Alright man, remember when you first played starcraft? I remember being traumatized because all my marines were dying in horrible ways, I remember fearing the zerg, and I remember how freaking epic the protoss mission was because you were in charge of saving a dying civilization.
This was before 8 gate pumps and using zealots to clear mines. Dude, I was more concerned with finishing the mission without my peeps dying. I tried to minimize casualties.
Would someone new to starcraft 2 experience this? If you compare Starcraft 2 to a lot of recent PC games, like Bioshock, Dead Space, etc.. -- you can tell that the art or the atmosphere is not even comparable. Basically, there is no atmosphere in Starcraft 2, and this is mostly because Blizzard is basically didn't really make Starcraft 2 as much as World of Starcraft. Starcraft 2 is not a single player game anymore. Compare this to, say, Homeworld, which has quite a lot of similarities, thematically, to Starcraft, and which IS a single player RTS game. Basically, they've basically said, screw art, we're just going to make it "epic", and jam as much random bad-assery as we can, stuff that, you know, people who've already played Starcraft will think is awesome.
Of course, I'm aware that we haven't seen the single player campaign yet... But really, you don't really need to. So much of the story, or the theme, is based on design. So it's predictable how sequels generally tend to be a lot more watered down in character, basically it copies the form but not the essence of the original. The original starcraft drew a lot from Aliens, after all, it's called "Star"-craft, it was about dying a million miles from home, and no one being able to hear you scream in space. And maybe there was a kind of loneliness, last of our kind feel about the whole Protoss thing. Anyways, it was freaking epic, in a good way.
So, I seriously hope that someone in the community churns out a more thematically coherent set of pieces for Starcraft 2. I want to see DEATH brought back into starcraft. I want to see vulnerable units. I want to see zealots shivering in the cold, stalkers melting like goons... I'm not even sure. Maybe marines who are less like zombies hopped up on painkillers. Maybe less cartoonish models. Not sure... will have to think of some more. But I want to see, you know, the same literary depth that Starcraft had... and then it will be sweeeeet.
Broodwar really did have an atmosphere going for it, the units and buildings had more or less believable sounds and art, if you stopped looking at the gameplay and thought about the units you could easily start imagining all kinds of stories going on in the background of your epic 1v1. It might just be that we have only the competetive gameplay to keep our attentions. Everyone is just trying to learn the builds and strategies and get good at the game, instead of focusing on what's behind the gameplay. However, as in that other thread with the sound effects and voices on the units being not as good as bw, you could be right the game is simply lacking.
No, the game really was heavily influenced by Aliens and Starship Troopers. You can look at things like the cheat "game over man", a quote from Aliens. The hydralisk looks a lot like the mature aliens. I could go on for a while, there's a lot of direct similarities.
how in the fuck can you compare bioshock and dead space to starcraft?
you cant create "atmosphere" in an RTS because its a freaking RTS, bioshock and dead space have shadows, sound fx, art direction and first person view to create creepy atmospheres. starcraft is a top down digital board game.
EDIT: on another note, art and atmosphere are completely different, your title says horrible art, but your first point is about atmosphere. bioshock had an amazing art deco style that put you in a zombie like 60's underwater environment. starcraft is just 3D, i havent seen any particular "style" from starcraft yet.
Dude the single player isn't even out yet. What you are looking for is in the single player campagins. The beta is for multiplayer and competitive play. Besides they have new units for the single player. The units in multiplayer are not all thats gonna be in the campaign so don't judge it just based on what you see in beta.
How do you know that the single player atmosphere sucks when no one has played it yet? If you are talking about online matches, I don't think that is about the atmosphere as much as the competition. Either way, from what I've seen in replays, I think the atmosphere is preserved for online matches.
I have no doubt in my mind that Blizzard will create an epic storyline that will be remembered by probably every TLer for years to come.
i dont know why youre criticizing the limited multiplayer beta to create some kind of "atmosphere." if you are actually doubting blizzard's abilities, then i suggest you dont buy the game and miss out on the greatest experience of the decade.
I think the atmosphere is great, The desert tile set with protoss looks awesome. Within the limits blizzard had like unit sizes and unit count it looks really movielike to me at least! And I have only seen the hd youtube vids and those arent the real quality yet when you play the game urself. I guess it also takes some time to get used to, it took me some time as well to really aprecciate the old starcraft and warcraft 3 art. Smoking some weed really helps!
Someone must have said this before but... its Beta? There is no single player campaign out YET. ? But im pretty sure this is trolling, tho i must agree that SC is based a LOT off alien movies of the late 90s'. like SStroopers and Aliens 1-whatever. and even Predator. (Cloaking?).
I am a bit confused by the entire post and how it is associated with his complaint about art. I come in expecting some types of rants about the artistic style that blizzard has gone with starcraft or something along those lines... and then I see major complaints made on the story element of the game *boggle*. I really cant figure out if the original poster is trying to say the story based on the game play elements or not...
However... Ultimately game play outweighs any other element when you are dealing with games. Sure you have story, art and a random assortment of things that make a game. If the game play element is not present than the game is not worth a damn.
I would also like to add that most of the death animations look insanely violent in Starcraft 2 (good thing!)... I also don't think I have ever seen a zealot shiver in the cold before...
On February 22 2010 16:41 dextahr wrote: How do you know that the single player atmosphere sucks when no one has played it yet? If you are talking about online matches, I don't think that is about the atmosphere as much as the competition. Either way, from what I've seen in replays, I think the atmosphere is preserved for online matches.
the atmosphere is preserved. we battle with miniature models placed on terran rooftops, with birds chirping and cars honking in the background.
On February 22 2010 17:03 Skaff wrote:[...] I would also like to add that most of the death animations look insanely violent in Starcraft 2 (good thing!)... I also don't think I have ever seen a zealot shiver in the cold before...
i would say that there needs to be realism for something to look violent. in sc2 things just blow up like giant watermelons, regardless of the composition and structure of what it actually is. it looks flashy, not violent. everything needs to be big, american style.
On February 22 2010 17:14 writer22816 wrote: I stopped reading after the first paragraph. Comparing Starcraft 2 to BW about clarity and graphics right now is so stupid.
he compared the atmosphere of it, not the clarity. like in how well the setting and design reflects the universe starcraft takes place in and how well it makes you feel to be part of it, as opposed to just toying with your units and throwing them away.
EPT
