StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm – what you need to know

Blizzard has released an official fact-sheet outlining some of the core features gamers can expect from the follow up to last year’s critically acclaimed sci-fi RTS, StarCraft II.

The publisher announced a few years ago that StarCraft II would be released as a trilogy, starting with the Terran single player campaign, which hit shelves last year. Next up is the Zerg Campaign, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, which is anticipated for release sometime next year.

Blizzard has released a fact sheet detailing some of the stuff to expect from the next chapter in this beloved franchise.

Features

•    Continues the epic story of StarCraft II from where Wings of Liberty left off.
•    Approximately 20 new campaign missions.
•    New campaign gameplay mechanics, allowing players to evolve new abilities and units for their zerg army.
•    Go into battle with Kerrigan as she tries to restore her strength and regain control of the Swarm.
•    New multiplayer units and maps, expanding strategic choice and gameplay depth for each race.
•    Expanded features and functionality for Battle.net to improve custom-game search, and new tools for map authors to create even more epic custom games.
•    New pre-rendered and in-game cinematics bring the story of Heart of the Swarm to life.

A selection of new units to be introduced with Heart of the Swarm was also recently revealed:

Terran

Warhound: This versatile factory unit is great against mechanical ground targets and can dish out area-of-effect anti-air attacks.

Warhound

Battle Hellion: New transformation mode to gain durability in exchange for slower movement, great for fighitng mixed forces using light troops combined with area-of-effect attacks

Battle Hellion

Shredder: Mobile scout unit that can deploy and create a whirlwind of death around it. Safety protocols auto-disable the attack if other friendly units enter the danger zone.

Shredder

Protoss

Replicant: Microscopic robots can fuse themselves to copy a targeted non-massive unit. The replication also auto-enables any specific upgrades of the targeted unit (ex: cloaking, etc.)

Replicant

Oracle: This flying support unit can scout and disrupt the enemy economy. It can reveal what structures are making and also temporarily disrupt building productions & resource harvesting.

Oracle

Tempest: Powerful capital ship that dominates the skies with massive area-of-effect attacks against light enemy flyers and a strong beam against ground targets.

Tempest

Zerg

Viper: Flying unit with support abilities, it can grant detection to units, create a cloud to hinder ranged attacks & abilities, and quickly pull units to safety (friendly) or their doom (enemy).