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StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty Campaign: Still Awesome

NeoBob688

NeoBob688

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,689
Recently I've been needing to get my casual real time strategy fix (which has been getting harder the last few years with the tepid decline of the genre). Really enjoying Wings of Liberty campaign.
  • The campaign has a AAA feeling to it which is great and special for a modern RTS game.
  • Fun and diverse missions. A lot of neat little ideas: being able to interact with crew on the ship between missions is really great, there are a couple choice points in the story, simple yet rewarding upgrade system, etc. Very tight design document also, with almost no fluff.
  • Fun swashbuckling adventure feel. I like the characters, they are really enjoyable in a lighthearted kind of way.
  • Awesome soundtrack. The Terran music just really slaps hard.
Overall I would definitely recommend this.
 
TeenageFBI

TeenageFBI

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,448
All of the SC2 games have good campaigns. They're polished as hell and each level has unique and fun-mechanics.

The story is kind of a mess in comparison.
 
Wollan

Wollan

Mostly Positive
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,918
Norway but living in France
I like that it has point-and-click adventure elements between missions.

I also like that there's less 'build a grand base from scratch' missions as it would really drag out the pace of the singleplayer.
 
Hektor

Hektor

Community Resettler
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,884
Deutschland
It's funny that you call it a modern RTS game because the game is already 11 years old.
What zero RTS games do to us motherfuckers.
 
CubeApple76

CubeApple76

Member
Jan 20, 2021
6,857
Hektor said:
It's funny that you call it a modern RTS game because the game is already 11 years old.
What zero RTS games do to us motherfuckers.
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As a casual RTS fan from back in the day it for sure has felt like the genre was dead for the longest time, luckily AoE 4 is fantastic so far, got me back into the genre
 
BobSaac2

BobSaac2

Member
Jan 6, 2021
710
xyla said:
Gameplay wise I'd agree - narrative is a disaster though.
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This.

At the time, I remember the huge disappointment it was on the narrative side. Also, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void didn't improve anything.

I have a weird relationship with Starcraft 2. I love the game, truly love, but I also hate it so much. The meta decisions by David Kim, how much the game trailed behind on monetizing it to support the competitive scene (it was so painful to see Valve crushing it with compendium, voice lines, crowdfund, cosmetics and everything else, and Blizzard not taking a single lesson out of that). Also, I still have nightmares about blink stalkers and swarm hosts. But I fucking love Starcraft. Just this post alone is scratching me to play all the games again.
 
Kinthey

Kinthey

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
22,804
It really feels like one of a kind with its AAA presentation, not to mention every single mission offering an interesting twist or mechanic. The sequels felt like a bit of a step down in regard to presentation (at least Heart of the swarm has relatively few cutscenes) but the mission variety etc. remained stellar

Something I also absolutely love is that they made a lot of units only for the singleplayer. That way all the multiplayer balancing doesn't affect the unit variety in the campaign and they can go more nuts
 
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medyej

medyej

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,623
It's the best RTS campaign ever imo. The mission variety, the choices you get in units and abilities, it's just amazing.

Heart of the Swarm a close second depending on how much you like Zerg.
 
ThisThingIsUseful

ThisThingIsUseful

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,295
I replayed those campaigns so much. It's made better by the Mass Recall versions of the originals, which are excellent remakes.

Every final mission was epic in its own way. The final mission in Wings was hard as heck on higher difficulties but epic if you managed a win.
 

Deleted member 3208

Oct 25, 2017
11,934
grandmedjey said:
It's the best RTS campaign ever imo. The mission variety, the choices you get in units and abilities, it's just amazing.

Heart of the Swarm a close second depending on how much you like Zerg.
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Zerg was my main, and imo, the Zerg campaign is the worst of the three. That doesn't mean is bad, but even on Brutal it was quite easy.

My ranking go WoL > LotV > HotS. Storywise... all are bad.

Wish I could replay them, but after news started going out of what Activision Blizzard has done, I uninstalled Battle.net.
 
medyej

medyej

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,623
Linkark07 said:
Zerg was my main, and imo, the Zerg campaign is the worst of the three. That doesn't mean is bad, but even on Brutal it was quite easy.

My ranking go WoL > LotV > HotS. Storywise... all are bad.

Wish I could replay them, but after news started going out of what Activision Blizzard has done, I uninstalled Battle.net.
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Yeah the story in all of them is whatever, but I think people put way too much focus on that when discussing the trilogy. The games themselves are all amazing.

I get why Zerg could be easy, you could mass so much stuff when used right, but I still liked it a lot. It's been a while since I've replayed any but I only played LOTV on release and need to go back soon to see how it holds up.
 
Manac0r

Manac0r

Member
Oct 30, 2017
435
UK
I built my first 'gaming' rig just to play this. The cut scenes were so polished! Annoyed the hell out my gf at the time all she would here was "In the rear, with the gear..."
 
ThisThingIsUseful

ThisThingIsUseful

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,295
The thing that benefits WoL's story of that there's still intrigue. The Zeratul missions paint a grim future that, atmospherically, is fantastic. And the bonus mission adds some juicy answers that raise a few more questions.

I think besides the b-movie dialogue, what hurts the game is that the big teases from Brood War took three games to materialize. We see hybrids in WoL, but we don't learn too much more about them besides who the terrans were in Brood War's bonus mission. We learn about Narud in HotS, but the real answers about the hybrids aren't until LotV. And there was a 12 year gap, I think, between Brood War and WoL, so it seems strange to wait until LotV, nearly two decades later, to really get answers to those questions.

That's also besides the other issues of Kerrigan not really choosing to be evil and never doing a campaign or even a mini campaign from the eyes of the villains. There weren't really any twists like in Brood War where things went mostly wrong or you were tasked with ruining everyone's lives but understanding what was driving the villains.
 
ThisThingIsUseful

ThisThingIsUseful

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,295
SofNascimento said:
Wait, what?
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Yeah, there was a huge fan effort to remake the originals and give them more of a SC2 flair, both in gameplay and presentation. That means vanilla and Brood War missions and maps are recreated precisely on SC2. The cutscenes are the same, but they use more SC2 cinematics, and if Raynor is speaking on the map from his Hyperion, you'll see Matt Horner standing behind him, which is cool.

Stukov's monologue in the second terran mission is EXCELLENT. You see Duran escaping and initiating the self destruct in the background.

All dialogue is the same, same audio files, it just uses sc2's engine. I highly highly highly recommend it.

Oh, and they remade the bonus mission Brood War, and the n64 only mission, and enslavers, and precursor legacy.
 
SofNascimento

SofNascimento

cursed
Member
Oct 28, 2017
21,849
São Paulo - Brazil
ThisThingIsUseful said:
Yeah, there was a huge fan effort to remake the originals and give them more of a SC2 flair, both in gameplay and presentation. That means vanilla and Brood War missions and maps are recreated precisely on SC2. The cutscenes are the same, but they use more SC2 cinematics, and if Raynor is speaking on the map from his Hyperion, you'll see Matt Horner standing behind him, which is cool.

Stukov's monologue in the second terran mission is EXCELLENT. You see Duran escaping and initiating the self destruct in the background.

All dialogue is the same, same audio files, it just uses sc2's engine. I highly highly highly recommend it.

Oh, and they remade the bonus mission Brood War, and the n64 only mission, and enslavers, and precursor legacy.
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ThisThingIsUseful said:
Some examples of Mass Recall:



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Woah.

I have to play this. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
 
Bulletzen

Bulletzen

Member
Oct 30, 2017
559
Don't sleep on Grey Goo for RTS goodness! I know the name is silly but I actually preferred it over the Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void
 
xyla

xyla

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,522
Germany
grandmedjey said:
Yeah the story in all of them is whatever, but I think people put way too much focus on that when discussing the trilogy. The games themselves are all amazing.

I get why Zerg could be easy, you could mass so much stuff when used right, but I still liked it a lot. It's been a while since I've replayed any but I only played LOTV on release and need to go back soon to see how it holds up.
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The story was a very standout part of the package though, SC and Brood War are excellent in that regard, so it makes sense that a lot of people are approaching the sequels from a lore and story perspective first. If that is the main driving factor and is such a disappointment then it taints the whole package.

If the first game would have had a story that was similarly bad, a lot less people would complain about this one.
 
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Era of not Yakuza

Era of not Yakuza

Banned
Dec 4, 2017
11,483
Brazil
I hated the fact they reduced most of the micromanagement of the originals.
I played SC 1 and Brood War on the slowest speed possible because I really enjoyed talking care of each units special skills.
 
Friskyrum

Friskyrum

Member
Jun 25, 2019
981
xyla said:
Gameplay wise I'd agree - narrative is a disaster though.
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Basically this for me, I like the gameplay choices they made with the campaigns, but a lot of the story still gives me a massive headache to this day just thinking about it. Later on in the other expansions the story just gets worse and worse.

Rather not remember that aspect and just remember the fun gameplay additions they made with the campaign, probably the only thing that kept me going in the campaigns.
 
smocaine

smocaine

Member
Oct 30, 2019
2,067
Funny you posted this - I downloaded it the other day for the first time (I'm on a strategy game binge)

Worth mentioning - it's free. The entirety of the campaign.
 
Nacery

Nacery

Member
Jul 11, 2018
1,511
LOL I was checking on the Mass Recall mod and just realized that Blizzard put boob physics on the Female civilian model!


Like WTF seriously?!
 
Tiamant

Tiamant

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,365
I remember I only disliked the mission where the sun goes supernova and the whole map is burning from left to right, so you have to keep all your buildings moving all the time. Other than that, the 3 campaigns go directly into the holy grail of RTS games.

Still playing SC2 to this day, the co-op mode is GREAT to play games tailored to your experience without suffering the stress of the ladder! Give it a try OP!
 
Inugami

Inugami

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,995
Yeah I was thinking about this the other day. Gameplay in all 3 parts is absolutely amazing and varied. The story though....
 
Kharnete

Kharnete

Has Hecht’s Number
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,966
All three SC2 campaign are the best in the genre, miles ahead of everything else. The story is what it is, but on the gameplay side are just unparalleled, and they quite ruined the genre to me as everything else feels meh.

The multiplayer side is great and all that, but I've never been a fan of regular ranked on these type of games. Even during SC1, most of my time on Battle.net was on Use Map Settings maps instead of regular games. Luckily SC2 has no shortage of these. It has been ages since I've touched the game, but I have very fond memories from maps such as Star Battle.

 
Magnemania

Magnemania

Member
Jan 25, 2018
434
Someone on the Arcade has been gradually remaking the campaigns with different races over the last two years.



The missions are pretty close to the production value of the real campaigns, as they transplant voicelines and units from the race's original campaign. Every race/campaign combination is complete short of Zerg!Legacy of the Void, adding up to 7 campaigns total. Extremely fun way to get 'new' content. They've been releasing 2P co-op versions of the campaigns, too.
 
Mentalist

Mentalist

Member
Mar 14, 2019
18,573
Hektor said:
It's funny that you call it a modern RTS game because the game is already 11 years old.
What zero RTS games do to us motherfuckers.
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*cries in SpellForce*

I replayed WOL on Hard 2 years ago, after going through OG and BW (non-remastered- the DRM-free edition they gave out a while back).

Then I played like 6 missions of HoS and had to bail, because that story was just terribad. When they tried to do a Kerrigan rebirth story, with me having to defend the Chrysalis just like Zerg 4, I had enough.
 
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