Mark your calendars, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void will be making its debut on November 10 this year. This is the final of three expansions for Blizzard’s real-time strategy game, this time focusing on the Protoss narrative. You’ll be taking the role of the Protoss race leader, Hierarch Artanis, as he attempts to reclaim his home planet. As you’ve probably guessed by now, trouble surfaces along the way. An ancient evil is revealed that could be halt your plans, and the galaxy itself.
The news was revealed earlier last week during the season three StarCraft II World Championship Series live-stream. We also got a look at the opening cinematic featuring an epic showdown between Protoss and Zerg. Unsurprisingly, it’s gorgeous. Peep the cinematic reveal above.
I was fortunate enough to get some time to chat with lead producer, Tim Morton. He revealed a bit of what both campaign and multiplayer fans can expect from the expansion:
This is really the team trying to make the best Starcraft II yet. We are thinking about each player segment specifically, so for campaign players, our new co-op missions using allied commanders to play against AI, but with objectives, I think it really provides an open-ended experience on top of what is already an epic campaign which is the conclusion of 17 years of story telling. I think that player base has a lot of content that should hopefully provide that long gameplay, very satisfying experience.
This is exciting for those that aren’t into the competitive scene that just want to get a fun experience from playing solo. Co-op modes also allow players to have fun with friends without getting crushed.
“On the multiplayer side, you have so much going on, you know, we’ve got all the multiplayer changes that were made with the new units, the economy changes, the macro changes,” Morton said about the the game’s multiplayer component. “We’ve also got Archon mode, we’ve got automated tournaments…I mean there is just so much new content.”
Some may be hesitant to jump in this late in the game, and Blizzard understands that. Morton continued:
From the outset we decided that this one was going to be stand-alone, and it wasn’t going to require you to play Wings of Liberty or Heart of the Swarm. We tried to put a lot of thought into what the new player experience was, so we got a brand new tutorial to help players get started with the game. And we’ve got all these features that are now co-operative to let players play with a friend — kind of ease their way into the harder gameplay modes.
All-in-all, this may be the best time to get into the action. Last weekend was excellent for StarCraft II, topped off with Lilbow’s WCS finals victory. Morton believes that all that new units, higher worker count, and other multiplayer adjustments will only speed the action up, making the experience more thrilling for spectators and players alike. It’s hard to disagree with that sentiment after witnessing the weekend’s festivities. It also helps that e-sports popularity has been steadily increasing.
Now let’s discuss the elephant in the room, why would they choose to launch on “Fallout 4 day”? And Rise of the Tomb Raider also hits retailers November 10 — it’s an extremely busy day already. Clearly Blizzard is confident in the expansion, but how are we, as fans, supposed to deal with this?
Are you going to jump into Legacy of the Void on November 10? What are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below.
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Image Credit: BlizzardÂ