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• Star Craft II: Legacy Of The Void. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void is an upcoming expansion pack to military science-fiction real-time strategy game StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and the third part of the StarCraft II trilogy, the second being Heart of the Swarm. The expansion will include additional units and multiplayer changes from Wings of Liberty, as well as a continuing campaign.
• Since the release of Legacy of the Void the Immortal has succeeded the Colossi as the Premier Anchor of the Robotics Facility due to the changes to the Colossus and the addition of new units notably the Ravager Lurker and Disruptor. It is only against Terran now where Colossi have their best use as they provide consistent splash that micro cannot mitigate.

What is it? The fifth entry in Blizzard’s sci-fi RTS series, and the conclusion of its story.
Expect to pay $40/£30
Release Out now
Developer Blizzard
Publisher In-house
Multiplayer Co-op and competitive, extensive options.
Link Official site

I am not the world’s greatest StarCraft player. That—currently—is a guy called sOs. You might have heard of him: he was the one lifting that heavy-looking trophy at the World Championship at BlizzCon. sOs became the world’s greatest StarCraft player by defeating somebody called Life in a seven-game series—a test of physical dexterity, mental acuity and psychological endurance in excess of any other competitive computer game.

StarCraft’s competitive element has become the thing it is best known for over the course of the series’ long life. That makes sense: it’s the original stadium-filling esport and one of the most skill-intensive games ever made. For the long-term fans who know StarCraft primarily in this regard, Legacy of the Void marks the start of the game’s new era. It’s a suite of new units, features and balance changes that will define the character of the game for the next couple of years.

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void is a standalone expansion pack to the military science fiction real-time strategy game StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and the third and final part of the StarCraft II trilogy developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The game was released on November 10, 2015. The expansion includes additional units and multiplayer changes from Heart of The Swarm, as well as a continuing campaign focusing on the Protoss race. The campaign concludes the StarCraft II trilogy and focuse.

From my position of limited skill, I can tell you that Legacy of the Void’s changes make the competitive game faster, more skill-intensive, and less fiddly. There’s a greater emphasis on making big decisions early. You begin your match with more worker units than you used to, and the business of setting up your economy has been streamlined. Fights happen faster and, as a consequence, matches are shorter. You might get caught out by a rush strategy you didn’t see coming: you type ‘GG’, surrender, tab out to TeamLiquid, read up on your counters, tab back, and you’re playing again within a minute. It is easier than ever to lose evenings to the ladder in this way.

That elevated skill ceiling is thanks to new units that become dramatically more powerful if you’re capable of micromanaging them effectively. One example is the Protoss Adept, a ranged infantry unit that can act as an alternative to Stalkers and Zealots. In and of itself, it’s capable enough—but it’s real power comes from Psionic Transfer, which creates a ghostly duplicate of the Adept that is controlled separately. These are invulnerable and after seven seconds the Adept teleports to the ghost’s location. Suddenly, new strategic pathways open up: around entrenched positions and into worker lines, past the enemy’s own targeted abilities and (hopefully) into victories that go beyond cheeses and strict counters.

Legacy of the Void wholeheartedly supports the notion that StarCraft is a difficult game and that player skill should be respected. If you get too tired or anxious to climb the ladder, there are also automated tournament brackets that run every couple of hours. These allow you to experience some of the drama of structured play without any of the logistical hassle. You’re playing for bragging rights, ultimately, but it rounds out the experience and it’s something that I wish more competitive games would offer.

The reason Legacy of the Void comes highly recommended, however, is that it also supports the idea that you should be able to have fun regardless of how good you are. The competitive game has been allowed to change in ways that make it deeper, but the package as a whole is broad and generous in its provision of entry points for new players.

If competitive StarCraft has become an art, then Legacy of the Void’s campaign offers a colour-by-numbers alternative for those still developing their abilities. As in Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard treat singleplayer as its own entity, with its own units and rules. The final part of the trilogy tasks you with uniting the fragmented factions of the Protoss race from aboard an ancient warship, the Spear of Adun. Your ship and the factions you pick up form the basis of the extra toys you get to play with. Where James Raynor had his upgrades and Kerrigan had her mutations, Protoss Hierarch Artanis picks between multiple versions of the same unit type. There are Templar and Dark Templar variants on the basic melee zealot, for example, with further options unlocked as additional Protoss forces are recruited.

Then, the Spear of Adun itself can be upgraded by investing resources gathered by completing optional objectives within each mission. Some of these upgrades are passive, such as increased build speed, increased starting supplies, and shield regeneration. Others are active, deployed mid-battle from a new command interface along the top of the screen. These include direct attacks—orbital strikes, bombardments, a giant moveable laser, and so on—and support powers, like the ability to freeze time for enemy units or summon a Pylon along with reinforcements anywhere on the battlefield. They’re wildly overpowered but mitigated by cooldowns and a recharging energy meter, acting as both siege-breaking opening gambits and last-ditch survival options.

Taken in combination, this degree of customisation allows you to tailor your approach to suit your style and skill level. I prefer a slow siege, with Stalkers supported by forcefield-emitting Sentries and, later, Immortals and Colossi. I put together a tweaked variant on that, with artillery-spewing Immortal variants protecting a new kind of Sentry that lays down a power grid, allowing me to warp fresh Stalkers right to the front line. As the scale of each mission increases, there’s a real thrill to seeing a plan like this come together: the glow of dozens of protoss units warping in at once, the angry red beams of custom Void Rays strafing waves of zerglings that pop just so.

After over five years of StarCraft II, the new missions don’t manage to feel quite as fresh or original as Wings of Liberty’s did when it came out. Though I wouldn’t say there were any especially weak links, certain objectives get repetitive after a while. You will track down and destroy three different objectives while also hunting for two or three different optional objectives on several worlds and in several different contexts, albeit with new units and powers to prevent each encounter from feeling exactly the same.

There are certainly exceptions to this rule. One mission strands your base on a landlocked island with minimal resources, but allows you to move that island along rails to reach new areas. Another allows you to command three different squads of Protoss hero units in succession, completing multiple objectives at once in three different parts of a world. In another you join allied Terran forces in a battle against their corrupt counterparts. Every few minutes, a psychic blast leaves every Terran on the battlefield incapacitated—friends and foe alike. This is either an opportunity to lay waste to a defenceless enemy or time to defend your stricken ally depending on how ruthless you’re feeling. There’s rarely a mission where Legacy of the Void doesn’t innovate along these lines, but certain designs stand out more than others.

The core Protoss campaign is the shortest of the series so far, but it’s bookended by mini-campaigns that, collectively, amount to a substantial and largely gratifying conclusion to the series. The nebulous cosmic threat spoken of in cutscenes from Brood War onwards finally arrives, and is dealt with not just by the Protoss but by the Terran and Zerg characters that you’ve come to know as well. Raynor and Kerrigan get their ending, as do Zeratul, Artanis, and all of the other Protoss who (if you’re me) you’ve probably confused with each other over the almost two decades that Blizzard have been telling this story.

There was a risk that a Protoss narrative could end up feeling dry and this holds true to a certain degree. The Protoss are part elf, part Vulcan, part Marvel Comics Asgardian: they’re big and gold and Shakespearean and silly, and if you take the time to talk to everybody on board the Spear of Adun you’ll have more than your share of conversations about Templars and Nerazim and Tal’darim and the Khala and so on. Blizzard commit to this wholeheartedly and a huge investment has been made in furnishing the campaign with impressive cinematic moments. If you are a fan already, this is a party being put on to serve your very specific interests. If you are not, it may mean very little if you haven’t at least played Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm. Nonetheless, it has heart: that loud technicolour exploding metal album cover heart that finds its way into most Blizzard games.

For the first time in StarCraft II, some of that freeform campaign feel makes its way into multiplayer. In co-op, you and a friend (or an online stranger) pick commanders that each offer a different spin on their faction, complete with unique special powers and distinct units. You then take on objective-based missions at varying difficulty levels for XP, which unlock new abilities, units, and so on. This is a brilliant addition: it gets more life out of units designed for singleplayer, and provides a welcoming way into multiplayer for those daunted by it.

As an introduction to the game, co-op is actually more effective than Archon mode despite the latter getting the loudest fanfare from Blizzard. Archon is a new competitive two-vs-two format where both players control a single army. When both players are equally skilled, this is pretty entertaining—a way of taking the pressure off each individual by having one brain to look after the army and another to look after the base. With a newcomer, however, I don’t really think it works—it feels too much like teaching somebody by doing everything for them, where co-op (and traditional two-vs-twos) both allow newbies to work with all of the game’s systems themselves.

These weaker moments don’t spoil the whole, however. Legacy of the Void feels like a Blizzard game from another era—one where the box you buy (or download, I guess) contains a wide variety of experiences and promises to sustain investment for a long time to come. This is a game from the universe where the RTS never went away, where they kept getting made and improved over the course of decades. I’d say “they don’t make them like this any more”—but they clearly do.

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void is a standalone expansion pack to the military science fictionreal-time strategy game StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and the third and final part of the StarCraft II trilogy developed by Blizzard Entertainment.^[2] The game was released on November 10, 2015.^[1]

The expansion includes additional units and multiplayer changes from Heart of The Swarm, as well as a continuing campaign focusing on the Protoss race. The campaign concludes the StarCraft II trilogy and focuses on Artanis as its protagonist.^[3] Blizzard launched its invite-only beta testing of the game on March 31, 2015.^[4] The beta testing closed on November 2, 2015,^[5] a week before the November 10 release date.

The pre-order of the game was announced and made available for purchase on Battle.net and major game retailers on July 15, 2015.^[6] Pre-ordering the game granted immediate access to the multiplayer beta and a set of three prologue missions titled Whispers of Oblivion, which was made available to all players following the StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm 3.0 update at October 6, 2015.^[6][7]

• 1Gameplay
  • 1.1Multiplayer
• 2Plot
• 5Reception

Gameplay[edit]

The single-player campaign features an even number of missions similar to Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm and centers around the Protoss character Artanis, hierarch of the Khalai Protoss and the Nerazim (Dark Templar).^[8] The campaign in Legacy of the Void focuses on the Protoss and concludes the events of the Starcraft II trilogy.^[9]Like the two preceding games, the briefing room features interactive exploration but this time on board a Protoss Arcship known as the Spear Of Adun. Missions are accessed through a Protoss version of Hyperions 'Star Map' known as the Celestial Array. Artanis' goal is to unify the Protoss and stand against Amon, a fallen Xel'Naga who wishes to reshape the universe in his image. Jim Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan will play smaller parts in the story as well. Chris Metzen has likened the story to that of the film 300, with a small force engaging a much more powerful one in a desperate last stand.

Starcraft 2 Legacy Of The Void Art Book

Multiplayer[edit]

Legacy of the Void's resource system was changed in order to encourage aggression, territorial control and to minimize a lack of action at the beginning of games.^[10] Changes include decreasing resource quantity and increasing the number of workers spawned at the beginning of the game.^[11]

Protoss[edit]

The Protoss receive a change to the Photon Overcharge ability, it can now be cast on Pylons and not Nexuses. Also, the Chrono Boost ability can no longer be cast on multiple structures, but instead focuses on a single structure infinitely, though it is limited to one per Nexus. The Oracle from Heart of the Swarm now has its Revelation and Envision abilities combined in one. It can also now cast a Stasis Ward, an invisible mine-like structure that, when detonated, traps units in a small radius in stasis, much alike the Stasis Field ability from the Arbiter of StarCraft: Brood War. The Warp Prism, the trademark Protoss air transport, now has the ability to pick up units at a longer, safe range, but still must get on point to unload any cargo or deploy its psionic field utilized to warp-in Protoss units. The Carrier now has the ability of launching interceptors at a longer range and safer distance. The Immortal loses its trademark Hardened Shields from HotS / WoL and instead receives the 'Barrier' ability, which mitigates damage temporarily. As for new units, the Protoss receive the Adept, a Gateway / Warp Gate unit which excels against light class units like the Terran Marine or Zerg Hydralisk and can use 'Psionic Transfer', creating a psionic copy of the unit to which the Adept teleports after a few seconds, favoring hit-and-run tactics. Another new unit is the Disruptor, built from the Robotics Facility and requiring the Robotics Bay. It attacks by discharging a ball of energy which can be player-controlled and directed at the opponent, dealing massive damage. The Disruptor is reminiscent of the Protoss Reaver from Brood War in that precise micromanagement is required to deliver greater damage.

Terran[edit]

The Terrans virtually remain unaltered of their macro mechanics inherited from Wings of Liberty, meaning they can still deploy MULEs and Extra Supplies. The Banshee receives a speed upgrade which can be researched at a Tech Lab. The Battlecruiser can now warp instantly to any location, regardless of visibility. The Reaper from Heart of the Swarm gains a grenade-like ability that deals minimal damage, but knocks back and temporarily stuns enemy units. The Widow Mine remains unaltered, except it now has a targeting beam when it fires, which gives further warning to opponents. For new units, the Terrans receive the Cyclone, a Factory-built unit that can lock on and move while firing at air targets only (it can automatically auto-attack ground units), similar to the Protoss Phoenix. Another new Terran unit is the Liberator, which can engage aircraft with its normal area-of-effect attack, but can also transform to deploy a powerful cannon to attack ground targets.

Zerg[edit]

The Zerg's main alteration to its macro mechanics is the reduction of extra Larvae produced by Queens per Hatchery, to 3 out of 4 from HotS / WoL, and additionally the Spawn Larvae ability can now be used multiple times on Hatcheries to queue larvae production. For units, the Swarm Host, to accommodate for the returning Brood War Lurker, no longer burrows and has its role altered to a 'siege assault' unit, able to spawn its Locust while moving and unburrowed. The Corruptor has its 'Corruption' ability removed and replaced with 'Caustic Spray,' with which it can target ground buildings endlessly until they are destroyed. The Nydus Worm is altered so that it remains invulnerable while being constructed, removing the opponent's capacity of destroying them before completion with workers. For new units, the Zerg receive the Ravager, an evolution from Roaches (akin to Lurkers from Hydralisks and Banelings from Zerglings) and can use a 'Corrosive Bile' special ability that acts like 'focused artillery', focusing a specific location and dealing damage to anything it hits, including air units. Corrosive Bile can also be used to destroy Force Fields.

Plot[edit]

Prologue: Whispers of Oblivion[edit]

Some time after the events of Heart of the Swarm, Zeratul searches to unravel the final piece of the Xel'Naga prophecy.^[12] To find the last remaining piece of information Zeratul needs to find the place of Amon's resurrection. To uncover this, Zeratul travels to a Terran installation where he is contacted by Praetor Talis, one of Artanis's commanders. Talis explains that Protoss are captured and experimented upon by the Terrans and requests Zeratul's help. When arriving on the Terran controlled station, Zeratul encounters Kerrigan and her Swarm, who seek to destroy the facility. Zeratul must race Kerrigan to free the captured Protoss and acquire the location of Amon's resurrection.

After completing his task Zeratul and Talis set off to the planet Atrias, where a Xel'Naga Temple is situated. Before Zeratul can enter the temple however, he must fight his way through a force of Tal'Darim Protoss, fanatically loyal to Amon. They are led by Highlord Ma'lash who communes with Amon to receive instructions. Zeratul is successful in defeating the Tal'Darim and enters the temple.

Starcraft 2 Legacy Of The Void Sale

Inside he must again fight his way through Tal'Darim forces and destroy a structure known as the 'Void Catalyst'. This structure appears to allow the Tal'Darim to contact Amon and use its energies to empower them. After the Void Catalyst is destroyed by Zeratul, he is contacted by what appears to be Tassadar in spirit form, who instructs Zeratul to find the keystone. Shortly after this, Amon himself attempts to kill Zeratul by collapsing the temple. Talis grants Zeratul just enough time to escape Amon's grip, but at the cost of herself and her forces.

With the last fragment of the prophecy fulfilled, Zeratul sets off to warn Artanis about his findings.

Legacy of the Void Campaign[edit]

Artanis leads the Golden Armada in an invasion of their Zerg-infested homeworld of Aiur, abandoned since the Brood War six years earlier; Zeratul arrives to warn Artanis of Amon's return, but the invasion proceeds regardless. Amon awakens on Aiur and takes control of the majority of the Protoss race through the Khala, the telepathic bond that unites all emotions for the Khalai and Templar factions of the Protoss. Only Zeratul and the Nerazim, the Dark Templar, remain unaffected as a result of their ritualistic cutting of their nerve cords, which severs their connection to the Khala. Zeratul and the Nerazim scramble to save as many of the Aiur Protoss as they can by severing their nerve cords while fending off Amon's Zerg broods and possessed Protoss. Artanis succumbs to Amon's control, and attacks Zeratul, who tries to cut off Artanis's nerve cords without harming him. In his final strike, Zeratul severs Artanis's nerve cords, releasing him from Amon's mind-control, but suffers a mortal wound. As Zeratul dies from Artanis's strike, he urges the Hierarch to combat Amon by going to the planet Korhal to recover the Xel'Naga Keystone - the artifact used to deinfest Sarah Kerrigan and free her from Amon's control. With the Golden Armada now under Amon's control, Artanis activates the last remaining Protoss Arkship, the Spear of Adun, to serve as his command ship while evacuating the Protoss who have escaped Amon's control.

In the meantime, Amon's forces within all three races, along with hybrids and beings from the Void, begin to wage war in order to extinguish all life from the Koprulu Sector. On Korhal, Artanis arrives in the middle of a Terran battle between Dominion forces and the rogue Moebius Foundation, now under the control of Amon. The Protoss intervene by aiding Jim Raynor and Emperor Valerian Mengsk in defending the planet from the Moebius Foundation and its hybrids before retrieving the artifact.

With the Keystone secured, Artanis undertakes numerous missions to rebuild the Protoss forces. On the Dark Templar homeworld of Shakuras, the warpgate connecting the planet to Aiur has been reactivated and Amon's forces overwhelm the planet. Upon arrival, Artanis helps Matriarch Vorazun, Raszagal's daughter, evacuate the rest of the Dark Templar before obliterating the planet to deny Amon control of it. Artanis also travels to the planet Glacius, a research facility involved in developing advanced Protoss weaponry. The Protoss discover and reawaken an experimental Purifier in stasis, only for Artanis to discover Fenix's consciousness in the Purifier's machine body.

Utilizing data from the keystone, Artanis is directed to the Xel'Naga homeworld of Ulnar, a planetary-sized temple-like structure hidden within a rift which the Protoss believed could not sustain life. Upon reaching the inner temple grounds, Artanis comes upon Kerrigan battling Amon's hybrid. Artanis enters into a reluctant alliance with Kerrigan after learning that she also fights against Amon. During their investigation, Artanis and Kerrigan learn of the Xel'Naga's origins. Seeking their help in the war, Artanis and Kerrigan find the Xel'Naga dead, slain by Amon and his forces. Amon opens a gateway to the void, and Kerrigan and Artanis are ambushed by hybrid and spectral forces from the void. Meanwhile, the Spear of Adun is infiltrated by Alarak, First Ascendant of the Tal'darim. Vorazun briefly clashes with Alarak, who claims they have a common enemy and that the Protoss Hierarch is in grave danger. Reluctantly, Vorazun sends Protoss forces to coordinates provided by Alarak. Artanis and Kerrigan are rescued by the timely arrival of their forces.

Alarak reveals Amon as a false prophet; the Tal'darim believe their faith in Amon would be rewarded through their transformation into hybrid, a belief revealed by Alarak as a lie. Alarak, seeking vengeance for Amon's betrayal, proposes a bargain to Artanis: Artanis would help Alarak overthrow Highlord Ma'lash as leader of the Tal'darim, and Alarak would remove the Tal'darim from the conflict, depleting Amon's ranks. Artanis reluctantly agrees and helps Alarak complete the Tal'darim tradition of Rak'Shir combat to overthrow Ma'lash. Alarak declares the Tal'darim free from Amon's control, and declares vengeance against his former god.

At the behest of Fenix, Artanis seeks the help of the ancient Purifiers despite the misgivings of his advisers. At Cybros, a facility orbiting the forest world of Endion, Artanis fights through waves of Amon's Zerg to awaken the ancient Purifiers, mechanical soldiers programmed with the preserved minds of legendary Protoss warriors. Created by the now-defunct Protoss Conclave, Purifiers were treated as weapons instead of as fellow templar. This resentment came to a head when the Purifiers rebelled, and the Purifier program was shut down. With the help of Fenix, Artanis is able to placate their bitterness and convince them to join his forces while standing together as equals.

With the newly united Protoss forces, Artanis stages another invasion of Aiur while the Golden Armada wreak destruction in other parts of the sector. After destroying Amon's host body, Artanis is successful in temporarily trapping Amon's consciousness in the Keystone. With the brainwashed Daelaam Protoss temporarily freed from Amon's mind control, Artanis urges them to sever their nerve cords to disconnect themselves from the Khala and deny Amon's consciousness an anchor in real space. The Aiur Protoss sever their nerve cords and Amon is banished into the Void. With Aiur reclaimed and the Protoss unified under the Daelaam, the Protoss begin to rebuild, ushering a new age of prosperity and peace on their home planet.

Epilogue: Into the Void[edit]

Some time after Amon's defeat on Aiur, Kerrigan sends a psionic call to Raynor and Artanis, directing them back to Ulnar as a staging ground for an invasion of the Void in order to permanently end Amon's threat. The combined Terran / Zerg / Protoss armada successfully breaches Amon's first line of defense, and Alexei Stukov, the Zerg-infested former vice admiral of the UED, kills a resurrected Duran/Narud, revealed to be a Xel'Naga himself, in retaliation for Duran killing Stukov on Braxis during the Brood War. In the process, Artanis, Kerrigan, and Raynor release an imprisoned Xel'Naga named Ouros. Upon Ouros' release, the three heroes learn he was the one who was using Tassadar's visage to guide them and that in order to maintain the Infinite Cycle, a fellow Xel'Naga has to kill Amon. Only Kerrigan at that point has the capability of surviving such an ascension. After merging with Ouros' essence, Kerrigan becomes a Xel'Naga. With the help of the joint armada, Kerrigan kills Amon, ordering the remaining armies to flee as her final attack creates a psychic backlash in the Void.

Two years after Kerrigan's victory over Amon, Emperor Valerian Mengsk and Admiral Matthew Horner have ushered the Terran Dominion into an age of peace and prosperity. Negotiations with the unified Protoss are making progress and the two races are at peace. Raynor reunites with Kerrigan, who appears in her human form, and leaves Mar Sara. He leaves behind his badge, setting aside the final piece of his troubled past, and is never seen again. Meanwhile, Alarak has declined to accept a permanent alliance with the Daelaam, but allows any Tal'Darim a single chance to join them before leaving to find a new homeworld. The Zerg, now under their new queen Zagara, have aggressively reclaimed Char and the surrounding systems as their new homeworld. As peace gradually settles, life unexpectedly blooms on previously barren and ravaged worlds in the sector.

Development[edit]

The development of StarCraft II was announced on May 19, 2007 at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea.^[13][14] At the June 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, Blizzard Executive Vice President Rob Pardo said that StarCraft II was to be released as a trilogy of games, starting with Wings of Liberty, focused on the Terrans, followed by Heart of the Swarm, revolving around the Zerg, and finally Legacy of the Void, devoted to the Protoss.^[2] Blizzard's storyboard team was already working on Heart of the Swarm in early 2010 while Wings of Liberty's game play was refined.^[15]

As of 2008, little to no development was going into Legacy of the Void.^[16] Work had started on Legacy of the Void story, scripts and missions by March 2013, as Heart of the Swarm neared release. Dustin Browder, the game director of StarCraft II, stated that 'we will certainly do our best to reduce the time between expansions', while noting that 'efficient and quick game development is not something we have traditionally been great at.'^[17] As of February 2013, James Waugh is serving as lead writer on Legacy of the Void.^[18]

By August 2013, the story for Legacy of the Void was written, much of the cinematics were completed, and voice actors were in the studio recording dialogue for the game.^[19] Dustin Browder announced in November 2013 he was satisfied with the game's story, but felt the missions and campaign mechanics needed more work, to make them 'feel' like Protoss missions.^[20]

In November 2014, Blizzard released additional information for the game. As opposed to earlier information, the expansion won't require the original game, and will be released as a stand-alone expansion.^[21] Blizzard also announced the new cooperative game play modes Archon Mode, and Allied Commander. Additionally, new units and unit redesigns for the multiplayer part of the game were showcased.^[22] The beta testing started on March 31, 2015^[4] and ended on November 2, 2015.^[5] On September 13, 2015 at the WCS Season 3 finals in Kraków, Blizzard announced that the release date will be November 10, 2015.

On June 16, 2015, at E3, Blizzard announced the upcoming release of a prologue to Legacy of the Void titled Whispers of Oblivion consisting of 3 missions. The prologue is available to anyone who pre-purchases the game. After the October 6, 2015 update to Heart of the Swarm, it was made available to all players. The mini-series is intended to bridge the storyline between Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void.^[7][23]

On October 13, 2015, Blizzard announced a free digital prequel comic book with Artanis being the main protagonist. Titled Artanis: Sacrifice, the comic was written by Matt Burns and James Waugh and illustrated by Edouard Guiton and Emanuele Tenderini. It was released on October 20, 2015.^[24]

Post-release[edit]

At BlizzCon 2015, during the 'Future of StarCraft II' presentation, it was revealed that Blizzard will be releasing more post-release content for both single-player and multiplayer. New modes like co-op missions, where players can choose a commander from the StarCraft universe and play in campaign-style missions with a partner was expanded upon. Lead developer David Kim mentioned that a ladder revamp and separate race matchmaking rating for the multiplayer was in the works and that features like automated tournaments will continue to receive support and changes. New micro content like skins and voice packs, which have been requested by the community for a while, was also announced for a mid to late 2016 release.

To keep players engaged with the story of StarCraft II after the events of Legacy of the Void, additional mission packs were announced. The first pack is called Nova Covert Ops and has a series of nine missions delivered in three episodic installments.^[25][26] It centers on the character Nova. The first episodic installment was released in March 2016.^[27] All missions were released by November 2016.

Reception[edit]

The game has been favorably reviewed. On Metacritic, it currently has an 88/100 rating based on 59 reviews.^[28]

Softpedia concluded that 'Starcraft II deserves its place as one of the most influential releases of the past five years, and this Protoss-focused chapter manages to deliver a fitting end to its core narrative while opening up the multiplayer in some interesting ways.'^[33]

Sales[edit]

According to Blizzard Entertainment, Legacy of the Void sold more than 1 million copies worldwide within its first 24 hours of being on sale.^[34]

Accolades[edit]

Professional competition[edit]

Professional StarCraft II competition was in decline prior to Legacy of the Void's release.^[39] Not long after the release of Legacy of the Void, Blizzard Entertainment's primary sanctioned StarCraft II competition the StarCraft II World Championship Series was changed as the format transitioned from a league format, with competition consistently going on for weeks or months, to a circuit format, focusing on a few weekend-long events throughout the year. The format for the region of Korea, the most successful country in professional StarCraft II, remained league-focused. These changes did little to stop this as viewership continued to decline through its first two years of release. However, with the introduction of the War Chest in 2017 as a crowdfunding tool for the game's competitive scene and the transition of the multiplayer mode into a free-to-play business model in late 2017, the game has seen an increase in player base and viewership and a general resurgence of interest, with player activity growing above numbers reached in .^[39][40]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abSykes, Tom (September 13, 2015). 'StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void release date and opening revealed'. PC Gamer. Retrieved September 13, 2015.
2. ^ ^ab'BlizzCon 2008: Starcraft II split into trilogy'. GameSpot. October 10, 2008. Retrieved October 10, 2008.
3. ^Pardo, Rob (October 10, 2008). 'Starcraft 2 Legacy of the Void Announcement'. Battle.net. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
4. ^ ^abTuri, Tim (March 18, 2015). 'StarCraft II: Legacy Of The Void Enters Closed Beta March 31'. Game Informer. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
5. ^ ^ab'Legacy of the Void Beta ends today'. Battle.net. November 2, 2015. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
6. ^ ^ab'Legacy of the Void™ Now Available for Pre-Purchase'. Blizzard Entertainment. July 7, 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
7. ^ ^ab'Heart of the Swarm 3.0 Patch Notes'. StarCraft II. October 6, 2015. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
8. ^Pardo, Rob (October 10, 2008). 'Starcraft 2 Trilogy Announcement'. Wegame.com. Archived from the original on October 13, 2008. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
9. ^Hafer, T.J (March 16, 2013). 'StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm interview with Chris Metzen'. PC Gamer. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
10. ^'Legacy of the Void Beta Preview'. March 18, 2015. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
11. ^Stanton, Rich (April 14, 2015). 'Legacy of the Void makes changes that won't appeal to all StarCraft 2 players'. Eurogamer. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
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Starcraft 2 Legacy Of The Void Achievements

External links[edit]