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My thoughts on the Starcraft II Beta...
16 years ago
General
So I managed to get into the Starcraft II Beta. Yes, I know some of you are going to be all OMG NO WAI, and will ask how I did it. Most of it is pretty much luck I suppose. But what do I think of SC2 (without saying anything specific about it)?
Overall, I'm rather disappointed with it.
If you like Starcraft, you'll like Starcraft II. It's pretty much the same thing, really. Update the graphics, throw in some new units, take out some old units, suck out most of the Terran unit personalities with rather drab stereotypes, and you have SC2. Some of you may think it's a good thing, and will enjoy the game regardless. For me though, it's not good enough. SC2 is a very "safe" game... That is, they did nothing new or innovative at all with the game, which is pretty much what Blizzard does. They take ideas and polish it up so that it's so shiny and well executed, the product can't help but sell.
Will I be buying SC2 when it comes out? No. Will I pirate it, if only for the single player? Yes, as I'm curious to see how the story's going to unfold, and Terran is my favorite SC race, so naturally I should play their campaign. :P
But whatever happened to innovation in the RTS genre? I mean, Company of Heroes had a really nice resource and cover system, where you HAVE to be aggressive to take (and keep) territory, and there were no worker units (the Engineers/Pioneers were still capable in a fight, and had flamethrowers you could give them), so there were no real defenseless units. Supreme Commander 1 had it's unforgiving supply-and-demand economy system, as well as a huge scale.
SC was excellent back when it was released (and still is today), but SC2 is just more of the same... I'm just sick of RTS that all play nearly the same (looking at C&C after red alert 2 here!), where you're forced to babysit worker units that can't defend themselves at all, yet somehow they're on the battlefield. But again, games like DoW2 I didn't like because they took the whole basebuilding aspect out of the game, and just made it where you micromanage units all the time.
I don't know if this will make anyone take a second look at SC2 and think if they REALLY want to get it or not, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there on this disappointment of a game.
Overall, I'm rather disappointed with it.
If you like Starcraft, you'll like Starcraft II. It's pretty much the same thing, really. Update the graphics, throw in some new units, take out some old units, suck out most of the Terran unit personalities with rather drab stereotypes, and you have SC2. Some of you may think it's a good thing, and will enjoy the game regardless. For me though, it's not good enough. SC2 is a very "safe" game... That is, they did nothing new or innovative at all with the game, which is pretty much what Blizzard does. They take ideas and polish it up so that it's so shiny and well executed, the product can't help but sell.
Will I be buying SC2 when it comes out? No. Will I pirate it, if only for the single player? Yes, as I'm curious to see how the story's going to unfold, and Terran is my favorite SC race, so naturally I should play their campaign. :P
But whatever happened to innovation in the RTS genre? I mean, Company of Heroes had a really nice resource and cover system, where you HAVE to be aggressive to take (and keep) territory, and there were no worker units (the Engineers/Pioneers were still capable in a fight, and had flamethrowers you could give them), so there were no real defenseless units. Supreme Commander 1 had it's unforgiving supply-and-demand economy system, as well as a huge scale.
SC was excellent back when it was released (and still is today), but SC2 is just more of the same... I'm just sick of RTS that all play nearly the same (looking at C&C after red alert 2 here!), where you're forced to babysit worker units that can't defend themselves at all, yet somehow they're on the battlefield. But again, games like DoW2 I didn't like because they took the whole basebuilding aspect out of the game, and just made it where you micromanage units all the time.
I don't know if this will make anyone take a second look at SC2 and think if they REALLY want to get it or not, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there on this disappointment of a game.
It's a problem that has plagued the gaming industry for years. This is why people play it safe with 'Yet Another First Person Shooter' and crap. Innovation is a gamble. It's a gamble most companies cannot afford to lose.
I think that would be interesting at least, and I don't think anyone tried to do something quite like that yet methinks...
There are ways to make RTSs different, interesting, and fun I'm sure. It's just that people are so obsessed with making "safe" games that they know they can recoup their losses, instead of trying new things.
I just thought that SC2 would have more improvements built into the game other then graphics... The only thing new in that game are the units really... Even the Terran tech tree (while a bit different) is mostly untouched (actually, it's been simplified a fair amount, now that I think of it).
I think that was sort of done in spore in the civilization level, so yeah :P.
Besides, I found the most fun thing in spore was to make all sorts of random stuff, and I barely played the game at all...