Heart of the Swarm

Plot

After Wings of Liberty, Dominion forces attack Kerrigan and her allies at a research facility in Umojan Protectorate territory. She escapes to the Hyperion, but Jim Raynor is cut off and reportedly captured and executed. Enraged, Kerrigan returns to Zerg territory to retake the swarm and overthrow the Dominion. On Char, she subdues the broodmother Zagara, who initially refuses to join until Kerrigan proves herself as the Queen of Blades.

Kerrigan spares Zagara and later destroys a Dominion command fortress, killing General Horace Warfield, though she allows the wounded and unarmed to evacuate. On Kaldir, she annihilates local Protoss forces and adapts the swarm to the frozen environment. Zeratul advises her to regain her powers on Zerus, the Zerg homeworld. Kerrigan transforms into a primal Queen of Blades, kills four hostile primal leaders, and later absorbs Zurvan after it tries to collect her essence. The primal leader Dehaka joins her in exchange for essence.

Development

StarCraft II was first revealed at a Blizzard event in Seoul in May 2007. The following year, Blizzard’s Rob Pardo confirmed the game would be split into three parts, with the second expansion, Heart of the Swarm, centering on the Zerg. Work on its storyboard began in early 2010, while the first game was still being polished. When Wings of Liberty launched in July 2010, it was a critical success.

Heart of the Swarm kept the same system requirements as its predecessor but improved the graphics engine, particularly for Zerg creep and environmental rendering. In April 2012, Blizzard announced the latest multiplayer build would be playable at the MLG Spring Championship that June. By mid-June 2012, the expansion was mostly finished, needing only final tuning. A closed multiplayer beta started on September 4, 2012, for pro players, press, contest winners, and shoutcasters, with no confidentiality restrictions. That beta ended on March 1, 2013, and the full game launched for PC and Mac on March 12, 2013.

Release and reception

Heart of the Swarm sold about 1.1 million copies worldwide in its first two days and was the top-selling PC game for the first quarter of 2013. It received generally favorable reviews on Metacritic. PC Gamer scored it 91%, calling it essential for competitive strategy gamers. GameSpot's Daniel Shannon rated it 8/10, praising the diverse campaign and online play but criticizing the writing as lackluster and Kerrigan's characterization as boring and incomprehensible.

The cinematics won the 2013 Golden Reel Award for Best Sound & Music Editing: Computer Interactive Entertainment from the Motion Picture Sound Editors. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated it for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year at the 17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. The game was offered in Digital Deluxe and Collector's Edition variants. The Collector's Edition added a 144-page art book, a mousepad, a behind-the-scenes Blu-ray/DVD set, and an 11-track audio CD.

The soundtrack was released in two volumes, the first with the Collector's Edition and on iTunes, the second initially at BlizzCon 2013.