StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void Review

Thanks to Blizzard we have to opportunity to test their most popular strategy game. Blizzard want to complete the saga about Raynor, Kerrigan and Artanis with the latest part of StarCraft 2 called Legacy of the Void. The questions are, is the Protoss campaign more interesting than the last one? How good are the co-op missions and the multiplayer-part? Let’s find out.

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Unfortunately, the stories of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty and StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm were not the highlights of this games. And Blizzard keeps this sad tradition. Legacy of the Void’s story is also not the deepest one and we could not get a real connection to that. The story about the Return of the God Amun and SC2_Legacy_of_the_Void_The_Reclamation_tga_jpgcopythe destruction of everything sounds epic, but size does not matter, like we know. We miss a lot of the background and details about the characters. Interesting topics such as the network of awareness, the robot sub-fraction as a servant or the interesting point that a highly developed race as the Protoss believes in gods and that there are Templars in its ranks although be discussed but not deep enough. In addition to that, everything feels like they MUST end this trilogy on the level as a Hollywood-Blockbuster. We get a view into the world of the Protoss, but there are no twists, no drama and the characters keep on what they belive.

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The great news are, we think that the story is the most unimportant thing in RTS-Games. The weakness of the game’s story are concealed by the great presentation with impressive staged discussions, numerous cut scenes and events in the missions. Especially the implementing of story-related events by using maps that enlarging themselves, cut scenes, dialogue by using animated unit portraits and scripted events in the middle of ongoing operations, these are elements in such a high quality that can only be in a StarCraft game. No other RTS games stages his story such complex and integrates it so well into the gameplay.

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SC2_Legacy_of_the_Void_BlizzCon_08_png_jpgcopyWhat we like on this campaign is that it is not filled up with so many unnecessary additional stories. It is much more streight and has a clear goal. We think that the existing plots about Moebius and the reunion of Protoss factions was surprisingly great implemented into the 19 missions about recapturing the Protoss’ homeworld ‘Aiur’. You know that we are not fans of spoiler, but we can confirm that the short epilogue that allows to play as Protoss, Terran and Zerg really finish the stories about the characters.

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And if we are talking about the mission, we can confirm that the campaign’s 22 missions are a lot better and are more exciting as the campaign-missions about Kerrigan. Almost every map offers new gameplay mechanics. For example, you have to create a base on a moveable platform and move later with the complete base to the next place of minerals to support two warring Protoss leaders with troops. You have to repair the stabilizers of a crashing orbital platform in a certain time or you have to protect troops that get stunned by Amon regularly. SC2_Legacy_of_the_Void_BlizzCon_03_png_jpgcopyAdditionally, there are missions with heroes, quick sneak operations, or you have to protect a base against Zergs, or battles on more than one fronts which are getting lost if the player do not react cleaver enough.

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All in all, if you look on the whole campagne from a view of a game-designer, you notice, that it exists only to get to know the fractions’ units. Unfortunately, you can only use all units at the end of the epilogue. We think that players will need 20 up to 35 minutes for a mission, that means, if you add all sequences and conversations of the campagne together, it should take about eight up to eleven-hours on a normal level to play the whole game. We also think that the time you need for a mission depends on the difficulty level. That means that if you choose a higher difficulty you should need longer to finish the whole game. We also tested a SC2_Legacy_of_the_Void_The_Purifiers_tga_jpgcopyhigher level and we’ve been surprised that it is not unfair and still banalced. If there is one thing, Blizzard should win all awards for, is the balance of their StarCraft-Games.

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Like in the last games there is a mission in which you unlock the mothership as ark. The Terrans had their Hyperion and Zergs their Leviathan. As a player of the Protoss fraction you unlock the Spear of Adun which is from then your control center. On board of this ship you can take part on conversations, configure units and select the spaceship’s special skills. Let’s talk about the configuration of your units: The Terrans had different stages of development, with the Zergs you had to develop your units further. In this Protoss campagne you have to choose between three types per unit, in each case the base unit and than two variants of it. What we like is that it is now possible to changed the until’s specialization on the spaceship at any time. This is quite necessary on higher difficulty levels. What we also like is that advantages and SC2_Legacy_of_the_Void_Traveling_to_Korhal_tga_jpgcopydisadvantages of this unit types are clearly presented and illustrated with a short video. All these units variants are available only in the campaign as usual.

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What we also like is that it is possible to collect for example Solarit as a secondary mission target. With this it is possible to unlock Spear of Adun’s bonus-functions. That means that this ship can support the player on his missions. In addition to fire directly on the battlefield, it is also possible to place a Pylon anywhere on the map, if you have enough energy. And there is a lot more. You can recall all units, call the Fenix, stop the time for a short term or ensure that the vespin geysers do not need probes for the transport any more. You can choose four active and two passive abilities at the same time.

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All in all we can conform that StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void offers a high class campagne. In addition to that you can also play the Co-Op-Mode. The missions a constructed for two players. Both players have to complete SC2_Legacy_of_the_Void_Co-op_02_png_jpgcopygoals as in the missions from the single player campaign. Until now there are five missions to choose from. Both players always build a separate base in each mission and produce units for the attack. Each mission takes about 30 minutes.

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Before you launch such a mission you have to create a two-player team via Battle.net or you can use the automatic matchmaking system. After that you choose one of six characters. On them are a selection of available units and their special abilities linked. That means that you play with of each of this heroes in a different way. For example, Jim Raynor has a standard repertoire of Terran units and can also call the Hyperion. Kerrigan is represented directly on the battlefield SC2_gamescom_Allied_Commanders_Raynor_Screen_Work_In_Progress_png_jpgcopybut she can not call all Zerg units for help. Each of this characters has their own level. This commander get certain amount of XP depending on the level of difficulty players complete the co-op missions. With every new level unlock upgrades for their units and special abilities.

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This gameplay mode is a great addition. However, it take a lot of time since you upgraded your characters. That also means that it is very sad that this mode just only offers five missions/maps to play. It get quickly boring if you played the missions more than once. We love it how well this gameplay mode is matched for two players. What we also like is that you need a lot of coordination and SC2_gamescom_Allied_Commanders_Co-op_04_png_jpgcopyteamwork to success because there are a lot of secondary objectives and a lot of targets has to be attacked simultaneously. We would love to have more maps to play. Unfortunately, in this version there is a lack of variety.

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New is also the Archon-Mode. In this mode two players take control about only one base and their units at the same time. Units, the base and all resources are divided between two players which also means that each has to  manage and can focus on certain aspects. The multiplayer’s stress is split between two people. And what we also like is that this is a great idea to take another player’s hand to show him how the game works.

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The campagne, the Co-Op-Mode and especially the Archon-Mode are great way to learn as much as you can, but we think that the multiplayer could be very difficult for beginners. This could not only be because of the SC2_Legacy_of_the_Void_Co-op_03_png_jpgcopymuch higher game speed and the tactical bandwidth, but because of the matchmaking system. This could find for you only much more stronger opponents who are much more experienced and simply better.

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Like in every StarCraft game before the sounds and animations are great. We not only used you speakers to test the game’s sound. We also used our Logitech G633 Artemis Spectrum 7.1 Surround Gaming-Headset that has played the sounds really great. For more about the Headset take a look at jadoRendr’s REVIEW or take a look at the official homepage HERE

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We noticed that Blizzard raised the game speed with a simple trick. Now you are starting the matches with twelve workers that start directly to collect minerals. That means that the typical start is now much shorter. Everything can now be managed faster and you are forced to build a second base much earlier. This also allows earlier battles. Because of the Micro-Management, which includes the adaptation of known forces, the
additional six new units, the tactical possibilities which becomes very important and the pace that is much higher, it is very difficult for beginners. Even experienced players of Heart of the Swarm need their SC2_Legacy_of_the_Void_BlizzCon_04_png_jpgcopytime. All in all we had a lot of fun to play the multiplayer. This is because players can use a huge number of tactical possibilities and players reach the point they send their units against each others much quicker. But we think that you need a lot of frustrating resistance, battle skills and a little bit of luck.

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Every fraction has two new units for the multiplayer. The Terrans get the Liberator and the Cyclone. The Liberator is a armored  flying unit which is very effective against closely grouped air targets. This unit can also be transformed into a stationary ground defenses-system. The Cyclone is a heavy tanked vehicle which can attack air and ground units.

The Zergs new unit Ravager can discharge plasma at ground targets, or lauch a gob of corrosive bile in a parabolic arc. What we especially like about the new units is the Lurker, which is an old unit known from the StarCraft Add-On Brood War and which is now available again. The new Lurker unit is a powerful antiground ambusher. It can strike at the enemies from beneath the soil with a deadly spine attack.

The new Protoss unit Adept are ranged specialists armed with a mightily Glaive Cannon that punches through light armor with ease and emits a deadly shockwave when it strikes a killing bow. These units are also versed in psionic transfer, which allows them to project an invulnerable image of themselves and teleport to its location after a brief period of time. The Disruptor can invulnerable, turning its physical form into energy for a short period of time. This allows it to advance unhindered towards its enemies, releasing a destructive burst that deals massive damage, especially to enemy forces in tight packed clusters.

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StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void is more than just a good ending of the successful StarCraft-2-Trilogy. This is the best example for how good RTS-Game should be. We think that the game’s story is a little bit to much on a Hollywood blockbuster level but it is much better than the story in the previous games. There are no other RTS-Games that has such staging and creative missions in a campaign. In addition to this high number of cut scenes and cinematic dialogues we love the variation of different missions. A lot of this missions are with creatively upgraded known mechanics  and offers a first-class quality. We also love to change the units StarCraft_II_Legacy_of_the_Void_Old_Friends_bmp_jpgcopyand their special abilities aboard of the Spear of Adun which also offers another gaming experience. We also had a lot of fun to play the additional two player co-op missions. Unfortunately, we have to say that we wished there would be more than five missions to play. Additionally, we think that the Archon-Mode is an excellent variation as opposed to the standard 2 vs. 2 battles. We think that without any training the game’s multiplayer is very tricky for newcomers. StarCraft 2 is now complete and it provides a quality in the RTS-Genre that is hard to achieve.

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