i'm just gonna pop in to say that i liked SC2 the best. it was the 2nd game i took seriously with T4 being the first. i played competitively for the life of the game and i'd say by the end of its life i was pretty good. good enough to beat linkrkc at EVO, and take top 5s at quite a few different tournaments.(and then subsequently lose to him and cynnik in a 3 way tie 1 game death match to see who moved out of pools but thats a whole other story)
basically i liked the way it played when compared with 3 and 4. 5 is a great step in the right direction and probably my second favorite game in the series.
dont let anyone tell you step G ruined the game like people never got hit with a horizontal, its complete bullshit. step G changed the way the game was played but it wasnt a huge detriment. as much as people claim it was a turtle game, i see way more standing around holding guard in 5 due to the movement nerf and the fact that there are very few + on block moves and even fewer + on hit lows. you had ways to open people up in Sc2, delays, cancels, guard break moves that forced a re GI mixup, soul charging and soul charge cancels, more auto GIs, BT JFs, + on hit lows, 0-+1 on frame A for a few characters. most of these things are either gone from the series or exist in a severely neutered form for only a few characters to take advantage of.
2G was also fun as it changed the metagame significantly but not to the point where it made GI useless which i also see people say from time to time. 4G granted +27 frames for a successful GI, choosing the correct option to 2G was a complete crapshoot when confronted with things like Ivy 6B8K for 50 damage or Ivy 33A, 22, 6B8 for 45%. add in the fact that throws (Ivy could iSS or iCS to force a break and sometimes get an unbreakable back SS) and lows flat beat 2G and you still had a decent post GI mixup.
you had fun non game breaking glitches like mitsus throw shenanigans, yoshi BT JFs and other various things that added to the game without killing it.
balance? great balance!!! i saw every character compete at high level and if you wanted to make a character work and put in the time, they would be viable. i saw striders yunsung take down tieTYTs nightmare at evo and gojira steamroll through people with raph.
just wanted to get that off my chest, i still pop SC2 in from time to time with a couple old friends and its still a blast when i do get to play it.
