Poll: Is StarCraft really the quintessential RTS?

[Usige Beatha]

The C&C series was more ground breaking and the AOE franchise has yet to have a poor game in its ranks.

SC was good and I really enjoyed playing it, but I think its gotten a lot more praise than it truly deserves.

 

[Alotak]

TA Total Anialation, does anyone remember that wonderfull game. Not the best graphics but surely some fo the best gameplay ever.

 

[DEC_42]

I agree, TA was a fun game. I'm addicted to C&C; hundreds of times better than StarCraft.

 

[Joeshie]

Here's what separates SC from a majority of RTS games: Blizzards dedication to continually improve and balance the game. Most RTS games see patches and balance improvements over a short period after release and are never touched again. Blizzard has always provided continued support and balance to their games LONG after their release.

I'm personally a fan of the C&C franchise more than SC, but I appreciate the dedication and love Blizzard has given their games.

 

[DEC_42]

(In order to justify my post)

When I first played StarCraft, I thought, not a shabby game: it looked fun. When I began playing it: Dang, it take a while to get some crystal. Oops, too late, zerged.

It's not just the difficulty, though. I played as Protoss, and won, too, but there wasn't any real strategy in it. I was able to fend off the Zerg forces, but it eventually boiled down to create a whole bunch of units and rampage in the enemy base. That's it. No espionage, no tactical base-building (unless you consider strategic pylon-building base-building), and no depth to units or gameplay.

I like scouting around with my Rocketeers and getting past enemy forces with my spy, and then use my naval forces to blockade my enemy, and then send in the Apocalypse tanks.

Why did I get put on probation, again?

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Why did I get put on probation, again?

Ask this sort of question in a PM

 

[cawstrife]

starcraft was my first rts ever well no TA was but that doesnt count because that was before i knew how to count to 5 so im a bit biased on starcraft but its better BECAUSE there IS NO espionage and boring stuff u have to do u kinda pick it up and play it difficulty? not really if u kno what ur doing

 

[Jakkar]

I have to agree with the common sentiment, and I believe the topic is justified. Such an overhyped, overreferenced game, and why; I've never known.

It felt less strategic than C+C, provided more frantic, larger battles.. Yet TA provided larger and more interesting battles, on the other side of the spectrum.

It sits in the middle, a moderately entertaining, well-presented simplistic RTS with an sufficient if highly clichéd storyline. No special merits, simply a fun game with a lot of cinematic exposition, firmly seated in it's place as a 'classic RTS', even before it's age caught up with it.

Blizzard followed the same route with Diablo and it's sequel; simplistic but well-presented, fast paced, lacking any strategic depth, taking a genre and 'simplifying' it, for the mass market previously too intimidated by stat or strategy heavy games of either genre.

Warcraft, of course, took the same route again, replacing the hardcore space marine/alien setting inspired by the Alien franchise and Games Workshop's Warhammer 40, with derivative fantasy - while mixing the two genres with some minor RPG elements (of the gather potions and defeat named monsters sort).

And World of Warcraft took precisely what made earlier MMOs popular, mixed it with a little Diablo 2 and the storyline and setting of their own previous project, Warcraft 3, and provided... The quintessential simplistic and repetitive MMORPG, a phenomenon more social than gaming-oriented, providing a daily grind, the illusion of purposeful endeavor and an easy way to make new friends.

Blizzard work in a very well-defined fashion. They are very much businessmen, rarely innovating with new features or coming up with original material, but taking established genres and settings and polishing them into what will achieve massive market success.

Clever from a financial standpoint, but personally, I've never bought a Blizzard title for more than £5, second or third hand.

 

[DEC_42]

Jakkar, you summed up my feelings so well.

I need to send you a cake.

And Khell, I agree with you there with TA and SupCom, although the latter is futuristic; Act of War, perhaps?

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

To quote Hunter S. Thompson, Starcraft was the RTS game "where with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

Everything since was just a re-treading. Even Warcraft III.

 

[gmer412]

The thing about starcraft was the incredible balance between the three races. It felt like Blizzard had opted to go with three very balanced, very fleshed out races instead of the usual 6 or 7. Everything felt very refined.

 

[ScreamingCrab]

I found StarCraft a lot more fiddly to play than C&C games. I'm not a huge fan of micromanagement, especially when bad pathfinding is involved. I like to say "go over there" and not worry about it meaning "clog up around a thin area and get spread out and killed off one by one while I try to build my base at the same time". While that obviously happened in C&C a lot, it wasn't such an issue, and it didn't seem to be so easy for units to die due to my own stupidity. I like that in a game. Ahem.

For instance, me, playing terrans like the wuss I am, when trying to move forward majority of my attack consisted of reeeaaalllyyy caarrrefully moving forward my tank wotsists and deploying them bit by bit while defended by AA stuff for fear of gettin in range of base defences by accident and losing the front part of my force. With C&C however, I was able to send off an attack and not worry *too* much about them all getting killed off by some sneaky bugger. My occasional Zerg strategy was the same, basically, build stoopid amounts of those flying crab things defended by flying pork scratchings and blob away at the enemy until victory occurs. I don't like the way that one misclick or a slight miscalculation can lead to the death of a good part of your army. So what if my attacks are predictable and easily countered. I shouldn't die QUICKLY just for that, damn it.

I reckon Starcraft is by far the better multiplayer, for the sake of balance anyway. I reckon it'd be the most entertaining to watch as well if one could be arsed to do so. However, I'm not much of a multiplayer gamer unless it's with mates. I always feel like I'll be beaten by someone who spends more than 4 hours a day on the bloody thing, which is why I (obviously) only really played the campaign or skirmishes.
Total Anihilation however was the opposite, it was like, focus on building while you send repeated waves of men/special units/artillery guns to irritate your foe. It was too much focus on the other side of RTS-ing, although I still enjoyed it. There was something satisfying about scooping a huge block of tanks and leaving them to trundle forwards while you build more.

I reckon Dawn of War could rival Starcraft if it were ever possible to try and balance the damned game properly. Maybe I just suck too much, but it always seemed like when I kicked everyone's arse or, more likely, got utterly thrashed online, I always felt that bits weren't quite right and I were winning/losing due to some flaw... if it weren't for my damned Tau troops dying at a loud noise... stupid nerf + lag + n00b teammat... Nothing to do with being crap. No. Trying to balance the (9 is it?) armies in the game would be like... trying to find an simile for that sentence without using the obvious 'plates' one. Doesn't mean they should give up like I did though.

Still, for people who aren't going to almost starve to death trying to master Starcraft online and instead enjoy the camp acting and awesomeness of Kane along with stupid weapons and bad-sci fi, C&C is a general winner for me.

 

[zieber]

SCBW owns you. and SC2 will too... i hope..

 

[TheIceface]

I really didn't like starcraft a lot. Except for the Zergling Rush scenario (which pretty much discredits the game as amazing canon) you could pretty much win every time if you were protoss.
Build a bunch of those turrets and then a bunch of the carrier ships and you win, not even 3 fleets of battle cruisers could stop you (believe me, I've tried).

I was actually a big fan of Tzar, in terms of standard RTS, and I liked Age of Wonders a lot too, even though it was very different.

 

[shatnershaman]

I hate starcraft. So unbalanced.

 

[Kinichie]

I dunno what all the fuss is about with Starcraft to be honest.

Maybe I got bored of it too easy because I was owned by the Computer.

 

[TheIceface]

One of my biggest Irks is when the computer seems to magically know where you are in some games. I now they tend to send out a peasant in every direction at the beginning, but sometimes the first you see of the enemy is the enormous army.