StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void Review

Our Verdict

Blizzard's third, and final, expansion for StarCraft 2 adds new units and game modes, and ties up loose plot threads in the galactic saga of this storied real-time-strategy franchise.

For

More than than 20 new entrada missions
Six new multiplayer units
Two new game modes
Plumbing fixtures end to the StarCraft story

Against

Audio and graphics largely unchanged

Tom's Guide Verdict

Blizzard's 3rd, and final, expansion for StarCraft II adds new units and game modes, and ties up loose plot threads in the galactic saga of this storied real-time-strategy franchise.

Pros

+
More than than twenty new campaign missions
+
Six new multiplayer units
+
Ii new game modes
+
Fitting terminate to the StarCraft story

Cons

-
Sound and graphics largely unchanged

When StarCraft Ii: Wings of Liberty debuted in 2010, gamers were treated to a slick, modern revival of one of the almost iconic real-time-strategy franchises in gaming history. Merely over the last 5 years, StarCraft'southward popularity has taken a striking, due to the rising of multiplayer online boxing arena (MOBA) games such as League of Legends and Dota 2.

With Legacy of the Void, not only is Blizzard trying to wrap upwardly StarCraft's ballsy infinite saga, but it too reinvigorate the multiplayer scene with new units, additional game modes and a swarm of balance changes for competitive play.

The Game: And so Many Units, Then Niggling Fourth dimension

For the uninitiated, StarCraft II places you in command of ane of three races. Legacy of the Void's single-player campaign focuses on one of them — the high-tech, psionic-power-wielding Protoss — the other races are the human Terrans and the buglike Zerg. Your job is to build and manage an army by harvesting resources and producing a wide array of troops and units such every bit tanks, carriers and arms to eliminate opposing forces. Battles happen in real time. With no pauses or breaks during fights to make decisions, you'll have to pay attention to your economy and current encounters at the aforementioned time.

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While this may audio a piddling complicated, StarCraft Two's single-player campaigns have always done a fantastic task of easing new players into the game, and Legacy of the Void is no exception. The four difficulty settings (casual, normal, hard and brutal) provide a sweet spot for everyone, and in-game achievements offer an extra level of challenge for every mission.

Story and Campaign: My Life for Aiur

Legacy of the Void picks upwards afterwards previous expansion pack Heart of the Swarm, in which the once-human being Kerrigan reemerges equally the Queen of Blades and leader of the Zerg, and finally gets revenge on the corrupt Terran emperor Arcturus Mengsk. The scene has now shifted to the enigmatic Dark Templar Zeratul, as he tries to warn his fellow Protoss that there'due south an even greater threat that's waiting to be vanquished.

From the inky depths of the Void, which exists beyond the normal boundary of the universe, the ancient evil entity Amon seeks to regain his form and wipe out all life forms, whether they're Protoss, Zerg or Terran.

Merely Zeratul tin can't do it alone. As in previous StarCraft II expansions, he will need to recruit allies and plough sometime enemies into allies to combat the oncoming darkness.

Legacy of the Void consists of a three-mission prologue (bachelor for free on Battle.cyberspace) to help you take hold of up on the story, a nineteen-mission main entrada and a three-mission epilogue that helps necktie upwardly all the loose plot ends once and for all. Each mission averages about xxx to 45 minutes in length, depending on difficulty, which means it will probably accept between 15 and xx hours to complete the entire entrada. That may sound a little daunting, but every infinitesimal is worth information technology.

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The offset mission introduces the Protoss' signature combat strategy: selecting your entire army and stomping the enemy with an unstoppable deathball before moving on to other techniques and strategies. This gives you time to get familiar with new units ane at a time, well before the final showdown.

As in previous expansions, you lot take the ability to select different enhancements for each unit, which allows you to have Zealots that can respawn when killed, or Colossuses that shoot bolts of high-powered energy instead of the twin lines of fire you would unremarkably get.

The master deviation in Legacy of the Void is that instead of having regular access to a hero character such every bit Kerrigan, you tin apply the Protoss flagship, The Spear of Adun, to call down orbital strikes from space or warp in additional combat units. When you consummate mission bonus objectives, you're rewarded with solarite, which tin can be used to raise or modify those abilities to best adjust your play fashion.

Game Modes: 2 New Ways to Duo with a Friend

Like a lot of ane-person sports, StarCraft can sometimes be a solitary endeavor. But in Legacy of the Void, Blizzard has added 2 new game modes that allow you to bring a friend into battle with you. The starting time is Archon mode, which lets 2 players simultaneously command a unmarried army, offer an alternative to the usual ane-person-per-army play mode. This ways 2 people can divide the responsibilities of building and attacking.

If you want to put one person in charge of gathering resource, while the other scouts the enemy and forms a strategy, you can. Or you tin can put both people on offense, each leading a portion of your units to create a devastating 2-pronged attack. It's a groovy change from before versions of StarCraft II, and it takes a lot of force per unit area off new players, who often struggle to manage both offense and defense at the same fourth dimension.

The second new mode consists of co-op missions, in which two players take on the AI in a handful of scenarios selected from campaigns beyond all three expansions of StarCraft Ii. You are given objectives such as taking down an enemy train convoy, or preventing a number of enemy transports from escaping while being harassed by raiding parties.

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To add some spice to the scenarios, you can choose a hero such every bit Kerrigan, the outlaw align Jim Raynor or Artanis, the new leader of the Protoss. Your selection of hero affects which units are available to each race and which special abilities you can select.

As in the Heart of the Swarm campaign, if you lot choose Kerrigan, then the Queen of Blades herself volition bring together you on the battlefield. Choosing Raynor lets you lot practice stuff like phone call downwardly the battleship Hyperion to carpet-flop the enemy. Completing missions earns you experience points that are used to further enhance your abilities or troops, giving yous plenty of reasons to play them multiple times.

In that location are also new automated tournaments, which requite you the ability to compete against other similarly rated players and feel the thrill of eSports on a pocket-size scale.

New Units: It's Well-nigh Time

Equally a loftier-golden/low-platinum-ranked player in Wings of Freedom, I'one thousand by no ways an proficient when information technology comes to discussing what kind of touch on the new residual changes (such as a new blink ability for Terran Battlecruisers, or the increased starting worker count) volition have on the StarCraft II professional-player scene. Only when games like League of Legends and Dota 2 were regularly updated with new champions, it was plain to see that StarCraft Two was in dire need of some new troops. So let'south have a await at the new units each race is getting.

The Terrans accept been upgraded with the Whirlwind and the Liberator, both of which bolster the versatility of a mech-based army. The Cyclone is a turret on tank tracks that uses a special lock-on technique to fire at both air and footing targets, even while moving. The Liberator is a medium-size armored gunship equipped with missiles, and it can transform into a floating anti-footing artillery platform at the drib of a hat.

The Zerg swarm receives a new evolution for the Roach in the Ravager, which turns the ordinarily tanklike frontline unit into a truthful long-range threat. The Ravager spits out slow-moving corrosive bile, which can also dissolve Protoss force fields. Another new unit, the Lurker, is a callback to StarCraft: Brood War and reintroduces the underground siege unit of measurement as a new evolution for the Hydralisk.

The Protoss have been graced with the Adept, a lightly armored ranged unit with a Glaive Cannon that creates a damaging shockwave when it'south used to make a killing blow. The Skilful also has a psionic-transfer ability that creates an image of the Adept, which can pass through enemy units and so exist teleported to after a short flow of time. And then there'south the Disruptor, which is kind of like a Sentry on steroids. Information technology tin can become invulnerable for a short time and release a purification nova, which deals tons of damage to enemies surrounding the Disruptor.

Sound and Visuals

The aesthetics and audio of Legacy of the Void aren't bad — they're simply more than of the same. The bright, colorful graphics and art style accept probably aged better than any other game that came out in 2010, but at the same time, they don't look very different from the fashion they did before.

The aforementioned goes for the audio effects, which please the ears with the hum of the Protoss' psionic weapons or the shrieking cries of a newborn Mutalisk. But again, it's not something StarCraft players haven't heard before. The music, in particular, feels unmemorable. Even after playing through every mission in Legacy of the Void, I'grand having a hard time recalling the Protoss-themed music over the twangy guitar-laced tunes of the Terran campaign or the oft-sinister overtures of the Zerg.

It's important to betoken out Blizzard's attending to visuals, which allows even noobs to follow the action. Even in the nigh hectic battles, information technology's possible to option out the almost important details, thanks to the varying shapes and silhouettes of the game's different units and attacks. These designs, combined with well-timed visual and sound cues, assist go on players focused on what'southward important, instead of having them infinite out and ending upward on the wrong side of a hungry pack of Zerglings.

Lesser Line

Legacy of the Void delivers a plumbing equipment catastrophe for the storyline of StarCraft Ii, with an engaging intergalactic space opera that'southward a refreshing modify from the sometimes overly soapy plot of the previous expansion pack, Heart of the Swarm. The two-player Archon mode and new co-op missions are a not bad boon to more casual players, offer players a friendly way to bask the game without getting thrown into the meat grinder of the competitive multiplayer universe.

The new units and balance changes are certain to requite the competitive scene a shot in the arm, but they are probably besides little, too tardily to vault StarCraft II back into the top tier of eSports. That'due south non to say the StarCraft franchise is dead: StarCraft 2 is still the cream of the real-time strategy ingather, and new gamers should definitely sample Blizzard'southward blend of RTS perfection before moving on to other games in the genre. But you don't have to take my word for it — in that location'southward the complimentary three-mission prologue bachelor on Battle.cyberspace for everyone to endeavor.

Still, five years after its initial debut, it seems StarCraft II's star is fading but a bit. Wings of Liberty was the rebirth of a franchise and seemed so full of possibility, and Heart of the Swarm was a strong follow-upwards. Legacy of the Void feels like the end of era.

The real question that remains is: Where does Blizzard go from hither? Since Wings of Liberty, devoted StarCraft fans have known near Blizzard's iii-part plan. If y'all're at all interested in this universe, you owe it to yourself to finish up Blizzard'southward latest addition. En taro Zeratul.