StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Review

Most people don’t play Blizzard games for their storylines (or as I’ve heard it put, for their single shared storyline), but one area where the expansion does legitimately shine is in character design: I’m not talking about the visual style, although that also deserves praise. Rather, I mean the personalities themselves. Having a Zerg-centric storyline lets the player interact with the most varied and eccentric characters yet to make an appearance in a Blizzard game, with a wide range of motivations and eccentric worldviews. Of special note is Abathur, the hideous beyond-mad scientist whose soul purpose is repurpose; his one thought is to mix new genetic information into your Zerg swarm. It’s a true pleasure to see the game offer optional side conversations which (gasp!) develop these characters slightly as the game progresses, but for the most part, they serve simply as exposition givers or potential threats to the player. A particularly harsh example of the narrative deficiencies are in the main villains: in all three cases, the player is simply told through dialogue that these characters are evil. Period. The player never actually builds up an antagonism, and even the main apparent bad guy of Arcturus Mengsk still rides mostly on, believe it or not, his misdeeds from the first StarCraft game all those years ago. The irony here is that some of the minor enemies actually receive more development, making some missions or quest lines have more impetus than the entire expansion. While we expect the plot to be forced into serving the needs of the gameplay, the storyline in StarCraft 2 continues to be its weakest aspect, keeping fairly cliché and light.

This situation stays the same even into the World-building in the StarCraft universe, which flatlines slightly in the narrative department. For example, StarCraft seems to have followed in the footsteps of more mediocre franchises by letting the ‘Ghost’ psionic capabilities turn into the good ol’ Star Wars Force that we know and love (telekinesis, ‘sensing’ emotions, you get the picture). Similarly, the Zerg’s organic mindset has been whitewashed a little to mimic more ‘magical’ thinking, absorbing brightly coloured essences and powers, rather than growing new DNA strands. Add in the Protoss’ new emphasis on mystical prophecies, and the whole thing feels very much like Warcraft In Space, but that might be more of a draw for some people than a disappointment. This is an important point: the old StarCraft is known for deliberately avoiding being ‘Warcraft In Space’ (as the annoyed Artanis character wisely points out, if you click him enough times), and while this certainly holds true for the gameplay elements, StarCraft’s storyline is not only firmly space fantasy, it’s reused space fantasy.

The same can be said for this expansion’s world building: all visuals are pushed to their Blizzardy extremes, with bright glowing eyes for most alien characters, and enormous shoulder pads for the humans (sound familiar?). But it’s hard to pick faults at these Blizzard trademarks, as the visual style is still stunning in its grandeur and beauty: Blizzard continues to be a company of artists, and this is something to be grateful for. Didier’s iconic touch is a blessing. On top of this, the continued use of live orchestra in the music department, with excellent reintroduction of classic themes and new music to drive the action, continues to be a quality turns Heart of the Swarm from good to great.

Heart of the Swarm is an expansion in every sense of the word. New units, new abilities, new story elements, new characters; even a new interface and new multiplayer battle system! Every single aspect of the game has been toyed with and given a variant, and the depth of the changes is truly surprising. A few quibbles about Blizzard’s particular form of storytelling simply aren’t enough to stop a wave of good things to say about this expansion. If you are playing Wings of Liberty, buy this expansion and rediscover the thrill. If you still aren’t playing StarCraft 2, what on earth are you waiting for?