Starcraft 2 To Be a Trilogy 253
The Starcraft 2 gameplay panel was an eventful one at Blizzcon today. The developers faced an obstacle when designing the game; the plans they had were just too massive to implement in a single game on anything approaching a reasonable timeline. Their solution was to divide the game up into three separate, stand-alone titles: Terran: Wings of Libery, Zerg: Heart of the Swarm, and Protoss: Legacy of the Void. Read on for further details.
Each campaign will have on the order of 26-30 missions. The path players take through the missions can vary — the storyline branches frequently — but they will end in the same place. The games will run alongside each other; there will not be cliffhanger endings leading from one to another, and each game will focus on a different part of the story. The Terran campaign will focus on Jim Raynor, and the Zerg campaign will be all about Kerrigan. Multiplayer functionality will be in place for all three races from the start.
Re:Am I the only one? (Score:2, Interesting)
Perhaps you should have taken a moment to confirm that indeed, every other post in the thread says the exact same thing.
They didn't exist when I started my post, but thanks for your thoughtful insight.
Uh, why the whine over three games...? (Score:5, Interesting)
For those of you whining about "whaaaa 300% markup"..
Each campaign has 36 missions. That's more than the original Starcraft. Further, the campaign will be branched (ie, you'll have choices that actually effect what happens, which missions are selected, what happens). It might also feature co-op multiplayer, not sure on that one yet.
Or, what they announced, was a game called Starcraft II and the following two expansions to it. You know that's how it'll work. They won't just ship new missions and charge you retail for it, it will feature new units, balance, etc.
Starcraft was released, people were happy. Brood War was released, and people didn't whine about Blizzard "ripping them off" because hey, this expansion also had content.
Starcraft II is exactly the same, and yet, people are whining now...? Am I missing something?
Blizzdot is in full swing! (Score:3, Interesting)
Now that Blizzcon is in full swing, I can look forward to every announcement by blizzard being slashdotted and front paged for the next few days. . . .
Re:Shenanigans. (Score:2, Interesting)
What I don't understand is, if each game is going to include the full multiplayer component (the primary draw for Starcraft), that means the last two titles are just single player missions that won't include new units or buildings. Doesn't that just make them mission packs that shouldn't cost more than $15-20?
I just don't understand why they would part out the least wanted aspect of the game as if it's the most important. Multiplayer is the primary feature people are waiting for.
Re:Zeratul (Score:3, Interesting)
This isn't exactly a new development. Remember Diablo II? Its 'expansion' was really just the end of the story started in the main game, a.k.a. Act V. The same could be said about Warcraft III and its expansion.
Re:Zeratul (Score:5, Interesting)
Has it ever occurred to anyone that this is actually a good thing? What blizzard is saying is that their massive team of elite game developers simply do not have the time to fit the enormous amount of content they want to put in. This means that there will most likely be 2 more WELL-WORTH games that follow the series coming out. I know how much I wanted to go to blizzard and say "can you make another?" when it came to the brood war expansion. If there were only campaigns that came with the expansions, then people would just pirate it and buy the cd-keys for cheep online. Chances are, the expansions will have more units/buildings, more areas, more neutral objects, and possibly new functions to the old units/buildings. And chances are each one will redefine the way the game is played, and lead to many more hours of good gaming, which is much more than you can say about a whole lot of other expansions.
Re:Zeratul (Score:5, Interesting)
I said "What, are expansion packs not making your enough money?" I mean we already know multiple game developers remove stuff from their games (latest example: Plant creator in "Spore") so they can put them in the expansion. So yes, I'm fully aware this is done. Marketing three different standalone games is ridiculous. I guarantee there will be some reason, some hook to force folk into buying all 3. Whereas all races are activated for multiplayer supposedly, I would expect each version will have something like skirmish maps exclusive too each version which you can only play if you own said version, or something similar along those lines. Some way to force all but the most ardent resistor to buy all three.
They're missing the point (Score:5, Interesting)
Part of the inherent coolness of StarCraft was that you got to experience all three races with very three different play mechanisms across the game.
Now they want to make each campaign a separate game? It just doesn't sound nearly as interesting to me, no matter how big the campaigns are or what sort of "metagame" they add to it. It won't cover for the fact that, conceptually, it still feels like a step down.
Obviously, the world isn't coming to an end here - but I wonder if Blizzard's near perpetual success is leading to a bit of disconnect here with the fans. When you can do no wrong for so long, you might start to believe that you can do no wrong even when you're doing wrong.
Re:Zeratul (Score:5, Interesting)
"Effectively each game in the will be an expansion"
http://kotaku.com/5062018/starcraft-ii-lead-producer-on-the-split-single-player-campaign [kotaku.com]
I sense alarmism. (Score:2, Interesting)