Hello all,
Blizzard has been hard at work on their newest expansion, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm- revolving around the Zerg story line.
Here is actual gameplay footage from StarCraft II: HotS (link will open in a new tab):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqZm2gqihIo&feature=player_embeddedHere is an actual preview image from the "mission selection"/ "campaign "menu""
This menu changes depending on your current location within the campaign storyline.
This content is from GHOSTCLAW and Lovedrop, who actually got to mess around with the upcoming expansion:
Heart of the Swarm Preview
by GHOSTCLAW and Lovedrop
After receiving our invitation roughly a month ago, GHOSTCLAW and I were lucky enough to grab the two spots available to us. Seeing how GHOSTCLAW had a test that very same morning, I made my way over first and he joined me shortly after. As the majority of the website representatives arrived around 9:30, NDAs were distributed and signed as we slowly walked uniformly into the small theater to our left. Bob Colayco, the PR representative, handed us over to Dustin Browder, who began to explain what is in store for us today.
The trailer was shown. The build that we are able to test today is experimental, and takes place “four to six” missions in from the HOTS campaign. Backdrop stories on how the story accumulated to this point remains unknown, but it is a fact that Kerrigan is slowly retaining her Zerg powers after being carried off by Jim Raynor at the end of Wings of Liberty. The two missions that are available for us are centered around Kerrigan’s attempt to rebuild the Swarm, as various brood mothers are attempting to takeover due to Kerrigan’s brief absence. Unlike Raynor’s minimal involvement in WoL, Kerrigan will play a much more active role in the campaign. A direct comparison between the two would be that while Raynor, at best with all of his forces and artifacts, can give Mengsk a bad day, Kerrigan can potentially hold a third of the power of the Koprolu Sector and destroy planets at ease.
The setting outside of missions is “aboard” the Leviathan. WoL shuffles your attention between various rooms of the Hyperion, but in HotS, the background updates automatically as you visit various planets.
Mouseover to Preview
Your main screen will include interactions with two new characters: Abathur, the master of evolution and Izsha, your main advisor. Clicking on Kerrigan will bring up a customizable screen for her battle focus, and the Mission button is self-explanatory. Again, this is all a work in progress, as even the voices for some characters are mere placeholders, taken from the Diablo 3 department.
While there are some similarities, HotS should “feel” different than WoL. Choices and decisions hinges on various point of views, (i.e saving colonists vs. infesting them), and HotS puts extra emphasis on displaying the hostility towards Kerrigan. In order to get the feeling across, your enemies will consist of surely P/T forces, and even Zerg factions within the swarm. With that said, we exit the auditorium and make our way to the third floor. As we picked a computer and sat down, we were greeted with two mission choices: the fiery planet Char or the frozen wastes of Kaldir. There is no specific order to complete these missions (only difference is which new unit you are able to produce), and seeing as WoL left off in the ashes of Char, that is where we’ll jump in first.
Liberate the Zerg Homeworld
As you decide to travel to Char, several missions are visible on the side to further explain your objective on this planet. For this build, only the first mission of each world is available for the press. Arriving at the home screen, players begin their mission. Just as in WoL, a cinematic conversation precedes the actual mission. Whichever mission you decide to start with will not alter Kerrigan’s interaction with the NPCs.
Abathur begins by first introducing himself, and his role as an expert in the field of Zerg mutation aboard the Leviathan. His ability to weave genetic traits into Zerg units created stronger units for Kerrigan. Kerrigan had asked if she was the one who created him, but Abathur denies this claim, stating that it was the overmind, and it was Kerrigan who found him deep inside Char after the overmind had died. Abathur firmly believes that without the leadership of the Queen, the Zerg’s chances of survival are bleak.
Talking to Izsha next will give testers a glimpse of what has happened so far. A brood mother by the name of Za’gara has refused to acknowledge Kerrigan’s presence and denies her the title ‘Queen of Blades’. Defeating Za’gara will help in your quest to regain control of the swarm. For a brief moment, Kerrigan tries her best to recover her lost memories from times before, but they were not pleasant memories. Izsha praised Kerrigan’s abilities to lead, and described her as the fit leader of the Zerg. However, Izsha clearly reminds Kerrigan that she is simply willing to serve whoever is stronger. Kerrigan looks less than flustered.
Given Kerrigan and 4 zerglings, you are to recover 100 eggs scattered across the map in order to utilize the birthing pond to create an army quicker and overrun Za’gara. At the same time, it is important to stop Za’gara from achieving the same task. Meanwhile, a bonus objective includes finding 6 baneling eggs. These eggs hatch additional banelings for your command, and finding all 6 will increase Kerrigan’s infestation level by 6 (more on this in Battle Focus).
Banelings are the new unit introduced in this mission, and they are essential in clearing out Za’gara bodyguard hydralisks, and their extra damage to building. (As you clear out your first pack of zerglings, Kerrigan reminisces on the effectiveness of banelings against zerglings as well.) The medium sized map makes traveling around the paths of the map simple, and as your main is located at the 6 o’clock position, a natural can be expanded to the right of your main. Every time you run into and defeat Za’gara, she burrows and is gone from her Easter egg hunt for 2 minutes, giving you more time to macro up. Vice versa, if Kerrigan dies, she is incapacitated for (less than) 2 minutes, but is able to respawn almost anywhere on the map.
At various points in the game, Za’gara will send waves of Zerg units to attack your main base. Thankfully, normal difficulty means that everyone can ignore this nuisance and indulge in how many banelings they can get. The last wave might pose some trouble if you’re unprepared, but in general, they are defendable with just spine crawlers and minimal troops.
Once you’ve reached your goal of 100 eggs, Kerrigan commands Abathur to inject the catalyst and hatch the eggs, giving you access to 144 (yes 144, I counted) banelings on top of your existing food supply to run over Za’gara’s base at the northeast. Needless to say, it is a trivial task and it seems like the act of running your banelings into static objects is a personal request by Artosis. Kerrigan commands the Zerg to execute Za’gara, but holds back as she listened to Za’gara’s last words. Pleading her loyalty, Kerrigan spares Za’gara’s life and the mission concludes.
Reclaim the Na’fash Brood
Upon landing via a Zerg drop pod, players immediately notice a terrain that has gone missing for a longtime: snow. As Kerrigan crosses the first bridge with zerglings, she encounters the first hostile force on this mission: the feral yetis. Yetis are known for their ability to survive in the cold, and as Kerrigan kills the first Yeti, Abathur informs you of the first mechanic of the stage: Flash Freeze. Flash freeze occurs in intervals and completely disables your unit. Abathur advices you to collect a total of 10 DNA samples in order to create a genetic defense for your units, protecting them from Flash Freeze.
Along your path, there are frozen feral roaches that will join you when you free them from their Popsicle state. A flash freeze arrives as your units approach a large ice wall, leaving you defenseless as a Yeti matriarch begins attacking your units. After you kill the matriarch, all of the needed DNA samples complete, and Abathur is able to provide you with protection from Flash Freeze. Before arriving at a frozen Zerg base, Kerrigan and co. comes across a frozen ***** of Na’fash, leaving trace that such damage could not have come from mere Yetis. An encounter with the Protoss expedition leader at the base warns Izsha of potential Protoss invasion, and advises Kerrigan to destroy the psi-link spires in order to stop communication and reinforcements.
The Protoss have not found a reliable way to deal with Flash Freeze, and is therefore vulnerable as they become vulnerable during the storm. By capitalizing on this advantage, macro up your roach-centric army to take out three psi-link spires on the map, and force the Protoss to retreat. A bonus objective on this mission is to gather two special DNA strands from Yeti matriarchs, giving you two additional mutagens when completed. While the Protoss is already on the retreat, Kerrigan made it clear to Izsha that she was the Queen of Blades.
The aftermath of the battle is followed by a conversation with your main characters. Abathur took notice that Kerrigan now looks different after every battle, and he reassure her that is not only an opinion, as his eyes are able to clearly distinguish genetic material. While Kerrigan has some remorse about slaughtering innocents, it is the thoughts of her becoming more like Mengsk is what truly bothers her. Izsha had little to say, besides the fact that she serves the most capable leader and those are not Zerg, are enemies. This concludes the playable mission testing for this particular build, and now we continue to explore several new aspects of HotS.
The evolution chamber is similar to the armory in WoL. Here, new units are unlocked during the campaign and upgraded through various means. The most important currency is the mutagen. Mutagens are acquired through finishing missions and completing other bonus objectives within those missions. While finishing both missions with bonus objectives did not earn us enough mutagens to cover all possible upgrades, it is fair to say each completion will earn you a possible 3-5 mutagens. Zerg units have upgrades just as Terran units in WoL. Three upgrades are available for each unit shown in the preview. There is nothing that suggests that this will remain consistent for all future units. The first two upgrades require 1 mutagen, while a third requires 2. After picking up at least 2 out of 3 upgrades, players are allowed to morph the entire unit altogether, evolving into a superior yet similar unit for the cost of 2 mutagens. There are two possible choices, and players are only allowed to pick one. Therefore, a total of 6 mutagens are required to fully upgrade a unit. During this testing, we come across three familiar Zerg units.
Zergling
Metabolic Boost – Movement speed increased by 33%.
Posthumous Mitosis – A 20% chance of after dying to spawn 2 broodlings.
Rapid Genesis – Zerglings are trained instantly.
Evolution:
Swarmling – Hatches three swarmlings instead of two zerglings, the third comes at no extra cost.
Raptor - +10 HP, and leaps into battle.
Notes: While the swarmling does not cost extra minerals, it does take up food. A raptor’s leap is similar to a zealot charge, and while it does not explicitly state a cooldown, it does in fact have an internal cooldown. The wings attained through metabolic boost are smaller and less visible, only after evolution does it appear completely. The swarmling’s wings are a slight neon green, while a raptor changes its whole body color to a purple/pink texture.
Roach
Chitinous Plating - +1 armor.
Bile Ducts – +2 damage.
Organic Carapace – Health regeneration increased by 2
Evolution:
Prowler – Enables burrow movement.
Leech – Every unit killed gains the leech 10 HP (up to a maximum of 60). Also, Health regeneration increased.
Notes:The prowler is no different than a fully upgraded roach in WoL. Take note that each second evolved unit listed here is a recolor of the first. A leech has a purple tint to the regular brown of a roach.
Baneling
Viscous Discharge – Upon impact, slows the target by 25%.
Centrifugal Hooks – Movement speed is increased by 25%.
Rupture – Splash radius increased by 25%.
Evolution:
Splitterling – The baneling now splits into smaller explosive units when killed.
Gorgeling – After exploding, the gorgeling returns a sum of minerals and gas on the floor.
Notes: The splitterling breaks into two twice in its lifetime. Big (40HP/20dmg) becomes Medium (20HP/10dmg), and then becomes Small (10HP/5dmg). The gorgeling is basically a purple/pink baneling, and the minerals/gas are automatically granted through impact.
Battle Focus is the main menu screen that you can customize Kerrigan’s abilities. When the developers mentioned RPG-like elements, this is it. On display is Kerrigan’s stats and choices between specializations that fit your playstyle. Kerrigan’s skills and stats are obtainable through increasing her infestation level. At the mission on Char, Kerrigan received +6 infestation, granting her to the next level. Upon promotion, she gained extra HP/energy, along with armor and additional damage. In this demo, two battle focus choices were available to us: Spec Ops and Corruption.
Spec Ops (+50 Energy)
Pulse
Energy Cost: 50
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Description: Deals light damage to all targets in a 2.5 tiles radius. Also stuns the units for 3 seconds.
Psionic Shadow
Energy Cost: 50
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Description: Kerrigan creates a Psionic Shadow of herself that deals half damage.
Infested Cortex (Unlockable)
Energy Cost: Passive
Description: Grants Kerrigan an additional maximum of 50 energy.
Corruption (+3 Armor)
Corrosive Spores
Energy Cost: 50
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Description: Target all units in a 2.5 tiles radius, all units receive an additional 3 damage. Lasts 15 seconds.
Spawn Broodlings
Energy Cost: 50
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Description: Kills the target. The target spawns 5 broodlings upon death. Massive/Heroic units are immune.
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm General FAQ - May 2011
Q: What is StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm?
A: Heart of the Swarm is the first expansion set to Blizzard Entertainment's sci-fi real time strategy game, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Heart of the Swarm continues the epic story from Wings of Liberty with an all-new campaign that focuses on Kerrigan, the erstwhile Queen of Blades. New multiplayer content will also be included in the expansion, as well as new features and upgrades to the Battle.net online platform.
Q: What features can we expect from the single-player campaign of Heart of the Swarm?
A: Heart of the Swarm's campaign will include approximately 20 new missions. Players will be able to evolve their swarms with unique, campaign-only units and abilities, and this evolution will happen in an organic manner befitting of the expansion's Zerg theme. As an example, zerglings can be induced to evolve the ability to split into broodlings upon death. Further evolution can yield specialized sub-species of zerglings such as the swarmling, a variant that spawns three swarmlings per larvae instead of the standard two zerglings. The fearsome raptor is another evolutionary offshoot of the zergling that has more health, and the ability to leap short distances to quickly close the gap on an enemy.
Another aspect of Heart of the Swarm that makes it unique from Wings of Liberty is that Kerrigan will play a major role in each of the battles as a powerful hero. Over the course of the campaign she gains in strength as well as new capabilities. Players will choose what abilities to enhance and powers to use from mission to mission.
Heart of the Swarm will also include a wider variety of sets for players to explore between missions -- these sets change dynamically as players complete missions, giving a sense of a changing world as Kerrigan makes her presence felt throughout the galaxy. Fully-voiced cut-scenes will round out the cinematic gaming experience in Heart of the Swarm's campaign, while a new array of achievements will unlock in-game rewards such as portraits and decals.
Q: Will there be any technical upgrades to the graphics engine?
A: We'll be making some improvements to the graphics, including upgrades to the look and behavior of zerg creep, as well as some changes that allow our artists to better showcase the new types of planets that Kerrigan will explore in Heart of the Swarm. We still plan to keep the minimum hardware requirements the same for this expansion set as they were in Wings of Liberty.
Q: What are some of the changes made to multiplayer Heart of the Swarm?
A: While we're not quite ready to go into detail about the new multiplayer content in Heart of the Swarm, we can say that this expansion set will include new units and new maps. We'll have more details about multiplayer Heart of the Swarm content at BlizzCon.
Q: What changes will come to Battle.net with Heart of the Swarm?
A: As far as Battle.net improvements, one primary focus will be on getting the StarCraft Marketplace up and running at some point around the launch of Heart of the Swarm. The maps and mods community in StarCraft II has published tens of thousands of custom maps using the StarCraft II editor. Our goal with the new Marketplace design will be in upgrading the custom map UI to better showcase the wide variety of great new maps and mods to players who are looking for fun new gaming experiences. We want players to be able to more easily find, rate, and sort through all the great custom maps that have been created.
The Marketplace will also eventually include a commerce element that will allow mapmakers to charge a fee for their work. While there will always be a wealth of free content, we believe that allowing content creators to profit from their work will foster an environment for more complex and higher-quality custom maps. Our ultimate hope is that the StarCraft Marketplace will function and thrive in a similar manner as mobile "app-stores" -- tons of free and premium content for players, and a limitless source of entertainment through StarCraft II and Battle.net.
We do have other Battle.net feature upgrades and improvements planned as well, and we'll have more details on those at a later date.
Q: Will Heart of the Swarm require ownership of Wings of Liberty?
A: For the regions that have a standard box business model such as North America and Europe, yes, Wings of Liberty will be required in order to play Heart of the Swarm. For other regions that have alternative access models, we’ll provide details at a later date.
Q: How much will Heart of the Swarm cost?
A: We typically don't provide details about pricing until the game is closer to release. We do view Heart of the Swarm as an expansion set, so for the regions that have a standard box business model such as North America and Europe, we will price accordingly. For other regions that have alternative business models, we’ll provide details at a later date.
Q: Will there be a console version of Heart of the Swarm?
A: StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is being developed for Windows and Mac. We have no current plans to bring StarCraft II to any console platform.
Q: When is Heart of the Swarm coming out?
A: It's too early to talk about a specific release date at this point in time. As with all Blizzard games, our ultimate goal is to provide the best possible experience for our players, and we will take as much time as is needed to ensure that Heart of the Swarm meets the expectations of our players, as well as our own high standards.
FAQ, Screenshots & Concept Arts. ©2011 Blizzard Entertainment. All rights reserved.
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~Branmatt
