The Whispers of Oblivion prologue missions act as a bridge between the Heart of the Swarm content and Legacy of the Void. The free content is available now and can be downloaded, like just about every Blizzard product, from the Battle.net desktop application. Players just need to select StarCraft 2 from the list of games and opt to download the starter pack.
Some gamers may question the free gift (which was announced at E3), but it seems clear that Blizzard is fully aware that whatever StarCraft 2 hype existed back in 2010 has long since faded away. The game certainly still has a core audience, but in order to stir up excitement and sales, Blizz needs to throw a bone to the fans who got bored and walked away sometime during the last five years.
The studio behind StarCraft, Warcraft, and many of our other favorite properties definitely has a tradition of not releasing a game until it is 100% ready, so it seems like a safe bet that Legacy of the Void will deliver a fantastic sci-fi RTS experience for PC gamers. StarCraft 2 definitely lacks some of the universal appeal that Blizzard’s other properties have, but the game is still a powerhouse and we expect to see at least a short-lived renaissance when the new expansion releases next month.
Despite the incredible quality of most Blizzard products there is always the chance that the studio took just a little too long this time around. StarCraft 2 quickly became the best-selling RTS of all time after its 2010 release and the first expansion took three years to hit shelves. The long wait certainly hurt the expansion’s sales a bit, but it was still very popular and delivered on years of promise. November will reveal whether or not the once die-hard StarCraft 2 community will come out of the woodwork once again to show Blizzard some love.
Will you be downloading the free prologue content? Do you think Blizzard waited too long to release this expansion? Let us know in the comments.
StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void releases for the PC on November 10.
