StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is an expansion pack to the military science fiction real-time strategy game StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty by Blizzard Entertainment. Heart of the Swarm is the second part of a planned StarCraft II trilogy, with part three titled Legacy of the Void.
The expansion includes additional units and multiplayer changes from Wings of Liberty, as well as a continuing campaign focusing on the Zerg race, following Sarah Kerrigan in her effort to regain control of the swarm and enact her revenge on the Terran Dominion’s emperor, Arcturus Mengsk.
Gameplay———————————————————————————-
The game has 20 missions in the campaign (plus 7 evolution missions which allows the player to upgrade its units), and continues the story from Wings of Liberty. The player plays from the perspective of Sarah Kerrigan, recently returned to her human form by Jim Raynor. Similar to Wings of Liberty, the briefing room is replaced with an interactive exploration of the Leviathan, an enormous Zerg breed which functions as a Bioship. Kerrigan and her allies are located in the nerve center, she has a personal chamber for altering her abilities, and there is an evolution pit where she can upgrade her units and perform evolution missions with the evolution master Abathur.
At Blizzard’s 2011 BlizzCon conference, it was revealed that Heart of the Swarm will feature 7 new multiplayer units, while removing 3 units and changing the abilities of existing units and buildings. The exact modifications have since changed. In a blog post, game director Dustin Browder explained the current status of the units:
Terrans
“It’s a good idea to take your time making your friends: I usually give it six rounds. Whether they’re bullets, beers or bouts depends on the day.”
-Jim Raynor
The Terrans were originally expected to feature two new units: Shredder and Warhound. Shredder is a mobile, burrowing turret based on the design of the Zerg Spine Crawler that releases clouds of toxic gas that are devastating to biological units. Internal testing revealed Shredder was too flexible and powerful, and it was therefore replaced by Widow Mine, a mobile burrowing unit that fires missiles, causing splash damage. Warhound is a bipedal combat walker with an arm-mounted high-calibre cannon; it can launch missiles against mechanical units. During the closed beta testing phase, Blizzard agreed with pro gamers that it does not work as expected; thus, Warhound was removed from the multiplayer gameplay although it can be fought in single-player campaign.
Hellion in Heart of the Swarm may transform into Hellbat, which inflicts damage in an arc in front of it, instead of in a line. Hellbat counts as both biological and mechanical, and can therefore be either repaired by SCVs or healed by Medivacs and Medics. Medivac has an “Ignite Afterburners” upgrade which acts as a cooldown-based speed boost. Reaper has undergone extensive changes; its special building attack has been replaced by a passive health regeneration ability that works out of combat. Additionally, Reaper no longer inflicts extra damage on light units. This damage decrease is compensated for by removal of the Tech Lab add-on from their training requirements. Consequentially, Reapers in Heart of the Swarm can be trained two at a time using the Reactor add-on.
Protoss
“I have journeyed through the darkness between the most distant stars. I have beheld the births of negative-suns and borne witness to the entropy of entire realities…”
– Zeratul
The Protoss were originally expected to feature Replicant,[further explanation needed] which has been cut because of its tendency to stifle unit diversity. They feature three new units: Oracle, Tempest and Mothership Core.
Oracle is a fast energy-dependent flying unit. When first used in the beta version, Oracle focused on slowing down economy by blocking off mineral access for a short period of time. It was decided that the ability was too powerful and that it should cause mining to slow, instead of to stop. In the end, Oracle was turned into a unit that can quickly kill workers instead of slowing them. Attacking consumes the Oracle’s energy. Oracle also has two other abilities: Revelation, which reveals enemy units and buildings within an area and Envision, which grants Oracle the ability to detect invisible or burrowed units.
Tempest’s role has changed since Blizzcon: Originally designed to provide large amounts of aerial splash damage, it is a long-range siege unit capable of hitting both the ground and air.
Mothership Core is a slow moving, flying unit that has three abilities. Photon Overcharge (previously known as Purify) allows a targeted Nexus to gain a single-target, long-range energy attack, similar to the Photon Cannon. Mass Recall warps Protoss units around Mothership Core, and the Core itself to any targeted Nexus. Finally, Time Warp slows down enemy ground units’ movement in an area. Once a Protoss building called Fleet Beacon is constructed, Mothership Core can transform into Mothership.
In addition to the new units, the Void Ray’s prismatic beam has become an active ability that temporarily increases damage against armored units only, while the original effect of gradually increasing damage over time has been removed.
Zerg
“The killing will never stop until Mengsk is dead. I’m going to make him pay.”
-Sarah Kerrigan
The Zerg were originally expected to lose their Overseer[further explanation needed] unit while gaining two new units: Viper and Swarm Host. For the Zerg, the Overseer has been re-added to multiplayer games since Blizzcon.
The flying Viper has several abilities: “Blinding Cloud” reduces the range of enemy units to 1. “Abduct” pulls a unit to Viper’s location. “Consume” allows Viper to steal health from a friendly structure. The Swarm Host, when burrowed, periodically spawns slow-moving units called Locusts. Locusts have a ranged attack and only hit ground targets.
Ultralisk has gained a “Burrow Charge” ability, which allows it to quickly reach battle sites, but this ability is absent from the multiplayer game. Hydralisk features a speed boost upgrade for traveling off the creep. Additionally, both “burrow” and the Overlord movement speed boost may be researched at the hatchery and no longer requiring a Lair to be built.
In single-player campaign mode, each Zerg combat unit may be evolved into either of two possible alternative versions, each with a powerful, characteristic trait (for instance, the Torrasque strain of the Ultralisk has the ability to revive itself upon death). In addition, there are “primal” versions which are elements of the plot and sport a radically different look (the differences are akin to those between regular and mercenary units in Wings of Liberty). Primal zerg may not be produced. In addition, there are no mobile Zerg cloak detection units or troop transport units in campaign mode, however any cloaked units, such as the Protoss Dark Templar and Terran Banshee, are either completely absent (in the case of the former) or do not make use of their cloaking abilities (as in the case of the latter and the Ghost).
StarCraft II 