launch Time for HotS

BlitzKrieg

Gbear wrote: »

Yeah.

There was a bit of that.

Most of the levels boil down to some race against the clock.

Last mission was nice though. Look forward to trying it on brutal. Don't think there was even 1 mission in WOL where you just had to build units and steamroller and the difficulty is brought by having to face lots of really strong units. I like those missions if there's one or two sprinkled in. In the original SC all the missions were pretty much like that.

Got around to finishing today after I stopped earlier in the week out of annoyance over the

crucible level where you had to defend kerrigon as she evolved back into the queen of blades, it wasnt a hard mission, it just was the third mission in a row that I found frustrating and tedious so wasnt in the mood to do it.

overall it was ok, but I think the WOL campaign was better, if anything this one needed

something along the lines of the prophecy missions from WOL with the hyperion, yeah they did *1* mission but it needed to be a bit more. But overall the story which should have been starcraft's 2 equivalent to the empire strikes back didnt leave me with much, it felt like the expansions existence was simply to tie up all the crap left over from brood war and wings of liberty so that the stage is set for the big bad. Which was bit huh. We knew that was what hots was for, but I would have liked a bit more of meat to the journey, it felt all far too easy.

Grimebox

Much shorter than the original. Technically there is the same number of missions but I'm not counting the evolution tutorial missions whatsoever. It is far to easy as well. I beat all the levels on the hardest difficulty setting bar one. I think they were trying to hammer home that the nature of the zerg is overwhelm your opponents. Building a ton of units and over running everything just isn't hard at all though. Very little precision micro required at all, if any. Last missions got even easier with Kerrigans ridiculously overpowered abilities, one of which spawns an entire army from the sky... you can almost beat the last few level with her alone.

The missions do vary like the original which keeps it interesting. The new evolutions for each unit keep it fresh too.

The storyline is the usual rubbish from Blizzard theses day. The whole premise is a love story and apparently Kerrigan is hell bent on revenge. It didn't do it for me at all. She doesn't seem like a real character at all. She comes out with cliché one liners non-stop. Her abraisive nature cuts short any conversations which could get interesting. You hear some people calling for blizzard to make a feature length film. I say they shouldn't embarrass themselves. They make fantastic visuals for cut-scenes but that's about it. The supporting cast were decent. Especially the creature in the evolution chamber and the return of Stukov from brood war

Zombrex

Grimebox wrote: »

I hate TotalBiscuit so much. I can't believe MLG hire him as a caster. It is litreally ruining the event for me. He doesn't know a thing about the game

Yeah, imagine if you were watching a football game on Sky Sports and the presenters spent the whole time talking about what chocolate bar they prefer. That is a bit like watching TotalBiscuit and Husky.

I'm sure they are nice guys but they have no clue how to comment on games. I watched a cast by Husky once where the game was 15 minutes in, and nearly over, before he actually made a single comment on the game (and it was to say that one of the players was building some marines), he had spent the entire cast waffling on about going to the PC shop to buy a new graphics card. Jesus H Tapdancing Christ.

Gbear

Zombrex wrote: »

Yeah, imagine if you were watching a football game on Sky Sports and the presenters spent the whole time talking about what chocolate bar they prefer. That is a bit like watching TotalBiscuit and Husky.

I'm sure they are nice guys but they have no clue how to comment on games. I watched a cast by Husky once where the game was 15 minutes in, and nearly over, before he actually made a single comment on the game (and it was to say that one of the players was building some marines), he had spent the entire cast waffling on about going to the PC shop to buy a new graphics card. Jesus H Tapdancing Christ.

Husky might work better as a foil for some of the proper casters.
I find him generally annoying and cringe-worthy though.

Not sold on Total Biscuit in any way shape or form. He totally doesn't deserve to have as good a name as that.

ShadowHearth

I still Like TB and his commentating. He makes it fun to watch. If I could choose i would always chose Tastless and Artosis though.

Grimebox

Apollo has got to be one of my favourite. He can do both types of casting very well

Gbear

Day9 all day.

ShadowHearth

Finished campaign. Really Loved it, but it was a lot easier. I replied only one mission i think and i played on hard. Now i am not a good SC2 player in any form, so it was really easy. Last mission compared to WoL was walking in the park. I did not used any tactics. Just randomly mazing out then A+Left mouse button on anything that looked at me funny.
Even so, i LOVED it. Story like always good, but WoL was better.

No twist in the end was sort of disappointing.

I still hate when they did i WoL ending though.

I liked that guy!

SC2 is the only game I love doing achievements. Looks like it has "master" achievements for those who found it too easy, so all good. I will have some fun doing those so! Will need to come back to Wol and do it on brutal.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I did not used any tactics. Just randomly mazing out then A+Left mouse button on anything that looked at me funny.

well it is the zerg expansion

Gbear

I think that part of the problem is that with zerg against a dumb AI it's very easy to attack with impunity and then just run home if you're attacked. Harder to do that with siege tanks and so forth.

I tended to have 2 armies - Roach/Hydra/Kerrigan in one and then have ling/aberration/ultra in the other.

Attack with kerrigan and keep the fast, melee units in reserve to run around mopping up any attacks. Even better if you use the speed mutation for lings. They have a movement speed of 6 or so on creep then.

Especially useful on the

mission in Korhal with the bile launchers

.

Grimebox

General unit composition as the game went on for me:

Pure queen at first and lings/spines with extra cash.

Then queen and roach. Add in lings with speed, leap and auto-spawn to constantly reinforce.

Then queen/roach/hydra/ling/ultra, A-move and roll over everything with ease.

Queens constantly heal everything. Free lings act as buffer for other units. They get back to fight so quick with speed/leap. Do not morph banelings as your free lings will not return. No micro required, just heavy macro.

Gbear

Started into the brutal campaign. Far more interesting.

I finished the second mission with only Kerrigan and 1 Swarm Queen left and no more minerals.

I don't think I died once in the hard playthrough but I've already failed missions a load of times.

I'm not entirely sure why it's so much harder. Enemies seem to kill me faster but they've only had 11 upgades so far so I don't really understand why they're murdering me so much more.

SeantheMan

What did you make of the story ?....

Just finished it there...it's...ehh...well its was very good up until near the end when it got a bit

lovey dovey jim raynors my hubby - I'm gonna destroy this human planet jim......I'm angry with you Kerrigan, actually, I've changed my mind, you're hot even as a zerg, I'll help you and the zerg and we can kill loads of humans together and then you can fly off as an angel. It's all good.

murphzor

SeantheMan wrote: »

What did you make of the story ?....

Just finished it there...it's...ehh...well its was very good up until near the end when it got a bit

lovey dovey jim raynors my hubby - I'm gonna destroy this human planet jim......I'm angry with you Kerrigan, actually, I've changed my mind, you're hot even as a zerg, I'll help you and the zerg and we can kill loads of humans together and then you can fly off as an angel. It's all good.

Blizzard(Chris Metzen) cannot write a story.

Grimebox

I thought the whole story was meh. I wrote about it elsewhere



"The story seems to be told well in terms of voice acting, cut scenes and the missions themselves are inventive, but I'm not sure if the actual plotline is written too well. I didn't realize it was essentially a love story. They all seem like different characters in SC1. So all of Raynor and Kerrigans motivation was just so they could be together? I'm not all that happy with that disposition so far (only mission 3 mind you)"



"Much shorter than the original. Technically there is the same number of missions but I'm not counting the evolution tutorial missions whatsoever. It is far to easy as well. I beat all the levels on the hardest difficulty setting bar one. I think they were trying to hammer home that the nature of the zerg is overwhelm your opponents. Building a ton of units and over running everything just isn't hard at all though. Very little precision micro required at all, if any. Last missions got even easier with Kerrigans ridiculously overpowered abilities, one of which spawns an entire army from the sky... you can almost beat the last few level with her alone.

The missions do vary like the original which keeps it interesting. The new evolutions for each unit keep it fresh too.

The storyline is the usual rubbish from Blizzard theses day. The whole premise is a love story and apparently Kerrigan is hell bent on revenge. It didn't do it for me at all. She doesn't seem like a real character at all. She comes out with cliché one liners non-stop. Her abraisive nature cuts short any conversations which could get interesting. You hear some people calling for blizzard to make a feature length film. I say they shouldn't embarrass themselves. They make fantastic visuals for cut-scenes but that's about it. The supporting cast were decent. Especially the creature in the evolution chamber and the return of Stukov from brood war"

Gbear

Didn't much like the bland

uber-baddie being introduced. Eamon I think his name is :P.

Maybe could've been a bit more creative. The bit from In Utter Darkness in WOL where he says "I love it when a plan comes together" was fairly silly. I'm not sure they get the A-Team in the void.