SC II: Day 7

Ugh, short break due to exams, but here we go!

Mission 09 - The Temple of Unification

Difficulty: 2,5/5
Tries: 2
Savegames: 18
          I'm not going to comment on the mission since its average difficulty, but I want to say a few words about cinematic before the next mission. It was freaking awesome! Really! I may sound naïve, but I like it very much when forces unite. In any game, movie, or book, I like when enemies finally make piece and starting to work together. Also, I missed Kerrigan :) Really, don't tell me, that you didn't :)

Mission 10 - The Infinite Cycle
Difficulty: 2/5
Tries: 1
Savegames: 10
          I don't want to say that the mission is easy. Even if you have only two units, if you don't use all your abilities right enemies overwhelm you. The hardest moment was in the end when you must defeat huge army of protoss and hybrids while being chased by big ray. I used "Load" button about 50 times here.

Tyrant Velhari 10/13M

Tactical requirements: high
DPS requirements: very high
Overall difficulty: 9/10
Attempts: 147
World rank: 1073
          Funny thing - we killed Velhari right after 6.2.3 was released. Though we could finish this encounter weeks ago, we were clearly lacking DPS, and DPS requiremends for this fight are VERY high. This boss is difficult, really it is, each phase is a challenge, but this is all due to "kill it fast before it kills you" mechanics. I believe this is the first boss to be trivialized right after people will get enough Valor for their upgrades.

 

SC II: Day 6

Mission 08 - Forbidden Weapon

Difficulty: 4,5/5
Tries: 4
Savegames: 45
           Another very hard mission. Your time is very short, enemies are numerous. When you are far away you cannot defend your base, since enemies attacks you from the gates you cannot breach. I cannot even say how many times I used "Load" button here - probably about a hundred times - even this didn't save me from starting it over and over again. The key to the success in this mission  is combination of Stalkers shield regeneration ability via Blink and ship's Freeze ability (very useful btw, you can stop and destroy entire army - 20 seconds of freeze). Though as you see on the screenshot I BARELY made it in time even with savegames.

SC II: Day 5

Mission 07 - Brothers in Arms

Difficulty: 2/5
Tries: 1
Savegames: 8
          Quite easy mission (for Brutal :)) Now you are not short on time, also the enemy almost never attacks you. Thought enemy forces are quite numerous. I made it with Immortals + Stalkers.
          The cinematic is great too as well.

 

SC II: Day 4

Mission 06 - Sky Shield
Difficulty: 3,5/5
Tries: 3
Savegames: 18
          If there was no timer the mission would be quite easy - focus all your power on defense, then hiding by cannons make an army and destroy those facilities. But there is a timer, you just cant build cannons or you wont have enough resources to make units in time. In the same time, when you are trying to complete mission objectives enemies wont hesitate to attack you, so you need to rush to facilities and defend your base in the same time.
          First try I used the same tactic as on previous mission - Dragoons as firepower plus Zealots as shield, but this quickly become futile. Zealots was dying way too fast, you just waste resources on making them. Also you cant make Dragoons only - their attack is way too slow so they quickly become overwhelmed by small units, like Zerglings.
          My next idea was to use Dark Templars, but this was quite useless too. Templars cannot attack air units, and detectors are everywhere, so you have to make both Dragoons and Templars. This is very hard to control, one wrong move and all your Templars being smashed by Siege Tank in a matter of seconds.
          Third try I switched from Dragoons to Stalkers. Their ability to regenerate shields after Blink is very useful, I even didn't expect this. Every 8 seconds (just eight!) you are able to regenerate half of your shield - awesome! But the main problem still persisted - those untargetable bombs fired by Terran Ravens. Blink is very helpful too - you just Blink this unit away to catch the bomb, but in the crowd when in the same time several bombs target your units, tanks attack you from the back and Battlecruiser is shooting from the side.
          By the way - reinforcements are also very helpful here. Just before an assault you summon Pylon, getting 4 units and being able to summon more to you via Warp Gate.

 

          On this screenshot you can see my base is being destroyed :) Though I made it before I got defeated :)

 

War. War never changes...

        War never changes, but Fallout series does ...

        Right, after first 10 hours of gameplay I finally want to state my opinion of the game.

          First of all – really it was not what I’ve expected after I saw all those advertisement trailers. We were promised none less but new Fallout 2 Starcraft Baldurs Gate Dark Souls, but from user reviews one can clearly see it was faaaar from truth.

          Far from truth in all directions:

          Graphics: We were promised graphics at least on par with The Witcher 3 level. Graphics is good, really, but comparing to Witcher? Nope, not even close. I can compare Fallout to Wolfenstein or Bioshock – 1-2 years old games – good graphics, but nothing more, although humongous system requirements trying to convince us otherwise. I even bought new videocard – and for what?

          Plot: This is the weakest point. After 10 hours of gameplay I completed only several dull quests. Protagonist is completely emotionless. He comes out on the surface with face like “ok, nuclear explosion, sh*t happends”. The game didn’t tell who are those people, how did they survive, where did they came from. You don’t live with your character, it is like you are playing Counter-Strike. But this is Fallout after all! Remember those quests lines from Fallout 2? I could feel the world is living there and my character lived in that world. Now I cannot understand why, what for, where …

          Gameplay: I don’t like the games when you need to create your own story. Take Bioshock Infinite for example – playing the game is like you are watching awesome action movie, every second something happens. In Fallout things are like this – you want to get fun? Ok, take hundred of house patterns, take walls, doors, bath tubes and flowes – and make your own home! Go and find some fun for yourself! Probably this is the core of sandbox – maybe I just don’t like sandbox games.

        Controls: This is just bad console port, controls are very bad, you can cancel some menus with ESC, but some only with TAB and this is really painful to remember HOW TO CLOSE EACH MENU – like wtf?! Why I cant cancel it all with ESC?

          Crafting system: For those who like The Sims probably it can be fun, although I have doubts Sims fans will play Fallout games. You can salvage everything – very “realistic” indeed.

          So what did we get? Another Skyrim in post-apocalyptic world with guns instead of magic. Skyrim was great (with better plot btw), but why make second one?

          You know, the best game of all Fallout series for me was Fallout Tactics, and you know why? Because the game had its story. You have had clear course of all missions, you knew that in the end of this map new gauss gun awaits you, while F4 presents with another rusted coffee cup in the end of the long cave.
          The only fun moment so far was in the beginning – the nuclear explosion is really well made – I could almost feel it on my skin, and share those people horror. Too bad that’s the only fun moment in the game. I really should spend those 60 bucks somewhere else. If you are Fallout fan – imagine F4 was never released. Probably it was just a mistake to bring Fallout in 3D after all.

Verdict: wasted 60 bucks. Farewell, Fallout, we will never meet again ...

SC II: Day 3

Mission 04 - Amon's Reach
Difficulty: 3,5/5
Tries: 3
Savegames: 19
          For this mission I've chose Dragoons - their damage is huge and the range is good, they serve as firepower - and Zealots with added ability - Whirlwind. The hardest point is to deal with Void Giants - to defeat them you must mix invisible units with your regular army, or you will never break through zerg bases. When the last Giant is defeated to finish the mission is not a problem - I was even able to ravage all zerg bases :)

 

Mission 05 - Last Stand

Difficulty: 4,5/5
Tries: 3
Savegames: 20
          Do you remember this mission from Brood War? I remember! The last and the hardest mission - the defense of the temple of Xel'Naga. This is not the same temple, though, but the mission is very similar. And VERY difficult. The advice is - use Dark Templars - their invisibility serve both as block and additional firepower.


 

SC II: Day 2

Mission 03 - The Spear of Adun

Difficulty: 4/5
Tries: 3
Savegames: 30
          Now the first REAL difficult Brutal mission :) I cant express how I like this sense of difficulty! :) When you play WoW and defeat the bosses you've already defeated sometimes you are even yawning. When you play, I don't know, Civ 5, SimCity, Hearthstone you don't feel adrenaline that rush through your veins, but here you feel it - when you barely complete the mission when the enemy almost overwhelmed you.
          The difficult part is not the one, that enemies are strong and numerous. Usually you just make units until 200\200 and fortify your base with zillions of Photon Cannons. But here your resources are very limited - you cannot just sit on your base forever rebuilding broken Photon Cannons. I made it from the 3rd try, and even then I was close to be defeated - on my last assault, when my resources was over I decided to abandon my base and just rush to last point.

 

SC II: Day 1

          A.W.E.S.O.M.E.! This is only what I can say after first two missions :) This game is a good example how games today should be made. Genius plot, marvelous cinematic, just flawless!
          And do you remember, how I like to evaluate things? :) As I completed WoL and HotS campaigns on Brutal difficulty, I'm going to complete LotV on Brutal too. Every several days I'm going to complete few missions and post something here. I thought how can I rate each mission? Just to share my opition on difficulty wont be enough, so I'm going to stress 3 things - difficulty obv., amount of tries, and amount of savegames - I thing this will show the real effort I put on each mission :) So lets start, shall we?

Mission 01 - For Aiur!
Difficulty: 1/5
Tries: 1
Savegames: 9
          First mission is the first mission, obviously easy. There is no tactic, since you don't have the base. You just gather your army and rush forward. Though, it can be considered wise to attacks with Collosuses first - light units as Zerglings will die even before they reach your army, so you save more Zealots.

Mission 02 - The Growing Shadow

Difficulty: 2,5/5
Tries: 1
Savegames: 16
          "My life for Aiur!" ... I cannot believe Zeratul has died. He was with us for the very beginning - from SC I. But the cinematic was just incredible. Such spirit, such fight!
          As for mission itself - this is the first real Brutal mission :) Not very hard, but still. You have to act very fast and gather big army, if you want to advance. Since there are only two units, there is no choice but to make them.

 

For Aiur!

          At long last we can finally try the last SC II campaign! 5 years of great saga is coming to its end. I cant even express how long we've waited for this, and finally today we can set our foot on Aiur again!
          For now I've completed only first three Prologue missions, but even this filled me with anticipation! That long forgotten sense of difficulty! Missions on Brutal difficulty made me sweat once again :)

          Congratulations to everyone! EN TARO TASSADAR!!!

#starcraft2 #legacyofthevoid