Starcraft II Legacy of the Void Cinematic

[OverVolt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_XwzBMTJaM

It speaks for itself really.

 

[Zeze]

Dat warp gate.

On this note it's sad how far this game has fallen in favor of MOBAs (LOL and Dota) and other competitive games.

I've been a super hard core SC fan since the orignal. Played it countless times and also played sc2 on brutal many many times. As well as zerg expansion.

I played the new free sampler of this final expansion and for the first time in my life I was bored of it.

It's same stuff- mass up probes then throw armies at enemy.

This RTS genre is dead after this final expansion. You can see the waning passion. Of blizzatd- taken the backseat to Hearthstone, overwatch, wow, and even Diablo 3

 

[mikeymikec]

My opinion about that trailer and the direction SC2 seems to be taking:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37706121&postcount=69

I'm playing the prologue missions at the moment, and I can't say that my impression has altered very much. I was more impressed by (what could be a fanfic) a short story I read last night on the Blizzard site last night, here:

http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/game/lore/short-stories/children-void/1

In terms of the thought that went into the plot, setting and characters.

 

[Zeze]

SC2 retconning o the story is a joke. I agree wholeheartedly that SC1 lore was amazing.

SC2 WoL & HotS have been hilariously bad. I'm past getting disappointed, just don't care anymore. Us oldies are no longer the target audience of this game. Well, SC2 itself doesn't cater to real target audience ($$) anymore. The game is simply old and tired.

That's why Hearthstone & Overwatch exist- that's where the money is that fits today gamers' (13-25 yos)

As for predicting the final wrap of SC2- I just don't care anymore. We can feel that writers don't care much either, they just want to close this out. I think it's obvious at least Raynor or Kerrigan will die. More likely Kerrigan.

If I were to make a prediction...

1. Kerrigan dies. As hinted in HotS, she was the ultimate vehicle needed to defeat the hybrid, despite her unspeakable crimes. She'll say something heroic in her death to Raynor, sort of redeeming herself.

2. The hybrid threat is gone. The world is at relative peace again. Raynor is forever scarred and continues drinking. The entire SC saga has tired him out badly. The terran world does seem bit better as Mengsk has been dead and his son isn't as corrupt/crazy.

3. So Zerg is free? HotS was so crappy, I barely remember the story. But they're still used by Kerrigan for her own agenda. With Kerrigan dead, I guess Zerg is truly free as leaderless beasts now.

4. Protoss reclaim Aiur. Zeratul is either: 1) acts as a powerful mediator between high templars & dark templars, rebuilding the community 2) disappears again to solitude or 3) dead, he's either killed or sacrified defeating the hybrid.

Lame. I'm not holding my breath for anything truly surprising/engaging.

 

[lupi]

Hasn't there already been a thread about this?

 

[dust]

Dat warp gate.

On this note it's sad how far this game has fallen in favor of MOBAs (LOL and Dota) and other competitive games.

I've been a super hard core SC fan since the orignal. Played it countless times and also played sc2 on brutal many many times. As well as zerg expansion.

I played the new free sampler of this final expansion and for the first time in my life I was bored of it.

It's same stuff- mass up probes then throw armies at enemy.

This RTS genre is dead after this final expansion. You can see the waning passion. Of blizzatd- taken the backseat to Hearthstone, overwatch, wow, and even Diablo 3

I fully agree! The prologue missions felt uninspired, I hope the rest of the installment will be better though.I still breathe normally though.

 

[Blue_Max]

I predict Raynor & Kerrigan die together in a kiss right before/during a big planned explosion. [places bet]

 

[Zeze]

I predict Raynor & Kerrigan die together in a kiss right before/during a big planned explosion. [places bet]

Oh god. And I would not be surprised based on how lame SC lore has become.

 

[Elcs]

This style of RTS died a decade ago or more imo. Something like CoH adding cap points, cover, directional armour, squads etc. Dawn of War adding proper melee or Sup Com adding units from the tiny to the gigantic... they took over the mantle and SC2 was just a rehash of an old game in the old style.

Blizzard... since they've been milking the cash cow of WoW (which I never got into) have not seemed to bother making a good game. SC2 hasn't quite done it for most SC fans, D3 was such a travesty on launch and for a long long time after that many people are so burned they never went back for the Xpack and neither Hearthstone or HoTS have really done anything other than copy existing working models and applied a Blizzard moniker on it.

This giant has fallen asleep, perhaps at the wheel.

 

[Zeze]

This style of RTS died a decade ago or more imo. Something like CoH adding cap points, cover, directional armour, squads etc. Dawn of War adding proper melee or Sup Com adding units from the tiny to the gigantic... they took over the mantle and SC2 was just a rehash of an old game in the old style.

Blizzard... since they've been milking the cash cow of WoW (which I never got into) have not seemed to bother making a good game. SC2 hasn't quite done it for most SC fans, D3 was such a travesty on launch and for a long long time after that many people are so burned they never went back for the Xpack and neither Hearthstone or HoTS have really done anything other than copy existing working models and applied a Blizzard moniker on it.

This giant has fallen asleep, perhaps at the wheel.

To be fair from business perspective, Blizz seems to be doing fine with the success of Hearthstone. This game perfectly captures how to do F2P with microtransactions right. It's highly praised both gameplay & pricing.

And Overwatch looks promising as its combining all the addictive aspects of Dota/LoL (unique 3 skills + ultimate per class) into an upgraded TeamFortress 2 game. This too will have modern F2P model, where traditional pricing of SC2 failed miserably.

Also Heroes of the Storm seems to be doing fine, tapping that MOBA market.

I guess we just have to accept RTS genre is finally dead- it's run its successful course.

 

[Zenoth]

I think I should replay SC1 and Brood War, or at least I should go on their Wiki pages and read about the story for those two. I played and completed both (SC1 and BW) long... oh so very long ago. I remember about 5% of the story, however (but as I said I think I'll just at least Google that info at some point).

I might have made a mistake by jumping in SC2 back when Wings of Liberty was new, without having replayed SC1 just prior to refresh my memory of the game's events. I'm saying this because I actually enjoyed Wings of Liberty. But maybe I wouldn't have if I had remembered everything about SC1 and Brood War... who knows. And I just recently bought Heart of the Swarm (during the recent 10$ sale) and completed it as well. Well, damn... I actually liked it. I genuinely just shrug off when I see complaints about the SC lore taking a nosedive (supposedly). I'm simply not informed about / aware of how bad it is (if it really is, but I suppose that's ultimately subjective, unless the writer(s) really just torched it beyond recognition).

I haven't played that initial Legacy of the Void missions, nor watched any game-play of that next "expansion pack" on YouTube or anything, beyond the trailer itself (which is pretty good, but then again Blizzard usually make good CGIs anyway, that's no news). That's not because I'm not interested it in, however. I just don't want to see any story-related spoilers. I don't, however, feel any urgency to play Legacy of the Void, as much as I never really wanted to play Heart of the Swarm immediately when it was released (heck I literally bought it barely a month ago, talk about being late to the party).

Ultimately... even though I do like the StarCraft franchise (generally-speaking) I suppose that it's simply not the most exciting nor memorable sci-fi universe out there. That's probably why I almost completely forgot about SC1, BW and even actually forgot about most of Wings of Liberty by the time I started playing Heart of the Swarm (come to think of it I remember going on YouTube to watch the WoL's CGIs along with watching someone doing the last mission to refresh my memory on the game's events).

Anyways, I'm reading here the same stuff I've been reading around on other forums concerning SC2's lore being too disconnected from the original story. If it's really that bad then - at the very least - do you guys believe that it's a decent RTS game, if anything? Because if I just exclude the actual story (referring here to WoL and HotS's campaigns) I have to say that I do enjoy the actual game as well.

It's certainly not the best RTS franchise I've played... pretty far from that actually (that's not to say that it's bad either, it's fun really). I mean I would play Rise of Nations, Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander, Red Alert 1 or WH40K Dawn of War over any StarCraft any time of the day if I really had to choose. But in the end I wouldn't say that SC2 is boring, or even uninspired. I even liked the 'evolution' missions of Heart of the Swarm. I mean if Blizzard really wanted to be lazy they could just have given us the new abilities for new units out of the big blue already available in your structures, but instead we had very short (just to the point) missions in which we could see the process of 'acquiring' new strands, etc. I thought it was original and a nice touch from the devs for even doing that at all in the first place.

Well anyway, I'll definitely play (and complete) Legacy of Void at some point, not sure when... maybe in two years from now when it goes on sale for 10$ again. But I'm not just going to ignore it or anything. Admittedly, I will most likely forget about both HotS's story and the existence of Legacy of the Void within the coming months, until eventually I get reminded about the StarCraft franchise whenever Void gets on sale and I see the news of it on my B.Net launcher.

 

[Elcs]

To be fair from business perspective, Blizz seems to be doing fine with the success of Hearthstone. This game perfectly captures how to do F2P with microtransactions right. It's highly praised both gameplay & pricing.

And Overwatch looks promising as its combining all the addictive aspects of Dota/LoL (unique 3 skills + ultimate per class) into an upgraded TeamFortress 2 game. This too will have modern F2P model, where traditional pricing of SC2 failed miserably.

Also Heroes of the Storm seems to be doing fine, tapping that MOBA market.

I guess we just have to accept RTS genre is finally dead- it's run its successful course.

From a financial point of view, sure... but EA's doing alright too and so are CoD devs that pump out cookie cutter repeats with nothing new or creative or that involved effort.

They're no longer bringing out the best in a genre and making an evolutionary/revolutionary step.

RTS is next to dead, I'm afraid. The death of THQ has landed Relic, imo the best RTS makers of the 00's, in the hands of people that don't want to make Homeworld 3 or Dawn of War 3 and that make Shipbreakers and other non-RTS games despite the fact that they were the pinnacle of the genre.

The best the RTS genre can do is pin it's hopes on Shallow Space and Shipbreakers for now.

 

[Naer]

if I liked Warcraft 3 frozen throne, will I like starcraft 2?

 

[IEC]

if I liked Warcraft 3 frozen throne, will I like starcraft 2?

No. SC2 campaign is very mediocre story-wise. Well, cringe-worthy really.

 

[mikeymikec]

Another thing that's getting my goat are the Tal'darim: Are they there simply because we need some naughty protoss?

When they turned up in SC2 WoL, they seemed like a tribe that liked to defend artefacts of significance and that was about it, so one could infer that they're a bit crusty and inert in terms of the big picture. Now we've got them defending the one who wants the end of the universe... did they all collectively think "this universe stinks anyway, I'd rather not exist", or what? Was there some reason/catalyst to them signing up to be Aemon's private army? How about a breakaway faction that realised the full stupidity of Aemon's (sp? whatever) plan and didn't like it much? Did they really not have anything better to do? If they weren't busy doing stupid things in SC2, were they getting on OK with the rest of the Protoss? Details!

Prologue missions: Why aren't terrans, protoss and zerg working together to dispatch the baddies? To make it harder, it could just be Raynor's Raiders, the Protoss and a small group of zerg while the rest tear up Zerus (ie. Kerrigan wants the swarm to survive no matter what, establish its own leaders, and her mission may be one-way)? Kerrigan seems to be not helping "just because". It's stupid. Where's Raynor? I doubt he would be overly popular on Korhal right now.

 

[Aikouka]

To be fair from business perspective, Blizz seems to be doing fine with the success of Hearthstone. This game perfectly captures how to do F2P with microtransactions right. It's highly praised both gameplay & pricing.

Blizzard isn't the worst when it comes to F2P, but I don't think I'd go as far as to praise them for their implementations. Hearthstone gets a modest amount of flak for the increasing difficulty of entry for new players. The game has two expansions and two adventures, which add around 250-300 cards. Combine this with the fact that the game started with quite a few cards as well, and keep in mind that the meta (the "state" of the game, which includes popular decks, etc.) will include cards from vanilla through the The Grand Tournament expansion.

Some people try to defend Blizzard by stating things like, "Well, Trump does a Free-to-Play series, and he does really well! He got to Legend in over a month!" Yes, but not everyone is Trump. The guy is an older Magic player that has been playing Hearthstone for over a year now for quite a few hours per day. He can use his knowledge of the game to determine which hero and deck are the most viable with what he has and what cards to destroy to get more viable cards.

I've also heard plenty of complaints over their Heroes of the Storm pricing. Their sales aren't too bad, but they charge around $10 per hero without any discounts, and that really adds up.

 

[Zeze]

Another thing that's getting my goat are the Tal'darim: Are they there simply because we need some naughty protoss?

Prologue missions: Why aren't terrans, protoss and zerg working together to dispatch the baddies? To make it harder, it could just be Raynor's Raiders, the Protoss and a small group of zerg while the rest tear up Zerus (ie. Kerrigan wants the swarm to survive no matter what, establish its own leaders, and her mission may be one-way)? Kerrigan seems to be not helping "just because". It's stupid. Where's Raynor? I doubt he would be overly popular on Korhal right now.

Because they blatantly stopped caring. SC franchise is gone and dead. They just need to wrap it up.

I'm not even a uber lore nerd. And even I cringe at your points.

Why is Kerrigan not helping? She was partially de-infested and gianed some sanity. Yet she still acts like a mindless one-dimensional villain in the prologue mission.

I know why. Because, at the end of the day, gameplay needs to provide varied enemies. So they throw in Zerg in there that's fighting Zeratul for no reason (when the threat of Amon can end everyone).

Also throw in Tal'darim- a generic rogue Protoss so players can fight against Protoss.

 

[OverVolt]

Well the ladder system was bad in my opinion, and the micro in SC2 is lackluster in favor of deathballs of proper composition instead.

Defending expansions is less about micro and more about just having your deathball patrol around and scout out the enemy deathball. They never should have added multi-select in my opinion. I was platinum or diamond if I put on my try hard pants. All I really wanted was some relaxing 3v3 BGH style gameplay instead. But the extreme focus on the ladder made it a fringe game mode.

The trailer looked amazing, that was all.

In terms of MOBA's, I don't have a dedicated 20 minutes to sit for an entire match anymore. Especially because you never know if its going to be a 10 minute win or a 55 minute loss. In Starcraft you had some control over that. You could always try and all-in cheese for a quick win or loss.

I'm not much of a single player person but I always enjoyed playing through the single player on normal at least once. Its entertaining. SC2 has a toxic multiplayer because of the hyper competitive focus. Never was an eSports fan and never will be.

 

[Zeze]

I think I should replay SC1 and Brood War, or at least I should go on their Wiki pages and read about the story for those two. I played and completed both (SC1 and BW) long... oh so very long ago. I remember about 5% of the story, however (but as I said I think I'll just at least Google that info at some point).

You should definitely play SC1. The game aged well due to its excellent 2D sprites and gameplay is superior- there's a reason why SC1 was THE global eSports game in 90s & 2000s.

Not just for story either. The gameplay is fun. It's not nostalgia talking because I played SC1 mere few years ago and I still had a blast.

As for the story of SC1 & why it was so good.

1. Jimmy Raynor was retconned to this cool rogue guy with pretty hair & cool tats. In SC1, he was a backwater marshall that was bald. He was your average guy who rose to the challenge. And when Kerrigan wronged him & murdered everyone, he VOWED to kill her. "It won't be today, or tomorrow, or even with an army behind back. But it will be me that's going to kill you."

2. Kerrigan's charact development was awesome too- her Ghost program under Mengsk & how she met Raynor under Mengsk. There were some flirty banters, but it never devolved to some cheesy romance. Then she was abandoned by Mengsk and captured by Zerg. Zerg infested her as who she is today. You get to play fun Zerg missions where you guard her in her chrysalis form. Then she hatches & wrecks havoc. Just few missions ago, you played as Terran, controlling Raynor. But suddenly you're playing Kerrigan as Zerg against Raynor. Very very well done & lots of fun.

3. You get to see the origins of Dark Templars and how they were banished by High Templars. And how badass Zeratul & Tasaddar are that united them together against Zerg (Overmind).

4. The lore of SC1 is a true galaxy politics, war, betrayal, & unity, all backed up by solid character developments.

5. Just go play SC1 & BW, you won't regret it. It'll be an awesome 2-3 weekends for you. The in-game voice acting is absolutely superb.

In SC2, suddenly Raynor is a pretty boy with full head of hair. They have really awful characters you forget about them- Horner, and lol that meathead Tychus. SC2 Wings of Liberty's ending was awful with that corny white knighting of Raynor, saving Kerrigan.

Zerg is a race that composed of assimilated creatures of various planets (zergling, hydra, mutalisk, etc). But suddenly they're all from 1 planet in SC2. They totally gutted everything.

SC2 is awful story-wise. If you're enjoying the gameplay, then that's fine. It wasn't bad for me either.

Go play SC1, you'll love it.

Some quotes from SC1 (at least early, top of the page)
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0041709/quotes

 

[Naer]

No. SC2 campaign is very mediocre story-wise. Well, cringe-worthy really.

I only play multiplayer

 

[Rakehellion]

Repost.

 

[mikeymikec]

@ Zeze - you don't play against Kerrigan in the prologue missions; in the first she's there battling terran/hybrids but you should stay out of her way.

So she's kind of helping but kinda not and she doesn't want to communicate with the player.

- edit - huh, I hadn't noticed the style change for Raynor Just googled it and seen the unibrow and baldness.

Zerg is a race that composed of assimilated creatures of various planets (zergling, hydra, mutalisk, etc). But suddenly they're all from 1 planet in SC2. They totally gutted everything.

Half agree here - When the Xel Naga created the Overmind to control the Zerg, it's compatible with the plot to say then they started going from world to world, but because Zerus was their home, the newer zerg mingled with the older (I'm supposing that zerus was their home because the overmind's landing on Aiur seemed 'an unusual event'... maybe because it was Aiur though). There are units unique to the primal zerg and the overmind zerg respectively, which makes some sense as they had roots in common. One would suppose though if they were hyper evolving that they wouldn't look very similar to each other at all any more.

The idea of hyper evolving zerg didn't sit well with me though, it made me think of the Haggunennons out of hhgttg

 

[mikeymikec]

Dear Blizzard,

You may want to work on your UI code a bit.