StarCraft 2 Legacy of the Void Single-Player Review - A Trilogy Triumph

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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John Keefer said:
Samtemdo8 said:
That is the crux of the issue, that it was Kerrigan being the chosen one, Kerrigan the Queen of Blades, the evil Queen ***** of the Universe that did so much evil shit in Brood War, despite the fact that she was once Human and her becoming Queen of Blades was accidental. She wasn't like Arthas who willfully corrupted himself.
For the sake of argument (SPOILERS AHEAD!),
wasn't her redemption by Raynor at the end of Wings of Liberty and her voluntary return to her role as Queen of Blades that made her the chosen one? You could almost say she was more human as the Zerg Queen this time around. So she already had human and zerg in her,
then (SPOILER AGAIN)
her absorbing the Xel-naga essence basically combined all three races into the super being?

Eh, my 2 cents. Everyone has a different view of what makes a good story. I enjoyed it better than Heart of the Swarm.
The protoss campaign as is was alright. I liked Rohana, Alarak, and the Dark Templar Matriarch. And Artanis was surprisingly competant.

I liked Amon as the villain. I'm a sucker for these ultimate evil bad guys that don't shit talk with "humorous dialoge" and takes things seriously.
 

Uratoh

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RJ 17 said:
Tassadar was a Xel'Naga in disguise all along and his entire life and death was part of a billion year prophecy to bring about the exact events of LotV? I call bullshit on that. Not only is it dumb, but it completely removes any agency any of the characters had. They were just pawns in someone else's game, doing what they did because lol prophecy and chosen ones.
It wasn't 'Tassadar was a Xel'Naga all along', the XN just used his image when projecting the force ghost thing because it had instant recognition and trust from the protoss.
 

John Keefer

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Samtemdo8 said:
The protoss campaign as is was alright. I liked Rohana, Alarak, and the Dark Templar Matriarch. And Artanis was surprisingly competant.

I liked Amon as the villain. I'm a sucker for these ultimate evil bad guys that don't shit talk with "humorous dialoge" and takes things seriously.
I thought
Artanis' speech right before they returned to Aiur was very reminiscent of the presidential motivational speech in Independence Day. I liked Alarak pushing his way through other Protoss to listen.
 

Hawki

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John Keefer said:
Samtemdo8 said:
The protoss campaign as is was alright. I liked Rohana, Alarak, and the Dark Templar Matriarch. And Artanis was surprisingly competant.

I liked Amon as the villain. I'm a sucker for these ultimate evil bad guys that don't shit talk with "humorous dialoge" and takes things seriously.
I thought
Artanis' speech right before they returned to Aiur was very reminiscent of the presidential motivational speech in Independence Day. I liked Alarak pushing his way through other Protoss to listen.
If anything, it's actually an inverse of the speech Artanis gives in the mission "In Utter Darkness" in WoL. It's a very subtle touch, how the words are very similar, yet the tone between the two is completely different.
 

irishda

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Blizzard for me is undeniably putting out some of the best AAA games to date, and has been for a long time. We argue a lot about content and the old "hardcore v. casual" debate springs up more than once, but their technical skills with games can't be argued against. LotV units can be overwhelming at times with their abilities to micromanage, but I think without question the gameplay puts many other developers to shame.

And goddamn who can deny their abilities to put a cutscene together too? They've come a long way since Warcraft 2, that's for sure. I actually got chills when Zeratul says, "My life for Aiur."
 

littlebunnyfuufuu

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Another one for the "'Aboutt damn time.".

Yes, yes, you may argue that "the expansions are full games."

But I play for the story.

And what did you get with each of these?... "A" story, but not "The" story. I dont like cliffhangers, and making me wait Years to find out what happens next is ridiculous.
 

Hawki

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littlebunnyfuufuu said:
And what did you get with each of these?... "A" story, but not "The" story. I dont like cliffhangers, and making me wait Years to find out what happens next is ridiculous.
I strongly disagree that either WoL or HotS ended on a cliffhanger. And what you've just described is every story spread out over more than a single installment ever. Or at least every single trilogy.
 

littlebunnyfuufuu

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Hawki said:
littlebunnyfuufuu said:
And what did you get with each of these?... "A" story, but not "The" story. I dont like cliffhangers, and making me wait Years to find out what happens next is ridiculous.
I strongly disagree that either WoL or HotS ended on a cliffhanger. And what you've just described is every story spread out over more than a single installment ever. Or at least every single trilogy.
Never said the y ended on a cliffhanger, simply that I dislike cliffhangers. They failed to deliver the complete Starcraft 2 story.
Now that it is supposedly complete, people who have been waiting for the complete collection might be interested.

And beating the game and saying "Boy that was cool, I sure cant wait to find out what happens next." Only to wait 2 years or more Is pretty damn harsh (and cliffhanger like.) Trilogies have stories that are wrapped up in the conclusion of each part.
Hard to believe Telltale gets crap for taking half a year, while Blizzard takes 6+years and gets fan support.

It all comes down to if you believe it is a full game. Yes, I understand that you believe wol, and hots are full games. Please understand that I want a Complete, full game.

I remember playing wol all those years ago. It was Kerrigan, Kerrigan, Kerrigan, save Kerrigan. Yay we got Kerrigan back! Oh no, we are being attacked by people who want Kerrigan! What happens next? Find out next time in hots.
 

Hawki

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Well, all I can say is

shintakie10 said:
I'll never ever understand this point of view.
And this isn't even applying just to SC2 since the issue's been widened. I haven't played any of Telltale's games, but if people are complaining about their release cycle and price, then it's another head-scratching moment.

Or to cite another personal example, I completed Halo 5 recently, a game that does end on a genuine cliffhanger, a game that's the second game in what is obstensibly a trilogy, and at the least, I'll have to wait until Halo 6 to get the story's conclusion. Did 343i cheat me then? Am I "entitled" to get an entire trilogy's worth of story in one game? Looking back, did BioWare cheat us my telling the same overall story across three games? And looking forward to next month, will Disney be cheating us by releasing Episode VII and expecting us to, gasp, pay actual money to also see episodes 8 and 9?

Heck, I've only discussed trilogies in this analogy. Yet, in all of this, HotS and LotV are priced as expansions, yet they're the ones getting flak for it.
 

Kajin

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littlebunnyfuufuu said:
It all comes down to if you believe it is a full game. Yes, I understand that you believe wol, and hots are full games. Please understand that I want a Complete, full game.
So long as you understand that people are going to disagree with you in matters concerning what is and isn't a complete game. As far as I'm concerned, WoL, HotS, and LotV are all three complete, full games that stand on their own that just so happen to have a multiplayer component in common with each other.
 

Gretha Unterberg

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Good story by what frame of reference?

Good as in the space opera of Starcraft 1 and Broodwar?

or good as in it continues the Starcraft 2 trend?
Starcraft 2.1 : Jimmy has to save Kerrigan
Starcraft 2.2 : Kerrigan has to save Jimmy
Starcraft 2.3 : Jimmy ain't the baby's daddy, his best friend Fenix is
(haven't played it yet, but thats the logical conclusion, isn't it? )


Don't get me wrong, the mission design of Staftcraft 2.1 and 2.2 was solid and a huge improvement over
"build base, destroy enemy".
But the audience standin character is having a roadtrip felt rather unimpressive in comparison to the first contact, the fall of the Confederation, the exodus from aiur,the queen of blades rise to power and so on.

I'm real hesitating since the only reason for me to buy SC2 a 3rd time would be to play the remaining story,
and the first two didn't impress me that much.
So how good is "good" ?
 

chimeracreator

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Gretha Unterberg said:
I'm real hesitating since the only reason for me to buy SC2 a 3rd time would be to play the remaining story,
and the first two didn't impress me that much.
So how good is "good" ?
If the first two didn't impress you then the third won't either. They continue to move away from scifi in favor of recycling the same plot they used in Warcraft 3 and Diablo. Right down to him summoning troops from hell... sorry the abyss... sorry the twisted nether... sorry the void. It was lazily written and mostly relied on tropes that fit other genres far better than their own. It did have a few good moments and well written dialog, but the overall plot was lazy.
 

Dinadan

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chimeracreator said:
Gretha Unterberg said:
I'm real hesitating since the only reason for me to buy SC2 a 3rd time would be to play the remaining story,
and the first two didn't impress me that much.
So how good is "good" ?
If the first two didn't impress you then the third won't either. They continue to move away from scifi in favor of recycling the same plot they used in Warcraft 3 and Diablo. Right down to him summoning troops from hell... sorry the abyss... sorry the twisted nether... sorry the void. It was lazily written and mostly relied on tropes that fit other genres far better than their own. It did have a few good moments and well written dialog, but the overall plot was lazy.
This. If you already didn't like Wings of Liberty, than Legacy of the Void might only be worth a look for the improved gameplay. The customization is better and the story stronger than in Heart of the Swarm, but that's about it. So if the first two weren't for you, this one most certainly is not.
 

Willinium

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Now now people can we at least agree that we were all glad to finally see Narud/ Duran get put down? By the person that most deserves the revenge too. . Does the epilogue explain what happens to ol' Alexei Stukov? I'm honestly invested in his character.
Lets seee campaign wise i'd rate it below WoL but above HoW, the troop combinations were fun to mess around with, I LOVED the Devestators, and there was a aLOT of things for a lore nut to drool over in the game. The Preserver's were added in rather smoothly I thought, it seems that they've been in since the first game using preserver tech seemed safe by the conclave after all. I didn't know how to feel about Alarak, his voice threw me off for a bit, but I grew to love the power hungry ham. He as an hero was AMAZING to play as. Overall I greatly enjoyed it.
 

Hawki

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Willinium said:
Now now people can we at least agree that we were all glad to finally see Narud/ Duran get put down? By the person that most deserves the revenge too. . Does the epilogue explain what happens to ol' Alexei Stukov? I'm honestly invested in his character.
Lets seee campaign wise i'd rate it below WoL but above HoW, the troop combinations were fun to mess around with, I LOVED the Devestators, and there was a aLOT of things for a lore nut to drool over in the game. The Preserver's were added in rather smoothly I thought, it seems that they've been in since the first game using preserver tech seemed safe by the conclave after all. I didn't know how to feel about Alarak, his voice threw me off for a bit, but I grew to love the power hungry ham. He as an hero was AMAZING to play as. Overall I greatly enjoyed it.
I've heard people claim that Stukov stays on with Zagara, but I'm not that far into the campaign myself (I've ended up having to spoil myself because of wiki duties). But yes, Stukov getting revenge on Duran, and in a manner that's the inverse of the scene in Brood War, was immensely satisfying. :)

On other notes, I've just finished the Endion (a.k.a. "not Endor") mission and up to Cybros myself. I certainly agree with you on the customization aspect - it's by far the strongest of the three in terms of army customization, and I've reguarly changed between the variants on each mission.

Funny that you mention Alarak (hello, John de Lancie) - I'm going to hazard a guess that he's going to be the game's breakout character, similar to Abathur in HotS and Tychus in WoL. As in, the character that's first introduced in said game, and everyone latches onto. Now we just need him in Heroes of the Storm.

In terms of story, I'd say that so far, LotV is probably the most solid of the trilogy, as in, if you go looking for flaws, it'll probably have the least. That said, I actually prefer WoL right now, but it's more a question of tone and theme. WoL is undoubtedly Jim Raynor's story. HotS is undoubtedly Sarah Kerrigan's story, while also exploring the nature of the zerg. LotV has Artanis as its protagonist, but I wouldn't call it "his story" in the same way if that makes sense, but rather it's primarily concerned with the protoss as a whole, with the characters being part of that, rather than taking the spotlight. Not that this is bad or good in of itself, but I've noticed that LotV feels the 'coldest' of the three so far (whereas HotS is the 'darkest', and WoL is easily the most upbeat), and probably closest to SC1/BW in its manner of delivery, and arguably tone itself. So at the least, kudos for each installment in the trilogy having a different tone, even if LotV seems to harken more to the past than being its own thing.

Oh, and something I haven't seen mentioned yet is the music. Dear God, someone give Glen Stafford a medal. Not that his work has been a slouch before, but IMO, he knocked it out of the park with this one.
 

Willinium

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Hawki said:
Willinium said:
Now now people can we at least agree that we were all glad to finally see Narud/ Duran get put down? By the person that most deserves the revenge too. . Does the epilogue explain what happens to ol' Alexei Stukov? I'm honestly invested in his character.
Lets seee campaign wise i'd rate it below WoL but above HoW, the troop combinations were fun to mess around with, I LOVED the Devestators, and there was a aLOT of things for a lore nut to drool over in the game. The Preserver's were added in rather smoothly I thought, it seems that they've been in since the first game using preserver tech seemed safe by the conclave after all. I didn't know how to feel about Alarak, his voice threw me off for a bit, but I grew to love the power hungry ham. He as an hero was AMAZING to play as. Overall I greatly enjoyed it.
I've heard people claim that Stukov stays on with Zagara, but I'm not that far into the campaign myself (I've ended up having to spoil myself because of wiki duties). But yes, Stukov getting revenge on Duran, and in a manner that's the inverse of the scene in Brood War, was immensely satisfying. :)

On other notes, I've just finished the Endion (a.k.a. "not Endor") mission and up to Cybros myself. I certainly agree with you on the customization aspect - it's by far the strongest of the three in terms of army customization, and I've reguarly changed between the variants on each mission.

Funny that you mention Alarak (hello, John de Lancie) - I'm going to hazard a guess that he's going to be the game's breakout character, similar to Abathur in HotS and Tychus in WoL. As in, the character that's first introduced in said game, and everyone latches onto. Now we just need him in Heroes of the Storm.

In terms of story, I'd say that so far, LotV is probably the most solid of the trilogy, as in, if you go looking for flaws, it'll probably have the least. That said, I actually prefer WoL right now, but it's more a question of tone and theme. WoL is undoubtedly Jim Raynor's story. HotS is undoubtedly Sarah Kerrigan's story, while also exploring the nature of the zerg. LotV has Artanis as its protagonist, but I wouldn't call it "his story" in the same way if that makes sense, but rather it's primarily concerned with the protoss as a whole, with the characters being part of that, rather than taking the spotlight. Not that this is bad or good in of itself, but I've noticed that LotV feels the 'coldest' of the three so far (whereas HotS is the 'darkest', and WoL is easily the most upbeat), and probably closest to SC1/BW in its manner of delivery, and arguably tone itself. So at the least, kudos for each installment in the trilogy having a different tone, even if LotV seems to harken more to the past than being its own thing.

Oh, and something I haven't seen mentioned yet is the music. Dear God, someone give Glen Stafford a medal. Not that his work has been a slouch before, but IMO, he knocked it out of the park with this one.
I'm honestly sad to say that I didn't really notice the music until about halfway through the final mission of the main campaign, I really liked it, so another playthrough may be in the cards soon. I can definitely see Alarak being the breakout/fan favorite character of this campaign. I was rather disappointed though that several characters didn't show up. Mohandur for example. I remember him being a big deal in the Final stand of the Protoss mission back in WoL. I also think that there should have been far more interactions with Selandis, both Amon-ized and not. Then there are a few minor things, Amon's Hyprid form model was rather boring, rather it'd be an unique model and though I loved how Amon was defeated I do think that it was a let down of sorts, fixed in the epilogue thankfully.
I found WoL to be my favorite of the three because of one defining thing. How inspired the tone felt. Or rather I guess how inspirational and relateable the characters and struggle were. I for one loved whoever played Arcturus Mengsk in the new trilogy, I could honestly listen to it all day.

All in all this is a great game that ties up its main story and conflict rather well with enough niggling details and characters for more installments to come.