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Comment by throw156754228 | Hacker News Reader

Did anyone else think gameplay was not anywhere near as enjoyable in SC2? There was something a bit more raw about SC1/Brood War which I felt went missing in SC2. I didn't invest enough time into SC2 though.

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For me, I think it's that you learned every nook and cranny of StarCraft. You knew the units and their strength, their health, how quickly 12 of unit X would wipe out 24 of unit Y. You could basically predict health bars in combat (assuming you knew upgrade level.) In StarCraft II, everything felt softer, less crisp, less exact. Throw 40 marines at something. Throw 100 zerglings at something. Just keep throwing things out while you focus on upgrades and expansion. You didn't know if you would win or lose a battle, so you just spam the enemy with the units you expected to do best. But you never felt quite so in control as you do with the original.

That's what it was for me.

I couldn't get into it. I wasn’t sure if it was the game itself, my movement away from being a gamer, or just missing the game I knew so well.

I played SC2 for only a short time, so I may misremember. The transition to 3d does not feel great, it makes movement a bit sluggish and slow.

Additionally, 2d enables more / exaggerated visual effects (like tank shot blast) and consistent visual sprites.

You can turn off these effects.

Turn off which effects?

I think part of it is just growing up as a human. I don't think I'll never enjoy games as much as I enjoyed Starcraft and Halo 1 & 2. It was just the perfect age for me

I think it's also the age of blizzard and the era of computing. Certain dark patterns common today weren't possible in that era, so games had more soul, and for most people Blizzard had already sacrificed it's soul to WoW before SC2 was announced.

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