StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void

StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void is a third and final part of the Starcraft 2 Trilogy. It’s a sequel to a famous real-time strategy game from Blizzard Entertainment that all of us were waiting for so long.

StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void combines the same exciting single-player mode and a few of dynamic network mods including Battle.net for battles over the Internet. As before, you observe the familiar battlefield from above, command your army and defeat your rivals. In a single campaign you play for the Terrans, but in a multiplayer mode, you can choose one of the three StarCraft races: the Terrans, Protoss and Zerg.

Graphics 4.5/5

StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void has slight improvements in graphics from Wings of Liberty. However, the cut scenes still look spectacular, and the animation is clear and smooth. All of the units are highly detailed even if you have the low graphic settings. The rich in details graphics allows you to view easily any unit even if your screen is overcrowded with hundreds of them. The game’s characters became more realistic and some of them even more terrifying. But in overall you won’t see any significant changes in the game’s visuals.

The StarCraft’s interface is also highly convenient to use because it has: a minimap at left bottom part of the screen that shows you all of your and some of the enemies’ units, buildings, locations of resources and other important elements of the game; an information panel in the middle of the screen that provides you with the data of any selected unit or building; an action bar on the right that lets you give commands to your armies like move, patrol or attack. So there is no need to spend few hours on figuring out how to play this game because its interface is so intuitive and easy to navigate that you will unlikely have any troubles.

Gameplay 5/5

As I mentioned above, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void is the last part of the Starcraft 2 Trilogy (after “Wings of Liberty” and “Heart of the Swarm”) and, based on the storyline, Artanis becomes a leader of the Protoss and tries to reclaim their territory and stop Amon from taking over the universe. So as you might guess, the main part of the story is dedicated to the Protoss, and other characters appear only in a few missions. It’s pretty sad because most players expected to see more of the Terrans and Zerg considering the fact that Legacy of the Void is the final part. But that’s what we got.

The general gameplay is still the same. As in any real-time strategy game, you create an army, protect your territory and fight with your enemies. You can make a small army and have just a few fighters or turn it into a whole armada capable of capturing an entire planet. All actions on the battlefield including the battlefield itself will be observed by you from the top down perspective. You command the army by giving orders to them and watch how they perform your tasks in real time.

However, creating an army might be even harder than controlling it because it requires big investments of resources in the supply system. But as your fighters extract more resources, their potential grows. Managing the extraction and consumption of resources is the most important element of the game in StarCraft II.

The last but not least moment of a successful game strategy is to always keep an eye on what is happening on the enemy base. This will let you make effective counterattacks and achieve victory a bit sooner. Unfortunately, you can see only those parts of the battlefield that are located close to your units. This means that you need to have someone for reconnaissance. Moreover, at the beginning of the game, your scouts will be poorly protected which makes them a perfect target for your enemies. So you will need to send a few fighters on time to attack the enemies before they kill your people. But if you were late and the bad scenario has already happened, then you won’t see that part of the territory because of the war’s fog until you put your units there again.

Controls 4/5

The StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void controls are pretty simple. You manage everything by mouse and hotkeys of your keyboard. For instance, to give any command to one of your units, you first need to select it by clicking on it with the left button of your mouse. If you want to pick something with the framework, then you will need to press and hold the left mouse button and choose the desired selection. If you do so all units that are located within this frame will be automatically selected. There is also an option to choose something with CTRL. Just press and hold the Ctrl key the same way and click on any unit to select all units of the same type simultaneously. You can do the same thing with double-clicking by mouse on the unit.

Holding Shift button lets, you add a unit to the number of already selected or create different combat groups by dragging it. To save the selection after you’re done with forming a group, just press Ctrl + 1 - 0. By pressing the numbers from 1 to 0, you can quickly pick any of the created groups. There is also a command panel available to you in the right part of the screen which helps you to give quick commands by simply clicking on them with the left mouse button. Also, some of the commands require the indication of a final goal. For example, if you want a unit move somewhere you should select this unit and then the location where you want them to transfer. To do so use right-clicking which will also work for you with the attacking because whenever you see the enemy just choose the desired unit, click the right button on your enemy and he will be destroyed.

Replay Value 4/5

As you might guess already, the key to victory is a strategic way of thinking. You need to monitor your opponents and try to get ahead of their actions. And there are so many players available for you, that you can change the enemies endlessly and try different strategies with all of them. Moreover, you'll likely feel like you're playing a different game every time.

Conclusion

StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void is a popular game mostly because it requires from players to always think before doing any step. To keep your territories protected and to conquer for new ones you will need to create an own strategy, work on your tactics and improve the leading skills. Look at ways other people play, try their techniques, check the game’s records, take part in discussions, and you might become a winner one day.

Moreover, StarCraft II allows you to save all your achievements and continue to increase them even if you reinstall the game or go to another computer. You can also share everything with your friends, chat with them even if you’re playing different games, and be aware of their news and achievements.

• Graphics 4.5
• Gameplay 5
• Controls 4
• Replay Value 4

Pros

beautiful visuals;
exciting gameplay;
good continuation of the storyline;
lots of challenging missions;
same three different races of characters;

Cons

terrible controls;
ordinary game concept;