Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm

 PC
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1640 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,240 out of 1640
  2. Mixed: 224 out of 1640
  3. Negative: 176 out of 1640
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. DaPonti
    Mar 21, 2021
    7
    Like WoL, the single player campaign is has good variety, but the whole "primal zerg" thing didn't gel with me. Still a good game in both single and multi player, but easily my least favorite part of the campaign. Honestly, the most memorable part is the intro video.
  2. Awanka
    May 27, 2022
    7
    Pretty good example of the RTS genre. HoTS has a fun collection of units with nifty abilities to control. It has an inventive campaign with light RPG elements built in that allow you to choose abilities for your main hero and units. I was only mildly entertained while playing it however. Maybe the time of the RTS has passed, at least for me. Maybe I'm too old to control 2 armies atPretty good example of the RTS genre. HoTS has a fun collection of units with nifty abilities to control. It has an inventive campaign with light RPG elements built in that allow you to choose abilities for your main hero and units. I was only mildly entertained while playing it however. Maybe the time of the RTS has passed, at least for me. Maybe I'm too old to control 2 armies at the same time while making sure my bases are collecting resources and pumping out units. I find it annoying and stressful in an unfun way, like herding cats. I do like the unit choices that you can make in the game though. If Blizzard had leaned harder on the RPG part of the game I would have liked it better.… Expand
  3. joglow
    May 16, 2022
    7
    In some way it feels like StarCraft and just a little bit... rushed? I feel I just lack of something there.
  4. Masterhummel
    Mar 14, 2013
    6
    I'm kinda splitted when it comes to HotS. Gameplay is fine as always. Cinematics are good. But the story carried by those two is rather weak. Even if it has at least two nice little touches, it feels more like a Anime aimed for 16 year old boys and girls instead of a mature story for the fanbase who grew up with Starcraft and Brood War. The scenes itself feel a little disconnected as whenI'm kinda splitted when it comes to HotS. Gameplay is fine as always. Cinematics are good. But the story carried by those two is rather weak. Even if it has at least two nice little touches, it feels more like a Anime aimed for 16 year old boys and girls instead of a mature story for the fanbase who grew up with Starcraft and Brood War. The scenes itself feel a little disconnected as when someone thought "Oh, it would be cool if Kerrigan would do this. And later that" without really caring about why she would do it. The game was no edges. It's all round and comfy. Also it kinda does the Warcraft 3 limbo. Now since Humans and Zerg are more-or-less at peace, we will have some Protoss fun in the next title and i REALLY strongly guess that we have to team up against the evil space-god-zerg-protoss-hybrid-xel'naga whatsoever antagonists and we will leave the universe in the state of fragile peace like we did in wc3. So Blizzard can craft whatever they want out of it.… Expand
  5. Honeybadgers
    Jun 3, 2013
    6
    This review is for the single player, because the if you want to play a multiplayer RTS, you already know that SCII is about as good as it gets.

    The campaign is just atrocious. It's polished, as blizzard games always are, but it's about as relevant to multiplayer or RTS elements as I am related to a tuna. It's essentially a nonstop flow of new, gimmicky map ideas, and while I'm okay    This review is for the single player, because the if you want to play a multiplayer RTS, you already know that SCII is about as good as it gets.

    The campaign is just atrocious. It's polished, as blizzard games always are, but it's about as relevant to multiplayer or RTS elements as I am related to a tuna. It's essentially a nonstop flow of new, gimmicky map ideas, and while I'm okay with mechanics that supplement the RTS elements, I don't like how many levels were DOTA-esque and central around the hero. Starcraft and warcraft 3 just don't blend well together, and it might make new players think that the hero concept has anything to do with the game, where it doesn't. I can count on one hand the number of missions where I felt like I could play proper zerg (I'm a terran player and still felt like zerg got cheated) and the number of departures from multiplayer zerg is almost frightening (queens are completely changed, all the mutations and different attributes of each unit make them feel completely different to how they do in multiplayer)

    The character arc for kerrigan is bipolar at best. She starts out just right, but almost immediately, goes completely bananas. They really could have paced her arc better, instead of wildly bouncing around. And pacing the story around what happens in the very first mission just doesn't set a good tone for the rest of the game.

    Interacting with your crew is pretty awful, as well. WoL's crew was equally as varied, but they were human, and thus, relatable. The zerg characters were just goofy and camp. Tychus and Matt in WoL were central, driving characters that you felt invested in. I went through every piece of dialogue in HOTS, and I absolutely hated almost every word spoken. I wanted nothing more than to not listen to those irrelevant sidekicks. Starcraft is dark and a very human story, and the zerg campaign made it feel goofy and completely inconsistent in tone, bouncing between drama, cliche, and humor with all the smoothness of falling down a flight of stairs.

    The game is also just brokenly easy. I breezed through it on brutal, and I'm by no means a great starcraft player.

    Cinematics are as good as video game cinematics can get. But unfortunately, and this feels unique in a blizzard game, they feel completely detached from the game that I was playing.

    If you're looking to play some multiplayer RTS, buy this game without even batting an eye. But if you're only looking for a top notch single player RTS, I'd suggest you go to teamliquid.net and find the starcraft brood war mod done in SCII graphics.    … Expand
  6. Nyurena
    Mar 20, 2013
    6
    I've been trying to enjoy the campaign, but Kerrigan is simply an illogical, pretentious, #$%hole.  Revenge obsession can certainly make one do evil things, but when she turns around and pretentiously dresses down her zerg followers on morality, I can only facepalm so many times.

    The single player is simply E-sport training, once you've learned a new unit at a frantic pace, it's time to    I've been trying to enjoy the campaign, but Kerrigan is simply an illogical, pretentious, #$%hole.  Revenge obsession can certainly make one do evil things, but when she turns around and pretentiously dresses down her zerg followers on morality, I can only facepalm so many times.

    The single player is simply E-sport training, once you've learned a new unit at a frantic pace, it's time to move on to the next instead of letting you have a mission to toy around and learn their nuances.

    I honesty like the new zerg play-style, but I’d recommended against getting this until a real sale is on.    … Expand
  7. Diosys
    Apr 6, 2013
    6
    While the RPG Multiplayer strategy is still solid, I would like to point out that the campaign is abhorrently terrible. The writing is bad, extremely bad. The cinematics are excellent and high quality but the storyline has taken a turn for the worst. Starcraft II has turned into a glorified love story. While in Starcraft 1, where Raynor and Kerrigans flirtation took a sidestep beside theWhile the RPG Multiplayer strategy is still solid, I would like to point out that the campaign is abhorrently terrible. The writing is bad, extremely bad. The cinematics are excellent and high quality but the storyline has taken a turn for the worst. Starcraft II has turned into a glorified love story. While in Starcraft 1, where Raynor and Kerrigans flirtation took a sidestep beside the sector's politics, this entire game is based around their story and they throw around whole armies for that love.

    Behind that story is a revenge plot, but you need to have played Starcraft 1 to understand it. As well, this coming darkness that Zeratul predicted in Wing's of Liberty is barely addressed in this story, when it should have been the primary concern.    … Expand
  8. MikefromAngus
    Apr 1, 2013
    6
    Alittle disappointed by this game. The graphics should have been improved, But very little has been done.
    Single player mode, was a good challenge, I played it on "Hard" setting. But, most of the missions were time based. The whole single player experience seemed rushed. Multiplayer adds more units, and makes things alittle more intresting. But like with the graphics, very little improvements.
  9. Verdan
    Mar 17, 2013
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I was counting days to this game. Sure why not? Cinematic trailer gave me hopes, all sneak peaks into story and so forth. Bought the game and played trough story. While playing the campaign i nonstop feeling "When this thing will evolve into a story". No zerg feeling, kerrigan hunting for revenge and most missions were fillers. Story did not go in depth about what is happening. Usually in Blizzard games the story itself runs deep and gives feeling you are actually watching a movie. This time? Mission after mission, nothing new and very little progress.

    Now that the rant about story is done. Let´s look into other parts. Graphics, no improvement there. Still eye candy to play for my taste and i like the way they changed good part of the layout´s etc.

    I´m not big into all this 1v1 action. Game is horrible in my opinion when it comes down to 1v1, game might be over if you looked over shoulder and missed 2 seconds before making first SCV, Probe or Drone. Reacting into something wrong or not scouting something out in time. Just not my idea of an strategy game, but still watching streams, tournaments and so forth it´s highly entertaining. New units are mainly boring and lame. Hellbat & Widow mine are very awesome, but rest just total letdown. Was expecting more, even if it meant deleting few old ones. New maps are nice in visual. In my opinion best part about this expansion is leveling system (pointless, but still), worker count and "competive AI" play..

    Only reason i hit 7 for this expansion is arcade games. Game been out for 5 days and only thing keeps me logging from time to time is play some arcade action. Hat´s off to the hard working map makers out there. Sum up of everything: Overall ok expansion, i was hoping more from Blizzard since they used to have high standards from themselves. I would buy this expansion again only for the story, even if it´s lame. I stop this review by saying good old blizzard phrase "Expansion will fix it!". Protoss campaign im booking rest of my hope on you!     … Expand
  10. psychotic
    Mar 25, 2013
    6
    Overall this expansion pack feels like a rip off in the worse way, then why a 6 not a 1 or a 3 because the campaign was ok not as bad or as good as other people make it to be. The multiplayer improvements are great thats the only reason why you probably got starcraft 2, if not then why did you get starcraft, get company of heroes which has a great singleplayer and a ok multiplayer
  11. euu
    Mar 31, 2013
    6
    So, is this it? After almost three years of waiting this is the long-awaited Heart of the Swarm? Wings of Liberty may not have been an exceptional game, but at least for Blizzard was a return to it's roots after 6 years of milking Wow but this Expansion fails to improve the game the same way Broodwar did for the original Starcraft or The Frozen Throne did for Warcraft 3, instead addingSo, is this it? After almost three years of waiting this is the long-awaited Heart of the Swarm? Wings of Liberty may not have been an exceptional game, but at least for Blizzard was a return to it's roots after 6 years of milking Wow but this Expansion fails to improve the game the same way Broodwar did for the original Starcraft or The Frozen Throne did for Warcraft 3, instead adding more of the same. Some of the new units are neat but the Multiplayer feels pretty much the same, rewarding speed over strategy and skill. But if you are like me, more interested in the Campaign than the MP, I wouldn't get too excited for the "epic" story of HotS since it makes the cheesy plot of Wings of Liberty look like it was written by Dostoyevsky. Kerrigan is just not as interesting as she was in Broodwar. There she was a master manipulator as well as a tragic character; here she feels like an spoiled teenage girl who happens to command the Zerg Swarm. Some of the Campaign missions are cool since not all revolve around destroying all enemies on the map, but you won't spend more than 7 hours in the Single Player. Heart of the Swarm may look like a masterpiece compared to Blizzard's last pile of garbage known as Diablo 3 but it is hardly the major improvement of Starcraft II that we've been waiting for.… Expand
  12. Garloz911
    Apr 23, 2013
    6
    It's the exact same as starcraft 2 part 1. I had a good laugh at all the "reviews" from the professionals to the right. The script and story are cliche and predictable which was probably the worst part of solo mode. The multiplayer is the best party by far for this game. If you want a great experience with hundreds of different games made by players jump on in. However if you want a wellIt's the exact same as starcraft 2 part 1. I had a good laugh at all the "reviews" from the professionals to the right. The script and story are cliche and predictable which was probably the worst part of solo mode. The multiplayer is the best party by far for this game. If you want a great experience with hundreds of different games made by players jump on in. However if you want a well told story best look else where. The camp mode is incredibly easy even on the hardest modes and you may (if you are a reader) find yourself bored with this retold story.… Expand
  13. feistin
    Mar 19, 2013
    6
    I am a huge Starcraft fan and have played the multiplayer part ever since the first Starcraft came out back in 1998. The expectations on the new part in the saga was however not huge from my part. I have played the beta and knew about most of the new units. I had hoped for an adventure equal to WoL and perhaps a bit more advanced when it came to gameplay. However, I was disapointed. TheI am a huge Starcraft fan and have played the multiplayer part ever since the first Starcraft came out back in 1998. The expectations on the new part in the saga was however not huge from my part. I have played the beta and knew about most of the new units. I had hoped for an adventure equal to WoL and perhaps a bit more advanced when it came to gameplay. However, I was disapointed. The game is even more simplified than in WoL and feels like a 4-5 hour long matinee movie a soap opera in space. Could have been alright as an expansion that cost around 15 bucks but not marketed as a full game.

    The score would have been lower if it wasnt for the great multiplayer but that wasn't really new.    … Expand
  14. Expospeed
    Dec 3, 2014
    6
    Heart of the Swarm is a decent expansion. More story. New units.

    1. Graphics: 7/10 - detailed unit models, good relative to other games on the market
    2. Gameplay: 7/10 - great interface and satisfying micro/macro control
    3. Multiplayer: 8/10 - competitive and fun
    4. Story: 2/10 - more shallow story, not interesting

    Overall, average expansion.
  15. sayedstafa
    Apr 12, 2013
    6
    It's fun to go back to playing more SC2 after it's been close to 3 years since Wings of Liberty came out. Although, I feel like the story hurt the game a lot. Most of this game consists of you destroying what you worked so hard to accomplish in Wings of Liberty. Because of that, I felt as a player that I did not want to do the mission objectives that I was given. When I as a playerIt's fun to go back to playing more SC2 after it's been close to 3 years since Wings of Liberty came out. Although, I feel like the story hurt the game a lot. Most of this game consists of you destroying what you worked so hard to accomplish in Wings of Liberty. Because of that, I felt as a player that I did not want to do the mission objectives that I was given. When I as a player don't want to do the mission objectives, then how am I really supposed to have that much fun? With that aside, it's still SC2, they didn't do anything to the gameplay to make it worse, it's just the story really hurt the game for me.… Expand
  16. Tytos
    Mar 13, 2013
    6
    A very decent micromanagement/small-scale rts game, the campaign is much better then anticipated and the new units fit very well into the existing unit rooster, however the multiplayer remains a spamm-button-feast where the grand strategy lacks importance because of the insane speed at which multiplayer partys run on.
  17. Imatuhl
    Mar 13, 2013
    6
    First lets begin with the story. The story is fairly engaging with great characters, good rising and falling action, decent dialog(some of the dialog from the other Zerg creatures could have been better). However there are parts in the story that where it seemed like the writers wanted to make the player sympathize for the Zerg. How can you ever sympathize with a giant alien killingFirst lets begin with the story. The story is fairly engaging with great characters, good rising and falling action, decent dialog(some of the dialog from the other Zerg creatures could have been better). However there are parts in the story that where it seemed like the writers wanted to make the player sympathize for the Zerg. How can you ever sympathize with a giant alien killing machine? Also the societies they've created on Zerg's origin planet make very little sense. The Proto-Zerg creatures are feral beasts why would they even have societies and packs when their lifestyle seems to be a highlanderesque dog eat dog. Gameplay wise there really isn't much to it. Its the same old build a base and a bunch of creatures and attack the missions are incredibly easy with a few unique gems in there. The new leveling system is interesting but falls short as it seems like a substitute for the research portion of WoL only minus the quirky scientist guy. Overall I feel like Starcraft 2 hasn't really done anything to redefine the RTS genre but because the game flows smoothly with a pretty good story and atmosphere I'll give it a 6. If you're a Starcraft fan its worth it for the story but beyond that the game doesn't really have much to add.… Expand
  18. stitchmouth
    Mar 16, 2013
    6
    While the gameplay overall is solid, this expansion never does anything to make itself stand out. The plot I actually found less offensively boring than WoL, but you don't get much variety (terran or protoss levels to break things up with), and so far there's no known secret levels, and not much in the way of interesting easter eggs. The campaign also comes in fairly short on the clock,While the gameplay overall is solid, this expansion never does anything to make itself stand out. The plot I actually found less offensively boring than WoL, but you don't get much variety (terran or protoss levels to break things up with), and so far there's no known secret levels, and not much in the way of interesting easter eggs. The campaign also comes in fairly short on the clock, with most people being able to knock it out over the course of a weekend. Also, if battle.net goes offline while you're playing, you lose any single player achievements you may have gotten for that map during that play session. Blizzard has the talent and money to produce better quality than this.… Expand
  19. trancenergy
    Mar 22, 2013
    6
    I bought the game purely for the single player campaign to get to know the continuation of the SC2 story that WoL got me hooked on. And i have to say i am a bit disappointed. The plot is too simple and to be honest feels uninspired and sucked out of a tonn of forced brainstorms of the campaign team. Most new characters are really vague and boring and the old ones aren't as charismatic asI bought the game purely for the single player campaign to get to know the continuation of the SC2 story that WoL got me hooked on. And i have to say i am a bit disappointed. The plot is too simple and to be honest feels uninspired and sucked out of a tonn of forced brainstorms of the campaign team. Most new characters are really vague and boring and the old ones aren't as charismatic as they were in WoL. The only new character i love is Abathur the Evolutions expert he is really charismatic and funny in his own way. Just for Abathur i give the campaign an average score rather than a fail. I understand that it is much harder to make a campaign for an Alien race than for humans and the team had to be really creative to make it interesting but they kinda failed to do tho. It is a solid experience but u don't get that warm feeling like u are watching a really good movie that hooks u from the first missions as the WoL campaign did.… Expand
  20. Projava
    Apr 2, 2013
    6
    Although I’ll be waiting for the end of the trilogy, I can’t say the game has as much grab as it once did for me. I was able to beat campaign in two days, and then I moved to play on-line. I stomached about three games and moved on. Nothing there to keep the more casual player there, something I hope they'll address in the future.
  21. volkov956
    May 4, 2013
    6
    Zerg Campaing story is very unattaching of interest bringing back the queen of blades seems to be a wasteful twist they could of just used a new Master Zerg which could of been more compelling and yes there is one point where they could of even killed off Queen of Blades and made a new Protaganist

    Game Play is very easy compaired to Star Craft II and its shorter it seems to be a    Zerg Campaing story is very unattaching of interest bringing back the queen of blades seems to be a wasteful twist they could of just used a new Master Zerg which could of been more compelling and yes there is one point where they could of even killed off Queen of Blades and made a new Protaganist

    Game Play is very easy compaired to Star Craft II and its shorter it seems to be a complete hold your hand Experience and what is up with the Huger UI am I just crazy?

    I Do believe the Protoss Expansion will rectify this    … Expand
  22. voidspawngreg
    Jul 18, 2013
    6
    I was really looking forward to this game since I loved Wings of Liberty but unfortunately I was disappointed. Not to say that it's a bad game, it certainly isn't..but in my opinion it doesn't even come close to WoL.

    Good: Graphics Some fun missions (Although very few) Multiplayer Cutscenes Bad: Writing, Dialogues Story progression (Many "wtf did I miss an episode or something"    I was really looking forward to this game since I loved Wings of Liberty but unfortunately I was disappointed. Not to say that it's a bad game, it certainly isn't..but in my opinion it doesn't even come close to WoL.

    Good:
    Graphics
    Some fun missions (Although very few)
    Multiplayer
    Cutscenes

    Bad:
    Writing, Dialogues
    Story progression (Many "wtf did I miss an episode or something" moments)
    Boring and easy missions (Many of them were different versions of WoL missions)
    Pointless evolution missions (And they feld soooo out of place, Kerrigan seemed like a whole different person during those missions)
    0 strategy, just take Kerrigan with you and kick ass    … Expand
  23. leeds_manc
    Nov 22, 2013
    6
    It has been proved a terrible idea to force a trilogy release structure on to Starcraft 2. HOTS forced "new" units to be made which were "cool" and "different" enough to make people want to upgrade to a sequel of Wings of Liberty. Unfortunately, while there are some nice ideas, medivac boost being one of them, units such as the swarmhost have made what was a fast-paced and exciting game toIt has been proved a terrible idea to force a trilogy release structure on to Starcraft 2. HOTS forced "new" units to be made which were "cool" and "different" enough to make people want to upgrade to a sequel of Wings of Liberty. Unfortunately, while there are some nice ideas, medivac boost being one of them, units such as the swarmhost have made what was a fast-paced and exciting game to watch a very, very dull game to both play and spectate. The game has got worse over time and unfortunately the strongest tactics for each race are now also the most boring ones to watch. I wished they had stuck with WOL for a few more years, and added the best units from HOTs in one at a time... Blizzard's marketing experiment has ultimately failed.… Expand
  24. NegativeNine
    Sep 30, 2015
    6
    --Campaign rating only

    I must say: The story writing is awful. Don't want to spoil anything here, just state that it's really, really awful. And the gameplay isn't much better. The whole game plays like Warcraft 3 with dumbed down tactics. While in Warcraft 3 you actually had to make decisions and also had more options, like a wider variety of upgrades, tactics, importance of    --Campaign rating only

    I must say: The story writing is awful.

    Don't want to spoil anything here, just state that it's really, really awful. And the gameplay isn't much better. The whole game plays like Warcraft 3 with dumbed down tactics. While in Warcraft 3 you actually had to make decisions and also had more options, like a wider variety of upgrades, tactics, importance of terrain, more decisions around your hero etc. you just have a dumbed down husk of that left for Heart of the Swarm.

    You run around with your group of units, including hero, and kill stuff. That's it. All the time. Everywhere.

    The mission design is annoying: It's so HEAVILY scripted that everything plays all the same every goddamn time. There's no real AI here. Just to a minor degree. Everything else is just scripted like hell. Even if you're not supposed to destory an enemy base they'll tell you to not do so and after you're done destroying the base you're not allowed to win because *hurr durr* you must still play all remaining events as we intended you to !

    Complete all tasks and the game ends the mission for you. You don't get to decide whether you want to continue until all enemies are dead. The game doesn't care what you'd like to do and is fun to you. Ressource management is as catastrophic as ever: Turbo mining with 3 workers per ressource node is still a thing instead of either a wider variety of ressources or a slower, but more enjoyable game, like Starcraft 1 was, with less troop massing and less damage spikes. Base managemant is also quite boring: Protect your base as necessary, else there's no managemant. You construct all tech buildings once for unit access and there's nothing useful you can do with them or any relevance as why you'd want a specific building in a specific spot, unless it's for defense. You can't research anything, except for +damage and +armor in one single building and that's it. Instead you choose some evolution stuff right before the mission starts. This is actually good, but taking away strategy and variety in each and every mission for that is far too annoying and only necessary because everything is scripted like hell - no time for actual gameplay / decisions here ! MUST GO FAST ! FAST IS FUN !

    This game is just out of control. Ressource gathering is either low or explodes, no healthy middle area, units are built in masses and also die in masses, thanks to the ressource flow and damage spikes. In the end you get a hero unit that can just blow up a whole base...
    Just... what were they thinking...
    Strategy game... ffs.

    At that point I'm just gonna pirate the last part of the trilogy, assuming that it just continues on it's path downhill from here. If it's any good or even better or like, real good, THEN I'll buy it.

    If I had anything to say it'd be this:
    1) Fire the idiot writing the story. Any school kid of any school at any age can do equal or better.
    2) Stop the heavy scripting. It's beyond annoying that the game tell's me how I should play in a strategy game or forces me to play a certain way. You're allowed to do that some time, if it adds to the game, is fun or any other good reason. But not all the time non-stop !
    3) The economy needs a redesign ! Mass harvesting as only tactical dimension for an economy is poor design. Past games already delivered good, fun, engaging ideas. Just because Starcraft 1 didn't have them doesn't mean Starcraft 2 would be less fun with them. Instead try those. C&C had ressource depots, base capture, ressource stealing, intel sabotage, tech stealing, power levels and actual harvesters out in the field. Starcraft 2 is shallow compared to just this one game, even if it's just economical options. And there are other examples. Just pick what works and is fun but stop this mass everything concept because it has no depth !
    4) Give tech structures a purpose besides existing. Because that's all the tech buildings are good for in the campaign.
    5) Tell story like you did in Starcraft 1: Let the other characters talk to the player instead of having them act as if the player doesn't exist. That just disconnects.
    6) Actually play your game and see if it's fun. And stop ruining it.

    --Campaign rating only    … Expand
  25. VidyaBum
    Mar 22, 2014
    6
    I expected it to be worse than WoL, but not this bad.

    Characters have this horrible division where you feel like half of them are Zerg(Dehaka, Zurvan, Abathur) and the other half behave like humans in a Zerg disguise(Izsha, Zagara). Izsha is particularly painful to listen to as every single line she has just reeks of a human being and not a Zerg. Put together with Abathur, it's really    I expected it to be worse than WoL, but not this bad.

    Characters have this horrible division where you feel like half of them are Zerg(Dehaka, Zurvan, Abathur) and the other half behave like humans in a Zerg disguise(Izsha, Zagara). Izsha is particularly painful to listen to as every single line she has just reeks of a human being and not a Zerg. Put together with Abathur, it's really glaring and kills the atmosphere entirely. Also why doesn't the Leviathan talk?! It's a Zerg creature, thinking and understanding, not a machine!

    The story is extremely lackluster. If WoL had lots of side missions with their own small reward and one 10-mission main quest(which was ultimately a fetch quest of 6 missions and then just fighting Kerrigan and a few missions devoted to harming Mengsk's reputation), HotS is literally nothing but one main mission: assemble the Horde-I mean the Swarm. It gets very old very fast. Too simple a plot, it's also not really helped by the side missions since very few of them bring any sort of plot advancement. Ultimately, you spend 20 missions assembling the Swarm, then you (spoiler alert, watch out this'll blow your mind you'll never see it coming!) kill Mengsk. Which means that you literally had all this buildup about Hybrids and the world's end in WoL and no follow up at all in HotS where it's just Kerrigan being mad at Mengsk and getting stronger so she can kill him...
    It's not even lackluster, it's just lame in comparison.

    Music is still meh. Still can't recall a single tune, apart from WoL's cutscenes. And even those were not that memorable, despite being well-conceived along with their cutscene. When the cutscenes music appears in HotS, it's nice but unfitting.

    Cutscenes are really great, all of them, but since none of them are ever in a good story, they just aren't that likeable.

    Then you've got the gameplay. Well, just like WoL, very little strategy, tons of spamming keys to get resources and units ASAP. Lots of exciting fun, almost no thinking, and a game that ultimately fails to be interesting, despite being entertaining until a certain point.
    The new units are fine, Zergs get a base defense/base siege unit akin to the Terran Siege Tank. Nothing really different, if you liked WoL you will like this.

    But really ultimately, if you liked the story in WoL and the gameplay was just ok and not particularly satisfying to you, or not at all satisfying if you like real strategy, HotS will feel like a step down in every aspect to you.
    The missions, the way they're chosen, the units and ways to upgrade them, the characters, the plot, the storytelling, the diversity of missions, which was one of the strongest points of WoL and added a lot of value to a game with virtually no strategy, all of that is either the same, or worse. 90% of the diverse missions of WoL are just copypasted here. Characters, mission choices, upgrade missions which appear here instead of credits to get unit upgrades, plot value, they're all clearly one hard step below Wings of Liberty.

    It's still playable just like the last one, and still has value as a game or a story, but it's so pathetically weak an expansion, compared to its predecessor. It also, unsurprisingly, does absolutely nothing to try to help the lack of complexity and lack of strategy of Starcraft as a whole(yes, I'm counting SC1 and BW).
    Just another super-fun-super-fast game with poor strategic elements and a story that will make you yearn to play WoL for the first time again.    … Expand
  26. blueshift09
    Sep 23, 2014
    6
    This game has gone down a bit in quality since Wings of Liberty.

    Game mechanics have been tweaked slightly. There isn't much of a story in the cut scenes between missions which is quite disappointing. Previous instalments of Starcraft used to have good stories.
  27. Nekellor
    Aug 1, 2018
    6
    Логичное продолжение основной сюжетки с кооперацией с терранами. Неплохая альтернатива корабля с своей схемой прокачки и развития. Интересный рассказы зергов про их отношения к чему либо. Что то наподобие прокачки, как в 3 варике, для Кериган.Логичное продолжение основной сюжетки с кооперацией с терранами. Неплохая альтернатива корабля с своей схемой прокачки и развития. Интересный рассказы зергов про их отношения к чему либо. Что то наподобие прокачки, как в 3 варике, для Кериган.
  28. igolrum
    May 26, 2021
    6
    I loved the original Starcraft and Brood war. And while Starcraft 2 is still good gameplay-wise and character-wise, the story is much worse. It feels like they wanted to get rid of the series. Wrap it all up and be done with it. Pretty stale and straight-forward, uninspired. No more twists, betrayals and interesting political situations, like the original story had.
    The whole Xel'naga and    I loved the original Starcraft and Brood war. And while Starcraft 2 is still good gameplay-wise and character-wise, the story is much worse. It feels like they wanted to get rid of the series. Wrap it all up and be done with it. Pretty stale and straight-forward, uninspired. No more twists, betrayals and interesting political situations, like the original story had.
    The whole Xel'naga and Duran story-line mystery especially has basically been straight up thrown away.

    Gameplay: 10
    Characters: 8
    Story: 3    … Expand
  29. Skulb
    Mar 30, 2013
    5
    As usual with a Blizzard game there`s a lot of polish to HotS. The MP engine, the in game interface and unit control is all great as is the graphical quality and the sound. In fact, if you love playing MP RTS games with lag HotS is just about the perfect game.
    Unfortunately I don`t and consider e-sports about as entertaining to take part in as math exams, and more stressful than Christmas    As usual with a Blizzard game there`s a lot of polish to HotS. The MP engine, the in game interface and unit control is all great as is the graphical quality and the sound. In fact, if you love playing MP RTS games with lag HotS is just about the perfect game.
    Unfortunately I don`t and consider e-sports about as entertaining to take part in as math exams, and more stressful than Christmas shopping. It`s OK to watch, but just like with downhill skiing, Tour de France or professional wrestling I`m more than happy not to ever participate in it.
    Which leaves the single player campaign, which is to be perfectly honest full of some of the most lame ass writing you`re likely to have ever seen. Cliche on cliche piles onto the never ending monologue of weirdness and bravado of Kerrigan. I don`t think I can remember the last time I had a more overwhelming desire to kill off the main character in the story of a video game. It is just too bad to even properly describe in words.
    The story itself might be OK actually, but it`s just the way it`s being told. Until otherwise proven by Blizzard my opinion is that the entire scripting crew of SC2 have bee fired because they had too much talent,, and have been replaced by 3 illegal aliens being held prisoners in a broom closet by evil Blizzard accountants and forced to write scripts for the SC2 franchise, unless they wanna be handed over to immigration.

    Honestly though, if it wasn`t for the damn lag I get every time I so much as think about multi player, I might not be so harsh on SC2. But when the campaign is so poorly written I squirm with embarrassment in every single dialogue, and I can`t play multi player because of lag, what is left to like of the things I paid for? Not much is the answer to that question.    … Expand
  30. Rtheom
    Mar 29, 2014
    5
    As much as I love Starcraft, they've turned it into a super cheese fest where the only viable strategy is to go one unit and go one unit hard. Gone are the days of variety and the epically big battles in place of small, 5 minute smashfests. Their attempt to e-sport Starcraft more than it already was really took the heart out of it.
  31. oso
    Dec 12, 2017
    5
    Story is cheesy and unlogical compared to the WoL campaign. It is way to short and filled with several no-brain-missions where you simply have to build more units than the opponent and ****ty characters with bull**** dialogues. Gameplay is (as expected) superior to most other competitive rts games. (The few new units didnt change much from my noob pov)
    as a conclusion id say it is not    Story is cheesy and unlogical compared to the WoL campaign. It is way to short and filled with several no-brain-missions where you simply have to build more units than the opponent and ****ty characters with bull**** dialogues. Gameplay is (as expected) superior to most other competitive rts games. (The few new units didnt change much from my noob pov)
    as a conclusion id say it is not worth a full priced game. Blizzard has lost a lot of my respect after D3 and this.    … Expand
  32. Darsidius
    Apr 2, 2013
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The first thing to understand about Heart of the Swarm is that it is not a single-player experience. There was a time when Blizzard had concern for their story-telling elements (consistency, originality, creativity), but not today. If you have played any other Blizzard game, you will most assuredly notice the redundancy of recycled themes in their games. For instance, in Warcraft, the Orcs were once villainous monsters who made pacts with demons and other creatures to take over the other worlds, but now, they're just a misunderstood people with forgotten tribal roots looking to make a place for themselves in the world. Well, in Heart of the Swarm, imagine that same thing word-for-word, but with the Zerg (an alien race hell-bent on assimilating the universe, now-become a misunderstood alien race hijacked by an evil god to take over the universe but now they have forgotten primal roots looking for a place for themselves in the universe). To make matters worse, two years prior to Heart of the Swarm's release, the ending was leaked, and while Blizzard would not confirm or deny its authenticity, it was revealed at the end of the expansion to be somewhat true. The problem is that the dialogue from the leaked ending matched the events in the leaked ending. In the official ending, there was much cut out, but the dialogue remained, thus making most of what the characters say in that final cinematic a head-scratching anomaly. Watch it for yourself on youtube.
    However, Starcraft is about multiplayer business, and for some reason, it has evolved into a major eSport, thus you can expect that the primary focus on the game is this, not story-telling. Blizzard does well in creating an engaging gameplay experience, when the focus is centered on RTS game play in Starcraft. But, the company really does need help in the story department they've admitted in forums that they "overlooked" obvious gaffes, while at the same time using the excuse that player didn't "read into the story" to better understand their obvious mistakes. The new units are interesting novelties to the game play; based on the race you play, you can expect that some units are much more helpful or others are outright useless. Blizzard and Starcraft, whatever the case though, is here to stay, but if you're a single-player, lore-enthusiast, my recommendation is to expect MORE.    … Expand
  33. therealgamerevo
    Mar 12, 2013
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'll try to be as unbiased as possible, while explaining my opinions, and emotions, of the newest expansion for Blizzard. Warning minor spoilers not that it matters. I want to say I've been a fan since Warcraft of Orcs and Humans, but I've seen a laziness in the developer for the past several years that has degraded the quality of the games. I began to be worried with the announcement of the Starcraft 2 Trilogy. My initial thought was that it was an attempt to grab some extra cash, though I denied such a thought of my beloved blizzard for years. Now after the catastrophe that is Diablo 3,the bulky, and borderline fluff. that was Wings of Liberty, I have come to the conclusion that my original assumption is true Blizzard has become the next bioware they in it for your money. The entire campaign is a vain attempt to kill a man who should have died in the first campaign for the sequel, I.E, the title being wings of liberty sounds like the dominion would fall right? Yet despite the forshadowing the first campaign lends to the player, there is no development from the big xel naga threat other than the fact that kerrigan must fight it. NOTHING contributes to the overarching story of the series, they even try to make it seem worth 40 dollars by adding seven missions where the whole purpose is to test out two different strands of a zerg mutation. These fluff missions show how little blizzard cares for their products anymore as they have lost all pretense of even trying to create something worthwhile an unique. Playing these missions was like revisiting the same dungeon for the tenth time in Dragon age 2, boring easy and repetitive. Finally in the campaign though I did not even notice till the very last mission, which was extremely anticlimatic and could have been any other level in the game, I noticed that the zerg campaign has no troop transport. Overlords are now nothing better than a moving supply depot, especially without the evolution to overseers. I'm sure the multiplayer is fun and highly competitive, it was the redeeming quality to the bulky WOL, but guess what, getting a couple new units and maps for a game i already own is not a expansion. I paid 40 dollars just to be jerked around and I've had it with blizzard trying to make money of their poor deluded fans. If I wanted that particular experience I would have bought a call of duty map pack, FOR TEN DOLLARS! They were my ivory tower, and now they don't give a damn,… Expand
  34. teshia
    Jun 28, 2013
    5
    I was very disappointed with Heart of the Swarm. The story was okay and the art direction was pretty good but I found the gameplay lacking. I played through it on Normal difficulty and didn't die once during the entire campaign. That's not Normal, that's Easy, or even easier. I'm no Starcraft expert and couldn't remember what any of the units did when I came back to play thisI was very disappointed with Heart of the Swarm. The story was okay and the art direction was pretty good but I found the gameplay lacking. I played through it on Normal difficulty and didn't die once during the entire campaign. That's not Normal, that's Easy, or even easier. I'm no Starcraft expert and couldn't remember what any of the units did when I came back to play this expansion. It shouldn't have been this easy. I'm not paying good money to walk through it like it was an RTS for kids. Total snore fest. It certainly wasn't like that when I played the first Starcraft game or even Warcraft 2. Come on guys, add some tactics in make me work for it. Hard should be hard. Normal should be normal. Easy should be easy.… Expand
  35. Hurzdligh
    Apr 14, 2013
    5
    It doesn't require a review, the credits at the end of the game says it all.
    10% game designers and story builders 90% marketing.

    A 5 from my part. Don`t want to waste my time on detailing the good and bad of this game.
  36. njkk
    Apr 24, 2013
    5
    Really just a money grabbing expansion. Starcraft 2 the original game is good, but i would not say that the expansion really improved the gaming experience. I have played other rts expansions that i thought were just as good if not better than the original game i do not get that opinion from the starcraft 2 expansion unfortunately.
  37. Heimskringla91
    May 10, 2013
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. What I used to love about Blizzard was they knew how to tell a story...well I wonder where that talent went because there isn't one here. WoW and SC have seemingly melded into the same story but just different worlds. There's something super evil coming so Horde and Alliance must join together to defeat it. There's something super evil coming so Terran, Zerg, and Protoss must joing together to defeat it. Awesome? I also hate Jim Raynor by the way, he's the reason a lot of people are dying by saving Kerrigan. I wish Tycus had finished the job in Wings of Liberty. OR I wish Arcturus Mensk had just finished the job at the ending of this game. But no he had to give Kerrigan a stupid damn speech about how awesome and cool he is instead of just shooting her point blank while she was writhing on the floor. Everyone seems to be hailing Blizzard's cinematics, which of course, are very nice but so useless. For example in the launch trailer I believe it was, a Viking drops in front of a Brutalisk and gets owned, I doubt he would have done that or maybe he's just that stupid.
    But alas, the review also needs to tell of the gameplay. Which is your typical RTS and certainly fun however, for a singleplayer enthusiast such as myself, it falls short (the story is the main part of that). The leveling up system is back from Wings of Liberty which I think is pretty cool but otherwise didn't add a lot in the way of new ideas. Additionally, just something that has to be said, Kerrigan's walking animations are just hilarious. It looks like she always has to poo or maybe something is just stuck up her bum but it's very funny. Anywho, multiplayer of course seems to be the focus here for Blizzard and it's pretty obvious. Tournaments and what not have become a big thing so it seems Blizzard would like to appeal to that crowd. This unfortunately makes the story driven, single player driven folks at a loss. Where StarCraft and WarCraft once had great stories they've taken a backseat to what seems like $moneygrabz$ for Blizzard. 'Tis a shame, I say!    … Expand
  38. Freaky
    Mar 18, 2013
    5
    Great on the quality, i loved the artistic content and it was really polished. But at the end the game was over in 3 days, less then 20 hours of game play for me, even on hard difficulty. The game felt short for the time it took to develop it, and considering they did not have to rewrite the engine.

    So great game, too short of a story, overly easy even on Hard difficulty. I even got the    Great on the quality, i loved the artistic content and it was really polished. But at the end the game was over in 3 days, less then 20 hours of game play for me, even on hard difficulty. The game felt short for the time it took to develop it, and considering they did not have to rewrite the engine.

    So great game, too short of a story, overly easy even on Hard difficulty. I even got the CE that had nothing special in it it was 100 Euro. All in all disappointed by the content quantity in the game as well as in the physical CE box. Feels like they are just milking it.    … Expand
  39. kckkryptonite
    Mar 14, 2013
    5
    As a long time fan of StarCraft and Broodwar, I was naively hoping for a better campaign than what WoL was. I figured it could have only been better, but I was wrong. I guess as long as DBrowder is at the helm, you're going to get the most cliched snooze fest imaginable.

    Where it fails most is what made StarCraft such a memorable and great game. The story. I cannot begin to explain how    As a long time fan of StarCraft and Broodwar, I was naively hoping for a better campaign than what WoL was. I figured it could have only been better, but I was wrong. I guess as long as DBrowder is at the helm, you're going to get the most cliched snooze fest imaginable.

    Where it fails most is what made StarCraft such a memorable and great game. The story. I cannot begin to explain how weak and underwhelming the story and dialogue are. Gone are any sort of characterization or suttle narrative undertones. There is no heart, no personality, no life, and no atmosphere. Gone is the once articulate, conniving, Mengsk who has been reduced to a babbling old fool, the fiery Jim Raynor who is now simply there to be a damsel in distress. Kerrigan's actions and motivations are consistently questionable; there are a lot of failed attempts at evoking emotion, but frankly, you just don't care about her or Jim anymore. The flavorful and immerse world that was StarCraft has once again been destroyed by $$BlizzActivison$$. What the hell happened to the storytelling? The heart? The universe? All I see now is a empty shell.

    /rant

    The actual gameplay is fine, the UI good, and the missions fun though repetitive at times. I'm reviewing mainly the campaign/single-player here. The multi-player is polished and the visuals are smooth, if you don't care about the campaign at all (and just shelled out $40 for a few new units), then I'd give it a 7/10 or 8/10. Blizzard could've continued StarCraft's legend if they gave two about the lore and could've been the best at that, but I guess they wanted to focus on eSports and follow in the shadow of LoL.    … Expand
  40. scruffycavetrol
    Mar 27, 2013
    5
    It's only an expansion, so you need Wings of Liberty. It adds some upgraded units, and some cool genetic upgrading of units. It really just continues the story, where you play as the Zerg and Kerrigan, so expect the 3rd expansion to revolve around Protoss. It's a decent expansion, I'm not as into the RTS multiplayer, but being old enough to remember when the first was released back in theIt's only an expansion, so you need Wings of Liberty. It adds some upgraded units, and some cool genetic upgrading of units. It really just continues the story, where you play as the Zerg and Kerrigan, so expect the 3rd expansion to revolve around Protoss. It's a decent expansion, I'm not as into the RTS multiplayer, but being old enough to remember when the first was released back in the 90's, this is where the game really does shine. There's nothing groundbreaking here, just a nifty continuation to the story. Typical expansion type of stuff.… Expand
  41. pitox
    Apr 3, 2013
    5
    A good game but still further from what original Starcraft was where I could play it for hours each time differently and still after years I do like to play it. Starcraft 2 is the same story but a different game they added many flashy things upgrades new units and so on just the missions are not what I would like personally. Too many missions are way too short with time limits very limitedA good game but still further from what original Starcraft was where I could play it for hours each time differently and still after years I do like to play it. Starcraft 2 is the same story but a different game they added many flashy things upgrades new units and so on just the missions are not what I would like personally. Too many missions are way too short with time limits very limited in what you can actually do differently next time. Old Starcraft was get a base get the enemy big map and slowly progress. Blizzard has focused too much on making it intense but everything is so quick most missions just over 20 minutes I have just started and its over someone still telling me you have 5 minutes for this and that and one evening Heart of the Swarm it is finished. You really dont have to fix what isnt broken and this is bit too far from what I like about first Starcraft and it is not a good direction… Expand
  42. Drain
    Aug 18, 2014
    5
    Like many games, most reviews for this are useless. They either falsely praise the game due to the reviewer being a idiot and/or paid off, or they sweep the game under the rug as if the game is the worst thing ever. The reality is that this is a very fun, but poorly written and mediocre product.

    Firstly, if you played Wings of Liberty; you pretty much know what you're getting here. I'm    Like many games, most reviews for this are useless. They either falsely praise the game due to the reviewer being a idiot and/or paid off, or they sweep the game under the rug as if the game is the worst thing ever. The reality is that this is a very fun, but poorly written and mediocre product.

    Firstly, if you played Wings of Liberty; you pretty much know what you're getting here. I'm going to compare this to Wings of Liberty; because I assume you played the last game or you probably wouldn't be playing this one.

    The biggest problem with Heart of the Swarm, which was also the biggest problem of Wings of Liberty; is the story. The story in this game is the worst thing you'll ever have seen since... well... Wings of Liberty. It's full of plot holes and meaningless made up crap for the sake of filler missions. I should mention that they ruin Kerrigan's character beyond belief, but is that surprising after they've shamelessly ruined Jim Raynor already? Someone needs to tell these that Jim and Kerrigan never even had a romance in the past. Blizzard pulled that right out of their ass for the sake of these games. They wanted to force in a needless romance with no idea how to even write it, just like Georgia Lucas with Episode 2. It also reminds me of when they revived Illidan for the Burning Crusade just so he could be a raid boss. I hate how Blizzard completely ruins everything previously established in order to just "do their own thing" in follow up games. If you were once a fan of their games; things like this are downright insulting.

    Here, for instance, Kerrigan goes right back to being Zerg, even though she was suppose to be "cured" in the last game, something that already made no sense.(Not a spoiler either; look at the box cover and read it) It's very clear they didn't write very far ahead. Also, Jim and Kerrigan's romance is almost as pathetic as Bell and Edward's. But did you really expect much, after playing Wings of Liberty? This was a follow up to that; and seeing as how that game's story was up in every possible way and full of plot holes, why shouldn't this one be too? The cutscenes are numerous and have a nice quality to them... but it's just hard to care when the game doesn't make any damn sense nor has any kind of competent story you're going to be invested in. Like Wings of Liberty; as soon as you finish the game, you'll not care about anything that happened in it. I could go on more about how awful the stories are in these games; but I think you get the point.

    Putting aside the awful storytelling; you've now got the actual gameplay... which is more or less the same as it was in the last game. The biggest differences are that the game is played 2-3x faster and Kerrigan is a main hero in most missions. Both of these are bad things. The faster pacing saps out most of the fun. By the time you get a hold of what you're doing in a mission; it's over. There's no time to actually enjoy it, think about what you're doing, or fool around. I hate how Starcraft has basically become an action genre. Why does it have to be so fast? Wings of Liberty was fast, but not "this" fast, and the originals were snails by comparison. But that's not to say that the game is hard. It's quite easy on the first 2 settings; especially since Kerrigan is a 1 woman army that can pillage and plunder forces with little to no help. That's more fun sapped right out of the game, because an RTS isn't suppose to revolve around 1 walking demi god. Warcraft 3, which I loved, had heroes, but they couldn't solo half an army this effectively. Kerrigan is better than a level 10 hero in Warcraft 3; and much so, even right away.

    I should add that the game features pointless upgrade choices and filler missions to unlock more. It's very clear that they had almost no content to work with; so they just filled it up with all this This is what happens when you break 1 game into 3 pieces. But while they managed to fill out Wings of Liberty with a nice campaign; the Zerg got the short stick. The campaign feels disappointingly short due to how fast the missions unfortunately are; and everything not in a mission, is just overly obvious padding or window dressing. You've then got the multiplayer... which didn't do much except add a few new units. They want 60$ for this BTW. So you basically paid 120$ just to play SC2 online. Good for you if you did that, but I didn't.

    In summery it's tough to recommend this. It does have a campaign that can be some fun, but once again is drowned is terrible cutscenes that do nothing but fuel a totally nonsensical story. And since you already got multiplayer with the first game... you're basically paying for that again. I leave this one up for you to decide.
    -Drain (Steam)    … Expand
  43. TimMaxShift
    Dec 24, 2021
    5
    It's a shame they didn't take the script as seriously as they did the technical part. I played both parts already 10 times. The first part was much more serious and more mature, I would call it category R, ​​and the second part is PG-13. It feels like the story of the first part is not ideal, but it was written by people with a level of knowledge comparable to university students .. ItIt's a shame they didn't take the script as seriously as they did the technical part. I played both parts already 10 times. The first part was much more serious and more mature, I would call it category R, ​​and the second part is PG-13. It feels like the story of the first part is not ideal, but it was written by people with a level of knowledge comparable to university students .. It would seem that we have grown, they have too... Many naive works of art from our childhood grew up with us and began to acquire adult materialistic features or even rethought, without ceasing to be themselves, without losing the spirit of the original source. But not StarCraft. He not only remained in the same place, but also took a step back. Feels like the second part was written by schoolchildren. The game itself became brighter, the feeling of stuffiness disappeared, a large amount of children's humor appeared.
    An evil villain who is evil because he is evil, Prophecies, chosen ones, cosmic magic, abstract gods devouring worlds to which it is difficult to experience any kind of emotion, just as a person is not able to feel the distance in light years (since our biology was formed in conditions where this was not necessary), pink queen of blades, with a healthy complexion, neat eyebrows, hair styling and lip gloss with stilettos from a modeling agency called "swarm" ... if stilettos are her evolutionary advantage, then what does the world in which she exist look like? The world of strip clubs? Queen of our ... "blades". She is no longer a ruthless sociopath and manipulator, but a campy hysterical model from high society in Zerg.
    The first part is materialism, realism, and the second part is idealism and romanticism / classicism. The first SC is Terminator 1, 2, Alien 1, 2, Bladerunner and SC2 is Terminator 3, 5. This was the first time the game hurt me, the second time was BL3. In the opening videos Wol, Hots, LotV there is the spirit of the first part of the game, but in the game itself and in the rest of the videos, everything is much and much worse. And it's not the high cost of the videos, watch the SC: BroodWar videos. They are outdated, but they have a sense of danger, war, impending threat. The videos in the second part seem to be made by Hollywood. Secondary techniques, only proven methods. They seemed to come off the assembly line, as a result of the work of a raw neural network, and not of people.    … Expand
  44. Sakkaku
    Sep 8, 2014
    5
    It's World of Warcraft but in space! *yawn* is a good summary of how I feel when I play this game

    Gamplay: Same as Wings of Liberty, nothing notable to point out. Great RTS, it is losing it's shine though, Story: This is where everything sort've downfalls. If you are tired of these "WoW writers" then get ready for the same old hubub when it comes to this game. Nothing original, not    It's World of Warcraft but in space! *yawn* is a good summary of how I feel when I play this game

    Gamplay: Same as Wings of Liberty, nothing notable to point out. Great RTS, it is losing it's shine though,

    Story: This is where everything sort've downfalls. If you are tired of these "WoW writers" then get ready for the same old hubub when it comes to this game. Nothing original, not even close to following it's roots. Lots of retcon, lots of plot holes, lots of cliche dialog and generic actions scenes.

    After putting the original Star Craft on the back burner for so long, they lost everything that made a game unique. Now it feels like a "WoW" set in space of a story line everywhere you turn. Diablo 3 is another good example of this. WoW just bleeds into everything they do now, churning everything into a gray mush of mediocre game play and story.

    The casual game play is fun, but after 10 hours the game is now up a creek relying on the multiplayer, which has potential, but probably won't be fully engaging till the last expansion comes out. By then, SC2 will be outdated and forgotten because that what happens when you split a game up into 1/3's and make people wait 4 extra years to see the end of a story line.    … Expand
  45. mulv81
    Feb 3, 2015
    5
    I waited until recently to pick this expansion pack up for only $20. They wanted $40 for this when it came out and I just laughed, I'm not paying Activision $40 every time they feel like reskinning their multiplayer games.

    They added a couple new units, completely changed the tech requirements for many units, and I feel like I'm not even playing the same game anymore. It's annoying to    I waited until recently to pick this expansion pack up for only $20. They wanted $40 for this when it came out and I just laughed, I'm not paying Activision $40 every time they feel like reskinning their multiplayer games.

    They added a couple new units, completely changed the tech requirements for many units, and I feel like I'm not even playing the same game anymore. It's annoying to me, I spent months learning to play StarCraft II, I get this expansion and now the command centre queues the first SCV for me? Why? This is confusing, I am OCD as Hell and I can't stand when a game developer makes pointless changes like this. Well, I'm going back to Wings of Liberty since this is a dead game.    … Expand
  46. res0nancer
    Jun 5, 2023
    5
    Дополнение продолжающее общий сюжет в котором планка, заданная первой частью, медленно начинает падать. Видно, что главная героиня имеет все задатки стать отличным женским персонажем, но дополнение вроде посвященное этому персонажу, не раскрывает его суть и конечную личностную мотивацию, что оставляет только большое чувство грусти. Геймплей освежается за новую фракцию, но после привыканияДополнение продолжающее общий сюжет в котором планка, заданная первой частью, медленно начинает падать. Видно, что главная героиня имеет все задатки стать отличным женским персонажем, но дополнение вроде посвященное этому персонажу, не раскрывает его суть и конечную личностную мотивацию, что оставляет только большое чувство грусти. Геймплей освежается за новую фракцию, но после привыкания возвращаются те же проблемы из первого дополнения. Единственное, что отлично в этом дополнении - это персонажи, финальная катсцена и отыгрыш актеров.… Expand
  47. gasperk
    Mar 18, 2013
    4
    Average expansion. Over hyped. Just what you would expect from BLizzard lately. What you get out of this for the money is just bad value. Few stupid MP units and average campaign. With stupid story.
  48. RogerWilco2099
    Mar 15, 2013
    4
    Very average. I think most of these 9 & 10 reviews are based off people still on the hype train. The writing, average, the story average, the game mechanics average and nothing excelling or pushing the boundaries. That said nothing is bad about this game, its just it never seems to go anywhere. Everything is predictable. The cinematic videos are superb but this is a game and not aVery average. I think most of these 9 & 10 reviews are based off people still on the hype train. The writing, average, the story average, the game mechanics average and nothing excelling or pushing the boundaries. That said nothing is bad about this game, its just it never seems to go anywhere. Everything is predictable. The cinematic videos are superb but this is a game and not a movie. They do redeem this from scoring lower. A lot of potential wasted, a buy for the true fans or people, an easy skip for everyone else.… Expand
  49. gun661
    Mar 12, 2013
    4
    For my taste, Heart of the Swarm's gameplay has been focused way too much on e-sports. It's not "playing" a game anymore but learning modes of behavior to win. Even within the singleplayer campaign, 99% of the missions seem to be about getting used to the way the race of the zerg is supposed to be played in multiplayer-mode: Gameplay is frantic, almost every mission has some kind ofFor my taste, Heart of the Swarm's gameplay has been focused way too much on e-sports. It's not "playing" a game anymore but learning modes of behavior to win. Even within the singleplayer campaign, 99% of the missions seem to be about getting used to the way the race of the zerg is supposed to be played in multiplayer-mode: Gameplay is frantic, almost every mission has some kind of timelimit and you're supposed to be clicking everywhere on the map at once. Building a base with nice defences? None here, that's "not the way the zerg are played". In Starcraft 2, the campaign was the only fun part of the game for me, because it wasn't always frantic and hectic... Since there are no good RTS-alternatives right now, it's a shame that SC2:HotS is so monotonously action-oriented. The GUI and menus of the game strengthen these aspects: You access the campaign/story of HotS via a generic button within an e-sports-oriented interface.… Expand
  50. fox294
    Mar 14, 2013
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'm rating this as an expansion, not as a game. Starcraft 2 is a great and fun game. Heart of the Swarm added nothing positive. To the contrary, the path that Blizzard opted to follow with the campaign's story is really quite bad. The Zerg were a lot more interesting as mindless killing machines. Choosing to make them muppets was a bad call. Reinfesting Kerrigan pretty much undid the entire plot of Wings of Liberty. And this whole prophesy storyline is so played out. It's obvious to the point of nausea that the end of the trilogy will feature a Protoss+Zerg+Terran vs. Amon battle royale. You did that already, Blizzard. It was called Warcraft 3. And it was lame then too. Blizzard has some truly untalented and uncreative people doing their writing these days. First Diablo and now Starcraft have been ruined with this trite drivel. What a shame.… Expand
  51. Avadon
    Mar 15, 2013
    4
    Blizzard have made Brood War and Frozen Throne, two of the best RTS expansions of all time, both with jaw-dropping campaigns that were memorable for years to come, and also with changes to multiplayer that COMPLETELY changed the way the game was played. Compared to those, HotS is painfully average. Campaign: The story is okayish, mainly because most of the dialogue is between ZergBlizzard have made Brood War and Frozen Throne, two of the best RTS expansions of all time, both with jaw-dropping campaigns that were memorable for years to come, and also with changes to multiplayer that COMPLETELY changed the way the game was played. Compared to those, HotS is painfully average. Campaign: The story is okayish, mainly because most of the dialogue is between Zerg characters and has an appropriately odd ring to it, but when it switches back to human dialogue it's once again infuriatingly cliche and facepalm-worthy. The missions vary in quality, there are a couple refreshingly good ones but most of them suffer from the same problem as the WoL missions, i.e. they are extremely gimmicky and serve mainly as a means to introduce a new unit that is super useful for that specific mission and not so much later. There are also extremely frequent time constraints in missions, which don't allow you to enjoy them at your own pace. That's a really lazy way to do challenge. Very rarely will you find a mission that just gives you a giant enemy base and lets you just use your units in your own way and check for weaknesses to kill it, it's all scripted and on a strict timer and feels gimmicky. Very disappointing overall. Multiplayer: Nice additions with clans and replays. The new units however are not that great. Only the Viper can be considered a decent addition, and the hydra speed opens up a couple of more viable army comps, but for the other races it's pretty lackluster. Watch any stream where players are interested in actually winning and not just messing around with the new units, and you 'll see most matchups play similarly to WoL, especially TvT is exactly the same except you start with a couple of mines here and there. Overall, for Blizzard RTS standards, HotS is just meh. It barely shakes things up online, and the campaign is mediocre. Not good enough.… Expand
  52. ACESsiggy
    Jun 28, 2013
    4
    To be honest, I think this game is nothing more than copy and paste of the Wings of Liberty campaign. However, this game has a horrible story along with it's cheesy lines from the queen of blades. Graphically nothing is new from starcraft 2. The new units introduced are alright but bland at best.

    Can't believe all the positive reviews.
  53. JerryOblego
    Mar 13, 2013
    4
    This game is suicide-bomber inspired. Its all about banelings and widow mines. I dont know what happened to blizzard development team. This is a dumb-downed version of wings of liberty.
  54. GraffPirate
    Mar 21, 2013
    4
    Honestly I was bored, the addition of new units and story really didn't keep me interested. I fear this is the new trend for blizzard resting their lack of New gameplay and compelling story on its laurels.
  55. vortice
    Mar 12, 2013
    4
    the story of heart of swarm is very bad, but the cinematics are very good. Heart of the Swarm's gameplay has been focused way too much on e-sports and multiplayer. They oblivion de people who play singlepalyer
  56. Rentner65
    Mar 19, 2013
    4
    As the story is a major aspect for me, I unfortunately have to give the game a bad rating: the story is boring, illogical and without unexpected turns. A total disappointment! Why did it take so long to produce this? Also there are fewer missions than in Wings of Liberty I don't count the evolution mission... They are 5 min each and I don't get their point. Just small videos like in WoLAs the story is a major aspect for me, I unfortunately have to give the game a bad rating: the story is boring, illogical and without unexpected turns. A total disappointment! Why did it take so long to produce this? Also there are fewer missions than in Wings of Liberty I don't count the evolution mission... They are 5 min each and I don't get their point. Just small videos like in WoL would have been better to show the results of an upgrade. At least you can hear Abathor talk... Multiplayer is OK I haven't played it a lot and so far ti seems it is as good as in WoL. Another reason not to buy this game.… Expand
  57. Zarl451
    Mar 20, 2013
    4
    An uninspiring continuation to the SC saga; the campaign is formulaic and short (any solid RTS player will probably take less than 8 hours to complete), and the plot is without great vision or scope. Probably a requirement for online play since the majority of players will migrate over to HotS, but not worth the price as a single player experience.
  58. kazannova
    Apr 30, 2013
    4
    i dont know why people like this game, compare to other game it doesnt have that much to offer its the same old game but different pant. i think this game is just for the fans of the old one
  59. goodterling
    May 8, 2013
    3
    Heart of the Swarm is not so much a game as a guided tour. The game holds your hand and carefully walks you through every stage like your a 5 year old. It's actually pretty insulting--like one big extended tutorial for stupid people. How far have we fallen from the tense and frantic game play of Warcraft 3? Remember that? Apparently Blizzard thinks its customers have lost half theirHeart of the Swarm is not so much a game as a guided tour. The game holds your hand and carefully walks you through every stage like your a 5 year old. It's actually pretty insulting--like one big extended tutorial for stupid people. How far have we fallen from the tense and frantic game play of Warcraft 3? Remember that? Apparently Blizzard thinks its customers have lost half their IQ points in the past 11 years.… Expand
  60. theNILE
    Mar 13, 2013
    3
    As if Diablo 3 was bad enough. Blizzard don't care about the past games and insult greatness once again. They threw Lurkers YES LURKERS into their campaign. Widow Mines, Warhounds, now Lurkers. Another lame attempt to incorporate something from Brood War to try and make their game seem cooler. Why aren't they in the multi-player? They would be totally anti-fun right? Probably too hard toAs if Diablo 3 was bad enough. Blizzard don't care about the past games and insult greatness once again. They threw Lurkers YES LURKERS into their campaign. Widow Mines, Warhounds, now Lurkers. Another lame attempt to incorporate something from Brood War to try and make their game seem cooler. Why aren't they in the multi-player? They would be totally anti-fun right? Probably too hard to balance like Warhounds. They continually fail to produce an exciting RTS when they cannot even produce a good single-player game. Brutal is a joke and feels like WoL on normal. They even have a Diablo-esque battle which sucks and doesn't relate to what this kind of game is. The storyline is once again mediocre but the units are a lot more interesting this time around. All I can say is, don't stray away from your objective and listen to the you already know because you aren't blind.… Expand
  61. VeryDarkJedi
    Mar 15, 2013
    3
    A truly disapointing expension pack at a huge price. The new campaing is way too short and quickly over and generally feels uninspired. If you wan't to play custom games there is not much new stuff being added.

    I wouldn't have complained if it was priced somewhere around half of what it is not and even that is fairly high for what you get. With the price they actually charge this is a    A truly disapointing expension pack at a huge price. The new campaing is way too short and quickly over and generally feels uninspired. If you wan't to play custom games there is not much new stuff being added.

    I wouldn't have complained if it was priced somewhere around half of what it is not and even that is fairly high for what you get. With the price they actually charge this is a rip-off. Definitely not worth it.    … Expand
  62. fukery3
    Mar 24, 2013
    3
    This game just made me miss brood war even more. What the happened to blizzard's writers? Why the are there boss battles? Why do the primal zergs look like naga from warcraft 3? What happened to the factions battling for survival? Now they just fight over who is a bigger jerkface and who kills more and there is some sort of wuv story. The gameplay is still a gimick fest. Who's deathballThis game just made me miss brood war even more. What the happened to blizzard's writers? Why the are there boss battles? Why do the primal zergs look like naga from warcraft 3? What happened to the factions battling for survival? Now they just fight over who is a bigger jerkface and who kills more and there is some sort of wuv story. The gameplay is still a gimick fest. Who's deathball can kill the opposing deathball first. Who's unit can puke some gimicky ability to pull some nonsensical to exploit an otherwise sensical situation. Why can a flying zerg act like some sort of frog on a massive unit like a colluses. I know its a game but that is just taking it too far. At least be in the realm of believable. WoL was mediocre, but this is just terrible. Points for polished cinematics i guess... Luckily I borrowed a friends account to play so jokes on you blizzard. I enjoyed the fact that I got to enjoy your labor for a minor enjoyment out of your product… Expand
  63. fffortune
    Jan 8, 2018
    3
    Tried playing through Heart of the Swarm recently and actually completely forgot I was playing it mid-way through. Didn't come to me until a few weeks later.

    It's just so incredibly bland and without that flare of earlier Blizzard titles.
  64. PanzerBabe
    Mar 13, 2013
    3
    THE BAD--Heart of the Swarm goes down the dreaded path of "the prophecy" storyline. Attention writers: Prophecies are OVERUSED and are LAME! They are cliche and in this case the prophecy featured in SC2 retcons the original Starcraft and BroodWar, yielding many of the plot elements in both games nonsensical and convoluted. Game is also WAY TOO EASY. In the original Starcraft some of theTHE BAD--Heart of the Swarm goes down the dreaded path of "the prophecy" storyline. Attention writers: Prophecies are OVERUSED and are LAME! They are cliche and in this case the prophecy featured in SC2 retcons the original Starcraft and BroodWar, yielding many of the plot elements in both games nonsensical and convoluted. Game is also WAY TOO EASY. In the original Starcraft some of the later levels make you sweat. In this one the AI never cloaks, NEVER, for example. Lastly, the game is designed for casual players, which means everything is watered down and dumbed down.

    THE GOOD-- Cool cinematics. Nice graphics. The beginning of HoS pretty cool, which subsequently leads you on, makes you think that maybe the writers up at Blizzard learned from their mistakes with Wings of Liberty, but then after the 4th level the game falls flat on its face. Game has good multiplayer, but the expansion only adds a few new units that nobody wanted.    … Expand
  65. Tom_q
    Mar 15, 2013
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'm disappointed on multiple counts. First, understand that I'm a relatively casual gamer. I'm 27. I used to be quite good at warcraft 3, some years ago; but I'm not a no-life teenager anymore. When I buy a game now, it's not in the hope of making it a full-time occupation. So, from this point of view, the problem is that the game is not enjoyable if you do not train yourself intensively: dozens of keyboard shortcuts, ridiculously high APM, boring but time-intensive resource management (why can't the optimal production of workers be automated??) are necessary before you can start thinking about strategy beyond "make an army and rush". I don't want to train for days for a game, I want to start playing and enjoying it almost immediately; in Starcraft II that's not possible, and the campaign doesn't help. That is what I dislike about the multiplayer. But you already know that if you own WoL.

    So I have to rate this extension based on the campaign, gameplay, and story, from the point of view of an older and more casual gamer. Well, if you fit my profile: WoL is okay, but HotS is not worth your time and money. The atmosphere is a bit of a mix between the original Starcraft, Jersey shore (steroid-pumped Raynor, high-heels/smooth-buttocks Kerrigan, nonsensical/trashy love stories, everybody acts irrationally) and dragon ball Z (power levels, Kamehameha fights, martial arts abilities, anthropomorphic Zergs that speak English, but make grammar mistakes). It's clearly written for teens. And the ending is strongly anti-climactic. In addition to this, many of the missions are worthless filler (evolution missions) and a lot of them are not very enjoyable...

    If I can indulge: the Zerg have lost their soul when they lost the Overmind at the end of the original Starcraft. Kerrigan does not compare. Ideally, in HotS, Mengsk would have been thrown away by the people following the events in WoL, Kerrigan would have definitely re-joined the Terrans, a new (different and possibly non-enslaved) Overmind would have spawned, the swarm would have killed and eaten Raynor instead of searching for him in the name of love, and Kerrigan would have emerged as the new human leader... Altogether providing an ideal set-up for the upcoming Protoss campaign. That was my fantasy. It's much too late for any of that now.     … Expand
  66. raporgi
    Nov 29, 2014
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. What an underwhelming piece of **** I got this only becuz its $10 Black Friday sale. The CGI is great but other than that its basically worthless. Blizz could have just easily added the new units as a patch along with the balance changes. You're basically paying for the cut-scenes and the stupid missions which feel like an extended tutorial. The narrative is extremely weak as it basically undoes everything the past games have done with Kerrigan. She basically gets a free pass on genocide just bec Raynor's got a bleeding hard on for her and her memory was wiped. The balance updates serve nothing more than to speed up the game turning it into a contest who can crank out more units faster. no new play mechanics are actually introduced. The firebat, darkswarm etc. are basically reintroduced in this game. Players could just as easily modded these units but since Blizz controls everything **** that. The Title of this game should have been my super galactic Tyrant ex-girlfriend the Revenge.… Expand
  67. THE-Wind
    Apr 2, 2013
    2
    A two because:
    This is still Starcraft (original) with turd-polish.
    You already paid $60 for this game. (now they want $60 more... and what of chapter 3? $60 more I think) I hate time limits...I play to relax. Time limits mean lazy game-making. The meta-game blows chunks. Leads to mono-tactics. The graphics still lag modern computers. Enough of all this negativity...I thinks I'll    A two because:
    This is still Starcraft (original) with turd-polish.
    You already paid $60 for this game. (now they want $60 more... and what of chapter 3? $60 more I think)
    I hate time limits...I play to relax. Time limits mean lazy game-making.
    The meta-game blows chunks. Leads to mono-tactics.
    The graphics still lag modern computers.

    Enough of all this negativity...I thinks I'll go try Duke Nukem Forever now. After all these years, surely they have had the time to make a spectacular sequel...right?     … Expand
  68. valero
    Mar 31, 2013
    2
    you are paying 10$ per new unit they added
  69. Gargus
    Mar 18, 2013
    2
    The same things I didn't like about StarCraft 2 wings of liberty are back again for Heart of the swarm (which Ill just refer to as HOS) only in greater quantity this time. Don't get me wrong HOS still has that great polish that Blizzard puts into all of their games, a good balance for the races, a fleshed out storyline and the usual quality they put into their products but it is stillThe same things I didn't like about StarCraft 2 wings of liberty are back again for Heart of the swarm (which Ill just refer to as HOS) only in greater quantity this time. Don't get me wrong HOS still has that great polish that Blizzard puts into all of their games, a good balance for the races, a fleshed out storyline and the usual quality they put into their products but it is still lacking in several areas with their old trappings from SC2 back again, only much more this time around.

    I really don't like how HOS is constantly holding your hand the entire time. I never felt like I got to really chose my own strategies and I constantly felt like Blizzard was right there holding my hand and telling me what to do. Every mission you are guided along being told which place you need to build on, which unit to use, how to use it, what you need to accomplish and such. Some missions do give you a bit of freedom but for the most part you are directed on what to do. I just wish I had more freedom in more stages of the game because to me that's what a strategy game is, getting to use strategy and come up with ways to win and it just isn't that much fun when the game is always telling me what strategy to use. I never felt like I got to stretch the old brain out and flex it somewhat with the game doing your thinking for you. You can definitely tell this is from Blizzard because hand holding has become their thing even like World of Warcraft is based around quests and dialogue that guide you, tell you exactly where to go and what to do when you get there with even raid encounters telling you what to do and warning you before a boss does some special attack. The entire time I'm playing HOS I just feel like it's one great big training level that never fully removes the training wheels. Age of empires or civilization would hold your hand but it wasn't long before those games would let go and let you go off on your own. HOS feels like an overprotective mother that won't stop looking over your shoulder.

    The storyline which at its core was good and an interesting continuation it feels overly padded that gets a little long in the tooth after awhile. It had some great ideas in it that I enjoyed but there was too much of it constantly being shoved in my face. I don't always need every single detail of everything that's happening no matter how insignificant explained to me. The problem is a lot of the dialogue in the game just feels so needless and doesn't make me feel like I'm learning anything because it just feels pointless a lot of the time. I'm all for extra story and dialogue if it helps you feel more "in the games universe" because characterization is important but when it just seems like filler to pad out the game it means nothing to me.

    I felt too rushed in most missions. It always seemed like there was a timer, or there was always something forcing me to constantly be moving ahead. Either I'm going to be destroyed, some beam is going to kill me unless I slow it down, a giant ship is heading my way, the enemy is going to escape, I have to gather something before the enemy does or something else. Which being rushed goes back to lack of freedom and lack of the ability to use strategy since those missions usually just mean you bulk up on troops and run out as fast as you can. I mean a good timed mission can invoke a sense of urgency and make you sweat a little but when you get 4 or 5 of them in a row, or every other mission is timed it gets old real fast.

    This is a game worth playing but I can't recommend it for more than 20 bucks.    … Expand
  70. stevenjr
    Mar 13, 2013
    2
    so stale, but the cinematic are very fantastic. lol that's all. heart of swarm are not better than wings of liberty blizzard so many habitual behavior
  71. Malandrin
    Mar 25, 2013
    2
    At first I wanted to be kind and remind me that's a beautiful game anyway, and probably really good except for the solo campaign. And then I remember that Blizzard created for this game a silly, inconsistent, shallow story that bored me from the beginning to the end. Nice shot. It wouldn't be THAT terrible if that wasn't the sequel of Starcraft "let's make a great story for a great game"At first I wanted to be kind and remind me that's a beautiful game anyway, and probably really good except for the solo campaign. And then I remember that Blizzard created for this game a silly, inconsistent, shallow story that bored me from the beginning to the end. Nice shot. It wouldn't be THAT terrible if that wasn't the sequel of Starcraft "let's make a great story for a great game" Broodwar. Unfortunately it is.
    To put it in a nutshell: unworthy.    … Expand
  72. Ndi
    Jun 23, 2013
    2
    DOWNGRADED from a 9 to a 2 after Blizzard remotely killed my game. Updater stalls, installer stalls, everything stalls forever and I'm locked out. I don't WANT the next version, my old version works fine, buzz off.

    That's it. I'm buying the next SC2 installment through Reloaded.
  73. Scritty
    Apr 27, 2013
    1
    Dumbed down. Dumbed down and dumbed down. Tank rush? MUCH!! What is it with developers? Or does every gamer want a "lowest common denominator" experience these days? Starcraft 3 will likely be a 2 button cover based shooter as that seems to be all the brain dead dolts who buy games these days are capable of enjoying. Thank god for Indie games where gameplay, depth and longevity are stillDumbed down. Dumbed down and dumbed down. Tank rush? MUCH!! What is it with developers? Or does every gamer want a "lowest common denominator" experience these days? Starcraft 3 will likely be a 2 button cover based shooter as that seems to be all the brain dead dolts who buy games these days are capable of enjoying. Thank god for Indie games where gameplay, depth and longevity are still valued by most. This is garbage. Blizzard along with Bioware 2 of the best developers 10 years ago, now both churning out "assemble by numbers" thoughtless dumbed down drivvel like this.… Expand
  74. PCforever
    Mar 23, 2013
    1
    Rather than actually base Starcraft II upon Starcraft I, which is, a game about Strategry and Military Tactics, they decided to base Heart of the Swarm upon timed console gaming garbage like Legend of Zelda. Most of the missions are more "Race against the clock" to win trash.

    Avoid this garbage like the plage, it's about console style beat the clock and is nothing like the original Starcraft
  75. GDawgTUK
    Aug 28, 2013
    1
    The matchmaking is literally broken beyond repair. It is completely unreal how uneven matches will get. Every Tryhard on Battlenet will defend the matchmaking with by just blindly spraying off the term "MMR." "It's perfect, you don't even know about mmr do you?"

    This is not the perfect system people convince themselves it is. It does not take into consideration if you leave a game    The matchmaking is literally broken beyond repair. It is completely unreal how uneven matches will get. Every Tryhard on Battlenet will defend the matchmaking with by just blindly spraying off the term "MMR." "It's perfect, you don't even know about mmr do you?"

    This is not the perfect system people convince themselves it is. It does not take into consideration if you leave a game within, say, 90 seconds of it beginning, or if your starting building is destroyed by your own units. It can be manipulated to work in people's favor because it only counts win/losses. That's it. If you get good with one race, and try to play off-race, then without a doubt you will lose countless games before it evens back out. There is nothing that tracks your stats per individual race to know if you should have easier matches if you are playing a race you are not familiar with. It's a very broken system and needs immediate attention before this game's multiplayer can be considered anything other than a crying shame.    … Expand
  76. thehattrick
    Mar 12, 2013
    1
    Here's the trouble. Nevermind the paid reviews flodding metacritic (and there will be more). Nevermind the ad dollar scraps thrown out at the "gaming journalists" to buy their opinions. Nevermind the massive hype that Blizzard/Activision has pushed and will continue to push from Youtube to the Super Bowl. At the end of the day, the play of this game is a rehash of the last chapter,Here's the trouble. Nevermind the paid reviews flodding metacritic (and there will be more). Nevermind the ad dollar scraps thrown out at the "gaming journalists" to buy their opinions. Nevermind the massive hype that Blizzard/Activision has pushed and will continue to push from Youtube to the Super Bowl. At the end of the day, the play of this game is a rehash of the last chapter, shot through with more plot holes than a shotgun to swiss cheese, and wrapped up with gorgeously empty cinematics. This game is certainly everything that they promised it would be. It's also a complete perversion of everything that they once promised in games. The scenarios play out just like Wings of Liberty, in that they teach you basic mechanics you picked up already in the last game, pushing you to choose certain paths that ultimately have no impact on the ending. The play does not translate over to multiplayer either, same as Wings of Liberty did not. The writing is depressingly cliche, while the voice actors inflect with a sort of "I can't believe we're saying this stuff" vibe. And as of yet, we'll have to see how multiplayer shakes out, but the previews of units and live gameplay show that there will be an awful lot to tweak on the dev's side. All of this for a price that so many other games can beat. You have to ask yourself if this truly is the best that one of the largest gaming corps can do. There will be a moment in HotS and you will see many that get close when the naive twelve-year-old inside you that once thrived on cool and interesting gameplay, dies once again, and the bittersweet aftertaste of nostalgia will never be washed away by all the dew and doritos in the world. I won't spoil it for you, but if you're so interested to see what's become of the "point" of modern gaming, you can look at gameplay videos on Youtube or just check out the other franchises drained of fun by BlizzActi: SC2, WoW, and D3. It will be the last time I buy a product from Blizzard, as I should've done long ago.… Expand
  77. dargv
    Apr 13, 2013
    1
    I agree with some of the other comments about "beating the clock" This is a miserable sequel [like wings of liberty was because of the race the clock missions] to the original Starcraft.

    The original was about tactics. This one is basically Blizzard breathing down your neck, dictating to you how you must EXACTLY play the map they designed. They do this by having 90% of the    I agree with some of the other comments about "beating the clock" This is a miserable sequel [like wings of liberty was because of the race the clock missions] to the original Starcraft.

    The original was about tactics. This one is basically Blizzard breathing down your neck, dictating to you how you must EXACTLY play the map they designed. They do this by having 90% of the missions force you to race against some arbitray timer, taking away all the fun of base building, defense, rushing, tactics, ya know, what actually made Starcraft, well, Starcraft.

    Don't waste your 40 bucks on a bunch of missions that grab you by the neck and scream "GO GO GO RUSH, BEAT THE CLOCK, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, WE DEMAND YOU PLAY THIS OUR WAY"

    This is a pathetic sequel to Starcraft. I hope Blizzard sacks the entire console-loving devs who made this garbage when they get around to Starcraft 3 and turn the game back into a true RTS, instead of a mad rush to beat a clock.    … Expand
  78. kyriores
    Aug 4, 2015
    1
    Button mashing simulator. If you always dreamed of developing carpal tunnel syndrome, this game is for you ! In order to beat your opponent, you must be able to perform more actions per minute than they do. Oh and when you see x unit on the minimap, you have to produce y unit, that counters it. That's all the strategy there is to it. Another solid game by Blizzard.
  79. Dynamite089
    Jan 17, 2014
    1
    Nothing like Starcraft: Brood War when it comes to Custom Games/Chat System/Friends... The entire Battle.net feel has changed. I had issues playing this without the internet. The only singleplayer you can do is Campaign mode, unless you make a Custom Game but make sure to right click the map and select "Host Offline Game". The A.I. is pretty neat, and the art style is still the same. SameNothing like Starcraft: Brood War when it comes to Custom Games/Chat System/Friends... The entire Battle.net feel has changed. I had issues playing this without the internet. The only singleplayer you can do is Campaign mode, unless you make a Custom Game but make sure to right click the map and select "Host Offline Game". The A.I. is pretty neat, and the art style is still the same. Same game, just more modern, but it was a turn for the worse. Hardly ANY players are on during the night, but you can find plenty of Arcade games being hosted during the day. No Custom Games, hardly ever. Matchmaking? If you like playing against computers, good luck trying to find a partner. It's either you play ranked, or you play alone. Or go to arcade and disappoint yourself with the horrible maps. I've tried just about every RPG/ORPG that is hosted, and it doesn't compare to any maps you may have played on wc3 or sc1. The mapmakers just we not digging SC2, or something. Some maps are neat, but they need so much more work done to them. A lot of maps that seemed fun were abandoned by the mapmaker, so its hard to find any versions that aren't in BETA. Just not the game for me... Nothing like WC3 or SC1 when it comes to the Custom Games.. That's what I loved.… Expand
  80. Ccx55
    Mar 18, 2013
    0
    This expansion does nothing to improve on the fundamental flaws of Starcraft, it only adds a few gimmicky units. I would not recommend this expansion to anyone it's as much a waste of money as the original game.
  81. iamthewizard2
    Mar 15, 2013
    0
    In the HOTS campaign, my very own intelligence was insulted. I managed to finish the whole game with barely a base defence. I hardly even touched an upgrade in the evolution chamber. most missions a few handful of zerglings was enough to get the job done. I didn't even have to think. I didn't even have to plan. I was even on the phone to my friend with one hand and with the other clickingIn the HOTS campaign, my very own intelligence was insulted. I managed to finish the whole game with barely a base defence. I hardly even touched an upgrade in the evolution chamber. most missions a few handful of zerglings was enough to get the job done. I didn't even have to think. I didn't even have to plan. I was even on the phone to my friend with one hand and with the other clicking away aimlessly and before I knew it....MISSION SUCCESSFUL. I don't think there was even a mission that wasn't complete in less than 30 minutes. But it just doesn't stop at the poorly thought out difficulty curve (which treats us like babies who've just developed an opposing thumb). The HOTS story carried the same childish, cliché, predictable, and cringe worthy moments that were dished out to us from WOL. No momentum was lost in the declining storyline. No brain cell was spared either for all of mine were lost just witnessing it.… Expand
  82. sam712
    Dec 5, 2014
    0
    Starcraft went from a somber military-science fiction RTS about cybernetically enhanced exiles struggling for survival in a hostile sector of the universe, to a painfully generic space western with extendi-penis dragonflies grabbing a highly advanced two-story tall colossus. Bask in the glory of real time strategy as two testicular masses of comically isometric units duke it out withStarcraft went from a somber military-science fiction RTS about cybernetically enhanced exiles struggling for survival in a hostile sector of the universe, to a painfully generic space western with extendi-penis dragonflies grabbing a highly advanced two-story tall colossus. Bask in the glory of real time strategy as two testicular masses of comically isometric units duke it out with lighter fluid filled RC cars, decoy **** inflatable eyeballs, and figure skaters with akimbo popsicles to smack you with!

    By the time Legacy rolls around, RTS will die. Good riddance and RIP in pieces to the RTS genre.    … Expand
  83. hootis
    Sep 13, 2015
    0
    Campaign: WoL campaign was bad, but I think it was still overall a worth while experience. Hots campaign is awful, its a waste of time if you are older than 12. The dialog is painful and simple. There is no character, emotion, or purpose. Things simply happen and then you have to kill everything. Yay! The missions become very repetitive, especially the evolve missions. I know theyCampaign: WoL campaign was bad, but I think it was still overall a worth while experience. Hots campaign is awful, its a waste of time if you are older than 12. The dialog is painful and simple. There is no character, emotion, or purpose. Things simply happen and then you have to kill everything. Yay! The missions become very repetitive, especially the evolve missions. I know they are built to be simple but its really boring. Other missions are simple, revolve around one idea and are easily accomplished. There are no twists or turns in a mission that will make you think of any sort of strategy. Blizzard has introduced even more of their **** wow ideals as well. Everything has levels and all sort of **** maybe in an attempt to distract you from the poor quality of everything else.

    Multiplayer: I played a lot of WOL and really got sucked into the scene. I left after I realized that many of the players were smarter than blizzard and were aware that bliz was running a multi million dollar gaming industry into the ground. Simply from a business perspective they failed. 60$ for a game and 40$ for the expansion, is it any wonder why LOL and Dota took off? That compounded by the team nature of the games, even counter strike became successful with a 20$ fee which is really 5$ if you wait for a steam sale.

    Anyway blizzard really needed to do something amazing here if they wanted to survive, release the game for 20$ total and free multiplayer if you already have WOL. Then they would need to create a game mode that works with 4v4 or more players. Instead of barely putting effort into those maps, team games should have become much more of a focus.

    NOPE none of that. Lets add a few more units that don't contribute to the game in any meaningful way, then lets charge 40$ for it on top of the 60$ original. GREAT WAY TO EXPAND YOUR PLAYER BASE BLIZZARD!!!    … Expand
  84. Kosheus
    Mar 12, 2013
    0
    Give it zero because my CE key isnt working.. Simple.. Amazing..
    Pay 100$ and get nothing good policy.. ''Burn, pity russians, burn in hell", Blizzard said.
  85. JohnLSD
    Mar 15, 2013
    0
    I have played more and I have changed my mind about the last review. This is really a good addon. It doesn't have a lot of new additions but they can really change the game on multiplayer. I also like the leveling system. The story is not great, the movies are very nice and many. The gameplay is still starcraft 2, nothing special about that, is just cute, I liked WoL better. There are newI have played more and I have changed my mind about the last review. This is really a good addon. It doesn't have a lot of new additions but they can really change the game on multiplayer. I also like the leveling system. The story is not great, the movies are very nice and many. The gameplay is still starcraft 2, nothing special about that, is just cute, I liked WoL better. There are new tilesets, winter, desert, etc, I like that. What is missing is DotA, they where talking about a DotA mode. I am happy I bought it, I recommended to everyone, pro or regular players.

    I wish I could disable the newbish interface (those orange help cards) and the message when you select a enemy unit that you cant move it.    … Expand
  86. almazan
    Mar 12, 2013
    0
    what happened to you blizzard, you can´t say simply we did this game, period. people expect in us to do a good job and they don't forgive us if we act like we dont mean it.

    In a narrative game their soul is THE story not only the programming, if don't is like a beautiful girl with no brain, you can f..r but not marry her, i'm not trying to offend women. Just blizzard must take the path    what happened to you blizzard, you can´t say simply we did this game, period. people expect in us to do a good job and they don't forgive us if we act like we dont mean it.

    In a narrative game their soul is THE story not only the programming, if don't is like a beautiful girl with no brain, you can f..r but not marry her, i'm not trying to offend women. Just blizzard must take the path again i wish that they had the talent and i hope they have it yet.    … Expand
  87. jimenez
    Mar 12, 2013
    0
    we wait more than 10 years for this, f--k very much blizzard, was sc2 a bad space soup opera a bad hollywood story, what happened with the dark intelligent story of sc1.

    All the technology and good visual art, can´t hide the junk story is sc2, respect the old fans and new fans with a good story that will last not something who will rise and dissapear fast like coca cola Froth. Greedy    we wait more than 10 years for this, f--k very much blizzard, was sc2 a bad space soup opera a bad hollywood story, what happened with the dark intelligent story of sc1.

    All the technology and good visual art, can´t hide the junk story is sc2, respect the old fans and new fans with a good story that will last not something who will rise and dissapear fast like coca cola Froth. Greedy pays more than art i supossed.

    Did they spent the whole budget in the game except to have a good writer.    … Expand
  88. old_katarn
    Mar 12, 2013
    0
    Bigots work in Blizzard. I don't know how many times thousands of gamers in Russia were had by Blizzard, but Blizzard did it again. You pay money and get nothing. I don't think, that it's the last time they do it with us, so I give this game zero that's my mark for game, that can't be activated because of greedy publishers.

    Blizzard isn't worrying about Russian gamers. Publishers    Bigots work in Blizzard. I don't know how many times thousands of gamers in Russia were had by Blizzard, but Blizzard did it again. You pay money and get nothing. I don't think, that it's the last time they do it with us, so I give this game zero that's my mark for game, that can't be activated because of greedy publishers.

    Blizzard isn't worrying about Russian gamers. Publishers always complain about piracy on PC, but they do everything to make honest PC gamers to go and play cracked version of the game. OMG, you are paying 100$ for CE of the game, that doesn't work, and are reading how pirates are playing in cracked version. Or how people in other countries are playing this game. The only problem for me is that I've decided to buy this awful game with zero service and support that doesn't answer.    … Expand
  89. golgo13
    Mar 16, 2013
    0
    Look at all the paid shills giving 10/10 reviews. None of them even have spelling errors, like they've all been cut and pasted or computer generated based on Blizzard press releases, HOW FAR HAVE U FALLEN BLIZZARD!!!

    The game: Dumbed DOWN, gimmick RIDDEN, braincell KILLING, mind numbing, boring. None of the game units make sense, they're all based on the two retards, Dustin Browder    Look at all the paid shills giving 10/10 reviews. None of them even have spelling errors, like they've all been cut and pasted or computer generated based on Blizzard press releases, HOW FAR HAVE U FALLEN BLIZZARD!!!

    The game: Dumbed DOWN, gimmick RIDDEN, braincell KILLING, mind numbing, boring.

    None of the game units make sense, they're all based on the two retards, Dustin Browder and David Kim's, mistaken preconception of WHAT's COOOOOOOOOL, that only ends up being an ill conceived exercise in poor design and contrived mechanisms. But it doesn't matter to them as long as it makes the 13yo kids scream into their mics.    … Expand
  90. Dev69
    Mar 19, 2013
    0
    It is a poorly paced game, seems like most games are failing this time around like sim city. It is a total waste of money, this game is not even worth getting second hand
  91. patyomkin
    Mar 22, 2013
    0
    As usual, unbalanced game play. Funnily easy campaign in brutal mode, but the ai is shamelessly cheater in versus mode. Constant server side lagg in my region, f.ing annoying...
  92. slic
    Jul 30, 2013
    0
    Remember when you could turtle in your base, build defenses, build a powerful upgraded army, advance tactically and slowly towards the enemy base while taking all the time you need? Well Blizzard doesn't! This horses**t of a campaign is nothing but timed missions, it's all rush rush rush. No more experimenting with awesome new units and playing around with them, no more playing at your ownRemember when you could turtle in your base, build defenses, build a powerful upgraded army, advance tactically and slowly towards the enemy base while taking all the time you need? Well Blizzard doesn't! This horses**t of a campaign is nothing but timed missions, it's all rush rush rush. No more experimenting with awesome new units and playing around with them, no more playing at your own pace and formulating attack and defense strategies, now you have FREE and UNLIMITED units and all you have to do to win a mission is select them and press "A" at the enemy base; and even if you don't want to do this, you have no choice since every mission is a race against the clock and is annoyingly scripted. I can't even remember building a single base defense in the entire campaign. "This is how you are supposed to play the zerg" Blizzard says, well in that case please don't call this piece of fecal matter an RTS game because it has absolutely no relation to classical RTS games (especially starcraft 1). It plays more like Call of Duty.

    And that's not even the worst part. The story looks like it was written by a ten year old. There are no more plot twists, everything is predictable and cliche, and the dialogue is cringe inducing (example: "My queen, your hatred is burning like a star"). The days when you would play a mission for hours and then near its end start to foam at the mouth while you await the awesome revelation in the story, they are gone. You feel more and more boredom as you click "next mission", and your only motivation to finish is a feeling that you just want to get this s**t over with. There is absolutely nothing to like about this story, it's all about the angry girlfriend on a quest for revenge. How the heck can anyone even relate to her? Who cares about some hysterical b*tch and her love driven rampages?
    And why the heck are zerg humanized? Why do they spare civilians? What happened to the mindless swarm that ravages human populations across the galaxies? Now they feel like nothing but a tool for some b*tch's personal vendettas.
    And speaking of the star of the show, do you remember when Kerrigan was a cynical badass "Queen b*tch of the Universe" who cared for nothing but power, expansion, and the glory of the swarm? Well now she's a sensitive Queen heroine who cares about saving humanity, and of course her paramour Jim Raynor. Here's a summary of the game's dialogue without giving away spoilers:
    "O Raynor, Raynor! wherefore art thou Raynor?"
    "But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
    It is the east, where Char is burning."
    And even this incredibly simple story managed to have more plotholes than Swiss cheese. I can't even call them plotholes since they're absolutely nonsensical and serve nothing but to advance the story to the predictable and hurried ending.

    If you are a fan of the original series, then do yourself a favor and stay away from this game.    … Expand
  93. HUDWheels
    Dec 8, 2013
    0
    The online matchmaking is dreadful. I stopped playing for a few months, started again and was put into Silver league. My first 6 matches were against:-
    - Gold
    - Gold - Platinum - Diamond - Gold - Gold and guess what...I lost them all because I'm A SILVER PLAYER WHO SHOULD BE PLAYING SILVER PLAYERS NOT PLATINUM OR DIAMOND PLAYERS. Don't waste your time on the campaign either,    The online matchmaking is dreadful. I stopped playing for a few months, started again and was put into Silver league. My first 6 matches were against:-
    - Gold
    - Gold
    - Platinum
    - Diamond
    - Gold
    - Gold

    and guess what...I lost them all because I'm A SILVER PLAYER WHO SHOULD BE PLAYING SILVER PLAYERS NOT PLATINUM OR DIAMOND PLAYERS.

    Don't waste your time on the campaign either, it's pointless.    … Expand
  94. empleat
    Jan 9, 2015
    0
    This game haven´t 4 core support yet, at the same time 4 core cpus are 8 years old. I have Intel i7 3770 and this game use one my core at max. on 45 percent and second max on. 93.
    I have Geforce 780 and usage is 50 percent at max.
    Ram i have 1600mhz cl9. And SSD Samsung 840 Evo 256GB. I have 144 hz monitor and every fps, which drops under 144 cause shutters, because tearing is biger    This game haven´t 4 core support yet, at the same time 4 core cpus are 8 years old. I have Intel i7 3770 and this game use one my core at max. on 45 percent and second max on. 93.
    I have Geforce 780 and usage is 50 percent at max.
    Ram i have 1600mhz cl9.
    And SSD Samsung 840 Evo 256GB.
    I have 144 hz monitor and every fps, which drops under 144 cause shutters, because tearing is biger and biger lag.
    In mid game i have barely 100 fps and in late game i don´t have even 60 fps.
    And nobody have, even Nathanias haven´t 60 fps+
    60 fps is same bad, 120 fps is ok, but 60 is not playable, input lag is so big and tearing is huge.
    Blizzad customer support affirms, that even 30 fps are playable lol.
    They should try it yourself.
    They said it, because they can´t do 4 core support.
    You can´t play on unstable fps, so you need lock, so if this game haven´t even 60 fps, ok try play on 45, or 50 fps for example, really, or bigg lagg and you gona lose whole army.
    No way.
    Totaly unplayable game from medieval age.
    Even starcraft 1 is more playable lol.
    That should be great game, but performance ruined all game.
    Also Protoss is imba and no balance, protoss need nerf and they still nerf terran ???
    I don´t understand how somebody can play this **** pro, on this performance.
    GSYNC, doesn´t work well with this game a lot of issues and Eizo 244 monitors have input lagg 40 ms...
    I hate this game and there is also no option for disable chat, i don´t want listen kids and cries, so at start every game i need put player to ignore and do this on every round and after clean ignore list because 50 players are maximum.    … Expand
  95. Absynce
    Feb 25, 2015
    0
    this game is trash, as Starcraft 2 has always been, its about who can hit the most keys per minute in a sim city world. it should be a combat game, try making something new that resembles Myth: The Fallen Lords and maybe we buy your garbage.
  96. Hannibaal
    Aug 3, 2018
    0
    Es la misma mediocridad que fue Wings of Liberty pero potenciada (negativamente). En la campaña sigue la historia absurda de amor entre Raynor y Kerrigan, pero la campaña es mas corta y mas aburrida ya que zerg es una raza peor diseñada en este juego, nuevamente solo manejas una facción. Mediocre.

    El modo multijugador mejoró ligeramente, pero a cambio metieron estupideces como el swarm    Es la misma mediocridad que fue Wings of Liberty pero potenciada (negativamente). En la campaña sigue la historia absurda de amor entre Raynor y Kerrigan, pero la campaña es mas corta y mas aburrida ya que zerg es una raza peor diseñada en este juego, nuevamente solo manejas una facción. Mediocre.

    El modo multijugador mejoró ligeramente, pero a cambio metieron estupideces como el swarm host, el nexo con la habilidad de atacar para ayudar a la defensa, el oracle que puede matar a toda una linea de minerales en pocos segundos, y otra unidad aérea protoss que es solo de A click y cuyo nombre ni siquiera recuerdo ,etc. Siguen los graves problemas de diseño, las deathballs, las partidas a solo dos o tres bases, el juego basado en el puro acoso a los trabajadores y las batallas que solo duran 2 segundos, y las partidas sin remontadas. Mediocre.

    Si a WOL le di un 1/10, HOTS se lleva un 0/10, hay que compensar lo injustamente sobrevalorado que está SC2.    … Expand
  97. Nikolas_super
    Mar 5, 2022
    0
    Отличная игра, с хорошим сюжетом и графикой.
    Поставил плохую оценку, так как разработчики этой игры влезли в политику!
next
Page:

Awards & Rankings

17
#17 Best PC Game of 2013
33
#33 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
52
#52 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 68 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 66 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 68
  3. Negative: 1 out of 68
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Jun 10, 2013
    90
    The tutorials and the A.I have been improved, giving newcomers the chance to calmly try new tactics… before playing against experienced players that will go straight to their jugular. [April 2013]
  2. Games Master UK
    May 9, 2013
    85
    Accomplished, if not exactly groundbreaking. [June 2013, p.80]
  3. Hyper Magazine
    May 9, 2013
    90
    Heart of the Swarm is ScarCraft made better. Welcoming to newcomers, but never dumbed-down, the franchise at its best. [June 2013, p.66]
See all critic reviews »