Am 5 missions in, and feel like I have some points to raise about the campaign and its implementation.
1. This feels easy and very user(noob) friendly. Back in WoL, once an upgrade was locked in, it was locked in for the rest of the campaign. Now, u can pick and choose what upgrade/abilitie u want before each mission. This includes both units and Kerrigan.
Kerrigan (so far), has also been playable for every mission I have been on. Quite different to WoL where I think from memory Jim is playable in 2 missions??
I'm abit confused as to why they done this.. maybe to make it more accessable to more players? not as unforgiving? I was quite peed off when Gears of War 3 lost all its hardcore roots and went casual hoping to appeal to a larger audience and basically make more money. Each mission now has more achievments per game skill level, which is a nice idea.
2. Zerg have names....... Well who would of guessed that.....?? Not me, thats for sure..
3. A MAJOR character dies (I'll keep this hidden incase people dont heed the spoiler warning, I was surprised to say the least).
First, play the whole thing, cause u didn't play enough to spoil anything at all.
And this is an expansion pack, not a new installment. Making it "more accessible" doesn't get more money.
Lastly, zergs had names since starcraft 1
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Toowoomba
Quote:
Luke Bridley: sang #1
Luke Bridley: i love sang
Luke Bridley: mmmmmm big sang around my mouth
Luke Bridley: yum yum yum
2. Zerg have names....... Well who would of guessed that.....?? Not me, thats for sure
Zasz and Daggoth in BW had names. What they didn't really have were personalities or character or much to do other then spout exposition (though Kerrigan and Zasz did have a disagreement at one point).
Discussing the campaign is fine, as long as the spoilers are kept somewhere. You don't have to read this thread. It says spoilers galore in the title for a reason. No-ones forcing you to read it.
Ran through it in 9 hours 20 minutes upon release, on brutal. Only failed one level because I couldn't read an ability properly before suddenly dying and misunderstanding how it worked. Game is significantly easier then WoL Brutal, levels give you far more economy then WoL and under far less pressure. Standard blizzard plot too (sigh). Still kinda fun though.
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Reluctant new users of this so called... Twitter- @ROOTiaguz
Last edited by ROOT`iaguz; Tue, 12th-Mar-2013 at 3:57 PM.
I feel like there should be a rule where the campaign shouldn't be discussed for a certain amount of time. For example, I'm away for work until next week and as such I'm unable to play the campaign. In this time I'd like not to be spoiled.
Maybe wait 1,2 or 3 weeks before discussing the campaign. There are no spoiler tags on thread topics yet, and you didn't even use the spoiler tag.
Thanks
Edit: to the spastics commenting on this post, the title was changed by a mod after my post. GG
Last edited by TACeeSerps; Thu, 14th-Mar-2013 at 5:14 PM.
First, play the whole thing, cause u didn't play enough to spoil anything at all.
And this is an expansion pack, not a new installment. Making it "more accessible" doesn't get more money.
Lastly, zergs had names since starcraft 1
I thought it could be an ongoing discussion of the campaign as a whole as people see fit. not wait until everyone has fully completed it to talk about it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fray`iaguz
2. Zerg have names....... Well who would of guessed that.....?? Not me, thats for sure
Zasz and Daggoth in BW had names.
i must confess I never played BW.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TACeeSerps
I feel like there should be a rule where the campaign shouldn't be discussed for a certain amount of time. For example, I'm away for work until next week and as such I'm unable to play the campaign. In this time I'd like not to be spoiled.
Maybe wait 1,2 or 3 weeks before discussing the campaign. There are no spoiler tags on thread topics yet, and you didn't even use the spoiler tag.
Thanks
Spoiler tags???
I would of thought placing the capital words SPOILERS GALORE would of been a pretty big warning that the thread will contain spoilers.
I'll delete the thread if I can. or u can go a head and delete it.
3 negative responses out 3 indicate that i've clearly missed the mark on this one.
As for the thread title, I'm on my phone, so I can't see SPOILERS GALORE at the end. This is why I wish there was an option to add SPOILER in front of the thread titles in future like you can with [HotS] and [TA].
Also, I can't delete threads. I'm a pretend admin, not a real one
Last edited by TACeeSerps; Tue, 12th-Mar-2013 at 4:03 PM.
I feel like there should be a rule where the campaign shouldn't be discussed for a certain amount of time. For example, I'm away for work until next week and as such I'm unable to play the campaign. In this time I'd like not to be spoiled.
Maybe wait 1,2 or 3 weeks before discussing the campaign. There are no spoiler tags on thread topics yet, and you didn't even use the spoiler tag.
Thanks
The topic is labeled as such, if you browse this thread and get spoiled, its your own fault.
For those who don't know. He decided to be the one to wear the Helm of Domination instead of Tirion Fording after the death of Arthas Menethil. Thus becoming the Jailer of the Damned, the next Lich King. He kept the scourge under control that way.
Zagara was actually learning human emotions (pity?) So maybe Kerrigan can change the swarm for "good". LOL. Sounds like a terrible idea actually. But yeah, Kerrigan's human side is influencing the swarm.
In the mission where you infest the protoss spaceship with Niadra, I found a really funny way to mess with the end cutscene. If you burrow niadra JUST before the end, then she will be burrowed during the entire cutscene!
Did anyone else feel pretty cheated by the seriously anticlimactic death of Narud? It's obvious he is Duran who played a pivotal role in broodwar and was incredibly mysterious, and we went from not know who Narud was to getting a hint he is Duran to killing him in 3 missions. No build up over the whole campaign, no hints dropped throughout the campaign; An entire storyline destroyed in 3 missions. How boring..
Also the Jim/Kerrigan relationship is so abusive. Jim needs to kill that bitch and be done with it christ..
they made Kerrigan the anti-hero. so she won't be dying any time.
Here's how I think LotV will end up.
Raynor, Kerrigan and Zeratul (i'm assuming he'll be the protagonist in LotV) will team up and fight Amon.
After his defeat. Kerrigan will either end up like Bolvar did in WotLK, meaning she'll continue being the Queen of Blades and keep the Zerg in check .
Or... she'll have taught her brood mothers enough humanistic qualities and they'll not go on a mad rampage after she becomes human again (most likely by some Xel' Naga mojo after defeating Amon).
Did anyone else feel pretty cheated by the seriously anticlimactic death of Narud? It's obvious he is Duran who played a pivotal role in broodwar and was incredibly mysterious, and we went from not know who Narud was to getting a hint he is Duran to killing him in 3 missions. No build up over the whole campaign, no hints dropped throughout the campaign; An entire storyline destroyed in 3 missions. How boring..
Also the Jim/Kerrigan relationship is so abusive. Jim needs to kill that bitch and be done with it christ..
There was a hint or two that Narud was Duran in the WoL campaign also.
On the topic of the campaign, it was lacluster and way, way too easy.. :|
Okay... who in the right mind thought that belial boss fight in Diablo 3 was fun, and brought it to SC2!
Overall, I was really disappointed with the whole Duran/Narud storyline, pretty shit in my opinion, so anti-climatic. I was hoping for something far more epic that goes through till LotV. Sigh...
Typical storyline otherwise...
Also, is it just me, or does HotS feels like it's lacking cool CGI cutscenes. It's abundant at the start, but almost nothing in the middle. :/
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It's an i not an L!
I thought the story was alright, I personally preferred it to Wings of Liberty. In Wings you were just going on random quests/finding random artifacts most of the time, and then the invasion of char is the only substantial thing that happens. I felt like the HotS story-line had a lot more momentum and there were a lot more important plot points. The cinematics were also really nice.
Great to see stukov back, I guess I was a little bummed out that nothing was mentioned of the connection between Duran and Narud but I think we can all assume they were the same person anyway. HotS seemed mainly about Kerrigan's quest for vengeance so we'll just have to wait for LotV to see where this goes.
I didn't like the evolution missions, they were a waste of time, and my biggest gripe with the campaign.
By the way Wild Mutation is probably the most broken spell in the game. I was able to steamroll through most of the game with just 235 hp superstimmed reaper zerglings + muta support.
Also I spotted Lord Diablo in the mission where you infest the protoss ship :P
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mGGTitan [NA ] (HotS)
Previously known as mGGTitan
"We are terran. We never surrender. We always fight 'till the end." - Empire Kas
Last edited by mGGPrometheus; Wed, 13th-Mar-2013 at 4:44 AM.
I didn't like the evolution missions, they were a waste of time, and my biggest gripe with the campaign.
Considering most of the game is "noob friendly" its just an easy way for blizzard to show you the skills/mutations and choose what you want based on that.
I think Blizzard missed the point of making a Real Time STRATEGY game. I feel like I am just moving zerg around exactly how the game wants me to. There feels like very little strategy.
Sure I have the choice between different strains (which makes no sense because why not just create two new units and I can create both) but I have to be able to win with both so it's really not much of a choice at all.
I think a risk like gameplay mechanic would do wonders. I worked in Dawn of War.
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DT rush. The only good strategy.
Clan ToR
Zanderax 611
I could go through this game with a big ****** meat cleaver but it would deserve it's own post so tldr version ahead
GOOD:
Game feels like you're using a swarm, not a group of yokel pirates.
Kerrigan is pleasantly different. Boss fights do feel a bit Dawn of War 2 though, but w/e.
Good amount of options in game. Game very focused around letting you decide which units are fun then making a ton of them.
BAD:
Writing.
Too easy on brutal.
Level design doesn't promote new units like Wings did (or at least attempted to, if we assume stim marines are not a thing)
WORSE:
Evolution missions.
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Reluctant new users of this so called... Twitter- @ROOTiaguz
MAJOR SPOILERS incoming. If you haven't finished the campaign yet then DON'T read this post!
As far as difficulty goes, I didn't start my Brutal run yet, but when most missions could be CRUSHED on Normal with nexus wars swarmlings, and mutas, then swarmlings and torrasque ultras on a rallied 1-A there's something wrong with the game. At no point did I feel that it would be possible to lose the game. Game-play wise it felt like a combination of Diablo 3 and Warcraft 3. It had a fresh feel to it, though some of Kerrigan's abilities once unlocked are UTTERLY BROKEN and make a normal play of the game laughable. I have already decided which upgrades to pursue for my Brutal run and I imagine it will not feel as difficult as Wings did. After I've played hard and brutal I can comment better.
Evolution missions ... these were a PERFECT chance to test players on usage of the new units. Why not make it a limited resource micro mission with a lot more depth, and BOTH unit types that need to be used in conjunction to complete the level. Overall I was bitterly disappointed at the wasted potential.
With regards to the story, I like some parts, hate others. I like that overall the story has a sense of direction to it, even though it does feel quite stagnant and linear at times. From Raynors Execution, Reuniting the broods, Primal evolution, Rescuing Jim, to Killing Narud, and Invading Korhal the game has a bit of a rigidity in it's transitions ... frankly, it could have done with being longer given several of the "missions" you complete are actually evolution missions that offer little to no challenge at all.
Raynors Execution. This was good storytelling. The referral of Nova to whichever choice you made in the WoL campaign was also nice, though I think it doesn't really alter anything. Kerrigan's decision to embrace the swarm following the news broadcast gave a strong direction to the plot however and made me INSTANTLY want to know what comes next.
Primal arc. This was a cool idea and added a nice tactical element that was completely ignored to the invasion of Augustgrad. Had that mission involved multiple bases it would have made for a better challenge and better management of resources.
The inclusion of Stutkov I REALLY liked given I got to play the Resurrection IV map on Nintendo 64 though I wish they'd given more consideration to his appearance than they did. Just appearing in the leviathan was anti-climactic and rang kind of hollow. He warranted a better back story explanation especially given the fact he will likely have a MAJOR role to play in Void.
Duran/Narud could/should have been the final point of this game ... From the time his character gets introduced, until when you kill him it's 3 missions. This is a tough pill to swallow as his character and legacy has much more of an epic feel to it. Primal or otherwise, Kerrigan should have had a harder time to finish him than "Kill all the shrines". This man is supposed to rival than the old queen of blades in terms of power and cunning, killing him as a prelude to the anticlimactic leaked ending to the game just feels wrong. Given BLizzard were aware that their ending was leaked a long time ago I hoped they would have done something to alter the storyline.
I feel that moving the actual ending of Swarm to the beginning of Void, and making the pursuit of Narud and prevention of the resurrection of Amon the key focus of Swarm would have been better.
Overall I'm ambivalent about the game. It had a lot of nice throwbacks to older game mechanics, but wasn't challenging enough, and in terms of storytelling it both had some epic moments, and some disappointments regarding plot points. To summarize it in terms of movies, this is Matrix 2, but instead of leaving everything open, it tried to close too many plot points, and ultimately suffered for it. Leave Raynor dead and Mensk alive until Void, and make naruD the main focus of Swarm, and I feel it would have had a better feel to it.
___________________________________ Vice-captain of the Fusion Slugs
Member of the Masters of Koreign casting team.
some of Kerrigan's abilities once unlocked are UTTERLY BROKEN and make a normal play of the game laughable.
I guess there is good and bad to this. I remember people complaining that they do not feel powerful at all in a certain RPG game where you need to kill hordes and hordes of demons. So this RPG element had to make you feel like the badass QoB that she is.
I HATED the evolution missions. Waste of time. Abathur felt like a car salesman.
A few of you have already touched on the Narud/Duran plotline, and I won't talk about it much I guess.
Other than the fact that it has always been pretty obvious they are the same person. =X Using the name "Narud" was just an easy (albeit lame) way for Blizzard to tell us "THIS GUY IS SAMIR DURAN!!!"
What are your thoughts on making Kerrigan the anti-hero?
Personally, I think it was justifiable. You can argue that the first QoB was a product of Amon's influence.
Correct me if i'm wrong on this. The overmind created the QoB to try and break away from Amon's grip?
The Xel' Naga artifact cleansed Kerrigan of that influence, and gave back her human qualities.
Anti-hero born.
Abathur disliked Terran/Human strains because to him it was "messy". My take on this was it meant "emotions". Something which Kerrigan has begun to teach to her broodmothers (Za'gara).
Zeratul has a lot of explaining to do to the Protoss in LotV. Lol...
Zeratul has a lot of explaining to do to the Protoss in LotV. Lol...
Oh yeah he does..
Has anyone noticed how Abathur the Zerg Scientist sounds like the same guy that says stuff like "Evolution Complete" when an upgrade finishes in SC/SCBW? (Seriously forgot what to call them, Adjutant I guess?)
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NA | KR.
Known for a time as mGGCrayonPop and mGGxJieun
Q_Q'd.
I was really enjoying the direction the story was taking, and then.. ancient aliens. I hate ancient aliens. Maybe I went through it too fast, but the switch over from a cured Kerrigan reluctant to become the queen of blades again to primal Kerrigan felt far too short, and cured Kerrigan was a much more interesting character, we're now just somewhat back to where we left off, with Kerrigan as leader of the swarm with a little bit more free will, seems like a bit of a cop-out.
Gameplay wise the first half was better than the last half and I'll take evolution missions over anything involving primarily Kerrigan + a small group of units, she's just so strong that my other units felt irrelevant on most missions. Worst part in the game for me was trying to break entrenched positions on certain missions, everything else felt like a cake walk but there were times when multiple timers were running out and I didn't feel like I had the right compositions to break through which them left me with a reverse snowball of not having enough to break the location for the next timer. Swarm hosts in the campaign were also super akward to use but the creep teleportation is amazing.
Overall I liked the story better than Wings because at least Kerrigan feels motivated to some end even if I didn't like where it went with it it's a big improvement over Raynor who just seems to stumble upon the artifact while doing mercenary stuff and it ends up solving all his problems. I thought the missions generally felt more active as well though there were definitely some duds.
To be fair Dingobloo the Xel'Naga have been a major part of the lore since vanilla Starcraft, and with Samir Duran in BW you just knew it was going to come up in the future. Kerrigan going human and back served two important purposes: 1) Duran/Narud needed to suck all her power into the xel'naga artifact so he could resurrect his dead master (Amon, or w/e his name is I forget, the dark voice). And 2) it allowed Kerrigan to regain her power without the corruption from Amon, allowing her to lead the swarm of her own will, a fundamental change to the zerg.
I will say though I'm a bit confused at how they claim now that the fallen Xel'Naga was responsible for evolving the zerg, I thought all the Xel'Naga did that together. Unless they mean he corrupted their evolution without the others knowing.
At the end of the day though I can accept Kerrigan's decisions and motivations (even though I miss a purely animalistic primal evil zerg like the old days). The main issue I had was Raynor's progression from "You and me are over" to "See ya darl" as she floats into the sky. It makes sense for him to put aside his differences to help her destroy Mengsk, but I really thought he would have more questions before letting her go away to do her thing.
I can't wait to see nidala ... nidalee? ... wtf was her name ive forgotten lol.. the one who infests the shiP? (someone fill it in in comment)
Anyway i cant wait to see her again in the next campaign I reckon she'll be all like KILL ALLL THE PROTOSS (as she pretty much exlaimed as you last see her on the protoss ship flying away)
loved it. It wasn't perfect, but I never expected perfect. I never expected to like it this much, either.
Having a hero unit for most of the missions made the gameplay so much fun. It made it easy, I guess, since Kerrigan could just kill everything, but that's also fun. fun fun fun. I want warcraft 4.
And abusing all the broken units and upgrades for broken units. Those are the things that could make starcraft fun, but I guess those are also the things that don't work in multiplayer.
I felt like it was a bit too easy, especially in the later missions. I mean, when the Odin was sent out and Jim is all like "oh no, I'm dead, go on without me!" and then the Odin dies in 10 seconds and kills like one ultralisk, but the ultralisk respawns anyway? what happened to that button with the skull on it?
And I loved all of the little jokes they put in there, like when kerrigan says "omg, the gorgon is huge! no wonder general warfield can only send one to the battlefield at a time!"
I felt so sad when Kerrigan walked out of that pod and had tentacles... T_T
WoL last mission on Brutal was unbelievably hard. HoTs last mission on Brutal was... stupid. I think this is because of how strong some of the units were -> Kerrigan, Sand/Skeleton King ultralisks, sheesh.
having kerrigan respawn all the time was kinda op, but did work with the whole we are going to swarm and keep attacking u again and again. Having played thru this on brutal i was a bit dissappointed i was expecting to get stuck at least once, instead i just beat everything first time giving itthe feel of being an easy game :/ o well free portrait
blizzard has a bad habit of focusing each campaign around one theme.
wings of liberty - you are Reynor. at the end of the day what mattered to Jim was him getting Kerrigan back, and it happened.
heart of the swarm - you are Kerrigan. at the end of the day what mattered to her was getting her revenge.
LotV - assuming you are Zeratul. at the end of the day, what matters to Zeratul?
they seem to have this idea that their main protagonists have to be very stubborn/fixed in their beliefs and that they are the part of the world that doesn't change. Kerrigan hates Mengsk, and she always has to hate him, build the story around that.
with plot twists, Narud / Duran was awesome! until they killed him off... which brings me to my starcraft 1 vs starcraft 2 rant
in starcraft 1, there were sick twists which included quite a lot of surprise betrayals. when Kerrigan killed of pheonix, that was a pretty big shock to me, and i yelled at my screen a little calling Kerrigan a bitch. i mean **** the duke, good riddance to him, but pheonix?! finding Duran on the moon trying to make Hybrids? woah!
in starcraft 2 WoL, the only big surprise to me was when you found out the overmind created Kerrigan as a means to free the Zerg from the Zel'Naga. i really appreciated this part of the campaign
in HotS. I don't think many people believed Jim Reynor was actually killed, and at that point the assumption he would be used as deterrent to Kerrigan was pretty easy to conclude. finding Duran again was wicked, until he was killed off...
the whole kerrigan reynor thing is growing on me now with what seems to be a "forbidden love" or "fate won't let them be"
and of course campaign was stupidly easy on brutal (lets you macro to infinity on nearly every level) and evolution missions were good functionally, but were the biggest waste of 7/8 missions and a bit of a rip off for mission count
tl;dr
i expected it to be pretty average(/shit), but somewhere inside of me i respect that it is a blizzard game and up my expectations. I rate the campaign as okay+, but for a blizzard game, it should be better
I really didn't like how they didn't clarify that Narud was Duran... i mean Duran was a huge part of the story and we all know that it IS in fact duran.. unless blizzard are really out of name ideas.. (narud being duran backwards) but they never gave the clarification that it was infact him.. cos kerrigans interaction and acknowledgement of duran in bw etc was clear.. but yeh.. oh well
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Previously known as Washington
I really didn't like how they didn't clarify that Narud was Duran... i mean Duran was a huge part of the story and we all know that it IS in fact duran.. unless blizzard are really out of name ideas.. (narud being duran backwards) but they never gave the clarification that it was infact him.. cos kerrigans interaction and acknowledgement of duran in bw etc was clear.. but yeh.. oh well
Kerrigan didn't actually know Narud was Duran in HotS right?
Wasn't a big part of Narud in WoL that Kerrigan knew who he was?
I think it's safe to take it as fact. The Duran/Narud naming was just an easy way for Blizzard to tell us they are the same person.
Kerrigan knowing who Narud was etc. All this was implied knowledge. Besides, with only 20 missions, it would be difficult to include everything. I think the books would cover it a lot better, lol...
When I saw the cutscene where Raynor is freed from the prison ship I wondered "hey I think it's weird they kept in the same clothes and he kept his smokes"
About a day later it also occured to me he had his pistol. With 6 bullets in it. With his hands unbound. ON A PRISON SHIP.
I mean ignoring the fact it's monstrously retarded to keep him alive at all, who the **** leaves him his ******* handgun. that's just pants on hand ******* mental.
Also, Blizzard ******* sucks at creating villains. The entire point of a villain is to create someone that threatens the protagonist so that we can appreciate the suffering they go through and feel inspired to also dislike them. They are also required to actually do things that pose a genuine threat. Take Darth Vader, he brutally chokes people (even on his own side), he kills likeable wise Obi Wan right in front of his son (well we don't know he's his son yet, but Vader knows dammit) and is complicit in the use and maintenance of a machine which destroys entire planets. He is completely without mercy or remorse or any virtue at all. Plus he looks and sounds scary and menacing. That's villainy one oh ******* one right there.
Mengsk doesn't have these qualities. The closest he gets on getting a win over kerrigan is by pretending he killed Raynor. Which is ******* stupid. Raynor should of been killed off in a dramatic fashion. The simplest (and perhaps most cliche'd but I'm not a professional writer so bear with me here) would be to have a scene near the start where Kerrigan and Raynor go through some wacky death defying escape from the Dominion, Raynor lags behind a bit and just before he catches up you cut to a shot of Mengsk ordering someone or hitting a button and BOOM Raynor just gets blown away right in front of Kerrigan.
See? Now imagine if we actually liked Raynor. We'd be ******* pissed! We'd want to go through this story to get our cathartic ending where Mengsk gets his face zapped and we'd enjoy it more, perhaps.
Oh I suppose the actual closest mengsk gets to being a danger to kerrigan is his weird unexplained lightning device (**** was with that anyway?!). It did feel extremely Emperor Palpatine but eh w/e. Then Raynor runs in 'unexpectedly' and saves her. Which was undramatic because we already knew Raynor forgave Kerrigan for going back to being Zerg by appearing in that final level to begin with. If it had seemed like Raynor had completely given up on Kerrigan earlier and THEN he shows up to save her that could conceivably be dramatic. Imagine the difference between Han Solo coming back when he does in A New Hope and an alternative version where Han decides he actually does decide he cares about the Rebellion and his new friends after all and agrees to help blow up the Death Star and flies out with all of them. One of those is surprising and dramatic. The other is a Blizzard plot.
Argh so much stupid in the writing for this game. I dunno whose responsible for this (if it's Metzen just stick to voice acting mate) but I wish they'd get someone better.
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Reluctant new users of this so called... Twitter- @ROOTiaguz
Last edited by ROOT`iaguz; Fri, 15th-Mar-2013 at 12:50 AM.
I think the lightning device was the artifact from WoL right?
I thought Duran said something about having used the artifact to take all of her power so he could use it to resurrect his boss Amon or whoever (note that his name sounds just like Emon the science guy from Hyperion NICE WORK WRITERS).
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Reluctant new users of this so called... Twitter- @ROOTiaguz
Some of my views on why is this campaign so freakin' easy.
We all have to admit that league of legends has been a huge hit on the gaming (even the eSports) scene. Most of us would also agree that league of legends is a stupidly easy game (in terms of a newbie, or a new player).
So I think that Blizzard is trying to at least make their single player as easy as possible to please the general market with their newest instalment, and compete with this new giant on gaming scene? For any company that intends to make expend and make money, this sounds pretty logical for me.
And for those who are still upset about it, you have always got the still imbalanced ladder to fulfill your desire for difficulty.
Some of my views on why is this campaign so freakin' easy.
We all have to admit that league of legends has been a huge hit on the gaming (even the eSports) scene. Most of us would also agree that league of legends is a stupidly easy game (in terms of a newbie, or a new player).
So I think that Blizzard is trying to at least make their single player as easy as possible to please the general market with their newest instalment, and compete with this new giant on gaming scene? For any company that intends to make expend and make money, this sounds pretty logical for me.
And for those who are still upset about it, you have always got the still imbalanced ladder to fulfill your desire for difficulty.
This is a general trend in gaming, nothing specific to LoL. Also, that's what easy and normal modes are for. I think brutal was just too easy because of some of the imba combinations of abilities you can get, especially with your Kerrigan hero. It would've taken a lot more balancing to make brutal actually difficult but I still found it fun nonetheless.
Some of my views on why is this campaign so freakin' easy.
We all have to admit that league of legends has been a huge hit on the gaming (even the eSports) scene. Most of us would also agree that league of legends is a stupidly easy game (in terms of a newbie, or a new player).
So I think that Blizzard is trying to at least make their single player as easy as possible to please the general market with their newest instalment, and compete with this new giant on gaming scene? For any company that intends to make expend and make money, this sounds pretty logical for me.
And for those who are still upset about it, you have always got the still imbalanced ladder to fulfill your desire for difficulty.
But that's a false equivalency. League's a simplified version of Dota which is a team based multiplayer game. Sure it's simpler but when you get a lower skilled player to play League they learn how to play a team based multiplayer game because that's all that League is. The SC2 campaign is significantly different from the multiplayer aspect and the best way it could be made to appeal to casuals is to be bright and colourful and have a "so easy your arthritic grandma could do it" button. Which it does. That the campaign feels too easy on the hardest difficulty setting has nothing to do about dumbing it down for the casuals.
Accusing them of dumbing it down for the casuals is something we could argue back in '08 when we found out you could keep multiple buildings one a single hotkey (the death of macro!), or like a thousand marines in one hotkey (the death of micro!) and not having automining (the death of skill itself!), but it's 2013 and that seems like a stupid argument.
If I call another slight over this campaign compared to WoL it's that when the introduce new units they don't feel integral to completing the level. Like in Wings when you got Reapers it was on a map where you wanted mineral unintensive units that were fast raiders and could go up on cliffs where all the treasure was. The level focused somewhat on using reapers and there's a little something that goes off in your brain that feels smart and happy that you're using this reaper in a clever way. That's good level design. Not all Wings missions are like this (the ones for tanks, medivacs, BC's, diamondbacks, Vikings really embrace this concept and the rest not so much, but obviously your mileage varies a ton here), but hots doesn't really this quite so well I thought. And the main reason is because when your units turn from boring dopey massable bludgeons into interesting ones is when you pick an evolution route for them and by then it's too late. They can't make an interesting level about cliff hopping ling/banes because you went with triple lings and babushka banes instead.
Anyway I should probably stop grinding this particular axe so much shouldn't I (or alternatively make one of those 90 minute super duper indepth youtube videos like that guy did for the Star Wars prequels.)
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Reluctant new users of this so called... Twitter- @ROOTiaguz
Last edited by ROOT`iaguz; Sat, 16th-Mar-2013 at 4:23 AM.
completed the campaign this morning. for one I loved it! however the only thing I didnt really like was the fact that you had Kerrigan in every mission pretty much ruled out the use of the other zerg units. granted i was just playing on normal . but my usual unit composition was built up of kerrigan + zergling + roach + queen. very rarely did i use anything else even during the missions when you unlock the unit. other than that I loved it. and will replay it and try to use different units and mix up my perks etc. As per usual with blizzard games the cutscenes are amazing!
So you've finished it on Brutal and done all the Mastery achievements?
Quote:
Back in WoL, once an upgrade was locked in, it was locked in for the rest of the campaign. Now, u can pick and choose what upgrade/abilitie u want before each mission. This includes both units and Kerrigan.
That's the theme of the Zerg. Evolution & adaptation.
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2. Zerg have names....... Well who would of guessed that.....?? Not me, thats for sure..
Wha? Cerebrates and major plot characters had names in SC1 also.
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Originally Posted by fray`iaguz
When I saw the cutscene where Raynor is freed from the prison ship I wondered "hey I think it's weird they kept in the same clothes and he kept his smokes"
About a day later it also occured to me he had his pistol. With 6 bullets in it. With his hands unbound. ON A PRISON SHIP.
I mean ignoring the fact it's monstrously retarded to keep him alive at all, who the **** leaves him his ******* handgun. that's just pants on hand ******* mental.
This thought crossed my mind for half a second, and then I realised there's nothing to suggest Kerrigan didn't grab his gun from outside the room and give it to him after she walked in. :P
This thought crossed my mind for half a second, and then I realised there's nothing to suggest Kerrigan didn't grab his gun from outside the room and give it to him after she walked in. :P
That and even if she didn't;
You can't exactly macgyver out of that prison with a 6 shooter and a pack of ciggies. Considering it was meant to make new folsom look easy to break open.
Leaving Raynor in there with smokes and no lighter is a horrible form of torture! Blizzard can't make an evil villain? THAT'S THE WORST THING EVER - AND RAYNOR ONLY HAS A SIX SHOOTER TO KEEP HIM COMPANY.
Put it together people. Mengsk has a win win situation if Raynor offs himself, he's not gonna get out with that pea shooter it doesn't work on marines (unless their helmets aren't closed).
Last edited by Maynarde; Sun, 17th-Mar-2013 at 3:06 PM.
You can't exactly macgyver out of that prison with a 6 shooter and a pack of ciggies. Considering it was meant to make new folsom look easy to break open.
Leaving Raynor in there with smokes and no lighter is a horrible form of torture! Blizzard can't make an evil villain? THAT'S THE WORST THING EVER - AND RAYNOR ONLY HAS A SIX SHOOTER TO KEEP HIM COMPANY.
Put it together people. Mengsk has a win win situation if Raynor offs himself, he's not gonna get out with that pea shooter it doesn't work on marines (unless their helmets aren't closed).
His pea shooter does work on marines. It worked on tychus!
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Reluctant new users of this so called... Twitter- @ROOTiaguz
Not gonna go too in-depth about this as this has been discussed so much but to me the whole story line seemed ultra predictable except Stukov, who had like no back story. The actual campaign gameplay was quite fun with the inclusion of Kerrigan and with Abuthur upgrades you could steamroll through basically anything. Overall fun campaign but blizzard really needs to get their act together in the storyline department. Oh yeah and also stop making the bosses so retarded like really, they say shit like, "stand still" and sound like a villian off a kids show.
___________________________________ make something idiotproof and someone will invent a better idiot.
Proud to be . lolwut.901 SEA
Last edited by lolwut; Mon, 18th-Mar-2013 at 11:58 AM.
One of my main concerns is why Kerrigan beats Zeratul so hard? They've been fighting since she was still a Queen of Blades but at the moment what reason she has to be so hostile towards Zeratul?
Survival instinct I guess. Queen of Blades has a lot of reasons to think Zeratul would kill her given any opportunity and whilst this kerrigan doesn't have the best recollection of that time, she probably sees zeratul and something inside her thinks "this guy wants to kill you".
It also helps that Zeratul made no move to defend himself or retaliate, which was a bit weird.
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Reluctant new users of this so called... Twitter- @ROOTiaguz
I absolutely hated the zeratul story line in HotS. In 2 minutes of cutscenes zeratul randomly appears on her ship, kerrigan jumps on him and punches him a few times, he tells her about some zerg and then runs off. There was no epic infiltration, no super fight, he just sorta pops up and then disappears. Why was everything in this campaign so bloody sudden...
after what happened in WoL. Zeratul has kinda been enlightened, and strongly believes in the prophecy that was presented to him. So he knows that no matter what happens when he meets Kerrigan, he won't die.
@Cute, I believe that's what we'll be doing too. Word on the wiki is that you'd play Zeratul and try to reunite the Protoss factions.
I absolutely hated the zeratul story line in HotS. In 2 minutes of cutscenes zeratul randomly appears on her ship, kerrigan jumps on him and punches him a few times, he tells her about some zerg and then runs off. There was no epic infiltration, no super fight, he just sorta pops up and then disappears. Why was everything in this campaign so bloody sudden...
Zeratuls role in this campaign seems to be to tell important characters what to do (like Medivh from War3... Pretty much exactly like that actually). Zeratul doesn't give a **** about overthrowing mengsk (he probably thinks it's petty and stupid but we never understand his motivation or character any further then "save the universe and restore aiur" because Blizzard is really bad at characterization), he's more concerned with fate of the universe stuff so he shows up, tells Kerrigan what to do and then she goes about it.
It does kind of suck in that sense. I like Zeratul in SC2s story because when he shows up the story actually threatens to get interesting and it starts to explores new territory which is sort of what a sequel should be doing.
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Reluctant new users of this so called... Twitter- @ROOTiaguz
My biggest issue with the plot is that everyone apart from Kerrigan seemed to sit on their bums and wait for Kerrigan to come and kill them. The one exception was at the start where the Nova led team attacked the facility and that was great, it set a good pace. But from that point on it was like one of those crappy "choose your own adventure" stories.
Mengsk made a big Swarm zapper and a little Kerrigan zapper and that was it.
The bulk of Protoss strength, who previously have sent big fleets at the first sign of Zerg expansion chilled at Shakuras doing whatever Protoss do.
The whole evil Amon, Duran, Nurad faction continued what they have been doing for I don't know how long; "experimenting on hybrids."
Why did none of Kerrigan's enemies have the intelligence to realize that Kerrigan was regaining the allegiance of her brood mothers and thus attack one of them before they could re-join their strength with the swarm?
It all just seemed to be "Kerrigan grows in power until the inevitable conclusion of Mengsk's death."
In my opinion the gameplay was much better than WoL though, if a bit too easy.
Dox, what are you talking about? He's offering an opinion, and it's not an angry one. He's calm and making valid points.
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Originally Posted by Snx`Pickle
Dox is just a blizz fanboy, don't worry.
I was just poking fun at the name "lolwut", calm yourselves O_O. Didn't realise it was a personal attack. Dunno what it has to do with Blizzard either! I'd say the same if his name was xXPoOpSmEaR420Xx
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Originally Posted by mGGSouth
Why did none of Kerrigan's enemies have the intelligence to realize that Kerrigan was regaining the allegiance of her brood mothers and thus attack one of them before they could re-join their strength with the swarm?
For the most part, there were never any survivors. And then no-one could have been prepared for the ancients. IIRC the evacuation ships on Char were the only ones allowed to go free. Who knows, maybe they never made it home. Or maybe they reported that Kerrigan took back Char and that was the end of it. Either way Mengsk thought he had everything under control with the Artifact.
Now that I have played the campaign through at least once my conclusion is this:
Good story... Blizzard never fails at that... but I would have liked a significant death that wasn't Arcturus Mengsk. I.e. Jim Raynor (validates Kerrigans form w/o regret) or Kerrigan (zagara = new leader OR zerg goes into disarray and new overmind is born.
Remember... this is my personal opinion. All that aside I liked it a lot
This thread on TL has a very very in depth review of HOTS so far. I find it extremely interesting. Go read it if you have the time. It's about 12k words long.
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Early game loss = Cheese
Mid game Loss = All in
Late game Loss = Imbalance
I think part of her (Kerrigan) either expects to die or become human again. Reason because she was grooming/teaching that brood mother to take over from her.
Interesting article. I think Kerrigan is going to either die fighting Amon (and kill him in the process) or free the zergs from her control.
I liked the campain. I found it not very hard even in brutal but I thought it was because I was better than when I played WoL the first time.
Cinematics are awesome and all the details are far better than before.
After a very loooong Diablo pause, I came back to sc2 with great pleasure. Those new units are a lot of fun. I love those mines and they make me laugh either playing them, against or on stream.
I think it's almost guaranteed that Kerrigan will sacrifice herself "for the greater good" in Legacy of the Void. She really doesn't have much going for her now that she has:
1) Thrown away her humanity
2) Lost Jim
3) Got her revenge
4) Arranged a successor to the Swarm
One might argue why she can't just use The Artifact to bug zap her back into a Terran again; leaving the Swarm to Zagara. I'm sure this could be explained any number of ways. ie. The "Primal" transformation on Zerus is irreversible, unlike the first time around where Abathur wrapped her in a chrysalis and modified her cell structure. Or more importantly, she knows Amon is out there. She knows this is the biggest and most dangerous threat in the universe, and she needs all the firepower she can get. She needs her crazy Zerg powers. She needs the swarm. The only part that doesn't really make sense is, "Why does she care?" It's somehow out of character for the Queen of Blades to go crusading against the big bad unknown, although I guess Sarah Kerrigan's sense of morality (and Maiev-esque lack of purpose) can justify it. Either way, her role in the story has wrapped up. She's killed millions, and it's time to pay the price. She's first in line for martyrdom. With Sarah gone, and the universe in a happy place, I wouldn't be surprised to see Jim kick it at the end either. On the flipside, he is the poster boy for SC2, and there has to be SOMEONE left standing at the end. They sure as hell won't be killing Zeratul in his own game.
The only other part to keep in mind with the conclusion is that Blizzard traditionally does NOT do happy endings. Whether it's WarCraft, StarCraft or Diablo, things often end up going south before the credits start to roll. Diablo 3 has been the only exception to date, although with Adria still at large, it's not all quite sunshine and rainbows in New Tristram yet.
One might argue why she can't just use The Artifact to bug zap her back into a Terran again; leaving the Swarm to Zagara. I'm sure this could be explained any number of ways. ie. The "Primal" transformation on Zerus is irreversible, unlike the first time around where Abathur wrapped her in a chrysalis and modified her cell structure. Or more importantly, she knows Amon is out there. She knows this is the biggest and most dangerous threat in the universe, and she needs all the firepower she can get. She needs her crazy Zerg powers. She needs the swarm.
It was also my understanding the the artifacts also feed Amon with power, even if the Primal Zerg version of herself could be reversed, she be feeding Amon even more juice than when she was in her original Corrupt Zerg form.
I mean, it's possible she defeats amon, teaches the zerg about human emotion, then manages to use the artifact (or similar device) to return to human form and live happily ever after with Jim, right?
or is that too cliche and sappy even for blizzard?
I mean, it's possible she defeats amon, teaches the zerg about human emotion, then manages to use the artifact (or similar device) to return to human form and live happily ever after with Jim, right?
or is that too cliche and sappy even for blizzard?
This is by far the least possible outcome EVER. :P
Garrosh would sooner make consensual Half-Orc babies with Jaina.
I mean, it's possible she defeats amon, teaches the zerg about human emotion, then manages to use the artifact (or similar device) to return to human form and live happily ever after with Jim, right?
or is that too cliche and sappy even for blizzard?
The real reason why this is unlikely is cause there protoss need to become part of the story
So far zeratul just shows up and says blah blah have to do stuff, bye - and apart from some random protoss cults and the end of world mission in WoL there isn't really any protoss participation.
Given zeratul's "rogue" status with protoss I think ultimate conclusion will be him bringing the 3 races together to fight amon
Also to Dox's point regarding why she cares - I believe this time as queen of blades she retains her kerrigan identity and her human emotions etc whereas before she became amon's tool or mindless puppet kind of thing
Also to Dox's point regarding why she cares - I believe this time as queen of blades she retains her kerrigan identity and her human emotions etc whereas before she became amon's tool or mindless puppet kind of thing
TL;DR She is a powerful bitch now instead of a mindless bitch?
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