OT: Starcraft II and Elemental

[Ichirou]

Funny I should see this thread after arriving at these boards after being away for some time. The reason I came back here was to see what was new in the Dom3 world since I was so disappointed in Elemental and needed to find something substantial like Dom3 to scratch my MP strategy itch again.

Rather than rehash the details that others here have already so ably discussed, I will limit myself to saying that Elemental is not only an unfinished product, it also seems to be a confused design as well. The game seems to have thrown things together without a thought of how to weld them all together into a pleasing whole. From what I've read, it would seem that this stems from the devs making large changes from build to build. Was there no overall design plan for this game? It doesn't seem like there was. And the game that I first read about and got interested in over a year ago seems to be totally different from the game that they released this week.

Add to that the bugs, an unintuitive UI, an unimaginative set of starting nations, just to name a few things, and the whole thing adds up to something that certainly needed a few more months of work and polish. The only bright light I saw with the whole thing was their stance towards modding the game, and the tools that they will give to help that along.

And of course the real gem - there is no multiplayer on release. Oh there will be servers set up soon, but really, I would have thought that they would be especially careful to have their multiplayer ironed out and ready considering the much deserved flak that they received over their Demigods game.

And yes, I know like others have said that SD will support the title and that they will get things patched and cleaned up eventually. And I do have faith that this will be done. But releasing the game like this when it's not ready just isn't right. And Brad claiming that it is ready is only fooling himself and anyone else enough of a fanboy to believe him. And I think it's going to bite him pretty harshly when it comes review time. While I haven't yet seen a formal English language review on the game yet, other than the PC Gamer warning which was as stated not a review which would come later, there is already at least one brief French review that gives the game a sound 30/100 mainly siting the unfinished and unappealing nature of the game and UI...and the lack of multiplayer being enabled.

Oh well, I suppose I'll have to queue up with everyone else, my gaming buddies included, and just shelve this game for a few months to a year and then check back in with it then. A pity though to see SD waste the good vibes that could have been generated for this game by releasing a finished and polished product that would have in turn ensured a much stronger response, and sales, from the gaming community right from the get go.