Blizzard Reveals New StarCraft II Expansion

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In addition to revealing its new team-based first person shooter, Overwatch, Activision Blizzard also unveiled the third installment in the StarCraft II series, Legacy of the Void, on Friday during BlizzCon 2014. Unfortunately, the company did not reveal when this expansion is expected to ship.

According to Blizzard, the new expansion's story picks up where Heart of the Swarm ended, bringing the overall StarCraft II story to its conclusion. The story began back in July 2010 with the launch of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and fans no doubt are eager to find out what happens in this final chapter.

"Protoss legends Artanis and Zeratul attempt to unite their race in an intergalactic fight for survival against an ancient evil from the Void that threatens the universe," Blizzard explains. "The fates of Terran hero Jim Raynor and Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, also hang in the balance."

In addition to the overall storyline, Blizzard is introducing a new multiplayer game mode called Archon. This mode pits two players against another two players, with each pair taking control of a base and its units.

The company is also introducing an Allied Commanders game mode. This is an objective-based, co-op mode where players assume the role of a commander and battle through a number of scenarios. Each commander has a set of traits that will boost their armies.

Blizzard revealed on Friday that the Lurker will be added to the Zerg roster, a beast that was last seen in the original StarCraft. The Protoss will get their hands on a new weapon called the Disruptor, and the Terrans will have new technology such as Tactical Jump, which will teleport Battlecruisers to any destination on the map.

StarCraft II fans interested in getting into the beta program can head here to sign up. Legacy of the Void is currently in development for both Windows PC and Macintosh. Never played StarCraft II? Check out the Starter Edition (demo) right here.

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19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ib2007
    *yawns* All that gave a negative rating are haters.
    Reply
  • coolitic
    The SC2 trilogy storyline sucked pretty bad so far especially when compared to SC1.

    Since Legacy of the Void isn't bringing anything new to multiplayer (which is also noticeably inferior to SC1), there isn't much incentive to buy this expansion.
    Reply
  • coolitic
    And by multiplayer I meant the main multiplayer, not other gamemodes.
    Reply
  • giovanni86
    I was always more a fan of Protoss in SC1. In SC2 i liked the terran but missed playing Protoss. By far i look forward to the story of the protoss more then the last two expansions, and thus concluding Blizzards reigh of terror in my life in video games. I think what they've done to the trilogy was a bit sad. Of course this is just my opinion, but removing things from the game and adding new untis made me sad. Also the early beta units they had and then removed was also sad. What i'm trying to say is, SC1 and then the expansion Broodwar, they never removed anything only added more too it. So i'm glad that its finally coming to an end the trilogy. I still worship 1 more then 2, even though 2 looks and plays nice on my screen. GL to blizzard on new IP's that fit there style because overwatch is very sad.
    Reply
  • alkarnur
    In SC2 Blizzard retconned the living c**p out of StarCraft's story.
    Kerrigan in Brood War was one of the most interesting characters ever. Easily more interesting in terms of character story arc and pathos than Darth Vader. But in SC2 they retconned her into this generic, bland, politically correct "strong female character" that's actually good at heart. God forbid a female character be actually evil.

    What SC2's story is and what I was most looking forward to was Raynor vengeance against Kerrigan for killing Fenix along with killing, infesting (e.g. Razhagal), or tormenting and forcing into exile (e.g. Zeratul) half the characters in Brood War. But then SC2 HotS is released and then Raynor and Kerrigan are b***buddies? Really?

    Not to mention that before that, in SC2 WoL, they retconned Raynor, probably the only honest-to-God in the whole of fiction into this cliche overly muscled guy with the cliche backstory "haunted by his past and has an alcohol problem" BS.

    I could go on indefinitely but I will stop here.
    Reply
  • alkarnur
    ...honest-to-God good guy* in the whole of fiction...

    You know what? I'll share a bit more.

    Before SC1 was released, when Blizzard previewed the game, one of the major criticism at that time was that StarCraft was essentially "WarCraft/Orcs in Space". At that time, Blizzard listened to the criticism and changed course and as a result one of the most creative, refined, popular, revolutionary (in terms of eSports, and of RTS balance of asymmetric factions), iconic and cult titles of all time was made.

    But then SC2 comes along, I changed it back to being "Orcs in Space":
    Zeratul = Medivh in space. Prophet character that tries to warn others of the coming return of the Xel'Naga / Demon army.
    Xel'Naga = Titans in space.
    Amon = Sargeras in space = fallen Xel'Naga/Titan
    Hybrid = Demons in space, except Demons are fiery and red, while Hybrid are lightningy and blue. Amazing!
    Zerg Roaches = Crypt Fiends in space
    The Overmind = the Lich King in space.
    Kerrigan = Arthas in space.
    The Overmind is created by the Xel'Naga Fallen One / Demon Lord to create and lead an army. The Overmind / Lich King with his massive psychic powers, hatches an elaborate plan, where he plans events many years in advance. The plan consists of finding and converting a champion, Arthas / Kerrigan, to the side of the Undead Scourge / Zerg Swarm so that champion can then free the Overmind/Lich King and the Swarm/Scourge from Amon/Sargeras (and Kil'Jaeden).

    It's like Blizzard are plagiarizing themselves.
    Reply
  • aule10
    Tomshardware this is not an expansion in what you normally would call an expansion, it is an stand alone title, you don't need the other games to be able to play it.
    Reply
  • Lutfij
    I can already see more rebranded Razer branded Starcraft II peripherals that were released way back when Wings of Liberty launched but with Legacy of the Void on the box.

    More gameplay time with this new game!
    Reply
  • Ning3n
    .
    Reply
  • LostAlone
    Of course there are going to be changes to multiplayer. Of course there will be. There will be at least one or two new units and a bunch of other stuff will get changes. That's what they did with HotS and that's what they'll do again. And they'll do well at it I'm sure. They'll do it for marketing reasons as much as anything else. Remember - The expansions are sold at the same price as the base game. The only people who still care all that much about starcraft are the multiplayer people, and Blizzard needs to make sure they feel happy about buying the new one. If they make the LotV exactly the same as HotS then people will be angry and it won't sell well.

    Put simply, this is a game that banks on it's multiplayer scene to make money. That's the same reason why every CoD and Battlefield game has new maps, new weapons, new perks, new scopes etc. Because if you don't make the experience feel new then old players will feel hacked off that it cost them 60 bucks to keep on playing, and it'll make new players feel hacked off that they get outclassed from the outset simply because they didn't buy the old game and learn the ins and outs of everything for a thousand hours. It's a huge deal to at least refresh the multiplayer.

    They won't reinvent the wheel or anything, but it's almost certain that they'll mix things up a little bit - Slightly tweaked costs and build times, a new unit that's useful only against specific existing army compostions etc. That last seems very likely to me. One protross unit or upgrade that's really good against marines, marauders and medivacs; maybe it reduces healing in a certain radius or makes using stim less good or something. Just little things like that which don't make current strategies irrelevant but do give players new builds to explore and counter tactics to employ.
    Reply