StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

[Zeze]

I wondaer if it is partly because of how they handled inject larvae/queens.

It makes me kind of wonder that if they thought injecting larvae was too annoying to put in the campaign, why is it in the MP?

Partly yes. The missions themselves are easy. In WoL Brutal, timed missions have razor-thin windows to complete (that you only find out after countless reloads) and even harder for getting all achievements.

HotS, it's easy peazy.

 

[akugami]

For those commenting on my previous post about how easy it was on Normal.

I will be playing the harder modes. I was just expecting a some sort of challenge on normal. Kind of like how Wings of Liberty provided an OK challenge on normal. Nothing too difficult but at least it wasn't running roughshod over the enemy forces.

I usually work my way up the ladder on the difficulty chain but WOL seemed to provide a much higher level of difficulty on normal than HOTS did. If the higher difficulty settings are going to be "easier" than WOL, I am going to be sorely disappointed. Maybe I'm just old school and feel that Normal should provide at least some sort of challenge. I didn't expect Normal to really mean Easy.

 

[KingFatty]

The alternative explanation is that everyone just became really good at SC2 so now it's easy.

One thing I noticed was the nature of the awards or bonus earning things whatever they are called. In WoL they seemed to be pretty complex and less likely to achieve. But the awards in HotS are rather straightforward, and less complicated to achieve.

 

[dust]

I'm disappointed in HOTS. Kerrigan is so overpowered it is ridiculous. Every stage can be beat easily. Micro manage Kerrigan, who can take out most forces single handedly. Build up a swarm of xyz forces, sweep out and beat the living crap out of anything in your way.

I don't mind some of the inconsistencies in the story. Especially the continuum between SC1 and SC2. I try not to overthink these things, it's a game after all

I'm more dissatisfied with the lack of challenge is just a slap in the face considering the price. SC1 was great for the money. The Broodwar expansion was definitely worth the money. SC2 was good. I didn't feel any remorse paying for it. It did provide a decent challenge, especially on the harder settings. HOTS, on normal difficulty I run roughshod through the whole thing and mainly it's because Kerrigan was just so overpowering. I think I'm going to have to replay the whole normal difficulty with minimal use of Kerrigan, except in spots/stages that absolutely require her for any chance of success.

Totally agree with this. The campaign on normal is little more than a joke! I remember sweating during WoL campaign on more than one occasion; from the top of my head, the early "resist" mission, the supernova, the landing on char and the best example, the All In.

There was nothing remotely similar in this expansion. I almost feel sorry for paying the full price for it.

Oh, and yeah! They wiped their ass with the WoL story, because crazy sells.

 

[Zeze]

The alternative explanation is that everyone just became really good at SC2 so now it's easy.

Not quite. Because you can go back to playing WoL on Brutal now, and it will still kick your ass.

 

[Aikouka]

For those commenting on my previous post about how easy it was on Normal.

I will be playing the harder modes. I was just expecting a some sort of challenge on normal.

I was expecting the same, and have actually been playing it on normal. I just thought the game was really easy and not that I was playing on Newbie Mode. 🙁

 

[dust]

Bwhahahahahha!

Brutal is what normal should have been like!

I swear it was more difficult to get some of the hard difficulty achievements than playing brutal the normal way.

I am sorry now I didn't think of trying for the achievements on brutal directly.

 

[MikeyLSU]

heh, funny little april fools/easter egg thing for starcraft workers.

 

[JTsyo]

Anyone notice a drop in rank going from s1 to s2? Guess many people dropped out and the pool got a lot smaller. I went from gold to sliver. Some of the sliver players are easy to beat, others are way better than me. It's surprising the range of skill within a league.

Annoying part though was the drop in rank in 3v3. The 3v3 games used to be good with all gold players but now with all sliver players, there's a chance there's one clueless guy in there. I'm not talking about just not scouting a cannon rush or knowing what to do to defend a rush but the kind that has a total of 21 scvs at the end of a 25min game.

 

[mikeymikec]

Yep, HotS was pretty easy, in hindsight I should have tried it on hard rather than normal. It seemed that every time I finished a map I got crazy amounts of achievements. They really ought to have an explanation of each difficulty level so that veterans and newbies alike can pick an appropriate level of difficulty for them.

Spoiler

I couldn't help but think that the final cut scene was a bit lame though. If Mengsk had the foresight to grab the Xel-Naga device and set it up in his office, wouldn't it have been a better idea to hook up a kick-ass power supply connected to it and powered up the moment the zerg invasion was official, so that it was nicely warmed up to toast tonnes of zerg?

I think I prefer the initial draft of the final cut scene that got leaked on to the Internet, that made a smidgen more sense (though not completely).

 

[Ventanni]

Yep, HotS was pretty easy, in hindsight I should have tried it on hard rather than normal. It seemed that every time I finished a map I got crazy amounts of achievements. They really ought to have an explanation of each difficulty level so that veterans and newbies alike can pick an appropriate level of difficulty for them.

Spoiler

I couldn't help but think that the final cut scene was a bit lame though. If Mengsk had the foresight to grab the Xel-Naga device and set it up in his office, wouldn't it have been a better idea to hook up a kick-ass power supply connected to it and powered up the moment the zerg invasion was official, so that it was nicely warmed up to toast tonnes of zerg?

I think I prefer the initial draft of the final cut scene that got leaked on to the Internet, that made a smidgen more sense (though not completely).

I agree. I also want to add, Terran siege tank lines are something to behold. I watch a lot of Starcraft 2 matches/tournaments, and a high number of siege tanks will pretty much stop any zerg cold. I was a little disappointed to see the Terran front line immediately crumble in the opening cinematic.

 

[IEC]

HotS is basically one notch lower in difficulty compared to WoL? Even less reason for me to get it now. Brutal was what made the WoL campaign fun 🙂

 

[Zeze]

HotS is basically one notch lower in difficulty compared to WoL? Even less reason for me to get it now. Brutal was what made the WoL campaign fun 🙂

HotS has been purposely made easier even at their Brutal level- to cater more people I guess.

It was too easy.

To be fair, WoL's Brutal was stupid hard- especially the last level & Protoss vision last level. It's not even about being good- just trial & error.

HotS should've been a notch harder, but not as hard as WoL.

 

[Aikouka]

I agree. I also want to add, Terran siege tank lines are something to behold. I watch a lot of Starcraft 2 matches/tournaments, and a high number of siege tanks will pretty much stop any zerg cold. I was a little disappointed to see the Terran front line immediately crumble in the opening cinematic.

You see Polt vs. Heart at the WCS: NA matches yesterday? It's almost like Polt plays with a Zerg mentality as a Terran. I've seen numerous games of his where I thought he was going to lose, but he just keeps churning those units out like he's massing Zerglings. Eventually, he just wins the war of attrition!

 

[dust]

HotS has been purposely made easier even at their Brutal level- to cater more people I guess.

It was too easy.

To be fair, WoL's Brutal was stupid hard -especially the last level & Protoss vision last level. It's not even about being good- just trial & error.

HotS should've been a notch harder, but not as hard as WoL.

That's a bit harsh I think. Yes it was really difficult, but totally doable even for the slightly skilled. Many people just needed the know how, there are tons of videos now on Youtube. Plus, being able to save every second if you must, lowers greatly the difficulty rating.

 

[tokie]

I fully enjoyed the WoL campaign.

I couldn't make it more than 6 missions in the HoTS campaign because it is so boring in comparison. Why do I care about some zombie Russian communist?

 

[TheSlamma]

HotS is basically one notch lower in difficulty compared to WoL? Even less reason for me to get it now. Brutal was what made the WoL campaign fun 🙂

Guess you'll have to move on to harder things in life than video games

 

[Ventanni]

You see Polt vs. Heart at the WCS: NA matches yesterday? It's almost like Polt plays with a Zerg mentality as a Terran. I've seen numerous games of his where I thought he was going to lose, but he just keeps churning those units out like he's massing Zerglings. Eventually, he just wins the war of attrition!

Sadly no, I was at work!

But I was watching Polt vs Byul (PvZ) though on Friday, and man that was amazing. It sucks because I really enjoy watching the style, but a lot of high level Terran players are practically giving up mech play unless on a rare occasion to throw off their opponent. The Marine/Marauder/Medivac/Mine (Bio-Mine) style you're describing is more mobile, more cost effective, and can be rebuilt faster in the event of disaster. Unfortunately that also means that practically every PvZ match is a Bio-Mine vs Zergling/Baneline/Mutalisk style, which can get a little stale.

I do love watching TvT matchups though like a Polt vs Heart game, because the match-ups are so much more about strategy and positioning than winning battles of attrition (not that there isn't any war of attrition involved). Watching 30 stimmed marines charge a massive siege tank line because their opponent's infantry is engaged elsewhere is a sight to behold. Not to mention, TvT matchups are pretty much the only time you ever see real Mech play, as Protoss Immortals absolutely massacre tanks and thors in a truly disgusting manner.

I cannot wait for the WCS finals today!

 

[Ventanni]

Speaking of which, can an XB1 or PS4 stream Twitch.tv?

 

[Aikouka]

Sadly no, I was at work!

I actually missed the games as well because I didn't know they were going on. I was rather elated to find out that WCS puts them up as VoDs without any subscription requirement:

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3

Speaking of which, can an XB1 or PS4 stream Twitch.tv?

I believe both of them can. Originally, it was split with the PS4 doing UStream and the X1 doing TwitchTV, but a month or two ago, Sony announced with TwitchTV support.

 

[pong lenis]

Just thought I'd pop in here and inform anyone wishing to buy Heart of the Swarm for the single player:
The campaign in this game is nothing but an afterthought, it's just an intro to the multiplayer. If you don't want to play multiplayer you have no reason to buy this game.
The story has the most embarrassingly bad writing and cringe-inducing dialogue you'll ever see in a video game, even surpassing Diablo 3.
But maybe you don't care about the story? Maybe you just care about the gameplay? Well you're still out of luck because the campaign has little to do with true RTS, every single mission is a race against the clock, it's all about rushing (as I said, it's an intro to the multiplayer). All the fun of base building, defense, tactics are gone. Here is how every mission plays out: You have masses of FREE and UNLIMITED units that respawn at your base whenever they die, and you are given xx minutes to beat the mission or you will lose, and all you'll actually do is select the units and press 'A' at the other side of the map.

tl;dr: Campaign story is boring, lame, and without unexpected turns; gameplay is hectic and repetitive. HotS is for multiplayer only.