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View Full Version : Starcraft 2... an amazing case of laziness?


Kent-45
01-02-2011, 07:41 AM
So this christmas one of my friends decided to hook me up with a copy of Starcraft 2... Now that I actually have a laptop that can run the goddamn game, I said "What the heck" and installed this thing.

Long story short... I really like Starcraft 2. It's got that classic RTS feel that I grew up on. I remember many long nights staring at the screen as a child... playing Starcraft with my friends over Battle.net or LAN partying in my dining room.

Let me rephrase this... there is nothing technically wrong with Starcraft 2. Nothing wrong with it at all. However, like a lot of things in life... it has no soul. The game literally has no soul to speak of. Most of the sound effects from the first game (which came out in like 1998 or something) are still present in the game. ... The tech trees are very similar, obviously some units have been tweaked, but the whole core concept is the same. Zerg rush people, Protoss are slower to tech, but have epic spaceships, and the terrans are all around balanced fighters.

Is this a case of laziness? I'm not sure. I'm not disappointed with Starcraft 2, but it brings almost nothing new to the table... It's like they took the code from the first game, jazzed up the engine and updated some of the units, repacked the thing and said "Alright we're done"

Part of me is thrilled that I can now play Starcraft in all its 3D glory, just like in 1998... and part of me can't help but go ... That's it? really that's it?.... I haven't lost my faith in Blizzard, though... Valve & Blizzard are, after all, the reason why PC Gaming is still alive and will always be alive.

but c'mon Blizzard... this game reeks of laziness. It's almost like they were afraid to do anything different with the series, for fear that the BILLIONS of korean addicts would get on a boat and mob their studio headquarters. Yes, that's what this game reeks of... fear... Starcraft 2 is a game that plays it safe, in every regard. They take no risks with any of it. It's all by-the-book copy pasted color-inside-the-lines goodness.

but can I blame them? If they were to release Starcraft 2 and have it be completely different... with new races and new mechanics all over the place. People would be up in arms. I myself would probably still be on this fine and civilized Kane & Lynch 2 forum ranting and raving about how the legacy of Starcraft 2 has been defiled and how my childhood was raped before my very eyes.

Can Blizzard even win anymore? Who cares... giant spider robots with laser cannons tickle my fancy.

Brackstone17
01-02-2011, 08:25 AM
No offense to Starcraft fans, but they are the reason so very little changed between games. As you said, if they had done anymore than tweak and add a new campaign, people would be up in arms, specifically Korean people. It's a case of the fact that those who love that franchise will not care about laziness, whereas those that merely like that franchise will notice the lack of innovation. It's the same deal with Reach, the overall product was lazy, and a large amount of people noticed this, but the big fans don't care because change is bad to them and Bungie/Blizzard do no wrong.

I will say that Blizzard seemed to do what they could do, however. The matchmaking, stat-tracking and campaign are all getting fairly high praise (even if the story seems like it's garbage to me). Also, Starcraft is sort of a niche game now to be honest. It's lack of change means it's one of the few modern big name RTS games with a heavy focus on resource management and base building in addition to combat, whereas most games have focused more on combat or the base building.

joe the janitor
01-02-2011, 06:42 PM
Got startcraft 2 for Christmas also, and I thought "Isn't this just a modern version on C&C?"

gnrGrievous
01-03-2011, 12:18 AM
It's almost like they were afraid to do anything different with the series, for fear that the BILLIONS of korean addicts would get on a boat and mob their studio headquarters. Yes, that's what this game reeks of... fear... Starcraft 2 is a game that plays it safe, in every regard.

There , thread closed ...

(seriously don't you hear something coming ?) ...

heavy focus on resource management and base building

Wait wut ? building what ? management ? ooh , you mean blow up buildings and use points to rank up , hell yes ! love RTS , woooooooo ! ...