For The Swarm: A Fan's Review of the Starcraft II Expansion (Single Player Campaign)

For The Fans

Nerdvana: The game launches in Irvine, California, in front of screaming fans

As a long time fan of Blizzard's Starcraft series, there is no way I can give an unbiased review of the expansion to Starcraft II, Heart of the Swarm (HotS for short). I mean, given that I've been continually playing the first game, Wings of Liberty (or WoL for short) since it's launch 2 1/2 years ago, I'll be going into the expansion with a huge set of expectations, prior knowledge of the storyline, and a bias that will tilt toward most things Starcraft.

But then again, because this game is an expansion, it is assumed that everyone buying it will have already played through the first chapter of the game. If you didn't like that game, then HotS is obviously not for you.

However, this review will be targeted toward those who have already played Starcraft II and are asking themselves whether to buy the expansion. This review will only focus on the single-player campaign, not the multiplayer part of which a review will come later.

So if you haven't played WoL yet, stop right here and go get the game.

Right.

Now.

Because you're missing out on one of the best real-time strategy games in history. And there will be some major spoilers from WoL in this review.

If you're still with me, then know that I'll try to write this review without any major spoilers from HotS, but even then, if you're already dead set on buying the game, then just do it and stop reading here as well, because I'll just say it right out. HotS is well worth it.

For The Story

Oh no you didn't ...

People who have played through WoL have all sorts of opinions on the storyline. I'm willing to bet that most found it pretty enjoyable, but as usual, it's the vocal minority whose voices will be heard the most. And boy do they have a lot to say about it.:

• The story was too conventional.
• The story changed too much from Starcraft I (i.e. they retconned).
• The plot was predictable.

To which I say: Not really, so what, and huh?

Anyway, I will say that in the first game, Blizzard did a wonderful job exploiting the whole "space rebel" theme of the Terran race (a.k.a. the humans). The player can really get a sense of what kind of cool bad ass the protagonist, Jim Raynor, happens to be:

Jim Raynor. You know he's the shiznits because of the cigarette pack stuck in his rolled-up sleeve.

This is the typical rough-around-the-edges hero we can all root for, the kind who is blessed with leadership, haunted by demons, and driven by purpose.

At the end of WoL, we see Jim saving his "long-lost love," Sarah Kerrigan, from Zerg infestation, then carrying her out of the war zone and into the alien landscape:

Happy ending?

Many fans of course thought that this ending was a little too "happy-go-lucky." The good guy kicks ass, chews bubble gum, and saves the damsel in distress. Not exactly an original concept, but personally I found the ending to be very satisfying and quite a twist in itself. After all, Kerrigan used to be the chief villain in Starcraft I, and as I recall it, she was supposed to be way beyond redemption. But as usual, haters are gonna hate, so they'll just complain that Kerrigan should NOT have become good.

(Side note: There is a huge parallel between Sarah Kerrigan in the Starcraft series and Prince Arthas Menethil in the Warcraft series. Both were former humans, both became corrupted by the "evil races," and both became the lead villians later on in their respective stories. However, Arthas eventually gets slain on his icy throne, while Kerrigan gets turned back into a human. The former was a resolution that the game series kept building up toward, while the latter was more like a left-handed turn in the middle of this current saga.)

Arthas and Kerrigan

For The Vengeance

So now what happens after Blizzard left us with this "happy-go-lucky" tone at the end of WoL? Naturally, they flipped it onto its head. And that's how the entire storyline of HotS can be described. It is darker and more brooding than its predecessor. And that, in my totally biased opinion, is a wonderful thing.

Kerrigan fighting!

Without revealing too much of the plot, I can say that Kerrigan, who is now the protagonist in this expansion, is motivated by vengeance because of all the sins committed against her, especially by her most hated enemy, Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. And naturally, since this expansion is focused on the Zerg race, her chief means to strengthen herself and her army is biological evolution. Of course, since evolution is based on survival of the fittest, it is a very messy and unforgiving process. Vengeance is also messy and unforgiving, so the two would go hand-in-hand.

Emperor Mengsk, waiting in his palace

And that's pretty much the whole theme of the story. I got to follow along, playing mission after mission, building up Kerrigan and preparing her for her ultimate goal which is revenge. Oh yeah, there's also a little romance thrown in (just a touch, not Princess Bride), some prophecies about saving the galaxy from an as-of-yet faceless doombringer, and plenty of wartime moral dilemmas revolving around senseless killing. (Cause you know, the Zerg are supposed to be a ravenous, murderous race by nature.)

In other words, it could be somewhat like a sci-fi version of Kill Bill or any other classic revenge flick, only this time it's cast in the Starcraft universe. And since this is a Zerg-centric expansion, the way to prepare for revenge is via evolution.

For The Evolution

And that's probably the most engaging part of the single-player campaign, which is the sense that I was actively participating in the evolution of Kerrigan's Zerg swarm. I get to experiment with various mutant strains of each Zerg unit in specialized missions. I get to follow along as Kerrigan herself evolves, sometimes drastically, often violently, into the leader of the Zerg once again. And I get to watch as this evolution occurs in several different environments, from an ice planet to a jungle environment to a volcanic world and many, many other settings:

The various environments that will shape evolution

But as Kerrigan evolves physically and emotionally, and as she interacts with her various Zerg (and Zerg-like) companions, a key question through the whole story is how all of this will affect her humanity, and how that in turn will affect her relationships with the supporting cast, including the returning characters from WoL such as Jim Raynor and Matt Horner. There aren't too many surprises here, I must say, but in my opinion the tension between the "kill anyone that gets in my way" attitude and the feeling of "oh I shouldn't do that, senseless killing is wrong" kept me engaged throughout the whole campaign. Some may disagree with me, and some might prefer something a little less cliche, but for me, I found that the execution of this theme was very well-done.

"How many innocents have you killed? How many more have to die?" - General Warfield

For The Gameplay

I think I've said enough about the storyline and its themes, but I had to mention it all because it leads to the crafting of the gameplay in the single-player campaign. And I must say, the gameplay really contributed well to the theme of biological evolution and annihilating enemies with brute force. This really is the Zerg way, i.e. massive numbers of expendable units that can be quickly replenished, and the gameplay stuck well to that pattern.

Yes I killed many Terrans, but they were all bad!

There really is something quite satisfying about beating an opponent not with a scalpel or a knife, but with a huge blunt instrument. Put the force of Kerrigan's hatred behind each blow, and you get a real sense of how fun it is to play as Zerg. There is even a mission where you start with a single Zerg larva, which then eventually consumes, grows, mutates, and spawns an entire army. All from that one larva. And how Zerg infestation works, and you get to play an active role in it.

One example of the bludgeon that is the Zerg swarm is the series of "evolution missions" that you will play. Each mission gives you a choice between two permanent mutations of a single Zerg unit. Each mutation gives that unit an incredible amount of power and/or utility, and when that unit is built en masse and sent into battle, the mutated abilities give some not-so-subtle advantages that quickly multiply into an overwhelming superiority:

Choosing between two zergling mutations

Evolved zerglings in action. They leap up cliffs. How awesome is that?

Another example of an evolution mission, this time involving roaches that spawn two roachlings every time an enemy dies. The mutation is named "corpser," but I think a better name would be "Roachlords."

There are other choices of more minor evolutionary enhancements of these Zerg units, as well as an extensive set of choices for Kerrigan's own abilities, each of which are pretty damn powerful (and some maybe a bit too powerful). One nice thing about these choices is that they are not permanent, so you can switch between them based on the mission needs. However, I personally didn't need to do that. Instead, I just stuck with the choices that suited my playstyle and tastes throughout the entire campaign.

That's not to say that every mission follows the basic formula of (a) Build base, (b) Build army, (c) Attack-move, (d) Profit. There is plenty of variation in each mission design, including a little bit of stealth if you can believe it. Many mission objectives are timed, so you often don't have the luxury of waiting for a huge army before taking action. Sometimes you have a limited amount of units, so conservation is key. There are plenty of "hero missions" where the focus is on Kerrigan or some other "hero" unit accomplishing various objectives. And then there is one mission that is completely different than the rest and actually based on a popular custom "Starcraft Arcade" game from WoL, which to me is a welcome departure from the norm.

But the key to winning most of the missions is the same key to the success of playing Zerg, which is to just "zerg" your opponent with overwhelming force. Even those missions where your unit numbers are limited have checkpoints in the progression where scripted reinforcements arrive. Of course, you shouldn't just squander those reinforcements, but they do help replenish your army's numbers.

For The Faults

Nobody's perfect.

Now onto the faults of the game.

One thing I couldn't really enjoy was the voice acting of Sarah Kerrigan. It was all-too-often flat and uninspired, which I noticed was a common fault among movies a decade ago that were either animated (such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within) or filmed on a green-screen (such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). I'm sure the actress herself (Tricia Helfer, who apparently was in Battlestar Galactica, which I haven't seen yet but I will eventually) is very talented, so I fault the voice direction for this shortcoming.

I also thought the length of the single-player campaign was rather short, and it also felt quite linear. I think I could have done some of the missions out-of-order, but I don't think there was any point to do so. It would have been nice if Blizzard added plenty of side missions that expanded upon the Starcraft universe without interrupting the main storyline. These missions don't even have to be Zerg-centric. For example, in WoL, which was centered around the Terran race, there were four Protoss side missions that depicted a key storyline thread, but weren't required to complete the game. We could have had something like that for HotS.

You get to choose which planet to go to first, but eventually you'll have to do both anyway.

I think the difficulty of the single-player campaign was slightly on the easy side. I played at the hardest difficulty setting available, a.k.a. Brutal, but it felt like anything but. Gone is the huge challenge of some of the Brutal-difficulty missions back in WoL. Those who tried to play the last (Terran) mission or the last Protoss mission in WoL on Brutal difficulty should know what I'm talking about. (Disclaimer: My preferred race in multiplayer is Zerg, and I am a mid-to-high-level Diamond league player, which means I'm in the top 5-10% of active Starcraft II players on the ladder. That probably means that I SHOULD find Zerg-centric missions to be a walk in the park, even on the highest difficulty settings.)

Moreover, a lot of the missions can be won by simply massing a few choice Zerg units and sending them into battle in one clump. (For me, my choice was Roach/Hydralisk, whereas the popular YouTube caster PsyStarcraft preferred massing Mutalisks.) I did praise the "bludgeon" concept of the Zerg army, but this could also be a fault since it doesn't encourage creative thinking. This is very different from WoL, where each missions was not only brilliantly crafted to feature a different Terran unit, but often required that unit for optimal mission progression. I didn't get that sense in HotS. For example, there is a mission that is intended to show off the new Swarm Host unit, but you can complete it without building any. (I suppose the same held true in WoL, but it's even more so now.)

Mission featuring the new Swarm Host units (upper-left) that spawn locusts (middle)

Finally, as much as I praise the storyline and the theme of HotS, I have to admit that there weren't too many big surprises in the plot. I could have considered one of the surprises to be a little contrived if it didn't successfully exploit my "fanboy" nostalgia of the Starcraft universe. (In other words, I was too "OMG that's so awesome I can forgive them for not explaining it in a sensible way" for me to complain.)

FOR THE SWARM!

Banelings, banelings, banelings, whoa!

But I think all of these faults can be forgiven (except for the voice acting) if the game delivers on its promise and high expectations in a big way. And I have to say that it does. The gameplay is immensely entertaining, the plot and cinematics are well-executed, and I had loads of fun playing the entire single-player campaign from beginning to end. I will also give a special shout out to the evolution missions, which were quick, easy, and fun to play. Not one mission left me with a dissatisfied feeling, and that in the end is what counts, especially when it all leads to a climatic resolution and just enough loose ends left for the third and final chapter coming in the near future.

I also have to give praise to the graphics, which was improved in HotS even beyond the smooth qualities of WoL. One big improvement is the animation of units blowing up. Instead of fixed death animations, the graphics engine makes use of physics to show individual body or machine parts flying away and tumbling down surfaces. Thankfully it's not gruesome enough to earn a "Mature" rating on the ESRB system, which otherwise would have been a real turn-off to me. Another is that the hero units in the actual missions are rendered with exquisite detail, even more so than before.

In-game graphics. Look at the attention to detail even with these tiny hero units.

Therefore, on a scale of 0 to 10, I would give this game a 9.0, which includes a personal tilt of +1.0. But then again, this review is completely biased, so please take it for what it's worth. For me, this game is easily worth the $40 I paid, and I would have paid more for the collector's edition if it wasn't sold out on the day of release.

Take a bow, Kerrigan. You deserve the praise.

For The Blizzards

There is one more thing to note, and this regards Blizzard's reputation as a game developer. I must say that last year, this reputation took a major hit with the release of Diablo III. Personally, I didn't mind the server issues at launch, since those tend to be temporary. What I did mind, however, was the rather weak story, especially the anti-climatic final act. Even though Diablo was intended to be a click-fest, in my mind a good story is key to keeping interest in a game that is meant to be played over and over again for loot. (It was also aggravating to see Blizzard insist that most of its players enjoyed the story. Really? Not from my point-of-view.)

I can say with confidence that, in my opinion, HotS has restored Blizzard's reputation as a quality game developer. Excluding some forgivable faults, the game is very solid and will likely last me for the next two to three years or however long it takes for Blizzard to release the final expansion in the Starcraft II trilogy.

Prelude to the Launch - The Starcraft II Revolution

Sarah Kerrigan, the protagonist and (anti-)hero of Starcraft II - Heart of the Swarm

Tonight at midnight is the launch of Starcraft II - Heart of the Swarm, the second chapter in the Starcraft II series.

But in the months since I started this gaming blog, I never once talked about Starcraft II except in the context of some of the professional gaming events I've attended such as MLG 2012. So while I wait for the new game to be launched, I'll take this opportunity to talk about the game I've been playing the most over the past two and a half years.

Wings of Liberty

Wings of Liberty, the first of three chapters in Starcraft II

Why do I play this game so much even today? Three reasons:

• I love real-time strategy games, and Starcraft II is arguably the pinnacle of this gaming genre.
• Like chess, the strategies that are used in the multiplayer portion of Starcraft II continue to evolve.
• The rise of eSports.

Of course, the single-player campaign is pretty good as well, with some of the best cinematic cutscenes in all of gaming. Some of this animation is on-par with the quality of Hollywood blockbusters like Iron Man. In fact, the original teaser for Starcraft II looked a lot like the scene in Iron Man where Tony Start gets into his suit. The only thing is, the Starcraft II teaser video came out first:

(Watch this clip from 1:29 to see the similarities between this and Iron Man)

See the similarities?

As for the gameplay itself, it's as smooth yet enthralling as it could ever be. Take a group of marines and go clear out an area full of enemies. Position a siege tank just behind your front line and take comfort as the tank blasts anything that comes close to your base. You'll need that defense more often than you might imagine. Control a cloaked ghost agent and infiltrate a base, but watch out for the detectors patrolling the area. Drive a massive Thor battle walker and watch as you control an unstoppable force of destruction. Battle against other humans (Terrans) or against two races of aliens, one that is few in number but relies upon super-advanced technology (Protoss), the other ravenous, grotesque, and highly numerous (Zerg). And by the way, the very word "Zerg" has been coined into a gaming term:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/zerg

zerg (third-person singular simple present zergs, present participle zerging, simple past and past participle zerged)

1. (slang, video games, strategy games) To attack an opponent with a large swarm of units before they have been able to build sufficient defences.

Example: "We have the advantage in numbers. Just zerg their base. They can't hold us all back."

Chess Without Turns

Dune II - The original real-time strategy game

Ever since Dune II and Command and Conquer, I was a fan of real-time strategy games. Part of it was because at the same time, first-person shooters such as Doom were becoming popular in online gaming, but I could never get used to them. With certain exceptions, these games would sometimes give me a headache.

So what makes real-time strategy gaming so enthralling? Imagine you're playing chess, but there are no turns. You have to move every single piece yourself (within the rules, of course), but you don't have to wait for your opponent to make his or her moves. Instead, you work FAST to try and capture your opponents pieces, or set up defensive positions before your opponent can capture yours. (I'm pretty sure there are web sites online where you can play chess without turns. It's actually not a new concept.)

At the same time, however, you also have to build up your army, and that means gathering resources, building production facilities, and defending both. That gives it a strategy element like Sid Meier's classic Civilization, but once again, there are no turns. It all happens real time.

Standard Terran vs. Terran match-up, which emphasizes positional play

All of this really appeals to me because I really prefer games that exercise good strategy over reflexes. But I also don't want to give up on the reflex portion of gaming because that's the part that brings real excitement. Plus how many "wars" are decided with each side taking turns? That's like a boxing match where one boxer throws a punch, then waits for his opponent to throw a punch. Come on, you have to have the real-time element in such games. (Of course, I also love turn-based strategy games, but that's another topic.)

An ever-evolving game

Terran Battlecruisers firing their signature Yamato Cannons

Beyond the basics, a great game has to have a factor of replayability. One could just play the single-player campaign over and over again, but that would get old real quick.

Which brings me to the multiplayer aspect of the game, and Starcraft II is first and foremost a game that is meant to be played against other people. And it's really easy to simply log into the game and jump into a ladder match where the matchmaking system pairs you up against players of similar skill. That ensures that for the most part, people of all skill levels can have fun matching wits and strategies against others.

Usually what happens in real-time strategy games, however, is that people will find one or two dominant strategies, then abuse them to no end. (Fans of the original Command and Conquer will remember the recon bike rush, and fans of its follow-on, C&C Red Alert, can recall the oh-so-joyous days of the heavy tank rush.) This pretty much kills the fun in any multiplayer game, as you end up either having to emulate said dominant strategies or lose to those who already do.

However, that hasn't happened in Starcraft II. The game developers watch how the match-ups between the three races go, then tweak the game in order to either correct some game imbalance or break-up an overused strategy.

But that's not the only force of change at play here. People like me who played Starcraft II since its release in August of 2010 can tell you that the strategies used today in multiplayer competition are a lot different than what they used to be. Some of that is the result of the developers tweaking and patching the game, but some of that is also due to the online gaming community that continually develops and shares new strategies. I can't tell you how many Starcraft II strategy videos, game replays, and analyses I have watched. (But maybe my wife can.)

Protoss Mothership and its Vortex ability

That is the reason why the game, although 2.5 years old already, continues to offer fresh challenges for me. Which brings me to the final reason why I love this game, and the driving force behind the game's continued growth and evolution

eSports - The rise of video games as spectator sports

The live audience at MLG

How has video gaming become a spectator sport? And why is Starcraft II among the top eSports events?

I'll answer the first question with one word: YouTube.

Before YouTube, there was almost no TV shows that featured actual video gaming. (The closest were Saturday morning cartoons based on video games.) Sure, Korea had two cable channels devoted to video games even as far back as 2002, but not in America. As for watching shoutcasts of game replays, we would have go through a quirky process that I won't explain here.

But with the rise of YouTube, fans themselves can upload video game replays and cast them with their own voiceovers narrating the game play-by-play. And that's exactly what happened even before Starcraft II was released. The game was going through a very long beta-testing phase, and during that time fans of the game even in its pre-release state were posting replays of matches.

Two of the most prolific casters were Husky and Day9:

Mike "Husky" Lamond and Sean "Day[9]" Plott

These two are prominent members of the eSports community now, and they're even hosting the pre-launch event for Heart of the Swarm as I type this:

The main Heart of the Swarm launch event, Irvine Spectrum Center, Orange County, California

But they got their start by being ultra-active fans. Husky uploaded a ton of videos every week and gained such a following that he now has almost 750,000 subscribers. Day9 got his rise in much the same way, uploading in-depth strategy videos almost daily, and he gained over 300,000 subscribers. (True story, I once wore an eSports T-shirt, and some random girl asked me where I got it. Turns out she was a fan of Day9.)

Thanks to those two and a whole community of casters, fans, and social networkers, eSports has risen dramatically over the past several years, and Starcraft II was the main vehicle for its rise.

Now it's common to see crowds like this in major eSports events like MLG, GSL, or Iron Squid. By the way, the Iron Squid tournament in Paris, France, opened up with an epic orchestra:

Iron Squid 2. Watch the first 9 minutes for an epic orchestral overture!

Barcraft

A typical Barcraft event

By the way, there are even sports bars across America that have started broadcasting eSports events like Starcraft II tournaments. These are known as Barcraft. The one I go to occasionally is Mad Dog In the Fog in the San Francisco Mission District:

Korea vs. Foreigners

Lin Yo Hwan, a.k.a. Boxer, a legend in the Starcraft II pro-gamer scene

One more note: Starcraft II is so popular in Korea, and Korean professional gamers have been so dominant in the eSports scene, that in the Starcraft II community, the label "foreigner" refers to non-Koreans.

And since I'm Korean-American, I think it's my blood to enjoy Starcraft II.

That pretty much sums up my love of Starcraft II. Now onto the next chapter!!! FOR THE SWARM!!!