StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Release Date: TBA

Game Description: The much anticipated second instalment in Blizzard’s StarCraft 2 trilogy, a science fiction real-time strategy game focused on the simultaneous execution of combat and economic management by masses of replicable units where three distinct intergalactic species face off, Heart of the Swarm centres on the story of the Zerg and its deposed Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan’s quest to reconquer control over her alien brood.

Just as its 2010 predecessor, Wings of Liberty, focused on the Terrans, and its successor will give the Protoss component of the story centre stage, Heart of the Swarm is the Zerg’s moment to shine. Offering campaign gameplay that promises to marry StarCraft’s RTS core with an RPG streak built around Sarah Kerrigan, whom players will control and level up through customizable skill tree selections, Heart of the Swarm’s story begins two years after the events in Wings of Liberty and will consist of around approximately 20 new missions.

While the single player campaign will be focused overwhelmingly on the Zerg race and the developing space epic that has been building since the original game’s debut in 1998, the game will also perform the role of an expansion pack adding new upgrades, map doodads and most importantly – units, to all the three factions in the game’s insanely popular multiplayer. Undeniably the world’s dominant e-sport, any changes to the game that have implications for multiplayer balance are tried and considered very carefully and the game is presently in a beta phase of invitational testing. Though Blizzard has yet to announce a release date, Heart of the Swarm seems a likely bet for release sometime in the first half of 2013.

Check out our full screenshot gallery of over one hundred images.