StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Starter Edition

Beside Dune and the first Command & Conquer titles, StarCraft is among the first RTS games that managed to gather a huge fan base and even create an entire sport around itself. Moreover, the singleplayer campaigns were masterpieces on their own, both in the original release and in the Brood War expansion pack. Now, more than ten years after the release of the first episode, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm aims to match its predecessor and deliver the very same experience, while obviously improving a lot about itself to keep up with the times.

Just like Brood War, Heart of the Swarm is more of an expansion pack, rather than a game on its own, due to the fact that you cannot play it without having the original release installed. There are many changes to take into account, especially when it comes to mechanics and the new units, since they have a great impact on the way matches evolve in multiplayer. However, the singleplayer campaign deserves its own time in the spotlight, thanks to the overwhelming amount of work that went into its creation.

As the name may have gave it away already, this second episode is completely dedicated to the Zerg race, when it comes to the storyline and the campaign. Thus, the missions you have to undertake in the career mode this time around should give you enough experience as a Zerg, especially since the difficulty level is constantly increased and you get to gradually make use of every unit in their repertoir.

Plot-wise, the story continues from where Wings of Liberty left it, with the Terran Dominion attacking Sarah Kerrigan. Obviously, she manages to get away and, after a few battles and fierce confrontations, she manages to perform a ritual that transforms her into a primal Queen of Blades. With her new powers, Kerrigan raises a fearsome Zerg army and basically wages war against everyone else, conquering everything that stands in her way.

When it comes to multiplayer, Blizzard tried to maintain the same basic mechanics and even most of the same units, in order to be at least somewhat familiar to those who dedicated a decade of their lives playing the original title. Thus, while Wings of Liberty brought a lot of changes to the gameplay and plenty of new units, Heart of the Swarm only introduces a couple of units, such as the Widow Mine for Terran, the Mothership Core for Protoss and the Viper for Zerg.

However, this handful of units is quite enough to change the pace of the game by quite a bit, especially since many of the changes require modifications in many strategies that are now rendered obsolete, or at least severely threatened by the new additions. New maps have also been added to the pool, although those that are played on the ladder change once every three or four months, as it is customary.

Speaking of which, the ladder also received a few updates, especially when it comes to how you can customize your profile, including new avatars, skins and various other gimmicks. A new Grandmaster league has been added as well, where only the best 200 players in each region get to compete against each other at the highest level.

Overall, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm can be called an improvement on the original title from over a decade ago, although it is also very different in many ways. The 3D graphics help a lot with the atmosphere and it certainly looks good, but the main concerned has remained the balancing of the three races.

Naturally, there are some things that may need polishing and refining, but Blizzard is constantly releasing patches in order to fix things, while also responding to fan requests. Thus, in the end, you definitely cannot go wrong by choosing to give the game a try, especially since you can freely play it as much as you want in the “Custom Game” mode, in this Starter Edition release.