5th February 2004, 4:01 PM
First off, yes I should have said rather that Starcraft was the first I played or heard of with that large a difference in the 3 groups. I certaintly haven't played enough to know it's the first ever with that.
I see what you're saying ABF. First off, I should make it clear I totally agree about the difficulty of the single player campaign, in both Chaos AND Frozen. FAR too easy, well except for the timed defense levels. Those are ALWAYS hard :D. Now, in Chaos I can understand it not being hard until near the end, but still around halfway it should have taken a larger leap in challenge. However, Expansion Packs sold to people who already HAVE the original, so the curve of difficulty, the whole training thing, isn't needed in the least except for new features in the expansion. It almost felt like a re-training. In a sequal with the same engine, I can understand, but in an expansion, if someone isn't good enough, they can play the original campaign that they need to have anyway for the training. Frozen Throne WAS far too easy. Brood War level of challenge would have been perfect for that. Keep in mind I haven't yet completed the Orc Campaign nor have I played the game on hard mode.
As for the FMVs, I'm afraid I gotta disagree. I really didn't like the FMVs in Starcraft (original) that much at all. It wasn't quality mind you. I can look past that well enough. It was the contents. As you said, they didn't really fit in with what was going on in the story most of the time. In fact, a chunk of them were just cheesy, like that stereotypical "space hic" opening FMV. That was just pathetic really. The game certainly made up for those FMVs, and the story WAS great, but I felt the FMVs, in general mind you, hurt more than they helped. Had they just kept the story-specific ones (like the ending of the Protoss campaign) and ditched the cheesy side story stuff (like the guy who killed a zerg with his space jeep and died in classic horror movie fasion), it'd have been fine. Oh yes, I also must make it clear that I DID like the Brood War FMVs, even though there were only 4, because all of them were very well told parts of the storyline. Now as for WC3, I loved all the FMVs because they too were very well told parts of the story, this time done in the style of current day movies (as in, the acting and cinematic style used most often in movies today), also they looked great :D, rivaling Square-Enix in quality (which is something the FMVs in Neverwinter Nights can't say, seriously those look aweful, well for the current day's standards I mean).
I can see what you mean by story recycling, however I myself noticed enough differences to keep it fresh. Not like SC is original in and of itself anyway. All basic story types have already been told (in fact, if I remember from literature class, there's only 6 basic types). It's just a matter of finding ways to make it SEEM fresh and new, and mixing and matching up those basic types.
Anyway, in the end it really came down to multi where I made up my mind there. Again, it's close, but multi edged out above single player. (I too value a single player experience even in this genre.)
I see what you're saying ABF. First off, I should make it clear I totally agree about the difficulty of the single player campaign, in both Chaos AND Frozen. FAR too easy, well except for the timed defense levels. Those are ALWAYS hard :D. Now, in Chaos I can understand it not being hard until near the end, but still around halfway it should have taken a larger leap in challenge. However, Expansion Packs sold to people who already HAVE the original, so the curve of difficulty, the whole training thing, isn't needed in the least except for new features in the expansion. It almost felt like a re-training. In a sequal with the same engine, I can understand, but in an expansion, if someone isn't good enough, they can play the original campaign that they need to have anyway for the training. Frozen Throne WAS far too easy. Brood War level of challenge would have been perfect for that. Keep in mind I haven't yet completed the Orc Campaign nor have I played the game on hard mode.
As for the FMVs, I'm afraid I gotta disagree. I really didn't like the FMVs in Starcraft (original) that much at all. It wasn't quality mind you. I can look past that well enough. It was the contents. As you said, they didn't really fit in with what was going on in the story most of the time. In fact, a chunk of them were just cheesy, like that stereotypical "space hic" opening FMV. That was just pathetic really. The game certainly made up for those FMVs, and the story WAS great, but I felt the FMVs, in general mind you, hurt more than they helped. Had they just kept the story-specific ones (like the ending of the Protoss campaign) and ditched the cheesy side story stuff (like the guy who killed a zerg with his space jeep and died in classic horror movie fasion), it'd have been fine. Oh yes, I also must make it clear that I DID like the Brood War FMVs, even though there were only 4, because all of them were very well told parts of the storyline. Now as for WC3, I loved all the FMVs because they too were very well told parts of the story, this time done in the style of current day movies (as in, the acting and cinematic style used most often in movies today), also they looked great :D, rivaling Square-Enix in quality (which is something the FMVs in Neverwinter Nights can't say, seriously those look aweful, well for the current day's standards I mean).
I can see what you mean by story recycling, however I myself noticed enough differences to keep it fresh. Not like SC is original in and of itself anyway. All basic story types have already been told (in fact, if I remember from literature class, there's only 6 basic types). It's just a matter of finding ways to make it SEEM fresh and new, and mixing and matching up those basic types.
Anyway, in the end it really came down to multi where I made up my mind there. Again, it's close, but multi edged out above single player. (I too value a single player experience even in this genre.)
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)