Legacy of the Void will make your Protoss fantasies come true, so long as you’re not responsible for some of the odder space-elf fan art available on Google Images. But it’ll also introduce something potentially more exciting to the world’s biggest RTS: shared-base co-op played out on one-versus-one maps.
Blizzard have dubbed the idea Archon Mode. And since BlizzCon 2014 wrapped, they’ve been busy explaining its ins and outs.
Despite what the swarm would have you believe, the heart of StarCraft lies in its one-versus-one matches. Blizzard don’t want to force players into less popular modes to try out co-op, so they’ve found a way to squeeze an extra player into conflicts designed for two.
Both players will share a single base, and battle against one enemy. They’ll need to decide how to divvy up resource management, base-building, scouting, fighting and all the rest of it.
It sounds, frankly, like a disaster just waiting for its post-match results screen. But Blizzard are dead keen on it.
“Archon Mode vastly expands what players are capable of doing in StarCraft II,” claim the devs. “By doubling the number of commanders on each team, things that previously would not have been possible suddenly become expected.
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“Have you ever split your army’s marines while performing two drops? Well, now and your ally can with ease! Things you used to dream of being able to do are now as easy as can be.”
It’s tough to argue with the maths. Blizzard are particularly excited to see what two expert players might be capable of in tandem. And at the other end of the league, Archon mode should provide the perfect training ground for newcomers.
Can you see yourself helping a friend through their first few PvP games? The whole thing reminds me a little of Icewind Dale multiplayer, which gives two players control of six party members and lets them decide how to split responsibility.
Archon Mode was really fun for me, but I quickly stopped playing it because not only are the search times long but I can rarely get even matches, I used to play it with 2-3 people but with every person we played with, after we got through ~5 matches we started to just face Grandmaster Archons who rolled us every time.
I'd love to see Blizzard try and bring some popularity back to this mode. Some ideas I had:
Allow Archons to play vs Unranked 1v1 players This would be amazing, not only for the player pool, but it also shakes things up. It makes the ladder interesting. Gives you a real challenge, while allowing other players to learn the game or play with a friend.
I've said it 20 times here. New features cost money to develop, money that sc2 doesn't have. You think they just make portraits, UI and achievement code for free? In games that dont have a retarded business model, people BUY features and art for MONEY. What would sc2 get out of adding this stuff????
Adding new features in lotv will not make them more money. Nobody is going to buy LOTV upon hearing that that stuff was added. So forget about it tbh, save yourself the typing and frustration of your ideas being ignored
It would be fun to give Archon Mode more attention. There was so much focus on it leading up to the LotV release to the point where almost all professional beta tournaments were strictly Archon teams. After the release, you really didn't hear about it. I think there's a lot of promise with a little tinkering.
A bit off topic, but there's a poll on Twitter for Archon mode or Quake to be casted at the Calgary Expo 2016. Here's the associated reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/4geosx/vote_for_starcraft_2_to_be_broadcasted_live_at/ A bit off topic, but there's a poll on Twitter for Archon mode or Quake to be casted at the Calgary Expo 2016. Here's the associated reddit thread: http://imgur.com/i21Gqwy LMFAO this game is so useless. Still no LAN and live events dont want to even bother with the problems that it could cause I've said it 20 times here. New features cost money to develop, money that sc2 doesn't have. If you think Blizzard doesn't have giant swimming pools full of gold coins at this point, I don't know what to tell you. Whether they are willing to invest into the game may be an issue, but whether they can is decidedly not.
I never played it because i dont have any friends to play with. i wish blizzard allows solo queue like wtf. i'd love to try it at least
If you think Blizzard doesn't have giant swimming pools full of gold coins at this point, I don't know what to tell you. Whether they are willing to invest into the game may be an issue, but whether they can is decidedly not. If you think sc2 has access to the entirety of blizzards gold coins I don't know what to tell you.. They will no longer be investing huge amounts into LOTV. This is clear to me due to how slow things like the ladder update is, how little assets were added to lotv as far as portraits go, how half assed automated tournaments were, ect. You can already feel the attitude the people with MONEY have for sc2. Maintain what is there with minimum dollars going into it. It doesn't matter what passionate developers may want to put into the game. They clearly can't do it with the man power they are given How about you go to the high ups of blizzard and ask for a huge budget. Say your business plan is you want to make a bunch of assets and improvements for a game that already exists, for people that already bought it. They dont even need to buy anything further to get access to the improvements. They will say how about you take stacks of cash and flush it down the toilet because it's ultimately the same ROI If you think sc2 has access to the entirety of blizzards gold coins I don't know what to tell you..
04/25/2016 04:04 PMPosted by Kelthar
Whether they are willing to invest into the game may be an issue
Really like a lot of these ideas. A bit unsure about archons playing 1v1 unranked though since the single player will likely get stomped. I mentioned this in another thread but blizzard should allow single player queuing and send matched players to a lobby for 60 seconds. Give players a chance to talk strategies, roles and race before starting the match.
Really like a lot of these ideas. A bit unsure about archons playing 1v1 unranked though since the single player will likely get stomped. I mentioned this in another thread but blizzard should allow single player queuing and send matched players to a lobby for 60 seconds. Give players a chance to talk strategies, roles and race before starting the match. Actually it really doesnt matter if archon pairs play single players. Since every team has a match making rating it's not like archon 1v1 gold pair would play a single 1v1 gold. If the gold leaguer archon pair is diamond together, they will play solo diamonds and its a fair match.
+1 These are all great ideas, especially adding the solo queue and the production tab. Archon Mode is one of the most fun and exciting additions to LOTV, yet tournaments rarely use it for competition and it's so difficult to find a match with the ladder system.
Anyways, I'd like to hear your opinions and experiences with Archon Mode as well!Here’s a few random ideas/suggestions to throw out there: Increase Grandmaster BP limit from 180 to 360 or decrease accumulation rate Archon teams with the highest MMR are not actually in Grandmasters, they sit inside regular Master divisions and collect hundreds of BP. There are many contributing factors: 1) Player base is smaller, so it takes longer to find matches compared to 1v1 mode. 2) A good MMR means that you only receive 2-4pts for winning vs. other players. 3) Since you have to manage schedules with your partner, there's less time to play. Infact, the only way to get into Archon GM right now is by throwing games on purpose to spend your Bonus Pool faster. 180 makes sense in 1v1 but it is way too strict for teams. Change all army hotkey and box selection to only work on deselected units Currently it is very easy to step on each other's toes, e.g. trying to defend a dropship with units at home while your partner uses the F2 key. I think they should disable selecting units if your partner has them currently selected or even part of their control groups. Huge quality of life improvement for Arranged Teams, although it may be difficult for Random Teams due to the communication gap. Like you suggested, one could be the 'Macro' role while the other is 'Micro', and then give control privileges to Macro player? Add 'quick message' hotkeys for easier communication using non-voice chat Imagine if you could press a button to instantly send a pre-written message, such as 'Incoming dropship!' or 'Attack incoming!' This would be extremely helpful when playing with new partners, and also very useful with the addition of Random Teams. 1v1 players would also benefit from this feature, as you could press a button to send your 'gl hf' at the beginning of the game or 'gg wp' at the end without having to type anything. These messages are so frequent that it would be crazy not to automate them. I think the numpad would be a perfect place for these, similar to Blizzard's Diablo 2 where you can press those buttons for voice emotes. RTS games like C&C used to put messages on the F-keys, but since they are used for Camera in SC2 the numpad makes more sense. Thanks for reading the giant wall of text. :P I'd love to see Archon Mode become popular, I play it more often than 1v1 mode now. Those are just a few of the things that would make a big difference with the gameplay (in conjunction with everything listed in the OP).
@Adenosine: Love the lobby suggestion for solo-queue -- added that to my post!
@Axiom: Great suggestions, added a link to your post. I've said it 20 times here. New features cost money to develop, money that sc2 doesn't have. You think they just make portraits, UI and achievement code for free? In games that dont have a retarded business model, people BUY features and art for MONEY. What would sc2 get out of adding this stuff???? I was going to ignore this post, but trust me, when I counted all my feedback threads back in 2013 they were collectively 75,317 characters (counting spaces) and it's grown steadily since then so I'm well acquainted with being resolutely ignored by Blizzard. But when I get ideas its actually more frustrating to not write about them. I whipped this post out pretty quick, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it or writing it. Plus, despite your words, they still somehow keep providing free updates.
Free UPDATES?? what have the actually DONE?
We have only had a single balance patch. From beta to s1 they kept the beta maps. From s1 to s2 they didnt even change any maps. Ladder revamp doesnt even have the specifics decided. Talk is cheap. They have done almost nothing since release, and release was best described as lukewarm. Automated tournaments were meh. Coop is meh. Archom is dead. New maps and meta are possibly an all time low for sc2. New features cost money to develop Have you ever been an industrial developer? These 'new features' looks like few extra hours for a single developer + few extra hours for a verification team. Mostly it doesnt even seem to require major code changes, just constraints and meta-data. And xml ofc. Have you ever been an industrial developer? These 'new features' looks like few extra hours for a single developer + few extra hours for a verification team. Mostly it doesnt even seem to require major code changes, just constraints and meta-data. And xml ofc Idk what you're smoking but creating assets, adding voice chat and archon tournaments wouldn't be an afternoon solo mission Idk what you're smoking but creating assets, adding voice chat and archon tournaments wouldn't be an afternoon solo mission Yes it is. The only real programming is optimizing voice chat, which isn't that hard actually and was made hundreds of times before. Assuming blizzard is already working on the issue, I dunno why it's not out yet. The most important changes regarding matchmaking do not require programming or creating a new content. Just some metadata shall be corrected, that's all. I assume we have to wait ten more month to see at least something of the suggested implemented only because of analytics and designers. No matter where I work, these sons of mothers always stop any progressive working process they can.
I wish Blizzard would read this post, as a casual player I've never tried Archon mode before, I can't invite my friends even to play the game because it don't seem fun they said, but if this proposal happen maybe, just maybe I could finally play Archon mode with a buddy, who seek for fun not depression from a game.
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The Terran and Zerg races had their moment in the sun, now it's time for the fancy-armored Protoss to shine in Legacy of the Void, Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming standalone expansion to the sci-fi RTS StarCraft 2. It's only fitting, then, that the recently revealed additions to the game - the new Adept unit for the Protoss, and the 'two players, one base' Archon Mode - both trace back to everyone's favorite Aiur-based aliens.
Let's start with the Adept, a Tier 2 Gateway unit with a ground-only ranged attack, and the latest reveal (thus far) from five new multiplayer units in LotV. Refreshingly, this is the first female Protoss unit that you can view in-game (not counting the Mothership, since that's basically just a giant blue-and-gold saucer of death). The Adept's primary abilities are extremely complex, seeing as she can A) project a phantom copy of herself that she'll eventually take the place of after a few seconds, and B) create a damaging chain reaction if she scores a kill on a unit.
It's still unclear what the Adept's core strength is, and what part it will play in Protoss armies, but I'm thinking that she'll excel as a harassment unit. The mirror image can't attack or be attacked, so it could theoretically be used for scouting - but you can't prevent the spatial switcheroo, so you'd risk losing her in enemy territory. Instead, it seems like the Adept is best used to sneak past the front lines to pester workers, then warp away (as far as her temporary mirror image will take her) when enemy defenses finally respond.
Of course, such a maneuver demands a good deal of micro-managing skill - which brings me to Archon Mode. Like the Protoss unit of the same name, two players combine into a single entity in Archon Mode, fully sharing control over units and resources while playing as any of the three races. If you so choose, you could have your partner focus purely on the buildings and expansions necessary to maintain your team's economy and upgrade your tech tree, while you control all the units charging into battle. Whereas a lone player has to constantly juggle attention between their army and their base, Archon Mode lets you focus purely on the aspect you're best at (while possibly gleaning tips from how your teammate does things).
This is how I put Archon Mode through its paces in a few matches - me on units, my teammate on base management - and the experience was a ton of fun, though I could see it introducing as many challenges as it alleviates. Since players on unit-control duty don't have much to do in the early game besides scout and harass, novices will need to be extra vigilant against early aggression or cheesy strategies (yes, I did tower rush the opposing Archon, and for that I am ashamed). And while new players can divvy up responsibilities into more manageable chunks, communication becomes more crucial than ever when your base is under attack and both players are suddenly in panic mode.
Still, having tried Archon Mode, I don't think I can go back to floundering around by myself on the solo ladder. There may be ranked matchmaking for Archon Mode in the works, though Blizzard hasn't detailed the specifics - but it'd be fascinating to see if two pro players would become more than the sum of their skills when joined together, or if relinquishing total control would cause the duo to crumble. We'll find out soon enough, as invites to the closed beta for Legacy of the Void go out on March 31st.
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When StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty debuted in 2010, gamers were treated to a slick, modern revival of one of the most iconic real-time-strategy franchises in gaming history. But over the last five years, StarCraft’s popularity has taken a hit, due to the rise of multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games such as League of Legends and Dota 2.
With Legacy of the Void, not only is Blizzard trying to wrap up StarCraft's epic space saga, but it also reinvigorate the multiplayer scene with new units, additional game modes and a swarm of balance changes for competitive play.
The Game: So Many Units, So Little Time
For the uninitiated, StarCraft II places you in command of one of three races. Legacy of the Void's single-player campaign focuses on one of them — the high-tech, psionic-power-wielding Protoss — the other races are the human Terrans and the buglike Zerg. Your job is to build and manage an army by harvesting resources and producing a wide array of troops and units such as tanks, carriers and artillery to eliminate opposing forces. Battles happen in real time. With no pauses or breaks during fights to make decisions, you'll have to pay attention to your economy and current encounters at the same time.
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While this may sound a little complicated, StarCraft II's single-player campaigns have always done a fantastic job of easing new players into the game, and Legacy of the Void is no exception. Akhiyan udeek diyan lyrics translation. The four difficulty settings (casual, normal, hard and brutal) provide a sweet spot for everyone, and in-game achievements offer an extra level of challenge for every mission.
Story and Campaign: My Life for Aiur
Legacy of the Void picks up after previous expansion pack Heart of the Swarm, in which the once-human Kerrigan reemerges as the Queen of Blades and leader of the Zerg, and finally gets revenge on the corrupt Terran emperor Arcturus Mengsk. The scene has now shifted to the enigmatic Dark Templar Zeratul, as he tries to warn his fellow Protoss that there's an even greater threat that's waiting to be vanquished.
From the inky depths of the Void, which exists beyond the normal boundary of the universe, the ancient evil entity Amon seeks to regain his form and wipe out all life forms, whether they’re Protoss, Zerg or Terran.
Starcraft 2 Archon Mode Vs Airlines
But Zeratul can't do it alone. As in previous StarCraft II expansions, he will need to recruit allies and turn former enemies into allies to combat the oncoming darkness.
Legacy of the Void consists of a three-mission prologue (available for free on Battle.net) to help you catch up on the story, a 19-mission main campaign and a three-mission epilogue that helps tie up all the loose plot ends once and for all. Each mission averages about 30 to 45 minutes in length, depending on difficulty, which means it will probably take between 15 and 20 hours to complete the entire campaign. That may sound a little daunting, but every minute is worth it.
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The first mission introduces the Protoss' signature combat strategy: selecting your entire army and stomping the enemy with an unstoppable deathball before moving on to other techniques and strategies. This gives you time to get familiar with new units one at a time, well before the final showdown.
As in previous expansions, you have the ability to select different enhancements for each unit, which allows you to have Zealots that can respawn when killed, or Colossuses that shoot bolts of high-powered energy instead of the twin lines of fire you would normally get.
The main difference in Legacy of the Void is that instead of having regular access to a hero character such as Kerrigan, you can use the Protoss flagship, The Spear of Adun, to call down orbital strikes from space or warp in additional combat units. When you complete mission bonus objectives, you're rewarded with solarite, which can be used to enhance or modify those abilities to best suit your play style.
Game Modes: Two New Ways to Duo with a Friend
Like a lot of one-person sports, StarCraft can sometimes be a lonely endeavor. But in Legacy of the Void, Blizzard has added two new game modes that allow you to bring a friend into battle with you. The first is Archon mode, which lets two players simultaneously control a single army, offering an alternative to the usual one-person-per-army play style. This means two people can split the responsibilities of building and attacking.
If you want to put one person in charge of gathering resources, while the other scouts the enemy and forms a strategy, you can. Or you can put both people on offense, each leading a portion of your units to create a devastating two-pronged attack. It's a great change from earlier versions of StarCraft II, and it takes a lot of pressure off new players, who often struggle to manage both offense and defense at the same time.
The second new mode consists of co-op missions, in which two players take on the AI in a handful of scenarios selected from campaigns across all three expansions of StarCraft II. You are given objectives such as taking down an enemy train convoy, or preventing a number of enemy transports from escaping while being harassed by raiding parties.
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To add some spice to the scenarios, you can choose a hero such as Kerrigan, the outlaw marshal Jim Raynor or Artanis, the new leader of the Protoss. Your choice of hero affects which units are available to each race and which special abilities you can select.
As in the Heart of the Swarm campaign, if you choose Kerrigan, then the Queen of Blades herself will join you on the battlefield. Choosing Raynor lets you do stuff like call down the battleship Hyperion to carpet-bomb the enemy. Completing missions earns you experience points that are used to further enhance your abilities or troops, giving you plenty of reasons to play them multiple times.
There are also new automated tournaments, which give you the ability to compete against other similarly rated players and experience the thrill of eSports on a small scale.
New Units: It's About Time
As a high-gold/low-platinum-ranked player in Wings of Liberty, I'm by no means an expert when it comes to discussing what kind of impact the new balance changes (such as a new blink ability for Terran Battlecruisers, or the increased starting worker count) will have on the StarCraft II professional-player scene. But when games like League of Legends and Dota 2 were regularly updated with new champions, it was plain to see that StarCraft II was in dire need of some new troops. So let's take a look at the new units each race is getting.
The Terrans have been upgraded with the Cyclone and the Liberator, both of which bolster the versatility of a mech-based army. The Cyclone is a turret on tank tracks that uses a special lock-on technique to fire at both air and ground targets, even while moving. The Liberator is a medium-size armored gunship equipped with missiles, and it can transform into a floating anti-ground artillery platform at the drop of a hat.
The Zerg swarm receives a new evolution for the Roach in the Ravager, which turns the ordinarily tanklike frontline unit into a true long-range threat. The Ravager spits out slow-moving corrosive bile, which can also dissolve Protoss force fields. Another new unit, the Lurker, is a callback to StarCraft: Brood War and reintroduces the underground siege unit as a new evolution for the Hydralisk.
The Protoss have been graced with the Adept, a lightly armored ranged unit with a Glaive Cannon that creates a damaging shockwave when it's used to make a killing blow. The Adept also has a psionic-transfer ability that creates an image of the Adept, which can pass through enemy units and then be teleported to after a short period of time. Then there's the Disruptor, which is kind of like a Sentry on steroids. It can become invulnerable for a short time and release a purification nova, which deals tons of damage to enemies surrounding the Disruptor.
Sound and Visuals
The aesthetics and audio of Legacy of the Void aren't bad — they're just more of the same. The bright, colorful graphics and art style have probably aged better than any other game that came out in 2010, but at the same time, they don't look very different from the way they did before.
The same goes for the sound effects, which delight the ears with the hum of the Protoss' psionic weapons or the shrieking cries of a newborn Mutalisk. But again, it's not something StarCraft players haven't heard before. The music, in particular, feels unmemorable. Even after playing through every mission in Legacy of the Void, I'm having a hard time recalling the Protoss-themed music over the twangy guitar-laced tunes of the Terran campaign or the often-sinister overtures of the Zerg.
It's important to point out Blizzard's attention to visuals, which allows even noobs to follow the action. Even in the most hectic battles, it's possible to pick out the most important details, thanks to the varying shapes and silhouettes of the game's different units and attacks. These designs, combined with well-timed visual and audio cues, help keep players focused on what's important, instead of having them space out and ending up on the wrong side of a hungry pack of Zerglings.
Bottom Line
Legacy of the Void delivers a fitting ending for the storyline of StarCraft II, with an engaging intergalactic space opera that's a refreshing change from the sometimes overly soapy plot of the previous expansion pack, Heart of the Swarm. The two-player Archon mode and new co-op missions are a great boon to more casual players, offering players a friendly way to enjoy the game without getting thrown into the meat grinder of the competitive multiplayer universe.
The new units and balance changes are sure to give the competitive scene a shot in the arm, but they are probably too little, too late to vault StarCraft II back into the top tier of eSports. That's not to say the StarCraft franchise is dead: StarCraft II is still the cream of the real-time strategy crop, and new gamers should definitely sample Blizzard's blend of RTS perfection before moving on to other games in the genre. But you don't have to take my word for it — there's the free three-mission prologue available on Battle.net for everyone to try.
Still, five years after its initial debut, it seems StarCraft II’s star is fading just a bit. Wings of Liberty was the rebirth of a franchise and seemed so full of possibility, and Heart of the Swarm was a strong follow-up. Legacy of the Void feels like the end of era.
The real question that remains is: Where does Blizzard go from here? Since Wings of Liberty, devoted StarCraft fans have known about Blizzard's three-part plan. If you're at all interested in this universe, you owe it to yourself to finish up Blizzard's latest addition. En taro Zeratul.
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Auir is a shambles. A rogue Xel'Naga, Amon, looks to slaughter the Firstborn and end the cycle of life and death. Only Artanis, Hierarch of the Protoss, can save the Koprulu Sector by uniting the Daelaam, Tal'darim, and Nerazim against him.
If you haven't paid attention to the lore of StarCraft II up to this point, now is a terrible time to start. The deluge of hard-to-parse proper nouns and space magic is enough to douse even the tiniest spark of interest at this point. It's ironic—the first game was all about petty politicking and squabbles between the Zerg, Protoss, and Terrans over limited resources. In-game and out, the scope was so much smaller and the plot much more affecting for it.
Starcraft 2 Archon Mode Vs Ai 3
If you must know what's happening going into Legacy of the Void—the finale to the StarCraft II trilogy and the fifth installment in the series, overall—it sports a slide show telling 'the story so far.' Honestly, though, you're better off grabbing a ticket to see Duncan Jones' upcoming Warcraft movie adaptation. The plot points in both series are basically identical, and Jones’ Moon was pretty good.
Boots on the ground, keep steppingStarcraft Archon V Ai
Despite Legacy's fictional failures, the single-player campaign in this expansion is a lot stronger than its predecessor. StarCraft is at its strongest when it gives you too many objectives to juggle for too long. This is something the first chapter, Wings of Liberty, got very right, but the second, Heart of the Swarm, did not. The standout skirmish from that first campaign was pulled straight out of The Chronicles of Riddick, of all places, forcing players to outrun a solar flare scouring the planet. You had to ceaselessly soak up resources while you could while also completing your objectives and moving your base out of harm's way every few minutes.
Legacy emulates that same plate-spinning style more than once. Whether it's a psychic storm surging through an arid riverbed or just a spread-out battlefront in need of defending, there's nearly always something to keep Protoss leader Artanis and company on their toes (or talons, as the case may be).
As Hierarch, Artanis is more of a leader than a bleeder, and so you won't bring him into combat nearly as much as you did with Sarah Kerrigan in Heart of the Swarm. That's just fine. Without the crutch of a super-powered psychic war machine to lean on, the balancing act is a lot more fun and much truer to the kind of real-time strategy game StarCraft is meant to be.
That's not to say Legacy has dropped the meta-progression from previous episodes. Instead of providing upgrades for Artanis, as you did with Kerrigan, completing mission lines reveals upgrades for your ship—the Spear of Adun. The dreadnought's support abilities work on timers, as well as their own renewable resources, complementing your existing forces rather than replacing them.
Even so, the Spear can seem overpowered at times. One upgrade path allows you to summon minor reinforcements and Pylons—which allow you to warp in more troops—to any location, free of charge. Limited resources and a constant need to reposition make this upgrade particularly unfair against the already relatively toothless A.I. In fact, if you have even the slightest understanding of human StarCraft II tactics, you'll rocket through the campaign on normal difficulty.
Cutthroat competition
How that might hold up against other humans is harder to say. StarCraft II's competitive multiplayer is the same as it has always been: brutal, fast, and unpredictable. Will your opponent slit your economy's throat four minutes into the game, or will it drag out into a long, grinding siege?
Blizzard probably hopes for neither. While there's little to do about the infamous Zerg Rush, Heart of the Swarm was particularly notorious for ferociously long base phlebotomies with siege units. In the boundless search for the perfectly balanced meta-game, the developers have promised a greater focus on micromanagement and small-scale, low-impact fights. At the core of this philosophy is rebalancing units to have more active abilities that require more individual attention. There are new units and structures, but not many—fewer than ten. In this way, as it was in Heart of the Swarm, Legacy's 'new' multiplayer feels more like a hefty patch than a real expansion.
That's probably fine for those already bulwarked behind the walls of Castle StarCraft. The creater of this year's StarCraft II World Championship Series is still glowing behind us. It will be a while before the tournament pros and ladder Joes nod with knowing approval and/or spit in disgust at every little balance update. StarCraft is, and will remain, categorically bonkers.
You require more minerals—no you require more minerals
Those looking for admission to the cabal, or who just want a lick of their Kool Aid spoon, have new options in Legacy of the Void.
Archon Mode is the one getting the most spotlight among fans at Blizzcon and the like. It has two players controlling a single base, thereby splitting the macro- and micromanagement into something closer to what the average human is capable of. Some might use Archon Mode as a replacement for pure, one-on-one dueling. A more likely scenario, and perhaps what Blizzard has in mind, is for one half of the APM sandwich to coach the other, prodding them along the plank over the sea of ladder leagues and matchmaking ratings.
Co-op Missions haven't gotten the same attention as Archon Mode. Perhaps it's because they don't preach to the StarCraft multiplayer faithful, instead playing more like a game that’s been hybridized with Diablo 3. Each mission in this mode is played against the A.I. with pseudorandom scenarios that allow you to use the hero units and Spear of Adun spells you'd expect from the campaign—depending on the commander you select. There are two commanders for each faction, and they level up as well as earn permanent upgrades independently.
In summary, Archon Mode is a gateway drug to traditional multiplayer, while Co-op missions feel like a concession to those loners looking for a semi-randomized excuse to keep playing after the campaign's gibberish termination.
Babble and battle
This new repeatable content is welcome after a campaign that falls somewhere between Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm in quality, with plenty of well-designed missions. Even the space hocus-pocus story—with an ending so saccharine, so perfectly neat and happy for all involved that it feels like a How Legacy of the Void Should Have Ended video—has its bright spots, mostly involving Artanis' conversations with subordinates about Protoss culture.
Even so, it's hard to recommend Legacy of the Void in the traditional way. If you've played the last four Starcraft releases, even the last two, you're probably not going to stop now. If you haven't, this is technically the most complete version of the game's multiplayer to date. Just don't expect to have even a slight understanding of the nearly 20 years' worth of fiction and intricate gameplay that it puts a tidy bow on.
The Good
The Bad
The Ugly
Verdict: As the conclusion to a more than 17-year-old saga, Legacy of the Void isn’t a great place for newcomers to jump in. For those who want to wrap up the story or see the pinnacle of the series’ multiplayer, this is probably your last best chance to jump on for a good, long time. Try it.
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