EPThttp://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=214452
But I don't buy it. How believeable is Starcraft 2? I've struggled with this since release. I understand this is a fantasy sci-fi game, and everything doesn't have to make sense or be realistic. But there is a difference between believable gameplay and realistic gameplay. Certainly, only a few of the units are realistic since the game is set in the future. But how many are plausible or believable? This is important to me because it affects the enjoyability of the game. I'm especially bothered by the Terrans, as I think they are the most ridiculous. So lets take a look at the Terran units, the design of which has always caused me to scratch my head more than the other races:
A marine:
shoots a machine gun
has body armor
Verdict: Believable and realistic. Great!
A group of stimmed marines stutter stepping and efficiently killing approaching units:
Anyone who has fired a gun at a gun range knows how difficult it is to shoot accurately. You have to set up, aim through the scope, take a breath, and fire at the target. And still you don't always hit. Now let's imagine an incoming attack from the Marine's perspective:
You're in a tight group of 10 other guys, all in bulky body armor. The commander orders you to fire, you get stimmed on drugs, firing at fast-moving zerglings. You're getting nudged around by all the body armor of your fellow soldiers while packed in a tight ball. You can't see shit, much less hit anything. You're just firing wildly. The Zerglings are swarming everywhere. You start stutter stepping and your next shot kills your buddy who stepped in front of you. Next step you trip over your fellow marine. Mutas overhead and spine crawlers put an end to your drug-fueled existence rather quickly.
Now lets imagine what would happen in the SC2 world:
The commander orders you to fire, you get stimmed on drugs, firing at fast-moving zerglings. You're hitting your target with every shot, and even though you're in a tight ball you're not accidentally shooting any of your friends in the neck or tripping over each other while stutter-stepping and being attacked by spine crawlers or mutas. You're killing all the swarming zergs, and to add insult to their injury, a friendly medivac is hovering nearby to heal you to full strength. All with perfect footwork that makes synchronized swimming look like child's play. Ridiculous.
Verdict: Unbelievable and unrealistic
Marauders:
All Marauders seem to be some black guy in a suit bulkier than that worn by an astronaut. Looks like each one weighs 500 pounds. Yet they can run around faster than the un-armored Ghost while simultaneously and accurately firing dual grenade launchers. When stimmed, somehow the weapons are able to fire about once per second. And he has two of them. Oh, and the ammunition is unlimited, however he can't shoot at a stationary hovering unit like a Banshee.
Verdict: Unbelieveable
Thor:
Every Thor is Arnold Schwarzenegger cloned inside of a huge robot. I personally wouldn't have picked this unit for inclusion in the game, since it seems like something a 10 year old kid would choose just after watching T2. But I guess its OK. Would have liked to have seen Blizzard use a little more imagination with this unit as "a guy in a huge robot" has been done many times before.
Verdict: Unrealistic but believable
Hellion:
The thing that bothers me about the Hellion is that you can line up 4 marines in a line and then tell the Hellion to attack the last Marine, and only the targeted Marine is damaged. It just seems that if Blizzard was going to make a unit that does the type of damage a Hellion is capable of, at least make it do friendly fire. After all, if you line up 4 enemy marines in a row, all are damaged. The Hellion is a dune-buggy. Why does it need to stop in order to shoot? This is just a weirdly designed mechanic.
Verdict: Mostly believable, until HOTS, when it will become a Transformer (tm)
Medivac:
Talk about strange mechanics, the Medivac takes the cake. Not only is there room inside it for ANOTHER AIRCRAFT (landed Viking), it can load units instantaneously and does so without landing. It can unload units, even tanks, while in motion. A unit dropped from a Medivac is ready and able to attack instantly. Medivac can also heal units with a beam of light. Let's think about this because it violates the laws of entropy on so many levels. *A medivac can heal an infantry unit faster than some enemies can damage said unit*. You'd think that if you can make something as advanced a repair beam, it would be even easier to make some sort of death beam that can be used on enemies. YET MARINES ARE STILL USING BULLETS, a technology we have today in real life. Why? Makes no sense.
Verdict: Unrealistic and unbelievable
Tank:
I have no problems with the tank, except that it seems underpriced for its abilities. But that's another discussion.
Verdict: Believable, realistic, I like this unit
Banshee:
The unit is fine. But no anti-air? Yes, that would break the game. But the fact that Blizz had to essentially cripple the unit in favor of game balance: was it a strategic decision, or just poor overall "game design"/unit composition? I know, I know. It is needed because of balance. But it just seems like in real life, the banshee and viking would have been made one unit, and it seems artificial that Blizz split them.
Verdict: Believable
Viking:
Every time I see a Viking land, I expect to hear the sound of a Transformer (tm) transforming. Why is this unit in the game? The Viking can also hover like a Banshee, but can't attack ground. Huh? Weird game design? Oh yeah, "balance".
Verdict: Believable, until you see it transform into a mini-Thor, then unbelievable
Battlecruiser:
Not a problem, at first glance. It seems to be a cool unit with an awesome Yamato cannon. Except that a relatively small group of Mutas can bring one down. This would be like a flock of bats sinking a battleship. And why is it so small? Its the size of about 12 marines grouped together. I guess if it was actual size it would take up the whole screen, but again, scaling it down so small just makes it strange. And how high is it actually floating? Well, high enough that a Marauder can't shell it, but low enough that an SCV can repair it. Hmmmm. This one is puzzling.
Verdict: Believable in theory, but unbelievable when you think about how it would really work
SCV:
Working together, can repair a building faster than a small group of T3 Protoss units can damage it. This would be like a bunch of guys with rocket launchers attacking my house, and me and some friends can repair the house so quickly that its never destroyed. Entropy, anyone? The strangest thing is, despite being able to repair simultaneously, they are unable to build a structure simultaneously. I don't get it. This must be "game design" again.
Verdict: 1 SCV is believable - multiple working together is a stretch
Ghost:
Psionic abilities are a good addition for Terrans, and the nuke strike is cool. Snipe and EMP are rather boring, IMO, but that's not what this post is about.
Verdict: Believable in the sci-fi realm
Raven:
This is the coolest looking and sounding unit in the game, but its just a weird unit overall. Let's look at its abilities. PDD: I think Blizzard really wanted to have a "shield" for nearby units but thought it might be too overused, since the Sentry already has it. So it came up with the PDD. I don't know about this. Is there no better idea?
The Hunter-Seeker is also interesting, but why choose the Raven (successor to BW science vessel) for the unit that has the ability to use this weapon? Seems like a cool AOE weapon that would be used by infantry. Why did Blizz put it on such an obscure unit? And auto-turrets...why on the Raven? It seems like in the real future world, they would just be called down like a MULE. This whole unit just seems "tacked-on" after the fact.
Verdict: Believable, barely
MULE:
Called down from orbit. But if the Terran can call down a MULE from orbit at the drop of a hat, why can't they call down bombs and nuke the shit out of the enemy? Its a bit of a contradiction that doesn't make sense for me. Plus, when it runs out of energy, why does it break apart/explode? Shouldn't it just stop, and disappear from the game? Whose idea was that? Its like I'm driving along in my car and I run out of gas, but instead of my car just puttering to a stop, all the bolts come lose and it breaks into pieces. WTF?
Verdict: Unbelievable
Flying Terran buildings:
If your tech is advanced enough to make an entire building fly, move, and land, AND NEVER RUN OUT OF FUEL FOR THE THRUSTERS, why can't they just be making units/researching while flying and thus impervious to ground-attack units? Game design.
Verdict: Unbelievable
Supply depot:
Roach cannot burrow-move under it, unless its lowered, in which case they can. Some designer just didn't think this one through.
So here's what I think happened. Blizzard sat down to write SC2, and thought up a bunch of cool units. But they had to be different enough from BW to warrant SC2 as a sequel. However, in order to balance the game Blizzard had to cripple various units, and make others have strange mechanics. They also had to split abilities among units so there was enough variety, even at the expense of believability.
I know that making the game more realistic might make it more difficult to balance or perhaps less fun in some circumstances. But now we're left with units that don't make much sense and a race that feels strange to play, IMO. I don't get this feeling with Zerg. Just seems like they could have done better with Terran is all.
