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Review: Legacy of the Void - Starcraft 2 thoughts and opinions.

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Callsign-YukiMizuki's Avatar Callsign-YukiMizuki
Level 35 : Artisan Ranger
62
FOR AIUR!
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I wanted to play Legacy of the Void firsthand and share my experience as the Executor, butI'll be giving my thoughts, opinions/review on this as a spectator (Yay for broken laptop) 

For those that don't know, Legacy of the Void (LotV) is the third and the final installment of the Starcraft 2 trilogy, and the final "chapter" in the Starcraft saga. The 17 year story has finally come to end ; - ;






Quick Summary of the story

The story picks up straight after the events of Heart of the Swarm (the 2nd installment) with a 3-misison mini campaign prologue "Whispers of Oblivion", where you play as Zeratul, focusing on his part of the story. Think of it like an extension of the 3-mission  mini campaign in Wings of Liberty's "Whispers of Doom" 

In the LotV campaign itself, you play as Artanis, Hierarch of the Protoss Daelaam. Your main goal over the campaign is to unite the scattered Protoss factions like the Nerazim (Dark Templar) together to defeat Amon, the Dark God and reclaim the Protoss homeworld of Aiur. 

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Young Artanis





Weapons at your disposal

This time around, you will be commanding Protoss Army to battle. New units and old units back from the original Starcraft/Broodwar also makes an appearance *Cough* *Cough* Dragoons. Similar to previous campaigns, there are units which are campaign-only, and some having different abilities compared to their Multiplayer counterpart.  



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A good example of this would be the Sentries. Here, they gain a default ability of being able to restor shields. Think of them like the Terran Medics/Medivacs being able to heal Infantry's HP, only this time,  the Snetries restores shields. 

In the beginning, you only start with a handful of units available at your disposal. However, over the course of the campaign, more and more units will be available for you to command. 
Compared to Wings of Liberty (WoL) where you gain units by going through the Laboratory, choosing a new one unit over the other, locking the other one out and in Heart of the Swarm (HoS) where you evolve your forces by choosing one strain over the other in the Evloution Pit. LotV is somewhat similar. Instead of having two options and locking out what you didn't choose, you now have 3 options to choose from. This time however, your choices are not locked out and can be changed in between missions to suite your gamestyle. 

Example, in WoL if you decide to unlock the Raven, you will not be able to access the Science Vessel and vice versa. In HoS if you choose the Raptor Strain, you will not be able to use the Swarmling strain. But in LotV, if you choose let's say the Stalkers over the Dragoon, you can still use both the Dragoons AND the Stalkers later on. To get variations of units, you will need to unite the Protoss factions. This means, to be able to use the "Centurions" (which is like the Zealot counterpart of the Nerazim), you must be united with the Nerazim. These unit variations aren't for show either, each variation has their own sets of abilites alongside with pros and cons. Some of them are not re-skins with a few abilities changed. Some are actually different units, like for example, you can't have Carriers and Motherships since they fall under the same category of "Capital Ship"

Speaking of, there are 10 unit classifications, all with 3 alternatives (total of 30) which you can mix and match with, these are;

Melee Warrior
Ranged Warrior
Robotic Assault
Robotic Support
Cloaked Warrior
Starfighter
Psionic Warrior
Robotic Siege
Capital Ship 
and Assault Ship

AVAILABLE UNITS + FACTIONS (Spoiler)
Melee Warrior
Zealot - Aiur
Centurion - Nerazim
Sentinel - Purifiers

Ranged Warrior
Stalker - Nerazim
Dragoon - Aiur
Adept - Purifiers

Robotic Assault
Immortal - Aiur 
Annihilator - Nerazim
Vanguard - Tal'darim

Robotic Support
Sentry - Aiur
Energizer - Purifiers
Havoc- Tal'darim

Cloaked Warrior
Dark Templar - Nerazim
Avenger - Aiur
Blood Hunter - Tal'darim

Starfighter
Phoenix - Aiur
Corsair - Nerazim
Mirage - Purifiers

Psionic Warrior
High Templar - Aiur
Dark Archon - Nerazim
Ascendant - Tal'darim

Robotic Siege
Colossus - Purifiers
Reaver - Aiur
Wrathwalker - Tal'darim

Capital Ship 
Carrier - Aiur
Tempest - Purifiers
Mothership - Tal'darim

Assault Ship
Void Ray - Nerazim 
Destroyer - Tal'darim
Arbiter - Aiur




The Spear of Adun

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If you thought the Raynor's Raider's Hyperion and Kerrigan's Leviathan are badass, then The Spear of Adun takes that bad ass level upto 11. The Spear of Adun is the last of the 3 great arkships and acts as your flagship for this campaign. It is not just a ship, it is a weapon. You can upgrade the ship by completing side quests during battle. The more sidequests you complete, the more you can benefit from the ship





Gameplay / Story



Although being a standalone game, if you've played the other 2  campaigns, there is not much different in terms of actual gameplay. Build a base, destroy the enemy, don't get destroyed. That's the core of the game, the same as the other 2. However, this time around, you can get support from the Spear of Adun. You can call in reinforcements, orbital strikes, call in a certain character (not telling, spoilers) in the battlefield to fight. The Spear is a weapon that mixes up gameplay and can help you in sticky situations. 
For example, the "Warp in reinforcements" ability allows you to warp in a pylo with 2 ranged warriors and 2 melee warriors. If you need quick reinforcements to beef up your defenses when defending, this most certainly helps. 
If you're being sneaky, you can activate this ability  behind an enemy base to create a "proxy pylon", allowing you to warp units near the pylon, and attack the enemy from the rear. 

For the campaign missions however, I feel like they were a little TOO repetitive. Destroy x objectives (usually crystals) to defeat this enemy, or reach this specific area before the enemy does/before the timer runs out. A little TOO repetitive, which kinda detracts the gameplay a little bit from my perspective. 

The campaign story although being the cheesy Blizzard is, feel as if it's "anti-climatic" All these build up and in the end, I know many will be a little too disappointed. I was a little too disappointed with all that build up,  but I would say it was a good story nonetheless. 
Oh, and like the Prolgue mini-campaign, there is also an Epilogue mini-campaign. A three-mission campaign that happens after the LotV campaign. I will not talk much about this, but this epilogue really does conclude the Starcraft Saga (not the LotV)
Heh, don't mind me, it's not like I felt that void inside me and cried for like half an hour




Legacy of the Void's amazeballs intro - That's Blizzard quality for ya! 





Overall, I would give LotV:

8 - 8.5/10 

-The game looks beautiful and is polished
-Cutscenes are flat out amazing, Blizzard quality!
-A wide variety of units
-Actually ends the Saga,with MOST questions answered
-A little cheesy
-The ending was a little anti-climatic 
-Missions are a little repetitive

If I were to rate the other SC2 campaigns I would give:
Wings of Liberty: 9-9.5/10 
Heart of the Swarm: 8 




SPOILERS - DON'T CLICK UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO BE SPOILED. CONSIDER THIS YOUR FINAL WARNING


Here's a quick summary of the Prologue, LotV and the Epilogue campaign if you wish to know them but not have the time to watch/play the game. Since this is a MASSIVE spoiler, you will be warned three times. Think this through, don't just take these spoiler warnings light heartedly 
SPOILER WARNING NUMBER 1
SPOILER WARNING NUMBER 2 THINK THIS THROUGH
FINAL SPOILER WARNING - THE VOID!
Prologue Mission: 
- Zeratul recieves a "distress" call from Templar Talis that Templars from colony worlds were being abducted
-Zeratul goes to a Moebius Corps facility that is creating hybrid
-Kerrigan destroys the facility after Zeratul frees the capture Templar
-Zeratul finds out that the Tal'darim were behind these abductions 
-Zeratul infiltrates the Temple of Erris and encounters Amon's forces. Kinda like that Tomb of Sargeras mission from Warcraft Frozen Throne

Legacy of the Void:
-Zeratul immediately tells Artanis to halt the invasion of Aiur and warns him about the upcoming events
-Artanis does the invasion anyway, and it's pretty bad ass
-During the invasion, the Protoss was meant to be fighting feral Zerg, but the Zerg were more co-ordinated near the end of the mission in which Hybrids started appearing.
-Amon has "inifltrated" the Khala and pretty much went made all Khalai Protoss under his command. Since the Nerazim has severed their Nerve cords, they are not affected. Zeratul had to fight some Protoss to rescue Artanis (who is corrupted)
-In an attempt to save Artanis from Amon's grasp, Zeratul pretty much went on  a 1v1 with Artanis, in which he died, but freeing Artanis in the process (RIP ZERATUL ; - ; )
-Artanis along with the Nerazim, Karax (a Phase-smith, which is like the Protoss Rory Swann) alongside with some of the Protoss warriors that have severed their nerve cords reactiveates the Spear of Adun to get off-world.
-Rohana, a Grand Preserver becomes like an advisor for Artanis. She's pretty much compares and contrasts the present with the past. 
-Artanis goes to Korhal to get the"Keystone" (the Artifact)  from Raynor. However, the Mobius Corps, under the posession of Amon has sieged Korhal and have taken the Keystone. After a long, dark and hard ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) battle, Artanis and friends were able to get the Keystone back. 

This next part can come in any order if memory recalls;

Nerazim: 
-Since the Nerazim is pretty much the last "free" Protoss, Artanis and co goes to Shakuras. It is too late however, since the Zerg have invaded. 
-Artanis unites with Matriarch Vorazun (daughter of Matriarch  Raszagal) and decides that Shakuras should be destroyed instead, rather than be infested by the Zerg
-After luring as many Zerg in, Shakuras does one of the massive Jihads and kills about a Billion? (I can't remember the exact numnber). The cutscene is pretty badass too, Artanis just being the BMF he is. 

The Purifiers:
-To aid Artanis and co, they have decided to re-activate the "Purifiers" 
-They found a robotic clone of Fenix in one mission
-Artanis learns why the Purifier program had to be shutdown
-They get the help from the Purifiers anyway, and it turned out really well. 

Ulna:
-The Keystone leads Artanis and co to the Ulna, which is like this huge planet-sized diamond-shaped structure where the Xel'Naga sleeps
-Amons forces, the Hybrds, Moebius Corps and the Tal'darim werealos there
-Artanis meets Kerrigan and joins forces to defeat Amon's forces while they search for answers.
-The two learned some answeres but found that they were too late, Amon have already killed the Xel'Naga. 
-Amon had opened a portal to the Void in Ulna. At the same time, a significant Tal'darim commander, "Alark"  boards the Spear of Adun and warns Vorazun (who was put in charge while Artanis is gone) that Artanis is in danger. 
-Artanis and co along with Kerrigan seals the portal and does their own thing

Tal'darim:
-After returning from Ulna, Alark and Artanis makes a deal. Since the Tal'darim were betrayed by Amon, he sought revenge. To do this, he will need to be the new Highlord of the Tal'darim. In exchange, Artanis will no longer have to deal agains the Tal'darim, so they made a deal.
-Alark asks Artanis to get his Templars to kill possible Tal'darim that may contest him for the position once he becomes the Highlord.
-In a ritual/tradition battle, Alark was successful and becomes Highlord of the Tal'darim
-Tal'darim and the Daelaam unites

Final missions:
-The unified Protoss had to disable crystals that will prevent the Golden Armada (posessed by Amon) from Warping in to Aiur to defend Amon while he completes his physical form. 
-Amon's physical form is almost complete, the unified Protoss just had to destroy 5 more crystals to dtop him. 
-Amon completes his physical form, but Artanis does one of the  most  massive overkill in which he ordered the Spear of Adun, the Tal'darim Death Fleet and the the Purifers' ship to launch an all-out orbital attack from their ships. It's like nuke it from orbit but focused on one target, that much overkill.
-Amon's physical form is pretty much destroyed, but the Templa are still not free
-Similar to Wings of Liberty's final mission, "All in", the plan is to use the Keystone to clense the corrupted Templar, likje what Jim and friends did with Kerrigan. 
-They did this last stand thing again, but the Golden Armada arrived. The Spear of Adun was getting rekt in orbit, and as you progress through the mission, you slowly lose the ability to use the Spear's support. (Parts of the Spear of Adun crashes down to the battlefield) 
-Eventually, ALL Templar that was ubnder Amon's control were sent in, but the Keystone was activated. 
Cutscene:
-After the Keystone was activated, Artanis convinces Selendis that she must severe her nerv cord. All the other Templars did the same. 
-Artanis talks about rebuilding the Protoss race, fast forward with actual Protoss rebuilding.It's a really neat cutscene O must say. 

Epilogue:
-Kerrigan calls Raynor and Artanis to Ulna, because apaprently Kerrigan is hearing voices, something important
-The first mission, you play as the Protoss. You pretty much have to kill Samir Duran in his Xel'Naga form
-The three commanders (Artanis, Rayor and Kerrigan) meets with the last Xel'Naga alive. They talk about the cycle of life and how Kerrigan absorb the purities and become a Xe'Naga herself, so she does. 
-Second mission plays you as Terran, you have to defend Kerrigan while she absorbs the powers of the last Xel'Naga
-Third Mission plays you as the Zerg. Kerrigan has become a Xel'Naga. She pretty much became like Phoenix from X-Men
-Once again, they have to destroy crytals to defeat Amon's barrier
-Kerrigan wrecks Amon 

2 years later, Raynor is in Joey's bar, where we can hear a news report saying that the Dominion, under Valerian's rule is sooo much better, and they were celebrating the 3rd Anniversary of Arcturs Mengsk's defeat. (It must have been awkward for Valerian lol) 
Kerrigan apaprently appeared by the doorway, in an angle where the light behind her covers her face, and Raynor goes to her. (I'm suspecting that this is a dark ending, despite it being shown as a happy in ending)
-In a slideshow, it is said that Raynor was never heard of again, and he left his badge on the bar. 
-Admiral Horner becomes successful apparently
-Peace between the Protoss and the Terrans if I recall
-Zagara becomes the new queen of the Zerg, she took control of the planets surrounding Char
-For unknown reasons, life sprouted in barren wolrds in the Koprulu Sector
-Alark refused to be assimilated with the new unified Protoss and went looking for new worlds to colonized. He did give an option to the the Tal'darim to go with Artanis if they choose so

Aaaand that's pretty much it










I'm crossing my fingers that there's gonna be a Starcraft 3. Although Nova's covert ops looks a little intriguing. I'm just hoping for a Starcraft 3 where all 3 factions are present and play major roles.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll just feel empty about my favorite / childhood game ending  for a few days.
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1 Update Logs

Update #1 : by Callsign-YukiMizuki 11/11/2015 9:37:11 amNov 11th, 2015

Tried fixing the Spoiler problem that I had, I'm not sure fi this is just me though, but don't click the final spoiler unless you really wanna be spoiled

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1
11/11/2015 1:02 pm
Level 49 : Master Engineer
Laserbilly
Laserbilly's Avatar
Cool, when did this come out? I just played wings of liberty and never got around to heart of the swarm. Also, Fallout 4 came out yesterday...
1
11/11/2015 7:10 pm
Level 35 : Artisan Ranger
Callsign-YukiMizuki
Callsign-YukiMizuki's Avatar
It came out the same day as Fallout 4 
Everyone else was hyped for Fallout, but I was hyped for LotV :DD
1
11/11/2015 10:41 pm
Level 49 : Master Engineer
Laserbilly
Laserbilly's Avatar
Wow, you got through it really quickly then! I'm only 5-7 hrs into fallout!
1
11/11/2015 10:05 am
Level 61 : High Grandmaster Paladin
Rossky
Rossky's Avatar
*cough cough*
MY LIFE FOR AIUR!
1
11/13/2015 12:32 am
Level 9 : Apprentice Skinner
Abraxis2
Abraxis2's Avatar
EN TARO ARTANIS
1
11/11/2015 10:15 am
Level 35 : Artisan Ranger
Callsign-YukiMizuki
Callsign-YukiMizuki's Avatar
ADUN TORRIDAS!
1
11/11/2015 9:35 am
Level 35 : Artisan Ranger
Callsign-YukiMizuki
Callsign-YukiMizuki's Avatar
Well now, that's most certainly unconveniant! 
I'm not sure if this is just me, but the Spoiler section in the bottom doesn't seem to be working than I expected it to work. Just watch out that you don't click it for it MIGHT so=poil you the entire thing
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