Originally posted by RED DIAMOND
What's the deal with the Jake Wars? Why do you feel it is so bad?
Honestly, the Jake War campaigns simply seemed too simplistic at times and overwhelming at other times. For example, I wasn't very impressed when the first few missions landed me alone about 500 meters apart from a Manticore or a Nephilim, and the directives told me (alone) to guard a corvette against wave after wave of Nephilim bomber.
The weapons loadout was very poor too. Sometimes I found myself with weapons available that weren't compatible with my ship selection. Additionally, capital ships were literally set in wings (i.e. "Allied Forces 1", "Pirahna 1") and were able to be ordered around. Basically, I felt like I was in the middle of a sucky RTS game. There were no wave delays set, and the story frankly felt corny.
The whole thing felt like it was Alex Harris (the designer) saying "Watch me get better at FREDding!". The missions got better in terms of design as it went along, but it still never got very exciting or good. There were some inexcusable missions, including one involving destroying a Colossus, and another destroying literally the entire fighter complement of said Colossus. I like challenges when they make sense, but Jake Wars never seemed to do that.
I'll give it to Alex Harris that his other campaigns generally got better (SOC was ten times better designed than Jake Wars, but still fell short of a good campaign), but they are some of the lowest-quality campaigns that I've played ever.
