• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

StarCraft II Campaign Mode Blowout - Screens, Movies, & Impressions

G

Gribbix

Member
I figure this is worth its own thread since it would just be lost in the SC2 Beta thread.

Videos:
Updated, direct-feed version of the prerendered intro from Blizzcon 08
Campaign Mission Movie 1
Campaign Mission Movie 2
Campaign Mission Movie 3

Screens:
Screenshot078Jpg.jpg


Screenshot074Jpg.jpg


Screenshot079Jpg.jpg


Screenshot061Jpg.jpg


Screenshot070Jpg.jpg


Screenshot107Jpg.jpg


Screenshot097Jpg.jpg


tScreenshot054Jpg.jpg


Screenshot084Jpg.jpg


Screenshot085Jpg.jpg


Screenshot054Jpg.jpg


Screenshot032Jpg.jpg


Screenshot022Jpg.jpg


Screenshot020Jpg.jpg


Impressions:
Kotaku (Spoilers) / Kotaku (No Spoilers) -

An example of branching missions in the game:
Following "Tooth & Nail," two mission options are made available, "Mining Your Own Business" and "The Evacuation of Agria." Since we had the option of access to multiple saves, we tried both.

"The Evacuation of Agria" is fairly self explanatory. After receiving a distress call from Dr. Ariel Hansen, Raynor and crew sign up to escort a group of Agrian colonists through a Zerg infestation. That involves following a series of convoys full of helpless citizens. But the mission offers alternative goals as well, including the total elimination of all Zerg forces in the area and the successful harvesting of DNA from hidden chrysalises.

Since "The Evacuation of Agria" is, as Tychus Findlay jeeringly calls it, a "hero mission," it pays less than "Mining Your Own Business." But it gives the player access to Firebats and it welcomes a new addition to the Hyperion bridge, Dr. Hansen. What benefit she offers, we don't know, as we were only permitted to play a set number of missions.

So we reverted to an older save to play through the mining rescue mission. It's largely a harvest and defend mission. All Raynor's Raiders are on the planet Red Stone III to do is mine the a set amount of high yield minerals, all the while defending against the occasional Zergling nuisance.

But "Mining Your Own Business" has an environmental twist. The area has a rising tide of molten lava every few minutes. So it's more like harvest, defend, retreat, rinse, and repeat until you've pulled in enough minerals to make it worth the while of your employer, the dreadlocked Tosh. He'll also ally with Raynor, should the contractual obligations be met.
Click to expand...

On the amount of content:
StarCraft II's units and structures feel much more broad in their scope than what we've seen in the game's multiplayer mode—all those upgrades would be nothing short of impossible to balance. It's clear that Blizzard is heavily investing in both single and multiplayer for Wings of Liberty. The storytelling in the Terran campaign is expert, with plenty to dig deep into should players want to hear every single word of spoken dialogue, through which bits and pieces of backstory are delivered.

The decision to split StarCraft II into three separate campaigns was, obviously, concerning. But the amount of content that Blizzard appears to be packing into the first third of that trilogy allays most of those concerns. There's an incredible amount of game here.
Click to expand...

Shacknews -
This was already mentioned in the past, but some of the SC1 units that didn't make it into SC2's multiplayer will still appear in SC2's campaign mode:
In addition to money, each mission will also unlock a new unit to play with. These units include favorites such as Medics and Firebats, which have been cut from the StarCraft II multiplayer component. After encountering a strange bug, I also found an unfinished beta version of the Dragoon, pointing to that unit's inclusion in the campaign as well.

Speaking of unfinished things, the laboratory component is the aforementioned system that Blizzard is retooling after internal feedback. In this build, it essentially assigned optional collection tasks, almost in the style of a World of Warcraft quest. The Seth Green-esque lab geek character required several Hydralisk pelts and other optional materials found on levels to complete a specialized upgrade.
Click to expand...
And that's all I got to play of the campaign. It was good to see Blizzard sticking to the "minigame" plan. These missions won't be repeated in content--and due to their branching nature, players won't get to play all of them in a single playthrough--making the campaign should be ripe for replaying.
Click to expand...

Additional Links:
StarCraft Legacy
StarCraftWire
 
Giolon

Giolon

Member
Man, all this is cruel. It's like they're going "We played it and you don't get to. nyaa nyaa nyaa nyaa nyaaaaaa nyaaaaaaaaa!"

T.T
 
J

jersoc

Member
wow, i'm surprised at the graphics. Blizzard really out did themselves with the high settings.

So sad this got delayed, but it's only for the best. Can't freakin wait.
 
L

Lé Blade Runner

Member
I am not a huge RTS -fan in general, but I loved StarCraft, and as such the second installment is a day-one purchase. :) The screens look good, by the way!
 
gimmmick

gimmmick

Member
Fucking tits! This game might actually live up to the un godly amount of hype it has gathered since being announced.

Any word if the specs have been released yet?
 
S

Scrow

Still Tagged Accordingly
i don't care anymore. just release the beta already.

edit: heh, some nice details in those screens.

* Lost Vikings arcade cabinet in the bar (maybe playable as a bonus?)
* "Don't shoot at screen" note under the TV
* Hydralisk claws mounted as trophies above the bar
* "No parking" sign near the road side
* "Real men drill deep" sign

Blizzard are awesome. But i hate them for making me wait so long.
 
S

Scrow

Still Tagged Accordingly
anyone get the feeling that blizzard want to get some media and coverage out early for SCII so they can save some attention and hype for their other games like D3 and WoW:XPac3 at BlizzCon?
 
G

Gribbix

Member
Enosh said:
looks good, but I realy hope the voice acting is just a placeholder
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it's final (or at least close to it). That's almost certainly the final Raynor voice. In the earlier movies from last year, Blizzard had a new voice actor for Raynor but they eventually went back to the original one from SC1. On the other hand, they were originally going to use the same voice actress for Kerrigan (she even recorded her lines in the original Blizzcon 08 prerendered intro and animatic) but they decided to switch to a new actress (who you can hear in the updated version of the prerendered intro above).
 
X

xbhaskarx

Member
Darkflight said:
Looks better than Starcraft 1 (640*480 by the time I got to it = never played) , will try at least.
Click to expand...

You really think it looks better than a ten year old game, which you never played because of how it looked by the time you got it, therefore you will at least try it? Okay.
 
G

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
I'm running a three and a half year old mac laptop as my primary PC. It's served me just fine up to this point (I only play WoW, Spore, and popcap titles on it), but Starcraft II is a STRONG contender for the game that will finally make me upgrade...
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Looks and sounds fantastic.

I'm stuck on a laptop for the next month or so...wish I'd brought my starcraft discs with me :(
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
Darkflight said:
Looks better than Starcraft 1 (640*480 by the time I got to it = never played) , will try at least.
Click to expand...

Shallow be thy name?

I'm sorry for anyone who places graphics above gameplay. And there's nothing wrong with the graphics in Starcraft, even today. Its continued sales ranking amongst the current top selling PC games goes to prove that.
 
J

jaxword

Member
xbhaskarx said:
You really think it looks better than a ten year old game, which you never played because of how it looked by the time you got it, therefore you will at least try it? Okay.
Click to expand...

Apparently he was just tired and incoherent, so crisis averted.
 
D

Darkflight

Member
Yeah, I must admit what I posted was a bit stupid now I think about it (yay, now I'm the guy I usually laugh at for being quoted) :lol - I blame the 4 hours sleep and the 2 hours of thrilling Baccarat testing.

It does look impressive and I like the interface for the single-player (giving me a Freespace 2 front-menu vibe), not been overly thrilled with the gameplay from the multi-player videos posted or ones I looked at for 1 after they were mentioned to be exciting to watch (on Thumbs I think), always looked a tad too hectic for me to keep up with (I love stupidly long RTS games where I can build a ridiculous base up), but have heard that the single player will mix the missions style up which sounds cool like the Lava mentioned in the OP.

There I think that's explained it better I hope, I'm more intrigued by this one then I ever was for 1 and now it looks the part too.

No bait dangling, honest, I hate that shit. Just me blabbering without proof-reading (which I normally do to prevent myself looking like a douche ala this instance, I spend more time checking my work mails then writing them) - What a great start to the morning, annoyed at myself now for diverting the thread.
 
C

Comic

Member
Darkflight said:
(I love stupidly long RTS games where I can build a ridiculous base up),
Click to expand...

I did this plenty of times in Starcraft, would be surprised if you can't do it in the sequel.

However competitively you don't really get the option to play 'leisurely' like that. I'd suggest giving the game a shot, I imagine the gameplay won't be too different in core values, so you can find out if you might possibly hate the sequel now and save yourself some time.
 
D

Darkflight

Member
Minsc said:
Shallow be thy name?

I'm sorry for anyone who places graphics above gameplay. And there's nothing wrong with the graphics in Starcraft, even today. Its continued sales ranking amongst the current top selling PC games goes to prove that.
Click to expand...
I try not to be, I love old-school games, especially point and clicks and they definitely aren't placing graphics above gameplay :lol - I'll try Starcraft this weekend then, I know my friend has a copy I can borrow.
 
T

tomasdk

Member
It looks sooo good. The wait will be torture.
Is there any chance we'll get Glynis back to voice Kerrigan? I can't imagine Kerrigan sounding different.
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
Darkflight said:
I try not to be, I love old-school games, especially point and clicks and they definitely aren't placing graphics above gameplay :lol - I'll try Starcraft this weekend then, I know my friend has a copy I can borrow.
Click to expand...

If you give it an honest try, then you can knock it all you want and it's fine by me, who knows, you may end up enjoying it more than you thought! :D

I forgot to mention the OP is great, love the new screens, especially the one with the miners sign and stop sign. I hope the knocking of the campaign splitting will end soon, now that it is becoming more and more apparent Blizzard isn't shafting us, and by all accounts is delivering a campaign that is far better than what would have been possible if they only devoted 1/3rd the amount of levels to each race.
 
J

Johann

Member
Max said:
The new SCV portrait better pick his nose
Click to expand...

The made him a mild-mannered white guy in this game.

The last SCV was a black guy... and the only worker unit a world dominated white men with a Southern accent who were part of the Confederacy.

tomasdk said:
It looks sooo good. The wait will be torture.
Is there any chance we'll get Glynis back to voice Kerrigan? I can't imagine Kerrigan sounding different.
Click to expand...

Karen Strassman is now the voice actor for Kerrigan. I think Campbell was used just for the opening cinematic with Zeratul.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Helldivers II | Review Thread
Analysis Review 2 3
127
11K
DaleinCalgary replied
[PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for January] Resident Evil 2, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Hardspace: Shipbreaker and more
News Platform 2
66
4K
Thick Thighs Save Lives replied
PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup for December 2022 Revealed
News 2
91
7K
StealthGoblin replied
Starcraft 2 going free to play (WOL campaign, ALL multiplayer)
35
9K
lefty1117 replied
No Mans Sky Beyond, Out Now! (Update Notes)
5 6 7 8 9
417
34K
scalman replied
Top Bottom