StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

[cvv]

Yeah, especially with that "chain lightning" death fleet type.

I tried that but I found it somehow weak. I think the damage is distributed among the targets so they're all receiving damage at the same time but it takes much longer to kill them all.

I'm not exaggerating with the A-move to win, i get 20 VRs, send them to a spot and everything in their path literally melts away.

 

[MilesBeyond]

Finished the campaign today. Thought it was pretty rad. Definitely better than HotS (and I'm a Zerg player, too).

Pros:

Missions were fun. A lot of regurgitation (seriously it feels like 2/3 of the missions are either "Destroy these objectives" or "Hold out for x minutes") but somehow they don't all feel too same-y (though that might change on later playthroughs).
Difficulty was nice. Probably the toughest SC campaign (on Brutal, at least). Way harder than HotS or SC1, anyway. Difficulty was mostly because the AI is a lot smarter about hitting your base when you move out to complete objectives.
Music was baller. Man that low brass with the pounding timpani and the cymbal crashes. Plus plenty of cool reworkings of old Protoss themes.
Nostalgia trip for BW fans: I don't know what anyone means about how Void Rays made things too easy because I subbed those suckers out for Arbiters immediately. Plus Reavers, Dragoons, Dark Archons, Corsairs... Mmmm.

Cons:

Didn't integrate the new units. Adept is available as an upgrade (but the hell would you take Adept when you can have Goons), but Disruptors, Ravagers, Lurkers, Liberators, and Cyclones don't even make an appearance of any sort - not for you, not for your allies, not for your enemies.
The writing was cheesy. Nothing new there though.
Ugh I wanted to punch that stupid Shadow the Protoss guy. The Tal'Darim leader? The dude who always has to interject something totally edgy and tough into, like, every conversation? Man. What a dickhead. He's not the only character I disliked, but he really stands out as being annoying.
RIP in peace Observers and Warp Prisms. I was even hoping you'd be able to replace the Warp Prism with a Shuttle. Oh well.


I actually liked the ending. Why? Because I hated the whole Amon thing and I hated the whole Raynor/Kerrigan thing and it was nice to see them give those stories some closure rather than leave them on cliffhangers. It means they won't be resurfacing again. Probably.

Hopefully, for the inevitably Starcraft 3 they'll shift away from the whole WARCRAFT IN SPACE! thing. Calling it now, the major plot thread will be the return of the UED.

 

[cvv]

Missions were fun. A lot of regurgitation (seriously it feels like 2/3 of the missions are either "Destroy these objectives" or "Hold out for x minutes")

No kidding, the final mission was almost an exact copy-paste of the last WoL mission. Fend off waves until the monolith goes off. Much effort Blizzard.

 

[cvv]

Lol. I was able to finish the campaign proper on Hard, even the final mission after many restarts. But the epilogue mission with guarding Kerrigan is just too insane. I'm just too slow no matter what I do. My macro would have to be about twice as fast in order to keep up. Oh well, had a good run. Scrub difficulty here I come.

EDIT: Well the very final mission was trivial on Hard. Just mass Brood Lords, A-move to win.

Good ending to great series, only Blizzard game in the past 15 years that doesn't suck. RIP SC, RIP RTS.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Lol. I was able to finish the campaign proper on Hard, even the final mission after many restarts. But the epilogue mission with guarding Kerrigan is just too insane. I'm just too slow no matter what I do. My macro would have to be about twice as fast in order to keep up. Oh well, had a good run. Scrub difficulty here I come.

Just use her laz0r ability on bigger threats all the time at start up till you and your allies get things going.

 

[hivemind]

Hopefully, for the inevitably Starcraft 3 they'll shift away from the whole WARCRAFT IN SPACE! thing. Calling it now, the major plot thread will be the return of the UED.

but starcraft is ded
I love the game but the viewership is just nothing compared to other esports
no point in ever making a Starcraft 3

 

[Jaedar]

Ugh I wanted to punch that stupid Shadow the Protoss guy. The Tal'Darim leader? The dude who always has to interject something totally edgy and tough into, like, every conversation? Man. What a dickhead. He's not the only character I disliked, but he really stands out as being annoying.

I liked him. He has a good voice actor and isn't stuck up like the other protoss.

Lol. I was able to finish the campaign proper on Hard, even the final mission after many restarts. But the epilogue mission with guarding Kerrigan is just too insane. I'm just too slow no matter what I do. My macro would have to be about twice as fast in order to keep up. Oh well, had a good run. Scrub difficulty here I come.

Yeah I'm currently stuck here too. The terran units just don't have the durability to hold against the swarms of void units.

 

[cvv]

Just use her laz0r ability on bigger threats all the time at start up till you and your allies get things going.

Sure I did that all the time, problem is the time spent on microing Kerry is the time I can't spend on macroing.

Knocked the mission down to Normal, breezed through. The difficulty of the LotV missions is all over the place, Blizz should smooth it out in future patches.

Hopefully, for the inevitably Starcraft 3 they'll shift away from the whole WARCRAFT IN SPACE! thing.

There will be no more Starcrafts or Warcrafts. RTS has gone the way of the adventures and Blizzard isn't in the business of making niche games.

Btw I love RTS so I thought I could transfer to MOBAs but as it turns out I hate MOBAs. Couldn't get into Dota or HotS for the life of me and not for the lack of trying.

 

[MilesBeyond]

but starcraft is ded
I love the game but the viewership is just nothing compared to other esports
no point in ever making a Starcraft 3

Haha what? I mean compared to other esports sure, but the viewership is still more than enough to justify a sequel. If people can make decent money playing SC2 fulltime, then there's still enough of a market for a sequel - though, granted, it will probably be less of a priority than a new MOBA or MMO.

I liked him. He has a good voice actor and isn't stuck up like the other protoss.

I did like the voice actor. Put me in mind of Tony Jay, a bit. Though he seemed to me to be just as stuck up as the rest of the Protoss, just in a 2edgy4me way. "Hello, my name is Alarak, and I am here to interject something about how I am bound by the unflinching conviction that kindness and hope are lies and weakness." I mean, I liked that he took the piss out of the other characters, I just didn't like how no one really took the piss out of him (though there were a couple moments where Artanis basically responded with "Oh, stop being a dickhead," which I liked)

There will be no more Starcrafts or Warcrafts. RTS has gone the way of the adventures and Blizzard isn't in the business of making niche games.

Btw I love RTS so I thought I could transfer to MOBAs but as it turns out I hate MOBAs. Couldn't get into Dota or HotS for the life of me and not for the lack of trying.

I'd say RTS (and strategy in general) have more gone the way of RPGs than adventure games. That is to say, the genre is by and large niche, but there are still massive franchises out there pulling in all sorts of money. So long as Starcraft keeps performing as it has in terms of sales, I don't think it'll be disappearing - though, as I said above, I don't think it'll be a priority for Blizzard, either. As in it wouldn't surprise me if there was another 12 years between SC2 and 3.

I hear you on MOBAs. People say they're the new RTS but I don't see it at all. They have literally nothing in common with RTS games other than being based on a WC3 map. They're more competitive, team-based action-RPGs than anything else. Which, I think, makes them very well-suited for esports, but they're not my cup of tea at all, and they can't remotely be called an RTS

 

[Average Manatee]

Haha what? I mean compared to other esports sure, but the viewership is still more than enough to justify a sequel. If people can make decent money playing SC2 fulltime, then there's still enough of a market for a sequel - though, granted, it will probably be less of a priority than a new MOBA or MMO.

Just because something makes a profit doesn't mean the suits give the greenlight for a sequel. ASSFAGGOTS and their disgusting TF2-knockoff require probably 1/10th the development cost to pay several times as much dividends, and both are endlessly milkable with DLC. There's also a very high risk if/when they fuck it up (see how Diablo 3 really damaged Blizzard's prestige, and its unclear if their RMT thing is actually reaching the expectations). They're planning to go the Valve route and never produce anything of value again, only things that can be DLC-whored for half a decade at the least.

 

[cvv]

They're planning to go the Valve route and never produce anything of value again, only things that can be DLC-whored for half a decade at the least.

Yeah, got a hunch SC2 is their last game with actual production value and real gameplay. From now on it's prolly just F2P microtransaction platforms if Hearthstone, HotS or Overwatch are anything to go by. Well the achievement for completing all 3 campaigns says it all - The End of an Era.

 

[Jaedar]

So our only hope for RTS is Dawn of War 3?

I feel like we are doomed.

 

[MilesBeyond]

Yeah but all this is like 100% conjecture.

 

[abija]

Morhaime seems to love Starcraft the most though, it will probably be kept alive and trump all RTS competition for quite some time.

 

[cvv]

Morhaime seems to love Starcraft the most though, it will probably be kept alive and trump all RTS competition for quite some time.

They announced further support with some DLCs and such but it can be more coop maps and shit like that. I doubt we'll ever see another campaing.

 

[RhodokMasterRaceOfficial]

I doubt we'll ever see another campaing.

Honestly? Good.

 

[cvv]

Honestly? Good.

As long as Metzen is the head writing honcho you're probably right. The SC2 campaigns were equally enjoyable and infuriating, due to the typical Blizzard writing which manages to be incomprehensible and dumbed down at the same time.

 

[rado907]

I like StarCraft, but I think I'd rather play WarCraft 4 than StarCraft 3. Though I'm not sure if an RTS game can do at all well nowadays. Dota took over the RTS crowd.

 

[RhodokMasterRaceOfficial]

I think I'd rather play WarCraft 4 than StarCraft 3.

I think both possibilities are equally horrible if Metzen is writing.

 

[Angthoron]

They announced further support with some DLCs and such but it can be more coop maps and shit like that. I doubt we'll ever see another campaing.

When they announced this, they actually announced Nova Covert Ops, which is a campaign, or a part of a campaign.

Unfortunately, 3-map campaigns used to be something that Blizzard shipped for free once upon a time, but then again, maybe it'll have a lot more work put into it, and might also cost peanuts.

In any case, can't really see Blizzard dropping out of the regular market. In fact, that'd be a highly retarded thing to do - they need high-quality pop (yeah, I know) in order to be able to keep their "good name" and market value. The moment they go 100% into freemium, they're fucked, and I'm pretty sure they know it. On the other hand, if they keep a set of flagship titles that are consistent in general quality (whatever that may be, but the public seems okay with it so far), they can still be viewed as a "good company" and someone might want to buy their favourite character skin in HotS or whatever because OMG THEY LIKED JIM RAYNOR SO MUCH IN SC2.

So there'll definitely be SC3 and D4 or D3: Addon 2, and probably something Warcraft as well. They'd be retarded to toss their flagship titles out to F2P (except WoW, eventually, of course).

 

[Metro]

The moment they go 100% into freemium, they're fucked, and I'm pretty sure they know it.

Hearthstone made them $300 million in a year and it probably cost a tenth of what SC2 did to produce. HoTS is similarly cheaper, too. With the token, WoW is half-way there now resembling an EVE type model. Then there's Overwatch which will be guaranteed to have microtransactions despite the initial $40 cost. If that gets even moderately close to what TF2 hauls in I'm sure you can expect them to drop the initial buy-in or reduce it to something trivial like $10 or less.

They're milking another expansion out of D3 but it'll probably be the last. The next 'new' project you can expect from Blizzard will be D4 or D-Infinity or some other similarly named bullshit that will look to ape Path of Exile's model. We can safely say there will never be a Warcraft 4. I'm sure it's possible there might be a SC3 but that's at least five years away and the gaming landscape will have changed a lot by then. Might even be an even bigger push towards pads/mobiles.

Morhaime seems to love Starcraft the most though, it will probably be kept alive and trump all RTS competition for quite some time.

Morhaime is probably 5-10 years from retirement.

 

[cvv]

Hearthstone made them $300 million in a year and it probably cost a tenth of what SC2 did to produce. HoTS is similarly cheaper, too.

True but Angie's got one thing right - the main reason those freemium games are absurdly popular is they're standing on the shoulders of previous giants. Without SC and WC nobody would give a shit about another silly children card game with B-rate production values. And HotS would never break into the domain of Dota and LoL (in fact I'm not sure it's doing so hot even now, with the support of those mighty IPs).

Unlike Ang tho I'm not that certain Blizzard knows this. American executives are notorious for their obsession with short-term profits, to the detriment of long-term future. It's a saying - a Japanese CEO is told to get a company back on track within 5 years. In Kwanzania he's got 2 months.

With a culture like that it's very much likely the top Activision brass don't in fact realize what makes the newer Blizzard games so successful and aren't gonna waste 100 million dorra on making a niche PC exclusive that'll barely make that back in lifetime sales when they can spend 50k on another shitty expansion to HS and make 3000% profit in a few weeks.

 

[Archibald]

True but Angie's got one thing right - the main reason those freemium games are absurdly popular is they're standing on the shoulders of previous giants. Without SC and WC nobody would give a shit about another silly children card game with B-rate production values. And HotS would never break into the domain of Dota and LoL (in fact I'm not sure it's doing so hot even now, with the support of those mighty IPs).

Opened twitch.tv:

Dota2: 150k viewers
LoL: 79k viewers
HotS: 1.6k viewers

I don't know, maybe Dota2 and LoL currently have some important tourneys that are making these numbers too big, but Hearthstone is at 40k viewers too. Its even beaten by Super Mario Maker and Runescape (how old is this shit?) in viewers.

 

[Markman]

LoL got star players so its always at nr1 unless theres a Dota or CS GO tournament or some new release like FO4 that trumps it for a day or two.
Only Bjergsen(LoL player) averages at like 30-35k viewers when he streams.

 

[Psquit]

I like Alarak, he is The Starscream of the protoss.

"Slaves, do my bidding!"
"If i was the leader of the Taldarim!"
"i'll follow you for now..."