Following the release of StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void next week, Blizzard plans to support the campaign side of the game with what it calls Nova Covert Ops, the developer announced today.
“So for Nova Covert Ops, this is content for players that have really enjoyed the campaign experience, which is a vast amount of players,” senior designer Kristopher Howl said in an interview with GameSpot. “The vocal majority comes from multiplayer but we have a huge player base that really enjoys campaign and that's really all they play. So now we're offering more content for those players and similar to the prologue where we have the three missions.”
Howl also spoke as to what the character of Nova, a ghost in the StarCraft universe, will bring to the game in terms of gameplay mechanics.
“So with Nova's background, being a ghost, she unlocks some unique abilities for units that have this more techy approach to them,” he said. “She'll be able to upgrade her own weapons, gear slots as well, like helmets that adjust visors so she gets special abilities to take into missions with her. She'll be present on the ground for you to run around and control. By equipping these items you will have new abilities in that mission to engage with.”
Blizzard is also setting Nova Covert Ops up to be tie into the broader StarCraft canon.
“It will tie into some of Nova's lore,” Howl said. “This is really a chance to explore her history a bit more, explain what the Terran dominion's been up to since the events of Legacy of the Void. It is taking place some time after the events of Legacy of the Void, the dust has settled, the Terran Dominion is trying to repair their homeworlds and the lives of their people. This will kick off on a tangent that explores Nova's world a little more.”
Nova Covert Ops will encompass nine missions that will be released in three separate “mission packs.” Blizzard hopes to begin releasing the mission packs “by the start of next year,” though no exact date has been set.
In September, Blizzard said that with future development of StarCraft 2 and the StarCraft franchise as a whole, it would be taking cues from another Blizzard game, Heroes of the Storm, releasing smaller updates more often, rather than bigger content releases with large gaps in between. That sentiment was also echoed by Howl in the above interview.
Source: GameSpot
