MAJOR LASER

MAJOR LASER
I am not the world’s greatest StarCraft player. That – currently – is
a guy called sOs. You might have heard of him: he was the one
lifting that heavy-looking trophy at the World Championship at
BlizzCon. sOs became the world’s greatest StarCraft player by
defeating somebody called Life in a seven-game series – a test of
physical dexterity, mental acuity and psychological endurance in excess of
any other competitive computer game.
StarCraft’s competitive element has
become the thing it is best known for
over the course of the series’ long life.
That makes sense: it’s the original
stadium-filling esport and one of the
most skill-intensive games ever made.
For the long-term fans who know
StarCraft primarily in this regard,
Legacy of the Void marks the start of
the game’s new era. It’s
a suite of new units,
features and balance
changes that will define
the character of the
game for the next
couple of years.
From my position of
limited skill, I can tell
you that Legacy of the
Void’s changes make the competitive
game faster, more skill-intensive, and
less fiddly. There’s a greater emphasis
on making big decisions early. You
begin your match with more worker
units than you used to, and the
business of setting up your economy
has been streamlined. Fights happen
faster and, as a consequence, matches
are shorter. You might get caught out
by a rush strategy you didn’t see
coming: you type ‘GG’, surrender, tab
out to TeamLiquid, read up on your
counters, tab back, and you’re playing
again within a minute. It is easier
than ever to lose evenings to the
ladder in this way.
That elevated skill ceiling is a
consequence of new units that
become dramatically more powerful
if you’re capable of
micromanaging them
effectively. One
example is the Protoss
Adept, a ranged
infantry unit that can
act as an alternative to
Stalkers and Zealots. In
and of itself, the Adept
is capable enough – but
its real power comes from Psionic
Transfer, which creates a ghostly
duplicate of the Adept that is
controlled separately. These
doppelgangers are invulnerable and
after seven seconds the Adept
teleports to the ghost’s location.
Suddenly, new strategic pathways
open: around entrenched positions
and into worker lines, past the
enemy’s own targeted abilities and
(hopefully) into victories that go
beyond cheeses and strict counters.
Legacy of the Void wholeheartedly
supports the notion that StarCraft is a
difficult game and that player skill
should be respected. If you get too
tired or anxious to climb the ladder,
there are also automated tournament
brackets that run every couple of
hours. These allow you to experience
some of the drama of structured play
without any of the logistical hassle.
You’re playing for bragging rights,
ultimately, but it rounds out the
experience and it’s something I wish
more competitive games would offer.
open space
The reason Legacy of the Void comes
highly recommended, however, is
that it also supports the idea that you
should be able to have fun regardless
of how good you are. The competitive
game has been allowed to change in
ways that make it deeper, but the
game as a whole is broad and
generous in its provision of entry
points for new players.
If competitive StarCraft has
become an art, then Legacy of the
Void’s campaign offers a colour-bynumbers
alternative for those still
developing their abilities. As in Wings
of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm,
Blizzard treat singleplayer as its own
entity, with its own units and rules.
The final part of the trilogy tasks you
with uniting the fragmented factions
of the Protoss race from aboard an
ancient warship, the Spear of Adun.
Your ship and the factions you pick
up form the basis of the extra toys
you get to play with. Where James
Raynor had his upgrades and
Kerrigan had her mutations, Protoss
Hierarch Artanis picks between
multiple versions of the same unit
type. There are Templar and Dark
Templar variants on the basic melee
zealot, for example, with further
options unlocked as additional
Protoss forces are recruited.
Then, the Spear of Adun itself can
be upgraded by investing resources
gathered by completing optional
objectives within each mission. Some
of these upgrades are passive, such as
increased build speed, increased
starting supplies, and shield
regeneration. Others are active,
deployed mid-battle from a new
command interface along the top of
the screen. These include direct
attacks – orbital strikes,
bombardments, a giant moveable
laser, and so on – and support
powers, such as the ability to freeze
time for enemy units or summon a
Pylon along with reinforcements
anywhere on the battlefield.
Taken in combination, this degree
of customisation enables you to tailor
your approach to suit your style and
skill level. I prefer a slow siege, with
Stalkers supported by forcefieldemitting
Sentries and, later,
Immortals and Colossi. I put together
a tweaked variant on that, with
artillery-spewing Immortal variants
protecting a new kind of Sentry that
lays down a power grid, allowing me
to warp fresh Stalkers right to the
front line. As the scale of each
mission increases,
there’s a real thrill to
seeing a plan like this
come together: the
glow of dozens of
Protoss units warping
in at once, the angry
red beams of custom
Void Rays strafing
waves of zerglings that
pop just so.
After over five years of StarCraft
II, the new missions don’t manage to
feel quite as fresh or original as
Wings of Liberty’s did when it came
out. Though I wouldn’t say there
were any especially weak links,
certain objectives get repetitive after
a while. You will track down and
destroy three different objectives
while also hunting for two or three
different optional objectives on
several worlds and in several
different contexts, albeit with new
units and powers to prevent each
encounter from feeling exactly the
same as the last.
form and void
There are certainly exceptions to this
rule. One mission strands your base
on a landlocked island with minimal
resources, but allows you to move
that island along rails to reach new
areas. Another allows you to
command three different squads of
Protoss hero units in succession,
completing multiple objectives at
once in three different parts of a
world. In still another you join allied
Terran forces in a battle against their
corrupt counterparts. Every few
minutes, a psychic blast leaves every
Terran on the battlefield
incapacitated – friends and foe alike.
This is either an opportunity to lay
waste to a defenceless enemy or time
to defend your stricken ally
depending on how ruthless you’re
feeling. There’s rarely a mission
where Legacy of the
Void doesn’t innovate
along these lines, but
certain designs stand
out more than others.
The core Protoss
campaign is the
shortest of the series so
far, but it’s bookended
by mini-campaigns
that, collectively, amount to a
substantial and largely gratifying
conclusion to the series. The
nebulous cosmic threat spoken of in
cutscenes from Brood War onwards
finally arrives, and is dealt with not
just by the Protoss but by the Terran
and Zerg characters that you’ve come
to know as well. Raynor and Kerrigan
get their ending, as do Zeratul,
Artanis, and all of the other Protoss
who (if you’re me) you’ve probably
confused with each other over the
almost two decades that Blizzard has
been telling this story.
There was a risk that a Protoss
narrative could end up feeling dry
and this holds true to a certain
degree. The Protoss are part elf, part
Vulcan, part Marvel Comics
Asgardian: they’re big and gold and
Shakespearean and silly, and if you
take the time to talk to everybody
onboard the Spear of Adun you’ll
have more than your share of
conversations about Templars and
Nerazim and Tal’darim and the Khala
and so on. Blizzard commits to this
wholeheartedly and a huge
investment has been made in
furnishing the campaign with
impressive cinematic moments. If
you are a fan already, this is a party
being put on to serve your very
specific interests. If you are not, it
may mean little if you haven’t at least
played Wings of Liberty and Heart of
the Swarm. Nonetheless, it has heart:
that loud technicolour exploding
metal album cover heart that finds its
way into most Blizzard games.
outside the box
For the first time in StarCraft II,
some of that freeform campaign feel
makes its way into multiplayer. In
co-op, you and a friend (or an online
stranger) pick commanders that each
offer a different spin on their faction,
complete with unique special powers
and distinct units. You then take on
objective-based missions at varying
difficulty levels for XP, which unlock
new abilities, units, and so on. This is
a brilliant addition: it gets more life
out of units designed for singleplayer,
and provides a welcoming way into
multiplayer for those daunted by it
Legacy of the Void feels like a
Blizzard game from another era –
one where the box you buy (or
download, I guess) contains a wide
variety of experiences and promises
to sustain investment for a long time
to come. This is a game from the
universe where the RTS never went
away, where they kept getting made
and improved over the course of
decades. I’d say “they don’t make
them like this any more” – but they
clearly do.


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