Friday, April 23, 2010

Revisiting the Past

This is kind of a post about Blizzard rather than just WoW.

I've dabbled in each of Blizzard's big 3 in the past: Warcraft, Startcraft, and Diablo.

I played Diablo, but never beat it. I was too unsophisticated as a gamer back then, I think. I remember playing the Warrior (or equivalent) class. By the time I got to the latter third of the game, I was pretty much going down to my current dungeon, killing a few enemies, chaining my health pots in the process, and then heading back to town to restock. Rinse, repeat. It got to feeling like way too slow of a grind. I was pretty sure I was doing it wrong, but wasn't sure how to do it right. So I just stopped.

I don't even know if I own the game anymore. If I do, it's in my parents' basement (as it was technically my dad's game anyway).

I never played Diablo II. After my experiences with the first, I just couldn't muster up the desire.

I played Starcraft. Just the first release, not the expansion. And only the Human campaign. The Zerg and Protoss play-styles both turned me off. One one side, I had to destroy my workers to create anything, meaning I had to churn out an endless supply of them. And I also had to spread that blight stuff around to place things...which meant actual pre-planning was required. On the other side, stuff was strong, but prohibitively expensive to my run-and-gun playstyle. If I lost one big battle, that was it for me.

On top of that, I really didn't follow the story. It was just kinda jump in and do the missions.

Consequently, I never played the expansion. Though I think I may still own both. (Don't ask...I'm not sure how that works out, either.)

I got into Warcraft with the first RTS. I played that one and the second. Although, like Starcraft, I only did the Human campaigns. And I kinda glossed over the story (though I've learned much of it through WoW).

By the time WC3 came out I was in college. I had my own comp, and it was bad. It couldn't handle the demands of WC3, so I never got to play.

Now I'm an adult (which is not to say I've grown up, really) and I have more patience. I'm a more sophisticated gamer than I was before. I care as much (if not more) for the stories of a game than the game itself. I can grasp the intricacies of combat systems and what abilities are meant for what situations. I can play RTS games with a sight on tactics rather than just defending my base while I amass a fleet of the biggest unit available and then charging in to the enemy and hoping I win. And I have a computer that can run just about anything I really want to play. Especially if the games in question are 10 years old now...

With all the time I've sunk into WoW, I've had an itch to go back and (re)play the RTS games that led up to it. Especially WC3.

With SC2 and Diablo III on the horizon, and looking freakin' amazing, I've had more than a slight itch to go back and give those franchises another try right from the start.

Blizz needs to put together and sell (even if only in digital format) an OMGALLOURPASTGAMES bundle. WC1-3 and expansions, SC and expansion, Diablo 1 & 2 (were there expansions)? I'd totally jump on that. Probably faster than I did my sparkle pony...

Update: It turns out I still had my copies of SC and Brood Wars, so I installed those over the weekend and started spending some time here and there playing.

My dad did still have Diablo, and I managed to get that from him.

So 3 down...

7 comments:

  1. I do have to say that, while Blizzard does not have the OMG... package (yet), they do offer the following:

    Diablo Battlechest (Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo II: Lords of Chaos)
    Starcraft battlechest (Starcraft + expansion)
    Warcraft Battlechest (which is just WCIII and The Frozen Throne expansion)

    It's neither dirt-cheap nor all-inclusive with respect to releasing everything, but each package is a great value in and of itself. You can get the Diablo and Warcraft packages for $30-$40, and the Starcraft set for $20 or less.

    :)

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  2. sorry, I meant Lord of Destruction, not Lords of Chaos. I listen to too much black metal. LOL!

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  3. Yeah, right after I wrote this post I jetted over to the Blizz store to see what they had.

    I plan to give my Dad a call later today and see if he still has the original D. I'm also going to check my "old games" stash at home and see if the SC games are still in there.

    And, as much as I consider them the devil...I may head over to that game chain that shall remain nameless and see if I can get lucky and find something on the cheap. Or the Amazon marketplace.

    Trivium is about as close as I get to black metal. :-)

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  4. I'm thinking of doing the same thing. I remember playing and really really enjoying Warcraft II Battle.net, Warcraft III, and Diablo I, II and Lords of Destruction, BUT I only remember playing them. I don't remember anything in the game and I'd really like to revisit them.

    I tried Starcraft but didn't enjoy it at all which is strange, and honestly I should probably go back now and give it another chance..

    I'm also pretty excited about Diablo III, and if I can get any free time that I don't already spend on WoW I'm certainly going to have to check that out.

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  5. Honestly the cheapest you probably will find outside of a big sale is through the Blizz store. Once upon a time I picked up both the Diablo and Starcraft battle chests for 20 apiece, (I have the disks...lost the CD keys :p) but as a regular price they both still go for 40. There's the chance of finding a used copy, but chances are that the CD key in those cases will be busted anyway.

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  6. The Battlechests have already been mentioned, but I routinely see all of them for $20 each (or I did, at Target and BB), except for the original WC. Oh yeah, there's actually two WC Battlechests - one for the original two games and expansion, and one for just WC3. I still have all my original discs for Diablo and WC, but I never got into SC (went C&C instead). Actually, I have an extra Diablo disc you can have if you want it - I owned the game and then got a second copy with the Battlechest. Tried to sell it on craigslist but never got a bite. There's actually a couple of copies of the different Diablo games on there right now.

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  7. My dad still had Diablo (apparently we were never able to sell it at our garage sales) so I managed to snag that. The old WC BattleChest, however, (the one you mentioned with 1, 2, and Beyond) did sell at some point, so we no longer have that.

    Honestly, though, I'm not as concerned with the WC games. Afterall, I'm well versed in the stories at this point. All I really need to find now is D2 and the expansion...which I may just man up and drop $40 on. They're probably worth it.

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