|
The Armchair Athleticism critical series is an opinion-base article series regarding the issues and sociocultural deficiencies of the E-Sports and StarCraft scene. All articles are perceptive-base and revolving around my own experiences and understanding of the subculture.
+ Show Spoiler [summary introduction] +The Solo Trail – Unbeaten - Posted on October 20th, 2012Short version of credentials: - Manager of 5 progaming teams (50+ professional players)
- Writer for 11 E-sports websites (5 team sites + 4 organizations: 150+ docs/articles)
- Organizer or Contributor of 11 community events (74,000 viewers/attendants)
- Some video-editing for one or two organizations, nothing big, just twitch.tv highlight-editing, presentational writing, etc.
Why are you starting your own space? I was listening to the suggestions of several friends and I finally started this space after I hit a dead-end in my endeavours in E-Sports. I’m at a point where I am not really affiliated with anyone and now’s a better time than ever to do some opinion topics. Doing my own content meant I would be alone and would work around my own initiative, drive and interest. However, it also meant that I may do something that requires more work than I thought and I would be on my own. It meant that the community reception can be more direct and harsh towards me personally and my views as I would not be backed by some credible organization as when I was writer for some. In the end, this series that took me about a month of writing, editing, verification and re-writing will really be everything I’ve learned, observed and felt throughout my time. I started out with three pieces and ended up going to ten. All of them delve into inspecting the five perspectives of the scene: teams, tournaments, players, spectators and contributors. Ultimately, it aims to really take a strong look into the many issues that inhibit the StarCraft community and E-Sports culture.
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm – An Overview & Review - Posted on March 13, 2013
Swiftly lead by an impressive beta, the release of StarCraft II’s expansion: Heart of the Swarm brought out many balance changes and UI improvements to the series. High expectations were set on the direction of StarCraft II not only as an E-Sport, but as an entertaining game overall. These expectations exploded during the public disapproval of Blizzard’s lack of public appeal. There was public backlash for their inability in improving the title on a multiplayer and singleplayer level (after so many years of clamoring), also in view of Battle.net 2.0’s long list of criticisms since its implementation. People wanted more and hammered the company for months (even years for some features) begging for utilities that made the game less secluded for the user and more open towards cooperative play such as: additional building blocks to improve the player and enhanced modes both in gameplay and in variety of tools (shared replays, resume from replay, unranked matches, etc).
As Heart of the Swarm opened its servers, there was impatience to see how Blizzard could outdo their exciting beginnings of Wings of Liberty, and renew the passion of old followers and fans of the genre (RTS) and scene. In short, they have hit their mark and the expansion delivers what was urged but not without some drawbacks in many areas of the game.
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is split into singleplayer and multiplayer, both completely different in value and appeal. In the singleplayer aspect, the players are jumped into the perspective of Sarah Kerrigan, previously the Queen of Blades in Wings of Liberty and is returning once more after an ambush separates her from her two-way unrequited love with Jim Raynor. An arch of vengeance, power struggle and a yearning to be reunited with someone who said he’d never give up on her (doesn’t get more deep than that) are what’s to be expected in this sequel. While the gameplay and missions are definitely just as varied as the missions in Wings of Liberty, the story and dialogue leave much to be desired and can only be compared to that of Star Wars: Episode II. One thing to note is that you will never play any of the other races in the campaign (neither Protoss or Terran).
Though many of these "mutations" or customizations cannot be found outside of the singleplayer, truly enhance how to go about completing your missions and keeping in a "Zerg"-style way..
What the singleplayer lacks in creative story development, it makes up in missions and customization. You will soon find that the game plays more like WarCraft III with control of a “hero” or main character (with strong abilities) than purely a real-time strategy game and the missions definitely compliment this area. Also, the personal touch of your units are fitting with the Zerg-esque feel where you can modify your units with advantageous perks, exclusive evolutions and tutorial missions to let you try both evolutions out (to better your selection). To add, your hero can be leveled, allowing Kerrigan to obtain unique powerful abilities. The singleplayer side of the game however lacks miscellaneous activities ranging from minigames that we saw in Wings of Liberty (The Lost Viking) to no new challenges that let you improve your ability with each race. As always, Blizzard Entertainment delivers in ambiance, amazing cinematic cutscenes and of course their epic music (you can even pause in the cutscenes to take these kinds of snapshots!)
Pretty impressive stuff. There are many cinematic scenes like this, even more action-packed than ever before.
On the multiplayer side, since Wings of Liberty, “improving” would be the summation here. Ranging from AI difficulty levels, builds and diverse game mechanics towards various ranked/unranked matchups really lets the player make the game as serious or jokingly as they want. The welcoming of new units definitely refreshes the game and creates new scenarios and approaches towards winning for the player (though the question of if its balance is still arguable). Free-for-all mode is still lacking in terms of maps and uniqueness though the arcade feature still has some amazing games both promoted by Blizzard and the community themself. The varied custom games navigation and UI, however improved, still leaves a lot to be desired, especially in finding something beyond the top ten most popular custom games (and searching those who want to play it).
The tools brought into Heart of the Swarm are what really make those still hesitant to return, reconsider going back to the game. The options menu has expanded to having more graphical options, customization of hotkeys (hotkeys for the singleplayer do not overlap with the multiplayer) and how involved you want the client to help you in your multiplayer matches (from enabling/disabling your mouse from clicking on enemy units to auto-gathering your workers at the start of the game). In addition, your profile card is also both concise and expanded in various menus and the rewards in playing multiplayer matches is displayed through your profile picture, experience and levels as well as interesting skins for your units and animations (dancing and such). The UI for spectator mode can also be customized for tournament organizers, removing the unnecessary graphics for the spectator and delivering more essential information to better view progaming matches. Everything is slick and smooth in navigating through Battle.net and a major improvement from the previous version where a lot of empty areas were brimming with potential use.
The UI is sleek, attractive and concisely informative. Everything is available either in a drop-down menu or through sectioned menus. .
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm delivers a lot to those already in love with the series. Tutorials, challenges and custom games also hold onto players who love the game more than for its competitive ladder and leagues. Its aim to create new ways to connect and cooperate with others through groups, clans, resume from replays and more really lessen the secluded and sometimes frustrating tone of the game and expand its options. However, there is still much more to be done with the game story-wise as well as within the UI, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is off to a great start and appeals to the expectations of many people who started with StarCraft II back in 2010 and perhaps regain those who have given up on the series and E-Sport. There are many minor features not elaborated in this review that you’ll come to appreciate (like end-of-match reports and statistics, map info/screenshots/patch notes/review, concise friendslist, etc.), but in short, Heart of the Swarm is definitely worth its cost. In comparison to Wings of Liberty, it does not feel short for an expansion. As a series on its own, it feels complete, but could still use additions in regards to team-games/FFA (balance & better maps), dialogue/story as well as qualities like team matches, or qualities found in WarCraft III like daily/weekly tournaments and chat features. Nonetheless, if you love Real-Time Strategy games and pine for a compelling singleplayer, advanced multiplayer to really devote your time and energy in improving yourself: StarCraft II can feel very rewarding for the competitive fan.
|
Would love to hear everyone else's views and opinions on the expansion. - Did it live up to your expectations?
- What are you expecting more out of Battle.net
- What are the finer, smaller points of quality that you really appreciated?
- What are some jarring issues you had with the game, the campaign or multiplayer?
- What are you expecting out of Legacy of the Void?
|
I agree that the dialogue especially leaves somewhat to be desired. However, I actually enjoy the zerg 'characters', however humanoid they ultimately end up being. They are well varied and the dialogue is both funny and engaging enough (...not deep).
I haven't run across any jarring issues, yet. 
|
On March 14 2013 03:13 tili wrote:I agree that the dialogue especially leaves somewhat to be desired. However, I actually enjoy the zerg 'characters', however humanoid they ultimately end up being. They are well varied and the dialogue is both funny and engaging enough (...not deep). I haven't run across any jarring issues, yet.
I've had some bugs with achievements (I beat the infestor level, but it doesn't unlocked for me in the evolution pit).
Also some sound looping issues, but nothing huge.
|
For now, as a spectator, I think it's far better than WoL. It has more diversity, play style is more refined and the game is exciting.
|
Did it live up to your expectations?
Actually it did. I really enjoyed the campaign. I decided to start out with normal so I could do all of the master achievements some time after. I really enjoy the work Blizzard puts in their storylines (WoW, SC) they are very overthought but are still somewhat similar to each other (compare Queen of Blades with Lich King). The campaign involved alot of units. The only upset was the Mutalisk Evolution (both are not really new...) and the Infestor (way to strong and no evolution). I really liked the DotA style with Kerrigan as your customisable hero.
What are you expecting more out of Battle.net?
I really hope LotV will be as great in terms of story. I really really wonder who will replace Mengsk as Emperor, the Dominian and their Terrans are spread across allover the sector but what will become of them now they are leaderless. The swam did really well but will the Terran be as strong?
I expect Blizzard to take a look at multiplayer balance a bit. It currently feels not right to decide between either tech or a defensive unit (MSC) as P. I haven't had the time to test the other different races. What I really 'd like to see is a change to the true mothership. The main and most precious unit in the Protoss fleet is currently not used in any match up. I think there should be a use for it but I will get this in details someother time.
What are the finer, smaller points of quality that you really appreciated?
The cutsences where astonishing. Really good job on that one! The end of Duran is tragic but expected. I however hope to see more of Zeratul in LotV. And what happend to Tassadar after the crash in the overmind? Will he return (see the Zeratul Missions in WoL).
What are some jarring issues you had with the game, the campaign or multiplayer?
Widowmines and Medivacs are hard to deal with. Widowmines and burrow are just something I should get used to, medivacs however really are an issue as their punishing potential for troops out of position is just way to devistating... I understand that makes should be severly punished but these dropships can just crush and pick up like nothing happend.
What are you expecting out of Legacy of the Void?
An awesome storyline! Really that is the most important. I also hope to see a few NEW Protoss units and I hope that the mothership will be a devestator in the protoss arsenal. I really like the way Blizzard handeld HotS so far. There is just room for improvement in the part of which each side lacks compared to the other two. Also, take a look at the tempest and the mutalisk. The tempest is cool but should be nerfed. The mutalisks regen is ok, but the combination with speed makes it really tough to deal with in the lower leagues.
|
On March 14 2013 03:03 Torte de Lini wrote:Would love to hear everyone else's views and opinions on the expansion. - Did it live up to your expectations?
- What are you expecting more out of Battle.net
- What are the finer, smaller points of quality that you really appreciated?
- What are some jarring issues you had with the game, the campaign or multiplayer?
- What are you expecting out of Legacy of the Void?
I have some small things to mention on the negative side:
- Ingame AA blurries out the font of the nameplates. This one really is bad.
- There is a background in a cinematic with a wrong texture border at an edge where two textures met. There are very little other quirks but that one was visible.
I do not really like how the story turned out but the mission were very good, even though some ideas copied from Wol.
There are many small improvements over Wol including enhancements to the graphics engine. HotS is not just a mission disk and a handful of new units for multiplayer. While it builds on Wol, and includes some Hyperion settings to that one feels familiar, the overall feeling of the campaign is different.
About the multiplayer, I feel that Blizzard did everything they could and did not held back some stuff for LotV.
Overall I consider HotS a very good example to show how an expansion should be done.
|
- Did it live up to your expectations?
Yes. After WoL campaign I must say that the campaign greatly improved.
- What are you expecting more out of Battle.net?
Better performance, less FPS lags while battle.net waits for info loaded from server, possibility of being logged into the editor and the game at the same time to be able to publish maps/mods without logging out.
- What are the finer, smaller points of quality that you really appreciated?
Wonderful terrain, changes to arcade's open game list. Kerrigan's ability choices seemed balanced and I know that everyone picked a different set of units and abilities to beat the campaign which is awesome.
- What are some jarring issues you had with the game, the campaign or multiplayer?
A prisoner had a gun in his cell in campaign. Lobbies still shows dropdowns where you can't change anything. Just hide them or deactivate them, if you can't alter anything. Also, no secret level? :'(
- What are you expecting out of Legacy of the Void?
Not too much. If you expect something huge, you will just be disappointed.
I only fear that they give every Zerg organism a free will after LotV. I would like to see the Overmind returning... <3 Overmind. But I think that could only happen in a SC3 in 10+ years.
|
I finished the campaign literally half an hour ago, and I loved it. it really felt like I wasn't just "the zerg", I was my swarm, I'm not entirely sure what people mean about the dialogue, the wording and tonality was fine in my ears, though admittedly not perfect, and I assume that you are not talking about the linguistic quirks of the characters, like how abathor says everything in series of short statements. (example: "human strain weak essence. inefficient. revert to biomatter").
imo those quirks and imperfections are excellent ways to portay character.
for me the campaign made me want more, and got me very excited for LOTV.
to summarize: has HOTS lived up to my expectations?
it exceeded them.
edit: forgot to mention multiplayer, I like the changes but I also know that nothing gamedevelopment-related has only one solution, I would have been equally (but not more) happy with several other sets of changes.
|
|
|
I updated the piece with proper editing thanks to Whit Waldo
|
- Did it live up to your expectations?
Yes. I had a great time with the campaign! Kerrigan is a suitably complex character. Not quite deep, but grey enough that she never really becomes stale. The zerg supporting casts are all surprisingly fun to interact with.
- What are the finer, smaller points of quality that you really appreciated?
I really like how in each world, there are a mix up of mission types to keep you from getting bored.
- What are some jarring issues you had with the game, the campaign or multiplayer?
Arcturus Mengsk is a really bad villain. You keep hearing that he's a crafty man, but all you do in both WOL and HOTS is one-upping him. Even his final trick is surprisingly lame. He was a much more dangerous fellow in broodwar.
- What are you expecting out of Legacy of the Void?
I have some reservations since the protoss characters are usually quite boring. I wonder who'll they single out to be the "main character".
|
Just beat the campaign for the first time, on brutal. The story was decent, but i feel like the way it was told could have been better. I don't really enjoy the dialogs or some of the characters, sometimes it seems so cheezy. I am also a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see more "real" cinematics except one in the end.
The gameplay during the missions was however speldid, apart from being to easy, even on brutal. The gameplay and the structure of the mission was diverse, very fun and engaging. Never a dull mission, no "go kill the opponent base", allways some gimmick to it. I really loved the gameplay in the campaign and I think it was way better than WoL.
So in the end the expansion exeded my expectations, it can't live up to the story and lore of SC1 and to a lesser extent BW, but o boy is it wayyyyy more fun! Well done Blizzard!
|
Did it live up to your expectations?
Yes, I actually had very low expectations but it was a pleasant suprise, though the last mission barely felt like last mission in comparison to WoL, the campaign was generally improvement aside from being a tad too easy. I haven't played enough multiplayer yet, but it seems to be pretty good.
What are you expecting more out of Battle.net
Not much, I just hope they keep improving it even if slowly.
What are the finer, smaller points of quality that you really appreciated?
Details in the cinematics, not leaving as much plot holes and the conclusion with Duran as short as it was.
What are some jarring issues you had with the game, the campaign or multiplayer?
I don't think there are that big issues aside from getting sometime the "core: out of memory" thing on longer campaign sessions. Of course I hoped they'd add in bigger highground advantage and change the resource mechanics to stop the 3 base max outs. But if they are at least looking into it, that's fine for now.
What are you expecting out of Legacy of the Void?
A proper closure or at least regarding the big threat, maybe open end to return the focus to battle between the 3 races in some way. Quality missions and big changes/tunes to multiplayer to make it last for years to come.
|
I was really hoping to play other races in the campaign too ):
|
Minor story spoiler.
+ Show Spoiler +One of the things I think was a mixed blessing was managing Kerrigan as a hero unit. She was fun to use, and in particular, I really liked using her (especially after her transformation) to go do Rambo stuff alone during the first 5 or so minutes where I'm basically just developing my economy and whatever tech I need for the mission.
One of the downsides however was how much micro she required to be used effectively. Before her transformation it's not so bad because her energy regenerates slowly, but after she evolves, her abilities are basically constantly up, and to get the most out of her, you have to be giving her constant attention. I found this really distracting whenever I felt like any sort of other micro-intensive unit would be useful. I kind of just gave up on Infestors and Vipers and never used Impalers/Lurkers simply because they diverted too much attention away from Kerrigan. Anything that I couldn't 1-A wasn't as useful. I imagine that if you're fast with your hands, it's not as much of a problem, but still. I don't think Blizzard should have designed her to demand so much micro.
Overall though, I did like it. The missions were fun, albeit a little easy, even on Brutal.
|
i'm happy with it. campaign was lots of fun to play. pretty similar to what they were doing in WoL in terms of style, tone, gameplay etc so if you hated WoL for whatever reason it's not gonna save SC2 for you but i really enjoyed WoL so there you go. the dialogue was less cheesy (probably owing to it being darker in general)... still plenty of cheese, but 1) it's a video game and 2) it's science fiction and if you're a fan of either of those things let alone both you should have learned to take it with a grain of salt by now. the cinematic scenes were great for the most part. actually, the only scene i didn't like was the one with zeratul the OP posted. + Show Spoiler +why did kerrigan just automatically wail on zeratul like that? makes absolutely zero sense.
only complaint i have about the gameplay is that so many of the missions are timed or forced forward by some mechanic or other that there's very little chance to just sit back and enjoy everything while you macro and slowly take the map (the final mission and the last mission on char are the only ones i can think of off the top of my head.) once kerrigan starts getting really high in level and all your units are evolved it also starts to snowball fast and get a lot easier. but my mechanics with zerg are far better than my terran so it's hard to judge. i'm bummed there was no defiler, too, and what they called 'scourge' just looked like flying locusts, so i was a little sad about that, but nothing that made me enjoy playing the game less. the zerus missions were a pleasant and welcome surprise. they worked that part of the story in well.
finally, the final cutscene was immensely satisfying. is this the same leaked ending everyone was bitching about? cos if so those people are losers - that was awesome.
what am i expecting for LotV? a pretty similar kind of campaign to the first two. it's obvious with HotS that they're continuing the character-driven and character-centered style they established in WoL. zeratul will probably be the main character, but i doubt he'll be focused on to the point kerrigan was, which made a lot more sense with her since her zerg were just an extension of her. what i'm really interested to see is whether they completely resolve the dark voice/hybrid plot line at the end of it, or if they leave it open for future games. and i wonder if they'll make further expansions down the line, or wait 10-15 years again to do anything more starcraft-related. i dunno if a WoW-style "game that never dies" would be good or bad for SC2.
|
Waited a long time for the install to complete, go into the game, put in my PW then... it switches me to the WOL screen and wont let me play HOTS. Ive tried entering my auth key over and over and it still wont work. I contacted Blizzard and TL (since I pre ordered it through them) and waiting for a response of some kind. Really sucks seeing everyone talk about it when I cant even play despite having the disc in my hand...
|
Haha, that Zeratul pic!
Haven't MP'd too much, even in Beta, so my opinion will be limited:
-Single player-wise, playing it was fun. Some small things really impressed me, but nothing majorly different.
-Battle.net keeps improving, but I feel like there's still some things missing. However, currently, I'm satisfied.
-I'm terrible with explaining little things other than the fact that I notice A LOT of them.
-No major issues; in fact, for release day, I was semi-impressed-yet-expecting that the game was very stable w/ very few issues for me.
-I'm going to try not to expect too much from LotV so I can get surprised more. I'm just wondering if they made the plot too predictable or if LotV is going to leave us w/ questions for StarCraft III.
|
In your post, you mention that FFA has not improved with the introduction of HotS. I am disappointed that Blizzard is disregarding this game mode.
Without going into detail, let us consider the FFA map pool. Most FFA maps in WoL were either imbalanced or forced you to choose unchallenging strategies. Blizzard should have dropped 6 players maps (which are imbalanced) and fixed starting positions on 8 player maps. On Overwatch - one of the new FFA maps - two player can start in the same base, which is totally ridiculous. To be fair, the three new four-player-maps look well designed.
Most players do not particularly like FFA and I accept that it is not a priority for Blizzard. But still, it would not be difficult to improve FFA. For example Kulas Ravine was a good FFA map, and it would not cost anything to substitute it for one of the 6 player maps. Fixing starting positions on 8 player maps does not seem to be terribly difficult either.
It would also greatly help if FFA would be ranked, and if Blizzard would actively ban teamers - I am reporting them eagerly and it would be a start to actually react to my reports.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kwkQa.png)
![[image loading]](http://tortedelini.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/snapshot-4.png?w=584&h=328)
![[image loading]](http://tortedelini.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/snapshot-1.png?w=584&h=328)
![[image loading]](http://tortedelini.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/snapshot-2.png?w=584&h=328)
