This review contains spoilers for the single-player campaign.
Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void is a stand-alone expansion to Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. It is the final expansion and offers a Protoss single-player campaign and improvements to multiplayer. The single-player follows Artanis as he seeks to unravel the prophecy of the Xel'naga. The multiplayer adds new units and reworks multiplayer. The expansion also adds a new cooperative game mode where players work with one another to accomplish an objective.
The single-player resolves the story that was started at Wings of Liberty. The Protoss become under the thrall of the rogue Xel'naga Amon, and Artanis must thwart his plans. The story takes some interesting turns with Zeratul's death but ultimately proves to be cliched and disappointing. The tone of this entry is darker with more character deaths, but the characters were not well written. Charcater details such as Artanis' trust in Zeratul before this entry is thrown away to create meaningless tension and plot hooks. At first glance the story looks epic, but upon thinking of the plot, it collapses. Events in the story simply occur with some vague explanation. The story concludes with Kerrigan, Raynor, and Artanis defeating Amon and freeing the galaxy from his influence. This was one of the most predictable stories that was drawn out across the 3 games. The voice acting performances are all solid. There were no bad cinematics or technical problems in the single-player.
The single-player's levels are solid and fun to play. Like Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm before this, the game features a progressive unlock and progressive upgrade system. The Protoss units are the focus here with many old Starcraft 1 favorites making a return. The units are incredibly fun to use and watch. Some units are better for certain levels and it is exciting to hear voices even for the newer units. The single-player has a good challenge in its level-design. It was a challenge for me to complete each level with the bonus objective.
The single-player may not offer much in plot, but it offers a lot in fun and challenge. It is sad that the story was not ended well, but the single-player is sound from start to finish in all other categories.
The multiplayer is changed from Heart of the Swarm. The game now favors expansions with less of a starting time as in the previous expansion. The multiplayer does well in enabling the competitiveness with more units and tweaks. Casual players that are not into the competitive nature of the game have something to look forward to here with the cooperative commander mode.
The cooperative commander mode is an excellent addition. The players can choose commanders that have played or encountered in the single-player campaigns with their respective powers to complete scenarios. For example, Kerrigan is the Zerg commander that is a hero unit on the battlefield with the tougher Zerg units. She has her hero abilities and can help her ally commander. The missions are similar to ones played in the but being able to play with a multiplayer progression system with friends is fun. The cooperative commanders are not balanced among each other, but this is okay due to the players teaming up against the artificial intelligence.
There is a lot to like about the multiplayer. It offers much for any player interested in Real-time Strategy games.a
Overall, I would recommend Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void. The game is a solid addition to any RTS fan's library.
Grade: B
Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void is a stand-alone expansion to Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. It is the final expansion and offers a Protoss single-player campaign and improvements to multiplayer. The single-player follows Artanis as he seeks to unravel the prophecy of the Xel'naga. The multiplayer adds new units and reworks multiplayer. The expansion also adds a new cooperative game mode where players work with one another to accomplish an objective.
The single-player resolves the story that was started at Wings of Liberty. The Protoss become under the thrall of the rogue Xel'naga Amon, and Artanis must thwart his plans. The story takes some interesting turns with Zeratul's death but ultimately proves to be cliched and disappointing. The tone of this entry is darker with more character deaths, but the characters were not well written. Charcater details such as Artanis' trust in Zeratul before this entry is thrown away to create meaningless tension and plot hooks. At first glance the story looks epic, but upon thinking of the plot, it collapses. Events in the story simply occur with some vague explanation. The story concludes with Kerrigan, Raynor, and Artanis defeating Amon and freeing the galaxy from his influence. This was one of the most predictable stories that was drawn out across the 3 games. The voice acting performances are all solid. There were no bad cinematics or technical problems in the single-player.
The single-player's levels are solid and fun to play. Like Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm before this, the game features a progressive unlock and progressive upgrade system. The Protoss units are the focus here with many old Starcraft 1 favorites making a return. The units are incredibly fun to use and watch. Some units are better for certain levels and it is exciting to hear voices even for the newer units. The single-player has a good challenge in its level-design. It was a challenge for me to complete each level with the bonus objective.
The single-player may not offer much in plot, but it offers a lot in fun and challenge. It is sad that the story was not ended well, but the single-player is sound from start to finish in all other categories.
The multiplayer is changed from Heart of the Swarm. The game now favors expansions with less of a starting time as in the previous expansion. The multiplayer does well in enabling the competitiveness with more units and tweaks. Casual players that are not into the competitive nature of the game have something to look forward to here with the cooperative commander mode.
The cooperative commander mode is an excellent addition. The players can choose commanders that have played or encountered in the single-player campaigns with their respective powers to complete scenarios. For example, Kerrigan is the Zerg commander that is a hero unit on the battlefield with the tougher Zerg units. She has her hero abilities and can help her ally commander. The missions are similar to ones played in the but being able to play with a multiplayer progression system with friends is fun. The cooperative commanders are not balanced among each other, but this is okay due to the players teaming up against the artificial intelligence.
There is a lot to like about the multiplayer. It offers much for any player interested in Real-time Strategy games.a
Overall, I would recommend Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void. The game is a solid addition to any RTS fan's library.
Grade: B