StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

"My Life for Aiur."

AH Starcraft 2, my favourite RTS franchise. I never knew or got into the first Starcraft but when I played wings of liberty back when it was released, I got immediately hooked to the story and the gameplay.

Been waiting a long time for this last part of the trilogy, and the franchise, to come out, and finally got enough time to replay the previous two parts and finish this all in one go.

Legacy of the Void is a protoss focused campaign like how Wings of Liberty was for Terrans and Heart of the Swarm was for the Zerg. And it is about time we finally get to play as them.

Things I liked: The cinematic storytelling returned better than ever. The story continues from where Heart of the Swarm left off, with Amon's threat getting bigger and graver. It all had this Mass Effect feel to it and considering it is my favourite game (trilogy) of all time, I was really digging and enjoying the story. Old faces return, alliances are created, armies are forged, all that good shiz.

Blizzard once again showed that they are the gods of CGI cut scenes. From that epic opening scene to various others throughout the game, they were really a sight to behold. And not only that, the in-game cutscenes were pretty great as well.

The Protagonist: Artanis. I didn't really knew much about him but I immediately liked him. He was your usual young leader type character but his execution was good enough that you felt like a leader yourself when playing the game.

The side characters were pretty good and varying. And it was great conversing with them between missions as each had different views about their kind and factions and it just gave you a great insight to how protoss think of each other.

Like in the previous parts, good to great voice acting, making characters more interesting.

Best soundtrack in the trilogy hands down. It was so great.

A pretty well rounded conclusion to a great story. Sure I wanted more closure, as with all the endings, but what I got was still great.

The gameplay design was really great. Almost all of the missions required you to create different types of units to properly succeed instead of spamming one or two unit types, and I liked this forceful diversity.

The Spear of Adun mechanic was a great add-on. Tons of abilities that you could experiment with in each mission and they were great and fun to use. Also, because of it, every bonus objective had more weight to it since finishing them would give you more resources to use Adun's abilities. This resulted in me trying to finish all the bonus objectives first in each mission.

Each unit type changes were really great as well. As the game progresses, you open up new types of the unit and can choose and experiment in different missions.

Things I didn't liked:

While the game graphics aren't bad or anything, they look almost the same like they did 5 years ago when Wings of Liberty came out. I mean it would have been nice to have some big improvement over them.

Majority of the missions had a real same-y feeling. They got too monotonous. The structure was almost the same i.e main target needs to be destroyed but has this many points that needs to be taken out first etc etc.

Story does get cheesy or bit heavy handed at times, which was the issue in previous two parts as well. Small nitpick on my part since I love it regardless. tongue emoticon

All in all, I had a real blast re-playing the previous parts again and finally playing this. Was a great couple of days and really creates the momentum to enjoy this epic galactic tale. Starcraft 2 is easily my favourite RTS of all time, and really, there is no other RTS that focuses so much on its campaign and I applaud Blizzard for putting so much effort into it. Wings of Liberty remains my favourite part overall.

As always, when something great ends, a layer of sadness is present, and I will miss this franchise, but at the same time I'm glad it ended on a high not cause too many games/franchises screw up their endings.

9/10

I think the Protoss series wasn't as compelling to play as the others or the original - the character development was too strong that it took away from the storyline

Story: Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void starts with the war between Protoss and the Zerg. Protoss gather around their Homeworld of Aiur, to retake it from the Zerg. While they are fighting each other, Amon forces arrive and start to slay everyone. One world falls after another, and no one seems to be capable of stopping them. The Protoss are also forced to retreat, and leave the system to fight another day.

Legacy of the Void's story is a lot more darker and unpredictable than the first two games in the trilogy.. You can expect a lot of twists and turns in the game, especially towards first half of the game and during epilogue. The game features likable characters. From main character Artanis to supporting cast and favorites from older games, all have great personalities. Another thing that I liked about the story is that, almost every character gets the time to shine, both in story and gameplay. Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void is satisfying end to Starcraft saga. Everything is answered and nothing is left open for sequels. This is THE END of the saga that started over 17 years ago.

Design: Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void is the longest game in the trilogy. It took me over 20 hours to finish the campaign. As expect there is a lot of variety in 25 missions of the game. The game really makes you feel like in charge of an advance race or Space Samurais. The number of Protoss is smaller than the Terrans and the Zerg but they are a lot more harder to take down, and they have superior technology and fighting skills.

The game also features Co-op mode this time around, which is designed to encourage new comers to play the game online against others. Upto 2 players can play the game together. You can ask your friend to manage resources, while you command the army against your opponents. It's very useful for teaching new comers how to play when used properly.

Some new units in the game also require more micromanagement than the others. Some of the previous units have also been re-balanced to force people to manage them individually. This re-balancing changes the way, the game is played compared to previous iterations. Now instead of making a large army to launch an attack on opponent's base, the game encourages players to send some of the units early for hit and run tactics. So, action happens a lot faster than before, especially in multiplayer.

Gameplay: Formula is the same, that you expect from a traditional RTS. You gather resources, build your base, create an army and attack your enemy. The game offers number of primary and secondary objectives in each mission. Completing these side missions reward you by giving you extra reinforcements during the mission or by giving you Solarites, crystals used to power different abilities of Protoss flagship, Spear of Adun.

Spear of Adun can have up-to 4 Active abilities during gameplay and 2 Passive abilities. You can use them to help your units during mission. And since, there are only limited number of Solarites in the game, sometimes you will have to make few compromises to choose that one ability that you want to activate. It's a very clever way of giving you control of great technology, while not making the game too easy.

Spear of Adun also act like your command center, where you choose your next mission, talk to other characters and upgrade your units. There are three versions of these units. You unlock these versions as you go through the story. Each version has its own strengths and weaknesses, so you can choose the version that suits your play style.

There are also some missions, where you don't build your base or army. In these missions you take control of Heroes, and use their special abilities at the right time to defeat enemies. Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void is a well balanced game. Protoss warriors have great technology but the game still offers plenty of challenge, and rewards creativity.

Presentation: On Ultra settings the game looks great. Character models are highly detailed and well animated. The voice acting is also top notch. Important scenes in the game are backed by great performances and orchestral soundtrack. Sound effects are also top of the line, as expected. The game is a lot more cinematic than the first two games.

There are way more cutscenes than previous games in the series. Some cutscenes are real-time, while others are pre-rendered. Both of these real-time and pre-rendered cutscenes look great. You visit number of different locations in the Starcraft universe, and all of them look unique and different from one another.

Verdict: Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void is a must own for everyone. It is a satisfying conclusion to an epic saga. Even if there is Starcraft 3 someday, I highly doubt we'll see these characters return in that game, and that's the saddest part. It's like being with a friend for a long time and then seeing him/her go away, never to return. It's beautiful and sad at the same time.

Score: 9.5/10