kind. Dominion ships were attacking the base and sending in drop pods of soldiers, and killing scientists who got in the way! Was someone trying to kill Prince Valerian for a coup?



Mr. Raynor and Kerrigan were still down in the hidden lab, though now they both had guns. I hoped they'd make it out alive, Raynor was a nice man and Kerrigan didn't seem too evil.



They met a Dominion trooper and Kerrigan used her power to...implode him, or something. He was shooting at her, but still, eeeww.



The next bunch didn't fare any better, caught from behind and lifted up so the base security could shoot them to pieces.







When they got to the tramway doors, though, it had already collapsed. The only way out was down and through the sub-levels that Kerrigan had let all her Zerg loose to run around in. I guess that tantrum she threw in the testing chamber was coming back to bite her now...literally. Heehee.



There were Dominion troops down in the under-levels too, but the Zerg were going nuts and attacked them too. Letting them all fight each other seemed to work out well for her and Raynor, and when they got to a big fortified room, she just opened the nearby cages and let Zerg eat them.



Meanwhile, all of us on the top level were busy loading into transports, and headed for Raynor's old battleship. I spotted Prince Valerian once, but managed to avoid getting noticed. He'd seen me on the Hyperion before and might have asked awkward questions – plus, he apparently had a crush on Kate, so his tastes clearly needed work.



Raynor and Kerrigan had taken the rocket tram to the docking bays, though they had to shoo off some Viking fighters who wanted to blow it up. That gross psychic crunchy thing works on planes too, it seems.





They almost made it, too! But then a huge mega-Viking robot landed and blew up the bridge with Kerrigan halfway across.





Kerrigan didn't like that at all, and proceeded to psychic-crunchy blast the big mech into scrap. Does she have a grudge against giant robots or something?





Raynor was still stuck on the base when she had to leave, though. But apparently they're a couple, who saw that coming?

[russdm]

(Am excited for this but I am wondering what reasons that there would be for Nora joining along with K for her journey.

Unwitting or unwilling hitchhiker?

Nora should always remember where she has her towel)

[The Glyphstone]

That'll be addressed directly when I post up Rendezvous this weekend, but it's shaping up as a little of column A, little of Column B. And if Nora is a little dry right now, it's because I haven't quite found her voice again yet. The ditzy propaganda-drenched drone doesn't work anymore after the Liberty campaign, for certain, and what sort of character development I can hammer into her this time is still a little hazy.

As far as anyone else reading, this is very admittedly a bit of an experiment looking for feedback. I'm not sure if a old school, text+images format Let's Play can hold an audience in the modern era of fast-paced livestreaming, so visible interest/curiosity will help a lot to keep me going. I assume the lack of direct replies was because there isn't anything to actually vote on yet, hopefully.

[russdm]

When the point comes, I vote that you get the zerglings that can jump up and down cliffs...

[Kareeah_Indaga]

“Psychic-crunchy blast.”

For what it’s worth I prefer text to livestream; the latter is noisy and time consuming (I read faster than I listen).

[Techwarrior]

Honestly I'm a big fan of this style of Let's Play as well, and will be watching this one for sure.

[Keltest]

I too would like to advocate for raptors. Watching them jump at things is the most zerg tactic available in the game.

[The Glyphstone]

Spoiler: Update 2: In Which We Are Drakken Out The Inevitable

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With everyone crammed into too-few shuttles as we fled the base, it was a complete mess and ships were landing wherever they could find a spare patch of hangar. Getting everyone off wasn't much better; the battleship – Hyperion II, apparently – wasn't meant to have this many guests onboard. I heard someone talking about turning mess benches into beds, and ducked away to find something less uncomfortable to call dibs on. There was a grungy black dropship parked next to our shuttle with the hatch unlocked, and it turned out to have a made-up unused cot tucked into one corner. I really just wanted a quick nap before going out again...

Something cold on my nose woke me up, but when I opened my eyes the sleep went away very fast, along with most of the air in my lungs. There was a gun about an inch in front of my face, big enough to fly a battlecruiser down the barrel!



“Who are you? And what are you doing on Jim's ship? In Jim's bed?”

My eyes tracked up the gun to the person holding it, and somehow got a little more scared. It was Kerrigan, and she looked absolutely murderous.

“NoranoracolbyImareporterforDNNIwasjusttiredafterb eingwokenupandrunningawayImsorryIdidn'tknow
whoseshipthiswaspleasedontshootmeI'llleavenow...”

I'm not sure how she understood anything with how fast I was babbling, but I was absolutely terrified. I was going to get shot, and die, and never go home, and I'd never even get to see Matt again! But something I said must have satisfied Kerrigan, because she relaxed and lowered her giant rifle.

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Nora. Call me Sarah. I'm afraid you are stuck here for a bit, though. The Dominion set up a big anti-orbital cannon in their camp here, and until I take it out, we can't leave and Jim can't get down safely.”

She left me to recover, but stopped on the way out and looked back. “You do know he's married, right?”





There was a bunch of Dominion troops guarding it, too. Kerri-Sarah was good but I didn't think she was good enough to take on that base alone. She got all weird and zoned out for a moment, though, then smiled. “Luckily for us, there's an old Zerg hive on planet, and the Broodmother running it's going to bring her swarm this way. I just need to keep us in one piece till she gets here.”



Even if Sarah seemed decent enough, Zerg were still icky. I decided to stay with the ship while she went out and bullied the ferals into building up their little hive. It went quickly, almost like she knew exactly how to do it.



It didn't take long for the Dominion troops to attack her, but the tentacle-drones and queens she'd grown ate them up (literally).



She left the hive alone for a few minutes while going out to rescue a bunch of Zerg trapped in a cave, but for the most part sat on the defense while that nasty purple creep grew everywhere and Zerglings popped from eggs left and right. A few wandered towards me but didn't seem hungry – I tried to teach one to play fetch, but it only seemed to understand the 'chase and eat' part of the game, not the part where you bring things back.





The Dominion attacks got stronger, but Sarah's swarm got bigger, and she was there to help as well. That psychic trick where she lifts people up in the air is even better with Zerg to attack them, like she's at a party and they're all a bunch of armored pinatas.



They even attacked her with a giant robot, and you can imagine how well that worked out. I think she actually giggled this time while psychic crunchy-blasting the thing; whatever therapy she's gotten over the last year clearly hasn't fixed everything.





All of a sudden the ground started shaking, and when giant Zerg worms popped out everywhere I had a vivid flashback to that night on Mar Sara. But the Zerg were on my side this time, sort of. And there was definitely no battlecruiser (captain) coming to save me either way.



Sarah went on the attack now, with all the extra Zerg to help, and it was a slaughter. I probably should have felt bad about watching Zerg eat people, except they had been trying to kill me a few hours ago. So I wasn't feeling very charitable towards people in red power armor.



It did seem like Sarah had gotten out of practice ordering Zerg around, though. The bridge into the Dominion base got them all clogged up and stuck behind each other at first – she had to order the ones in front to stop fighting and run forward, freeing up space for the rest to march in.



The big cannon got torn to pieces, though, and she immediately ran for the ship. The Zerg weren't attacking her, but it seemed like they had scared her somehow.



We waited for hours, Sarah flipping on the transmitter every so often and calling out to Raynor. I eventually got bored and turned on the vidscreen, hoping to catch one of the shows I liked on reruns. But when I flipped past DNN, Kate was giving a special report. She looked super serious, and then the overlay image popped up of a helmet I'd seen before.



”Notorious rebel Jim Raynor was captured in a daring raid yesterday. He was briefly interrogated, then summarily executed...”

Sarah screamed. Try to imagine the loudest noise you've ever heard. The loudest concert you've ever been too, the loudest siren that ever went off right next to your ear. Make that a hundred times louder. That's only like, one percent of what it feels like to have someone screaming inside your brain. The entire ship rocked back and forth, and I'm pretty sure I was screaming too just to try and make the pain stop.



Then she just collapsed, slumped silent against the wall. Tears were pouring down her face, in that sort of total silence you can only get to when you've run out of noise. My head hurt like the morning after drinking my age in shots, but I couldn't just leave her there. She didn't deserve to hear something like that, no one did. So I crouched down and squeezed her hand, holding it until she squeezed back.



We weren't alone. A Zergling had crawled in through the hatch, maybe drawn by the psychic scream. It came up to her like the galaxy's ugliest dog, and with her other hand Sarah reached out to pet it. We sat there for what seemed like forever, with something unspoken hanging in the air. Eventually she let go of my hand and wiped her face dry - but her other hand was still stroking the Zergling's head. Somehow this felt ominous, like I had failed at something very important. She got up, like she'd forgotten I was even there, and sat down to fly the ship up and away without saying where we were going...

And we are off to the races, everybody!

For our first round of Voting, there are two decisions to make, with a 1 week period.

DESTINATION:
We need to decide which planet to visit next – this locks us into three missions on that planet, after which we can go somewhere else.

1) Kaldir: Will grant us Roaches and Hydralisks, plus Evolved Strains for Zergling and Roach. Protoss enemies.
2) Char: Will grant us Banelings and Abberations, plus Evolved Strains for Zergling and Baneling. Terran enemies.

MUTATIONS:

Zerglings have unlocked one of three upgrades (these can be changed later if people want to alter loadouts):
1) Hardened Carapace (+30% Life)
2) Adrenal Overload (+50% attack speed)
3) Metabolic Boost (+60% movement speed)

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I have never played Starcraft 2 so I won’t comment on Mutations, but for Destination I will vote in favor of Kaldir on the basis that Hydralisks are cool looking.

[Thomas Cardew]

Second vote for Kaldir, hydras and roaches are just so much better than banelings and aberrations. From what I remember, attacks speed mutation is more useful on the coming missions during the freezes...

[Techwarrior]

Definitely voting for Kaldir. Char is much more difficult to do first. No real preference on mutation, although if it breaks a tie, for now I'll vote for Adrenal.

[Keltest]

HOTS oddly actually has an official canon order of missions. Char-Zerus-Kaldir.

Having said that, Kaldir's units are much more useful on both Zerus and Char than the other way around. I vote for Adrenal Overload for your mutation, since extra speed on your lings isnt that useful in the campaign, and extra HP kind of defeats the point of zerglings, especially at this stage in the game when theyre also your main damage unit.

[The Glyphstone]

Looks like Kaldir has a commanding lead already. It'll definitely make Char and Zeus easier, though that canon mission order and rushing Zerus would make Kaldir itself super easy with Mutalisks.

Also, if it wasn't clear, feel free to comment on the narrative portion as well if there's anything to say. Nora's not as easy to hate this time around, but if her commentary isn't engaging/entertaining it just becomes filler between screenshots.

[Keltest]

I post regularly on the official Blizzard forums, and most of the regulars there have a discord we chat in now.

We have... strong opinions on the HotS story. If nothing else, i am greatly enjoying a fresh take on it.

[The Glyphstone]

I post regularly on the official Blizzard forums, and most of the regulars there have a discord we chat in now.

We have... strong opinions on the HotS story. If nothing else, i am greatly enjoying a fresh take on it.

Any particularly egregious plot holes/problems ahead, then? The WoL playthrough did manage to, somewhat inadvertently, make a few people happy by 'fixing' stuff that was left unanswered - most notably how they managed to get the Odin all the way to Korhal without anyone learning it was stolen.

[Keltest]

Any particularly egregious plot holes/problems ahead, then? The WoL playthrough did manage to, somewhat inadvertently, make a few people happy by 'fixing' stuff that was left unanswered - most notably how they managed to get the Odin all the way to Korhal without anyone learning it was stolen.

Spoiler: Just in case

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The Kaldir arc has a tendency to leave a sour taste in peoples mouths. Its not a plot "hole" exactly, but a lot of people ive talked to say that it kind of goes against what they think the overall message of the campaign is about Kerrigan, and how it expects us to react to her. I disagree personally, but it is what it is.

Your mission order mostly resolves this one, but its a little difficult to justify Warfield on Char performing so badly against Kerrigan given his resources and supposed expertise fighting zerg.

[Brother Oni]

Also, if it wasn't clear, feel free to comment on the narrative portion as well if there's anything to say. Nora's not as easy to hate this time around, but if her commentary isn't engaging/entertaining it just becomes filler between screenshots.

I wonder if that zergling ends up like Nora's keeper with Kerrigan tasking it to both keep Nora out of trouble and keep her in line. Nora starts talking to it as there's noone else to talk to aside from her journal (and she's terrified of Kerrigan) which then progresses to the zergling turning into some sort of therapy animal.


"Do you think Kerrigan is doing the right thing?"

*RAWK*chitter chitter

"Well, of course I think she has the right to defend herself, but does she really have to kill every last Dominion soldier?"

*KRAWWWK* *SCRIK* omnomnom

"I agree you need to eat as well, but you don't need to eat that much. You're going to get fat!"

*SKRAAA!!!!* rude gesturing

"WHAT?! My behind IS. NOT. as big as baneling's!"

[Keltest]

I wonder if that zergling ends up like Nora's keeper with Kerrigan tasking it to both keep Nora out of trouble and keep her in line. Nora starts talking to it as there's noone else to talk to aside from her journal (and she's terrified of Kerrigan) which then progresses to the zergling turning into some sort of therapy animal.


"Do you think Kerrigan is doing the right thing?"

*RAWK*chitter chitter

"Well, of course I think she has the right to defend herself, but does she really have to kill every last Dominion soldier?"

*KRAWWWK* *SCRIK* omnomnom

"I agree you need to eat as well, but you don't need to eat that much. You're going to get fat!"

*SKRAAA!!!!* rude gesturing

"WHAT?! My behind IS. NOT. as big as baneling's!"

His name is Tuskie! They wrote a kind of sad short story about what happens to him.

[The Glyphstone]

His name is Tuskie! They wrote a kind of sad short story about what happens to him.

What is this, Star Wars, where every minor side character gets a name and viewpoint story?

Here, at least, it's just the metaphorical devil on Kerrigan's shoulder. That scene in the cockpit cinematic is clearly her making a choice, Nora tried to be the angel even if she's not very good at it.

[Keltest]

What is this, Star Wars, where every minor side character gets a name and viewpoint story?

Here, at least, it's just the metaphorical devil on Kerrigan's shoulder. That scene in the cockpit cinematic is clearly her making a choice, Nora tried to be the angel even if she's not very good at it.

No. Fans named him Tuskie, and then like 7 years after HotS came out, Blizzard wrote a series of short stories, one for each race. The zerg one was from the perspective of Tuskie, technically named Broken-Horn. But Tuskie is better. He shows up again in, i think only one other scene, and the short story kind of explains where he went.

[Thomas Cardew]

Any particularly egregious plot holes/problems ahead, then? The WoL playthrough did manage to, somewhat inadvertently, make a few people happy by 'fixing' stuff that was left unanswered - most notably how they managed to get the Odin all the way to Korhal without anyone learning it was stolen.

I mean the whole way the Zerg exist and function was massively retconned relative to SC1. YMMV with whether that was a good or bad change. I lean towards idiotic.

[The Glyphstone]

I mean the whole way the Zerg exist and function was massively retconned relative to SC1. YMMV with whether that was a good or bad change. I lean towards idiotic.

I'm not going to be making massive retcons (Ret-retcons?) to the entire franchise, that would drag the project a bit out of scope. Just looking ahead to little bumps in the road that require fridge logic to excuse, and seeing if I can pave them over.

[Artanis]

Honestly I'm a big fan of this style of Let's Play as well, and will be watching this one for sure.

Same here

[Lord Torath]

I'll vote for the Increased Zergling Movement Speed mutation. I also favor the leaping zerglings.

Regarding the end of the Kaldir arc:

Spoiler

Show

I always expected the queen she sent off with instructions to kill all protoss to cause problems later, either later on in HotS or in the Protoss campaign.

As to how we feel about Kerrigan and her actions at the end of the arc, I always got the feeling that Kerrigan was willing to do what she needed to, but she wasn't terribly happy about it. In her place, Mensk would revel in the deaths of the protoss. Kerrigan felt sadness.

[The Glyphstone]

Spoiler: Niadra

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According to the wiki, she's the antagonist in the post-game tie in comic series Shadow Wars. Still pursuing her single-minded goal to kill all Protoss.

[Iruka]

That'll be addressed directly when I post up Rendezvous this weekend, but it's shaping up as a little of column A, little of Column B. And if Nora is a little dry right now, it's because I haven't quite found her voice again yet. The ditzy propaganda-drenched drone doesn't work anymore after the Liberty campaign, for certain, and what sort of character development I can hammer into her this time is still a little hazy.

As far as anyone else reading, this is very admittedly a bit of an experiment looking for feedback. I'm not sure if a old school, text+images format Let's Play can hold an audience in the modern era of fast-paced livestreaming, so visible interest/curiosity will help a lot to keep me going. I assume the lack of direct replies was because there isn't anything to actually vote on yet, hopefully.

I like the old-school Let's Plays, it is nice to see one getting made.

Regarding the mutation, the attack speed is definitely the strongest, So I vote for that one to start out. Maybe switch to movement speed once we get the Raptorling evolution, because Speedraptors look funny.

Spoiler: Niadra

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According to the wiki, she's the antagonist in the post-game tie in comic series Shadow Wars. Still pursuing her single-minded goal to kill all Protoss.

Spoiler

Show

For anyone interested, you can read the comics
here

[russdm]

I would suggest that you make a save or two so you can do a compare and contrast because

Spoiler: Plot Events

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How Char ends is dependent on when you visit Char. If you visit it early and before Zerus, then Kerrigen will spare Warfield and his men, letting Warfield die knowing his men escaped alive.
If you go to Zerus first then go to Char, then Kerrigen will slaughter Warfield's fleeing men and he dies cursing Kerrigen.
The two different scenes gives very different views of what kind of person Kerrigen is.

I would say that you ought to go to Char before going to Zerus rather than vice versa.

I am looking forward to Nora and her future adventures with the Protoss on the Spear of Adun, because I like the idea of her joining them to visit Aiur and then them going on the ship.

After she has been through this adventure, of course.

[The Glyphstone]

I guess we'll see which way the voting takes our story, then.

And I definitely have plans/ideas for how to set up Legacy, when we get around to it.

[The_Snark]

I would suggest that you make a save or two so you can do a compare and contrast because

Spoiler: Plot Events

Show

How Char ends is dependent on when you visit Char. If you visit it early and before Zerus, then Kerrigen will spare Warfield and his men, letting Warfield die knowing his men escaped alive.
If you go to Zerus first then go to Char, then Kerrigen will slaughter Warfield's fleeing men and he dies cursing Kerrigen.
The two different scenes gives very different views of what kind of person Kerrigen is.

Spoiler

Show

Er, I'm pretty sure Kerrigan kills Warfield but then spares the people on the shuttles no matter where you go first? I've played through the campaign a couple times in different orders and always gotten the same outcome. I'm not sure where you're getting the alternative ending, I can't find any hint of it on either Youtube or the wiki.

[russdm]

Well

Spoiler: actually Char

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From what I remember of it:
If you go and do the Zerus bit and go Primal Zerg Kerrigen then when Warfield begs for mercy for his men at the end of the Char segment, Kerrigen will say a few lines then have her zerg slaughter them. Warfield then says "Damn you Kerrigen" and dies.

If you do the Char segment before going through the Zerus primal zerg segment, you get the scene with Warfield begs for mercy for his men and Kerrigen gives it. Kerrigen will also look human still in the scene.

I remember from when I had played the game. You have to complete the Zerus segment and have Kerrigen go Primal Zerg and then you go through Char, you get that moment

They, Blizzard Entertainment, may have removed or changed the other ending because I did look to see if it was there but I have not found anything yet. I remember seeing that ending on a playthrough and also from playing myself.