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Starcraft II : Wings of whatever

Erebus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,763
Yeah, yeah, I know RTS isn't popular on the Codex, spare me the butthurt plz.

I got Starcraft II for Christmas (partly because it's the only recent game that can work on my not-so-recent computer) and I've been playing it quite a bit since then. I don't have a global opinion yet : some things are pretty decent, others are incredibly annoying. (I've never played Starcraft I, so I'm not able to compare.)

You need an internet connection to be able to install the game. At first, I thought you even needed one to be able to play the game (it seemed to require being connected to battle.net) but it's not the case. Blizzard nevertheless requires the player to create an account on battle.net and give them your name, date of birth and address. Why ? Because they can. And probably also to satisfy their voyeuristic urges. Since e-polygraphs haven't been invented yet, you can make up anything you want, but the whole thing is still fairly invasive.

Much like Warcraft III, Starcraft II spends a lot of time and effort developping its story and characters. I actually rather liked the result in Warcraft III, but in the present case, it wasn't worth it. There's not a single character that's not utterly cliché and most of them are extremely annoying. The quality of the writing varies between acceptable and unimaginably awful, which makes it fairly bad on average. The story's too lame to discuss and also proof that science fiction can be just as unoriginal as heroic fantasy.

Fortunately, the essential elements of the game aren't quite so bad. The missions are not repetitive : the goals and the circumstances vary a lot, which I found quite enjoyable. You have some freedom with regards to the order in which you play the missions, which is always nice. Completing a mission earns you money, which you can use to improve your units for later missions. There are also optional objectives which can give you some useful bonuses. So the player has to consider his long-term strategy, which is an interesting element. You get a new type of units at the beginning of each mission and you'll find yourself with a fuckton of them in the second half of the mission.

There are four levels of difficulty : Casual (haven't tried it yet, but it must be designed either for retards or for people who've never used a computer before), Normal (should be called "Easy" but that would vex the people who use it), Difficult (probably the most appropriate level, although it can be a bit too difficult in some missions) and Brutal. Of course, the default speed of the game can be a real pain in the ass.
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
I highly recommend watching day9's funday monday episodes of his starcraft 2 show, they are usually pretty funny and also pretty interesting if you know much about SC2 multiplayer.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
Why even review an RTS like SC2 based on it's campaign mode? Anyway, there's already about two dozen SC2 threads lurking around in the depths of the general gaming forum's backpages.
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
attackfighter said:
I highly recommend against watching gay9, it's a waste of time that only starcrap fanboiz would indulge themselves in. Keep in mind that starcrap fanboiz also spend $20 per hour on "starcrap lessons" and $300 to go to "starcrap camp". I am not joking, there are seriously people who do that stuff - stay away from them they're a bad influence.

Okay, secondly you said you didn't play StarCraft: Broodwar and thus aren't able to see the flaws of starcrap 2 on the same level that I can, so I will not mention how shitty the new units are etc..

Now, your summary is mostly correct: story sux, bnet 2 sux, difficulty levels r 4 n00bs. But what you are wrong about is that it is a sci-fi game. Think about it, literally all you do in the campaign is find an ancient artifact to complete an ancient prophecy. This is not sci-fi, those are the telltale marks of SPACE FANTASY. So basically starcrap 2 is like starwars, but not cool like the first two movies, instead shitty like the new trilogy and to an extent Jedi Strikes Back.

Second thing you are wrong about:
The missions... I found quite enjoyable

Wrong. They are shitty, and repetitive despite your claims otherwise. All but a handful of them consist entirely of spamming some new wonder unit you just unlocked, while trying to beat some kind of contrived countdown ("oh no the sun is super nova-ing and will explode in 20 minutes!!!" vs "oh no you have to collect 6000 minerals before your enemy does and he collects them in roughly 20 minutes!!!" same fuckin' thing, but they put different coloured clown makeup on them to fool their oblivious fanbase). The missions are mere gimmicks, the fanboiz try to excuse them by saying they're the best in the RTS genre (lie) or that the focus is multi-player, but that doesn't change the fact that the single player gameplay is so beyond banal.

And that is what you were wrong about. Hopefully I have enlightened you.

GB2BW
 

Reject_666_6

Arcane
Joined
Oct 30, 2008
Messages
2,465
Location
Transylvania
Attackfighter is like the Drog of Starcraft 2.

Attackfighter, were you a modder for Brood War and are mad they they made your tower defence maps obsolete now?
 

Erebus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,763
attackfighter said:
Think about it, literally all you do in the campaign is find an ancient artifact to complete an ancient prophecy. This is not sci-fi, those are the telltale marks of SPACE FANTASY.

I guess it depends on how you define science-fiction, but I see your point : the elements of the story are standard unoriginal fantasy. The artifact, the ancient gods and especially the prophecy made me go :roll: .

As for the missions, I'm not saying there are not strong similarities, but they didn't feel so repetitive as to annoy me. Constantly getting new units ends up being rather headache-inducing, however.

Metro said:
Anyway, there's already about two dozen SC2 threads lurking around in the depths of the general gaming forum's backpages.

I'm sure there are, but my latest conviction for acts against nature expressly forbids me from using necromancy.
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
I actually went and tried to buy starcraft 2 today. No shops had it in stock, some didn't carry any PC games at all and those that did carried a pathetically small quantity (one store for example had 4x as much shelf space for PS2 games as for PC).
 

Malakal

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
10,266
Location
Poland
Campaign was very meh (that took how long to develop? Really?). They should have hired some WRITERS because the story is RETARDED and cliché beyond belief at the same time. But SC shines in MP and its going to be good. Yes, no arguing here, at some time in the future its going to be a good multiplayer game. But I dread the 'expansions' and their 'story'...
 

MicoSelva

backlog digger
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Playing SC2 was such a huge nostalgia hit for me, that even now I consider it GOTY 2010 on my personal list. Fuck objectivity in this case.

I like the campaign, despite the space fantasy theme - SC2 was never hard SF anyway. Also like the new units and the cliched characters that made me feel right at home.

As for the gameplay - missions have much more variety than in the first game - but that was also the case with Brood War, so it's more of keeping the quality level, rather than improvement. I do agree that they are too easy (especially on default Normal). I remember Brood War being a rapefest at times, but here I had no problems.

I don't give a single fuck about multiplayer.
 

Achilles

Arcane
Joined
Sep 5, 2009
Messages
3,425
I thought the Starcraft 2 campaign was quite interesting, with varied missions and good pacing. Almost every mission had some sort of gameplay twist, with only a few of them using the traditional "build lots of units, steamroll the enemy base" formula. To each his own I guess. As for the story, well it's space opera guys, honestly what did you expect? 2001: A Space Odyssey?
 

Malakal

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
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Messages
10,266
Location
Poland
Yes, missions were nice. Zombies. Train robberies. Mega mechs. Fucking lava. Covert Ops. But there was no WAR, only few final missions gave the immersion of a universe engulfed in conflict.

Varied but ultimately lacking something IMO. I wasnt bored but come on, for all this work? Not worth it.
 

Kraszu

Prophet
Joined
May 27, 2005
Messages
3,253
Location
Poland
I would had brought SC2 if they would not go full retard with BN 2.0, were you can't even fucking see what games are made. It was obvious that this will kill UMS.
 

Quilty

Magister
Joined
Apr 11, 2008
Messages
2,406
Kraszu said:
I would had brought SC2 if they would not go full retard with BN 2.0, were you can't even fucking see what games are made. It was obvious that this will kill UMS.

Best drunken post ever? :D
 

Erebus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,763
Well, I've reached the last mission, which looks suitably brutal. While I haven't enjoyed all missions equally, I found most of them reasonably entertaining. The mission in which a wall of fire is slowly destroying everything on the map is pretty fun, for instance.

The number of clichés is really hard to believe : characters keep spouting things and doing stuff that may have been acceptable 40 years ago, but that a modern person will have seen or heard a bajillion times before. I see only three possibilities : (1) the writers were simply curious to see whether anyone would notice, (2) they wanted to get it over with as quickly and with as little effort as possible and (3) they have less imagination than the average mushroom.

On a related subject, it looks like Starcraft II intends to do with the zergs what Warcraft III did with the orcs.
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
Finally managed to buy it today. Man all the registering bullshit online games make you do these days is annoying.
 

MicoSelva

backlog digger
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I'd say Blizzard writers have a rather limited imagination. Trying to count the instances of "good guy turning evil" trope alone would take whole day (bonus points if done for "the greater good").

edit: typo
 

Jaime Lannister

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 15, 2007
Messages
7,183
bw multiplayer is more fun to watch although insanely more difficult to play

but i don't think you guys care about pro gaming
 

Malakal

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
10,266
Location
Poland
Jaime Lannister said:
bw multiplayer is more fun to watch although insanely more difficult to play

but i don't think you guys care about pro gaming

No, not really. Pro gaming is a joke. Actually pro-most-entertainments are a joke.

Multiplayer is good with friends or casual fun. Not super srs shit.
 

relootz

Scholar
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
4,478
The missions are nice, the story is mediocre but the game really has a very active and competitive MP scene.

I feel it really shines in MP, but if you are a casual player then i doubt you will get a lot of pleasure playing it in MP, if only for fun with friends.
 

Destroid

Arcane
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May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
If anything the MP is solid for casuals. Automatcher so you don't have to worry about snobby RTS players kicking noobs or people they don't know from games and with the division system you get match fairly well with people of relatively the same skill.

Obviously it also has far more well developed features for competitive play than other games and has an active competitive scene with cash prizes.
 

MapMan

Arcane
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
Messages
2,330
Malakal said:
Jaime Lannister said:
bw multiplayer is more fun to watch although insanely more difficult to play

but i don't think you guys care about pro gaming

No, not really. Pro gaming is a joke. Actually pro-most-entertainments are a joke.

Multiplayer is good with friends or casual fun. Not super srs shit.

idra.png
 

Achilles

Arcane
Joined
Sep 5, 2009
Messages
3,425
Malakal said:
Yes, missions were nice. Zombies. Train robberies. Mega mechs. Fucking lava. Covert Ops. But there was no WAR, only few final missions gave the immersion of a universe engulfed in conflict.

Agreed, but think of the context. Raynor's group is based on a single ship, they are a very minor force in the grand scheme of things. They are insurgents and they do guerilla warfare, with quick in-and-out surgical strikes. I thought the style of the missions fitted the story well.
 

Fens

Ford of the Llies
Joined
Nov 3, 2009
Messages
1,899
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pitcairn
raw said:
actually some people are making a living off it so it's kinda serious for them.
but those people will be ruled by the blessed kim jong-un soon and will never have to play games for a living again
 

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