StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void Review: Killer mission design, great new innovations

Jos

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How to review a game like StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void? Where do you even start? Do you try to figure out how it fits into today’s landscape of competitive multiplayer games? Do you ask whether it makes for a worthy conclusion to the story that began nearly 17 years ago? Do you just say whether or not it’s fun?

I have been playing StarCraft II, on and off, since March 5, 2010. For five years, it’s been one of my go-to multiplayer games, something I’ve always kept installed on my laptop so I could squeeze in a quick match before bed. I’ve pulled off clutch victories, gone on brutal losing streaks, and cursed myself for still getting supply-blocked five minutes into a game. I’ve watched dozens of Day9 Dailies, played hundreds of online matches, and observed as the internet declared that StarCraft II is dead, murdered by the MOBAs that had spawned from its predecessor. At one point I made it to Diamond League.

So let’s take a stab at answering all three of those questions. With Legacy of the Void, StarCraft II multiplayer is in a better place than it’s ever been. Competitive matches are faster and more interesting. The new co-op mode is an unexpected delight. There appear to be balance issues—Liberators are hard to stop, aren’t they?—but this is a living game that will be patched and updated for years to come. Amid all of these new ideas and changes, it remains clear that Blizzard is not afraid to experiment.

Read the complete review.

 
I am through mission 15 at the moment, from the total of 19 within the Legacy of the Void.

And I'd say that while some additions are welcome, not all of them. Most noticeably, much faster resource depletion is a bummer, I have to change my strategy because of that. I haven't gotten familiar enough with all the changes though yet.

They definitely have fixed the performance bugs they had before. The game is now just as responsive at maximum settings as was the original. I'm playing it with 2560x1600 at ultra-settings, and it works just fine on my 2-year old GTX-780, whereas before the fixes it was struggling bad.
 
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There aren’t nearly as many positive things to say about the story.
Maybe it's just me, but I'm getting sick of hearing about how the story in these games isn't all that great. They're video games, folks, not Breaking Bad. They're rated 'teen', so if the story seems a little simple don't be surprised.

I know the hardcore gamers will come out and say 'yeah but (insert game here) had a great story!' I'm sure it did, but what's going to get people playing... a great game with a mediocre story, or a great story with a mediocre game? The whole point of the campaign is just to teach people the how to play so they can get into the multiplayer anyway.

I know a good review will talk about the whole game, which includes some story comments, but people put it in perspective.
 
I have to say this, but the review and the reviewer are extremely ignorant about the whole SC Lore. Who gave him license to post such garbage?

It's utterly irresponsible for him to have even started writing about the lore without doing his research.

While he is right that the epilogue was a let down, he fails to elucidate the reasons behind that. Legacy of the Void is actually 100 times more multidimensional than Broodwar ever was. It is PACKED with nuances that had someone done his homework would have taken note of on multiple occasions.

The very fact that his main focus is on Amon and Artanis alone makes him completely transparent as a person who just pulled all of his criticism about the lore out of nowhere.

I can accept his opinion, but as a reviewer, his responsibilities entail separating them from fact to give a fair picture. Much less ignore YEARS of lore and call Starcraft 2 non-nuanced, which is a nonsensical premise.

I apologize for being blunt, but if you have the proverbial pen in your hand, please use it responsibly. You don't like Starcraft2. We get it. You play multiplayer occasionally, we understand. As such, you should stick to "I don't know"'s when it comes to topics out of your depth.

So many things were said in your review that do not reflect the reality. The ending was disappointing for most of us Protoss lore fans, but that does not diminish the extremely high quality of the core of the storyline and plot/character development.

Lines were excellent, Artanis saw growing tragedy within him, then picked himself up to honor Zeratul's words and belief in him as a leader. His interaction with Rohana brought back memories of the Artanis of old but also a temperance in his nature, pretty bloody visibly if you are paying attention.

This is but ONE example of his richness of character. It's stupidly inane to see a review being butchered by blatant ignorance of this level.

As a reviewer, you need to broaden your horizons before putting anything on an official tech site W. R. T. a game that, let's be honest, you barely play.
 
"Type of Game: MOBA with buildings"

Its RTS! Real Time Strategy ffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moba with buildings... give the author the boot and hire me instead. Moba...


You beat me to it. WTF is that. RTS.

Agreed. LOL. MOBA?? BSOD....

Steve @ Techspot please back us up here... :))

Update: Why is platform defined as PC? Instead of Win and OS X?

Update2: It is getting more and more awkward that Jason Schreier is not replying here... :)

Update3: I honestly expected a response from Schreier here. Something like: "Yeah guys I am sorry, I was born in the moba era and never heard of RTS and I have never played through the StarCraft games at all...."
 
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