[BETA KEY] Review Your Favorite StarCraft Campaign from CC!

[Lavarinth]

Write a short review of your absolute favorite campaign here at Campaign Creations and you'll be entered to another drawing for StarCraft 2 Beta Keys! The review can be any length, but please attempt to keep it short. We want to know what made the playthrough great for you and why you recommend it. We'll be using these reviews in the future for our next step in developing our new website, so speak up! (One short notice: though Vile Egression is not listed as a campaign in our website, it is officially part of CC and will be showcased in our new site.)

The amount of keys released will be dependent on the amount of participants but will be no less than five.

Contest is open until Sunday, May 9th 10PM PST.

[Legion]

Campaign Title: Fall From Grace
Creator/Developer: Des

Fall From Grace is a short campaign, about the length of the original Starcraft precursor campaign, detailing the life and times of a protoss templar called Rond. As part of the first wave of noteworthy campaigns with custom voice acting, this little gem had it all for the protoss fans out there: a Tassadar-esque brave Templar, a Zeratul-ish wise old guy, an evil Judicator who could have easily been one of Aldaris' younger brothers-or-whatever all acting out a pretty straight-forward but nevertheless interesting storyline. The player is thrown in the middle of the action set in the original Starcraft protoss campaign and assumes the role of yet another nameless and opinionless Executor. That's a good thing, since this campaign focuses so strongly on Rond that at times it almost seems like you're him. That's how well this campaign handles character development. You'll think of Rond as a hero, a fool, a chickenshit, a traitor and a hero again... all in the span of a handful of playable missions.

The Special Edition features some eyecandy and some added earcandy, and allows Fall From Grace to run automatically and very smoothly. Of course it should be noted that most of the 'goodies' this campaign had to offer back in the day are outdated now, but that's Starcraft campaigns for ya!

If Antioch Chronicles is the mother and father of voiced protoss campaigns, Fall From Grace is the firstborn child. Go get it, you bastards!

[Falchion]

STARCRAFT:  VILE EGRESSION REVIEW

Despite being very short-living, Vile Egression is yet another example of Starcraft professionalism that shines this twelve-years old game, even in the nigh arrival of it's sequel.


So, Starcraft II is on the move, close to release.  But what works like Vile Egression, for it's quality, and especially Vile Egression, for launching so close to the coming of Blizzard's 1998 famous game sequel, teaches gamers, modders and map-makers is:  Just because something new is coming, it doesn't mean people can't work on the old.  This is an exceedingly rare example that delivers high-quality, great gameplay and unexpected creativity that can be considered a golden closure to one of the most memorable RTS (Real Time Strategy) games of all time.  Players could easily say "It's just a Starcraft campaign", but that would be selling it too short.  Vile Egression is played mostly on a micro-management style and effectively combines this and macro-management with a solid story with outstanding graphics, incredible atmosphere and a quasi-expert use of sound effects, voice acting and music.

The work and boot-on-the-door kickstart for the newcomer Laconius and his career inside the Starcraft fan-site Campaign Creations can sound also, for some confused people, like a mix-up of several other campaigns, from other people, however.  This is noticeable from:  Metathrom's (or simply 'Meta') complexity from "Aeon of the Hawk" and "Flame Knives", Legion's "Dark Swarm" expert sound use and IskatuMesk's expertise on Starcraft's IceCC core component.  Maybe?  But what then?  At least it can be said it's a good mix-up, and one that's done just right.  At any rate, you do not need to be afraid to play this campaign, as it will purge all signs of pessimism you have.

Let's face it, these things beat Colossus 10 to 1!

The setting for Vile Egression would be traditional and easily remembered in Desler's "Fall From Grace" as it deals once again with the transitional period of the alien Protoss between their original cradle world, Aiur, that fell to the xenomorph Zerg invasion, and Shakuras, shelter planet of the Dark Templar exilees, banished from their own homeworld and now playing host to their punishers.  The difference here, besides complexity and all this is that, instead of fighting to rebuild Aiur, the Protoss here adopt what Johnny Depp said in his work, Pirtates of the Caribbean:  Fight... to run away.  Attention on this campaign is purely focused on the Protoss, with secondary Zerg presence and no Terrans (Humans in a short term) at all, but this is one far too little shortcoming to worry about.  The campaign itself makes you forget about such details.

There are far too many quirks to consider, but they all add up to escalate Vile Egression through the hall of fame.  The main points are:  Each character has it's own voice, as much as in responses as in dialogues, and look, giving his/her unique feel.  In addition to units already introduced in Starcraft II, like the Stalker and the Immortal, the campaign also delivers a variety of new units to try out, like the tripod Trilobyte, that fires multiple plasma rounds and may sound overpowered, but it isn't, and the Stormcrow gunship, in direct contrast to air-only Starcraft units like the Terran Valkyrie and the Dark Templar Corsair.  Vile Egression also improves known gameplay situation by making it more unpredictable, actually demanding that players themselves take their part in turning the tides in their favor, and, as predicted, with fewer and fewer units at your command.

When the gameplay comes to fighting "bosses", similar to games like Dawn of War 2 and campaigns like "Legacy of the Confederation", creativity and balance is a quirk for Vile Egression.  These situations are neither too abusive nor too cheesy to deal with and are even enhanced with a gameplay style that you can quickly adapt to.  One example is where you face a Dark Templar boss as well as his reinforcements, and you must decide which of the two gadgets available to the player in the scene must be used.

Protoss doesn't sound that poetic, true, but this is not the concern here.

However, if the game has any shortcomings, there are too few of them to be mentioned and that CAN be considered, the first being the absurdly short time for playing it.  Like the time people get to sleep, you can only get a roughly five-hour playtime with this campaign.  A let down for something with the highest quality ever.  Another is that such campaign is driven towards a public more veteran with Starcraft, people who already are experienced with micro and macro-management.  In a matter of saying, even the easy mode provided by the campaign will demand players to have had played Battle.net and the vanilla Starcraft's single-player campaign.  But, if you can ignore these two flaws, you'll find that Vile Egression is a game worthy of your time.

The story and dialogue itself are rather well structured, albeit sometimes it's a rather too poetic for a straight to the point manner of speaking the Protoss have.  Still, this doesn't alter the general original style, as it is easier to understand the numerous words.  Very references and comebacks are very well used and pointed, like the famous Protoss religious ethnic intolerance shown in campaigns like "Enslavers: Dark Vengeance" and "The Antioch Chronicles", in which, during the course of the missions, you find out you're not battling only the alien foe, but your supposed-to-be allies as well.  Also, during the campaign, a good number of references and even characters from other campaigns are mentioned, but are done so in a harmless way, and a rather respectful one to the other campaign authors.

In the end, Vile Egression is everything a Starcraft player would expect:  Terrific single-player, inventive new addition to the Starcraft universe, new visuals and well-developed characters.  Given the very short campaign, the memory space it occupies may seem indeed a bit high, but the fun generated with the new units more than repays that space.  It is mentioned that a sequel to this campaign is underway.  In a honest way of saying, if Vile Egression is this state-of-the-art campaign, it is worth to hold the breath for Vile Egression II.

Immortals...  Their name shall be put to the Protoss test!

GREATEST FORTHCOMINGS:
- SOLID, WELL-COMPOSED STORY:  Story, for a Starcraft campaign, can be the typical good guy versus bad guy cliché.  However, the campaigns that are awarded this Forthcoming are known not only by core-plotting, but also complexity, dialogue, the possibility of multiple stories or simply badass characters.
- BALANCED AND WELL-PACED GAMEPLAY:  Gameplay is core and butter of the campaign bread, and thus it not only needs balancing, but also a way to keep up the heat of the player's hand on both keyboard and mouse.  Campaigns awarded with this Forthcoming have delivered this and much more.
- INVENTIVE TERRAINING:  This Forthcoming is a special honor for all the hard work and hours put into an editor, regardless of what may be.  This applies so much for estetic beauty as for technical usefulness, or both, if the that is the case.
- REMARKABLE, LEGAL REFERENCES:  Sometimes a campaign can make nostalgic moves to further enhance it's public image.  Such mention can be either from other campaigns or from vanilla Starcraft itself.  Still, campaigns that not only obtained legal authorization, but also made so in the best and correct way possible recieve this award.
- FINE USE OF UNITS AND GRAPHICS:  In few words, when it comes to a custom campaign, especially one that involves it's own custom modification, a new good-looking or useful thing can be the critical turning point for recieving this Forthcoming.  However, fun is also a factor to be considered, after all, it's no point having that beautiful-looking stuff and absolutely no use for it!
- BEST BOSS BATTLE CONSTRUCTION:  Campaigns once in a while decide to go video game-ish and set up some interesting fights.  They can be far too basic or complexive.  But those who can be remembered with that relative ease in later years deserve this Forthcoming.
- FULLY SOUND-DRIVEN:  There are campaigns with sounds only.  There are campaigns with music only.  There are campaigns with original voice acting only.  And there are campaigns with both three.  In fact, the latter is so rare these days a Forthcoming is automatically issued for the sake of this threatened species, hehehe.

GREATEST SHORTCOMINGS:
- SHORT-LIVED:  Campaigns can be good, but lenghty can help.  This shortcoming is no punishment but a reminding to the maker of the players' disappointment:  They'll be wanting for more, which can only be solved with a sequel or expansion that delivers what this campaign delivered.
- VETERAN DRIVEN:  Obviously, no one wants that cheesy stuff, but let's not get to the other extreme as well.  The reason this campaign gained this shortcoming is it's excess of complexity that wouldn't be so healthy to the novice player's patience and lack of experience.

Final score: 9.3 (Recommended)

[Magic]

E.D.A.S.T

Reviewed by Magic

This was one of the original campaigns on CC, created by Desler, and is seen as one of the grand-daddies of the original StarCraft community. People should never be quick to underestimate that generation as it's what inspired and influenced regular players to give map editing a try, thus leading to more campaign productions and causing all sorts of ripples in the following years.

On the world of Dorasida, there is a war between two factions - the Tarks and Peds. E.D.A.S.T is a special squadron of covert operatives working for the Tarks, with an opening scene of the team (Blaze, Shaddox, Surety, Quick and Malcone) stealing the plans for the Terran Valkyrie. This is the first of many events that lead to open war across Dorasida. With its anime influences, music, voice acting and entertaining level design, it's a campaign that, despite naturally appearing dated in some areas in retrospect, it was a clear milestone for early StarCraft campaigns and should be celebrated so.

[Venca]

STARCRAFT: VILE EGRESSION
THAT'S NOT EPIC, THAT'S 3PIC!

When you first run the campaign you can see an intro birefing with full of action, Yes, the first biefing says, that in the campaign will be a lot of action and it's true. I've chosen this campaign over LotC or any other on its overall professionalism and fun.

THE GAMEPLAY - The campaign has 3 scenarios (only 3, hah?) but don't look at it; in each scenario you have about four missions and each is different (only two similar are in scenarion #2 those B&D [build and destroy] missions) for example push trough spawning enemies, defend 3 bases when you can control ony one at time (very challenging but funny) or to defend an island form enemy attacks, when you are limited with your initial units so you can't expect any reinforcements. In the campaign, you have to pass 3 boss fights, each is different, but in the last one.... you fight ...as the boss! The tasks are short so the gameplay changes often, so you'll never get bored. The only con is you can finish the campaign in time like 2-3 hours but I'm afraid that it's cost that things are never repeating.

THE DIFFICULTY - IMHO the campaign is designed to be beatable by a veteran player without cheating (at least I've done it). You don't need ubergosu micro to pass trough missions but some parts are harder than others. For me the hardest were boss fights and the island defense when I need several reloading saves but the B&D missions were easy to me (I've finished them both quickly by just massing Immortals). You must often take an eye on Khashilar because he is most likely to die of your heroes so I often had him in the back. I wouldn't recommend this to beninners it's too hard fo 'em.

THE STORY - You fight as the Protoss resistance on heavy infested Aiur and you must find a way to get to last functional gate to safety, Shakuras. In the most of the campaign you face zerg but there are some renegade Dark Templar (probably) allied with the Zerg.

THE OBJECTIVES - The objectives of all missions are clear, you have enough time to read 'em when they change so you always know what to do. You'll be hinted when you should save your game which really helps if you don't expect you'll face.

THE SOUND - The campaign is fully voiced, so it gives it another dimension of sotry and action ant this is very professionally done.

THE CUSTOM UNITS - I personally like campaigns with custom units because it shows something new, unseen to players. All the custom graphics look like great but I think, the Warblades are kinda underpowered as the immortals are better in more ways

THE CONCLUSION - You can see very professional done campaign which never gets boring, the only thing it lacks, is length

9.5/10 STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

[Black Dream]

Armageddon Onslaught

This isn't really a campaign, but IskatuMesk deserves the credit.

This is probably the best Starcraft Mod of all time.  Iskatumesk converts the Zerg, critters, heroes, installation and snow terrain into the force of Armageddon, the destroyer of worlds.  Designed for veteran players, this mod will put all of your skills to the test.  What will you do when you are under attack by dragons, gods, and other horrors?  No enemy you face will shoot normally.  Some will create rings of fire, others will snipe from across the map.  Every enemy has custom abilities, and you must relearn how to fight this monstrosity. 

This mod will challenge anyone.  For those looking for a new experience in Starcraft, play Armageddon Onslaught.  It has perfect graphics, wonderful effects, and new AI s for you to play aside.  How will you survive the denizens of hell?  And when the Great Destroyer comes, how long will you survive?

Rating: 9.99/10 (There is one bug, which may cause the game to crash)

[Lavarinth]

This contest has been extended until May 9th.

[Xelxiuz]

That's no fair, if you could enter a piece of work that's not a campaign, wouldn't everyone write a review about how m0g or whoever made that brilliant map that played like a replay and the afk guy won at the end because the remaining two died from one's nuke or something?

God that was genius for it's time.

[Lavarinth]

m0g, or whoever, isn't really part of CC AO is debatable, but still part of CC and a well-known project at that. And hey, minimum five keys (one per entry max of course) and only five submissions, so.........

[Black Dream]

To be honest, I don't care if mine counts or not.  I just wanted to say that somewhere.