StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void details announced

“My life… for Aiur,” Zeratul breathed.

If that line alone isn’t enough to give you chills then it is likely you won’t understand the rest of this article.

You see Zeratul is a Dark Templar who was exiled from… Oh who am I kidding. I can’t spoil the StarCraft storyline for new players like that, and neither can a summarise in a paragraph what takes up whole wiki pages.

Evoking nerdgasms around the globe, Blizzard gave us the first taste of the final chapter of the StarCraft 2 storyline, which we all already knew would be called “Legacy of the Void”.

We already knew the single player campaign would focus on the Protoss and would feature the Xel’Naga in some way, as it had been hinted at in both of StarCraft 2’s previous instalments: Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm.

So the cinematic trailer for Legacy of Void holds few surprises plot-wise for fans of the series, but it will still give you tingles:

We also suspected that Legacy of the Void would follow the same pattern as Heart of the Swarm in being a stand-alone expansion. This means you don’t need either of the previous games to play it.

Which brings us to what Blizzard said that we didn’t actually know already (as per the press release):

Archon Mode, a competitive multiplayer mode where two players share control over a single base and units as they take on an enemy duo.
Allied Commanders, an objective-based, co-operative mode where players can team up and take on the roles of the commanders from the StarCraft saga. Each commander offers its own abilities and upgrades, and grants special bonuses to their armies. Players are able to battle through a series of special scenarios together, levelling up their commanders’ capabilities as they progress.
Automated tournaments, will provide players with ongoing events that support the active StarCraft II community.

Blizzard also confirmed that the new expansion will include a bunch of new units for players to use in multiplayer.

The current status of the planned changes were detailed in a set of videos that Blizzard released with the announcement:

As always, Blizzard has update the game to ensure that Protoss remains “imba”, and that Zerg don’t stand a chance against the other two races.

You might disagree with my knee-jerk conclusion about the changes without actually playing the game, but you would be wrong.

For those who are interested in having an informed opinion and/or would like to help shape the future of StarCraft 2, Blizzard has announced a beta which you can sign up for via Battle.net, or the Legacy of the Void site.

In true Blizzard fashion, no information about the launch date or pricing for Legacy of the Void was revealed: