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Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void

Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void - Beta Impressions

A few points on the beta version of Starcraft II's finale.

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Waiting is something Starcraft fans are sadly used to. There was a twelve year gap between the 1998 original and its 2010 follow up, which caused controversy due to the game offering only a single campaign. Blizzard announced that Starcraft II would be formed of a trilogy of titles, each focusing on a different race within the universe - Terrans in Wings of Liberty, the Zerg story in 2013's Heart of the Swarm, and now two years later and half a decade after the base game's release, the spotlight drops on the Protoss in Legacy of the Void.

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We'd already been given extensive details about what to expect from this second expansion pack via last year's BlizzCon, but it's only this past month that we've finally got hands-on with the beta build, with Blizzard opening up Legacy of the Void to players worldwide and let them see what new alterations they've made.

There's not a multitude of tweaks; as always Starcraft patches focus on balancing the system, and thus even with five years between this and Liberty, and two for Swarm, Legacy of the Void is keeping things fresh even after five years of highly competitive e-sport action stress-testing and fine-tuning all potential strategies. And as with the previous two entries, The Legacy of the Void closed beta is likely to be a lengthy testing phase as it introduces elementary changes to the main features. So far? It's only allowing 1v1 matches.

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Starcraft II: Legacy of the VoidStarcraft II: Legacy of the Void

The main changes we've noticed are few, but they deeply affect the way you play. The most tangible is that there are fewer resources available in each of the bases. This relieves the tedium of the early game and forces players to be more aggressive, either acquiring a second base early or venturing out to stop their opponent from doing the same.

This may seem a trivial matter, but it completely changes the opening of a match, something that was often seen as routine, even slow and clumsy before in a frenetic game that depends on both great reflexes and APM (actions per minute) such as Starcraft 2. The competitive nature and need to outthink your opponent is now present right from the start, speeding up proceedings which will surely delight most competitive users.

The second aspect that has changed is even more radical than the tweak in resources. In its previous expansions, Starcraft 2 put great importance on resource management, control of the map, building of a large army and positioning it to launch a massive assault on the enemy.
Having good control over these macro actions was virtually synonymous with victory.

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While it is still important to make use great macro strategies, Legacy of the Void encourages the micro side of things. Playing a good micro is to plan encounters in a way that every single ability of every single unit is taken into account. Knowing how to block enemy units with force fields, while heavy troops focus their force against enemy armour and lighter units take care of the smaller fry. Mastering each of these small factors on the battlefield is a good micro, and this has grown in importance in Legacy of the Void.

They're tangible changes, and after two solid weeks with the beta and its limited range of modes, the match balancing seems good already. But we fully expect the beta period to be extended and tinkering to make this perfect to continue. We can see these alterations refreshing Starcraft 2 and it returning in a big way when Void finally releases. Will that be before the end of 2015 though? We're not going to take that bet.

Starcraft II: Legacy of the VoidStarcraft II: Legacy of the VoidStarcraft II: Legacy of the Void
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