Trailers: StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm: Gameplay

[SoopaSte123]

Does it trouble anyone else that Warcraft and Starcraft stories are pretty much identical? I mean, after playing SC1 and then playing WC3 I saw blatant similarities left and right. A hero who fell into darkness and takes control of the hive-minded army, and then the other races have to band together to defeat it. And, what's this? Said fallen hero is losing their mind controlled grip on their armies and now there's a splinter group they have to take care of!
.

If anything then Warcraft 3/world of warcraft copied the story entirely from sc1 then. Which pretty much sums up the sad decent to writing mess the warcraft series is taking, i for one won't touch it with a 10 feet pole. Next thing you know you will be fighting zerg in Lordareon new nar'zhul virus, hurr durr. Also the whole 1000 factions and races of Warcraft is just a mess.

Well hopefully sc2 campaign won't be some Drunk ass soap opera drama this time round.
Prophecy missions of sc2 were probably the only ones that were remotely interesting.
There was just so much stuff that wasn't even remotely relevant to the actual missions, had to watch the news tv to see anything about your missions.

And this game should never become a rpg, fps yes but never rpg.

You have wow which just destroyed the warcraft universe for rpg go play that. I mean it was orcs+deamons vs humans, where did it all go wrong, why mess up the formula?

I really enjoyed WC3. I thought adding the Night Elves and Undead made it more unique. However, yes, WC3's story was basically stolen from SC1, but Kerrigan losing control of the Zerg is straight out of the Frozen Throne. Regardless, it's Blizzard reusing plot, and I think it's stupid. Do they assume no one plays both?

And I'll definitely agree they ruined Warcraft's story by making it an RPG. Let's just hope they don't try anything similar with Starcraft.

OT: I love the Zerg. I passed on SCII until this point so I could buy the Zerg campaign and nothing else.

Hate to break it to you, but you'll have to buy Wings of Liberty. HotS is an expansion pack now.


http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/01/heart-of-the-swarm

Well then... so much for that strategy XD

 

[Reyalsfeihc]

Cool tweaks and interface. The upgrades and unlocks looks a lot better than liberty. Still didn't see anything worth full price.
Go Greed Go.

Enough with the full price nitpickings. (not aimed just at you) They plan to sell the expansions for $30.

 

[Zanaxal]

However, yes, WC3's story was basically stolen from SC1, but Kerrigan losing control of the Zerg is straight out of the Frozen Throne.

Well she did already have little control back in sc1 as rogue cerebrates took over and formed their own groups in sc1, and she didn't loose control per say, just being incapacitated. Which is kind of new, i mean Arthas/LK he just got weakened to then regain power, but should have regained all control afterwards but that was not conformist enough with the Undead undying? rogue silly faction. while kerrigan just got pwned and lost power, quite a difference in my eyes. I do find it a bit silly that militias can just overwhelm the zerg.

 

[Reyalsfeihc]

So does this mean I can finally create my hydralisks that shoot lava out of their scythes? Because that would be awesome.

 

[DeSpiner]

Ohhhhh, no... that looked like a lot of "hero" action goin' on there... that's not how the Zerg work! Hundreds of thousands of disposable units can't happen when you've got a main character on the front lines! I'm still gonna buy it, and I'm still gonna play the fuck out of it, but... now I'm all dubious and shit.

I just want to point out that in the original Starcraft Zerg campaigns you also had Kerrigan as a hero unit with unique abilities. In both solo and base building missions.

As for losing the Zerg swarm feeling in the campaign, one of the previewed missions allowed you to have 144 banelings. No, that's not a typo, one-hundred-forty-four rolling balls of exploding corrosive death! In fact you can even catch a glimpse of them in this video.

I have faith in the Blizzard level designers that they'll be able to balance out the need to make Sarah a badass (class 12 psionic waveform detected!) with the requirement to maintain the swarm-like nature of the Zerg.

 

[Reveras]

-snip-

Actually, Kerrigan losing control of the Zerg is straight out of Starcraft. Check the first Broodwar missions a.k.a before WC3. I kinda hate that they are rehashing that.

 

[DeSpiner]

-snip-

Actually, Kerrigan losing control of the Zerg is straight out of Starcraft. Check the first Broodwar missions a.k.a before WC3. I kinda hate that they are rehashing that.

I'll have to correct you on that. Before Broodwar, the Overmind was in control of the Zerg, and it gets killed. The whole of Broodwar is Kerrigan's fight to gain control of all the Zerg for the first time, and to become the Queen of Blades.

 

[Pandaman1911]

I just want to point out that in the original Starcraft Zerg campaigns you also had Kerrigan as a hero unit with unique abilities. In both solo and base building missions.

As for losing the Zerg swarm feeling in the campaign, one of the previewed missions allowed you to have 144 banelings. No, that's not a typo, one-hundred-forty-four rolling balls of exploding corrosive death! In fact you can even catch a glimpse of them in this video.

I have faith in the Blizzard level designers that they'll be able to balance out the need to make Sarah a badass (class 12 psionic waveform detected!) with the requirement to maintain the swarm-like nature of the Zerg.

I know all that. And I have faith in the level designers too. I just hated those missions as well, because I can't keep my hero unit active in combat and also keep them in good health. WarCraft III showed me that much.
"If you didn't want him to die, why did you let me control him?!"

 

[park92]

Looks to be set up pretty much how the terran campaign was. Complete worlds in whatever order you want, gain upgrades and unlock research, rinse and repeat. I hope it's not too similar though, otherwise it will just feel like a re-skinned Wings of Liberty.

Does anyone know how much they're going to expand the multiplayer? It would be lame if they didn't at least unlock a few new units for each race. I know it will be harder to balance, but then again they're selling each of these as a full retail game, so it better stand up on its own.

in the Q and A they said new maps and units so I'm guessing more stuff like in brood war

Brood War was an expansion pack. HotS is supposed to be a full retail game. It better be a lot more content added than Brood War was.

the interview guy said expansion pack its supposed to be cheaper than wings of liberty too

 

[Eponet]

She also has a history of manipulating and infesting Protoss leaders.

I forgot about that part. That would explain why Zeratul went to James first, so that if they did just decide to kill/imprison him someone that believed him would be informed, especially since as a Dark Templar, it would be even more difficult for the protoss to detect if he were being controlled.

 

[Eponet]

I just wish they would change the spawn larva function of zerg as it makes them unplayable for me at a high level, diamond/master ++

Just out of interest, what is it about the spawn larvae that makes them unplayable at higher levels?

A hero who fell into darkness and takes control of the hive-minded army, and then the other races have to band together to defeat it. And, what's this? Said fallen hero is losing their mind controlled grip on their armies and now there's a splinter group they have to take care of!

Well, I don't remember any indication that all the other races would have to band together with Arthas to defeat anyone.

This is more along the lines of an external force is beginning to gain power and will inevitabily crush all opposition, and all the races need to band together to defeat it. The problem being that previously Kerrigan was a psycotic murderer that no one would ever work with, and may still be.

In Warcraft, the undead were pretty much always the bad guys.

 

[Denamic]

I just want to point out that in the original Starcraft Zerg campaigns you also had Kerrigan as a hero unit with unique abilities. In both solo and base building missions.

As for losing the Zerg swarm feeling in the campaign, one of the previewed missions allowed you to have 144 banelings. No, that's not a typo, one-hundred-forty-four rolling balls of exploding corrosive death! In fact you can even catch a glimpse of them in this video.

I have faith in the Blizzard level designers that they'll be able to balance out the need to make Sarah a badass (class 12 psionic waveform detected!) with the requirement to maintain the swarm-like nature of the Zerg.

I know all that. And I have faith in the level designers too. I just hated those missions as well, because I can't keep my hero unit active in combat and also keep them in good health. WarCraft III showed me that much.
"If you didn't want him to die, why did you let me control him?!"

Simple.

Spoiler

If you can't keep them alive, you're doing it wrong.
Try again.

 

[Pandaman1911]

Simple.

Spoiler

If you can't keep them alive, you're doing it wrong.
Try again.

Yes, I know I'm doing it wrong. That's why I'm worried; it looks like the expansion pack will have a lot of things I'm not good at. I'm fully well aware that I'm blisteringly awful at balancing my macro and micro.

 

[DeSpiner]

I'm not that good with micro either, and I managed to work my way through Wings of Liberty Brutal while keeping ol'Jimmy and his buddy Tychus alive whenever they were featured in the missions.

The best thing about it is that if you're not confident in your abilities, you can start playing on Normal, then as you improve you can move on up to Hard and Brutal.

Even more, from what I understand from the previews, Kerrigan won't actually die, she will respawn in your base, so you only incur a time penalty.

 

[Zanaxal]

Just out of interest, what is it about the spawn larvae that makes them unplayable at higher levels?

Well its for me only like i said but having to use the queen selecting casting and spawn larvas on the hatchery every 30s-1min on each hatchery is a bit too annoying. Forgetting to do that will break your economy fast. AS it takes quite some time before the larva hatches after its used. Just seems a bit of a unnecessary & tedious mechanic to me, they didn't have it in sc1 and all it does is generate larvas.

And zergs only real power is their ability to macro, so your general success is based apon this usage.