Heretic_Cata
We're gonna live forever
I love the upgrade stuff and clicking on random things ! It's great !
Starcraft 2.. anyone?!
- Thread starter Loppan Torkel
- Start date
Polycrates
Emperor
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2006
- Messages
- 1,288
I have no intention of ever touching the multiplayer, but I'm having a blast with the campaign.
There's pretty much zero surprises with the core gameplay (at least so far) - it feels pretty much exactly like i remember the original being. They've played it really, really safe here. But why fix what ain't broke, I guess?
The missions, on the other hand, are really well-crafted - so many of these games have basically a bunch of skirmish maps with a couple of cutscenes sticking them together, but these ones have obviously had a lot of love and care lavished on them and it really pays off. And the additional challenges are a great idea that work really well to coax you into risky little offensives rather than just turtling.
Oh and the stuff between missions is incredibly awesome - all the stuff to click on and the upgrades and stuff - awesome. The production values are through the roof (as you'd expect), and the faces are just drop-dead amazing.
It's just a pity the dialogue and characterisation is so damn cheesy and cliched (the main character in particular is really pretty bad). The storyline? I'm not very far but so far it's 100% by-the-numbers - but with three parts I'm sure they're going for the long play so I can deal with a bit of slow for now.
But yeah I've always been a sucker for single player RTS but have never had the slightest interest in the multiplayer clickfests. Singleplayer is so often an afterthought, so I'm really impressed with how much love it's getting in this one (especially for the granddaddy of multiplayer games). Probably worth getting if you're into this sort of thing.
There's pretty much zero surprises with the core gameplay (at least so far) - it feels pretty much exactly like i remember the original being. They've played it really, really safe here. But why fix what ain't broke, I guess?
The missions, on the other hand, are really well-crafted - so many of these games have basically a bunch of skirmish maps with a couple of cutscenes sticking them together, but these ones have obviously had a lot of love and care lavished on them and it really pays off. And the additional challenges are a great idea that work really well to coax you into risky little offensives rather than just turtling.
Oh and the stuff between missions is incredibly awesome - all the stuff to click on and the upgrades and stuff - awesome. The production values are through the roof (as you'd expect), and the faces are just drop-dead amazing.
It's just a pity the dialogue and characterisation is so damn cheesy and cliched (the main character in particular is really pretty bad). The storyline? I'm not very far but so far it's 100% by-the-numbers - but with three parts I'm sure they're going for the long play so I can deal with a bit of slow for now.
But yeah I've always been a sucker for single player RTS but have never had the slightest interest in the multiplayer clickfests. Singleplayer is so often an afterthought, so I'm really impressed with how much love it's getting in this one (especially for the granddaddy of multiplayer games). Probably worth getting if you're into this sort of thing.
Captain2
ಠ_ృ
Just finished the single player campaign, will someone else accomplish this so I can begin expressing my glee over the ending?
I also finished it last night and am wrapping up getting my Kerri Portrait (have to go back and do the different-choice missions)
It was an amazing campaign at some points, great gameplay undoubtedly. If any flaws, storywise it beat you over the head with "flashbacks" on SC1 for people who knew absolutely nothing I guess, and maybe continuity wasn't great. The game was also much lighter, for almost all characters involved, except the obvious most awesome part ever (which is much of the reason why it was awesome.)
I want to talk about this a lot too, probably ought to get an account on TeamLiquid sometime too. Anyway, I was majorly impressed that most everyone made the same - right - choices on all the missions in their first playthroughs...so funny.
So, the end result is truly incredible, it was a great campaign, I'd predict people will like the game for that alone, and of course multiplayer will be much fun for a long time.
I'll also direct anyone, though be wary of spoilers, to this thread
and this post
It was an amazing campaign at some points, great gameplay undoubtedly. If any flaws, storywise it beat you over the head with "flashbacks" on SC1 for people who knew absolutely nothing I guess, and maybe continuity wasn't great. The game was also much lighter, for almost all characters involved, except the obvious most awesome part ever (which is much of the reason why it was awesome.)
I want to talk about this a lot too, probably ought to get an account on TeamLiquid sometime too. Anyway, I was majorly impressed that most everyone made the same - right - choices on all the missions in their first playthroughs...so funny.
So, the end result is truly incredible, it was a great campaign, I'd predict people will like the game for that alone, and of course multiplayer will be much fun for a long time.
I'll also direct anyone, though be wary of spoilers, to this thread
and this post
Anybody else havning problems with the battlenet connection and the game remembering your progress. Twice now I've had to go and redo the previous days missions because it didn't autosave/record my progress. I know offline means no achivments but I don't think lack of my "mission 02 achivment" should prevent me from playing mission 3 when I'm on mission 4
Rashiminos
Fool Prophet
You should be able to save them manually, and I tended to do that so I could save my research/upgrades when I quit for the day.
I finished the campaign last night.
I finished the campaign last night.
Spoiler :
GoodSarmatian
Jokerfied Western Male
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Messages
- 9,408
So, there're already two people here who have finished the campaign. Sounds like it's shorter than expected or were you playing nonstop for the last three of days ?
Captain2
ಠ_ృ
Almost non-stop for me, its actually a pretty decent length
MobBoss
Off-Topic Overlord
Mobboss's quick review:
It seems blizzard did their work on this one. They have basically taken elements of the original starcraft game, along with elements of other RTS's over the years and keep the good and tossed the bad.
I have played about 7 or 8 missions into the Campaign (taking my time) and am having a blast. There are multiple cutscenes and flavor items galore to view and enjoy. You are given the ability to choose a wide variety of items and paths for your forces in your campaign. You have the ability to hire mercs that have advanced abilities. You can spend money on upgardes to your forces and structures. You can also dedicate zerg or protoss tech points into a tech tree for even more upgrades.
The game itself is incredibly optimized. My video card, an nvidea 8800 GTS (512 meg) card is going on over two years old now, but the default graphics setting for my card was set to 'ultra' and the game plays butter smooth at that level. The look is beautiful, nice shadows and textures, and I definitely like the new polished look to all the units and forces.
Also, it has an achievement point system that awards points and titles and even character icons based upon objectives in missions and modes.
Overall, I would say even if you dont plan to play a single multiplayer game online at all, this game is still very much worth its price for the single player alone.
It seems blizzard did their work on this one. They have basically taken elements of the original starcraft game, along with elements of other RTS's over the years and keep the good and tossed the bad.
I have played about 7 or 8 missions into the Campaign (taking my time) and am having a blast. There are multiple cutscenes and flavor items galore to view and enjoy. You are given the ability to choose a wide variety of items and paths for your forces in your campaign. You have the ability to hire mercs that have advanced abilities. You can spend money on upgardes to your forces and structures. You can also dedicate zerg or protoss tech points into a tech tree for even more upgrades.
The game itself is incredibly optimized. My video card, an nvidea 8800 GTS (512 meg) card is going on over two years old now, but the default graphics setting for my card was set to 'ultra' and the game plays butter smooth at that level. The look is beautiful, nice shadows and textures, and I definitely like the new polished look to all the units and forces.
Also, it has an achievement point system that awards points and titles and even character icons based upon objectives in missions and modes.
Overall, I would say even if you dont plan to play a single multiplayer game online at all, this game is still very much worth its price for the single player alone.
Thrawn
Emperor
What difficulty did you do it on, and which mission did you do before the last one?
Spoiler :
I'd have to agree with other comments on the singleplayer alone being worth the price. Been having some fun with some of my WoW mates playing 4v4 against the AI, and got silver on the basic challenges so far, haven't looked at the other ones yet.
Captain2
ಠ_ృ
I was playing a 2 vs. 2 game with myself and three computers while I tried out the zerg for the first time, after I defeated the last enemy the computer sent a message to me saying "GG"
Skynet is near, I can feel it
Skynet is near, I can feel it
Akka
Moody old mage.
Finished the campaign yesterday.
The game is nice. It's very, VERY similar to SC1, you can jump in right from the start and play it the same, unchanged way (at least solo). I guess they were wary that changing it too much would freak people. Hard to touch a classic.
So far it seems there is only cosmectic changes, but I'm pretty sure the little additions here and there will have very far-reaching consequences. Multiplayer will decides in the long term.
The way the story is told is quite good. There is lots of little details between missions, and quite a bit of cutscenes, nice.
But sadly... the story itself is quite boring and VERY predictable. Nothing surprising at all.
Worse, it feels very, very much copy-pasted from Warcraft. Seriously. And, as usual, details are retconned away (though, for now, it isn't as egregious as Warcraft where the whole lore has been butchered each time to retrofit the new mountain-sized chunks of rewritten lore), which makes the whole operation shaky.
To sums it up : it's a very nicely told tedious story. The missions are a blast, but the storyline is "meh" to "Zzzzz...". I actually had to spoil myself about the only vaguely interesting moment (the ending, in fact) to find the desire to continue.
Additionnally, Blizzard has put its new obsession (B.Net 2) EVERYWHERE in the game, and has been rather incredibly hypocrital. After a very loud "DRM is a losing battle !" that was repeated aloud all over the Internet to make it appear "we don't want to bother our loyal customers with irritating DRM, we know it's a rearguard fight and we consider it's not the good way to make people buy a game !", you find out that they, in fact, LOADED their game with DRM everywhere.
Nice showing of your true colours, weasels...
The game is nice. It's very, VERY similar to SC1, you can jump in right from the start and play it the same, unchanged way (at least solo). I guess they were wary that changing it too much would freak people. Hard to touch a classic.
So far it seems there is only cosmectic changes, but I'm pretty sure the little additions here and there will have very far-reaching consequences. Multiplayer will decides in the long term.
The way the story is told is quite good. There is lots of little details between missions, and quite a bit of cutscenes, nice.
But sadly... the story itself is quite boring and VERY predictable. Nothing surprising at all.
Worse, it feels very, very much copy-pasted from Warcraft. Seriously. And, as usual, details are retconned away (though, for now, it isn't as egregious as Warcraft where the whole lore has been butchered each time to retrofit the new mountain-sized chunks of rewritten lore), which makes the whole operation shaky.
To sums it up : it's a very nicely told tedious story. The missions are a blast, but the storyline is "meh" to "Zzzzz...". I actually had to spoil myself about the only vaguely interesting moment (the ending, in fact) to find the desire to continue.
Additionnally, Blizzard has put its new obsession (B.Net 2) EVERYWHERE in the game, and has been rather incredibly hypocrital. After a very loud "DRM is a losing battle !" that was repeated aloud all over the Internet to make it appear "we don't want to bother our loyal customers with irritating DRM, we know it's a rearguard fight and we consider it's not the good way to make people buy a game !", you find out that they, in fact, LOADED their game with DRM everywhere.
Nice showing of your true colours, weasels...
Captain2
ಠ_ృ
the one where you have to fight the protoss as well as keep moving your base away from the flame.
Of course that may be because of my tendancy to turtle
Of course that may be because of my tendancy to turtle
Akka
Moody old mage.
The last mission was the only one I had to restart on "normal" - I could maybe have finished it on "hard", but it was late and I wanted to see the end, so... 
But considering most missions are based on gimmick, it's more about "how far from your playstyle is the current gimmick" than "how hard it is".
But considering most missions are based on gimmick, it's more about "how far from your playstyle is the current gimmick" than "how hard it is".
MobBoss
Off-Topic Overlord
Taking my time and playing though it just on normal mode, so most missions are pretty easy. So far the only one that I had to restart a few times was the one with the day/night cycle and that was only because I got too agressive and got my invading force wiped out a few times after dark.
Once I figured out what I needed to do exactly it went pretty smooth.
My plan is to play through it once on normal mode and then play through it again on hard, going the other way on missions where I had to make a choice on which side I would go. Going to try and get all the achievements eventually.
Playing 2 to 3 scenarios a night puts me about halfway through the campaign atm. Enjoying it very much.
Akka
Moody old mage.
Earthling : yeah, that was precisely from where the boredom came. The oh so predictable and pathetic
Spoiler :
You're in it for the long haul. The Diablo 2 battle chest still retails between 30-40 bucks.
I don't think the "it's only 1/3 of a game" argument is valid. Starcraft 1 had 30 missions, most of them were boring "annihilate the enemy base" maps. Starcraft 2 has 29, and all of them are interesting and different.
spikeyperson
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2005
- Messages
- 47
Was looking for a great rts to replace my precious company of heroes so took the plunge with sc2..........I am completly underwhelmed. Cant speak of the missions, i dont play them, but as for skirmish and multiplayer...dull as dishwater with no real tactical depth at all. No deformable terrain,no shooting from cover, cliched factions and units, harvesting management, boring maps. Its like theyve looked at rts innovations in the past few years and ignored them, because it took twelve years to develop? Twelve years for this? Think ill stick with coh.
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