14 DAY TRIAL // A key cinematic from the Starcraft 2 real time strategy Heart of the Swarm series seems to have been leaked online, showing a sequence which appears to be positioned somewhere towards the end of the narrative structure (the full video can be seen at the end of this article).
Some sites are claiming that the leaked video is the actual end cinematic for the video games, which at the moment does not have a launch date, but it seems to lack the emotional punch that was included in the ending of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty.
The video itself seems to be still worked on, with story board images spliced in at certain points, probably to supplement special effects, and a layer of graphical polish is clearly lacking.
The video is branded with the logo of The Third Floor, a cutscene production company which has already worked with Blizzard on Wings of Liberty, which lends some credibility to this being actually taken from Heart of the Swarm.
The voice acting is also pretty similar to what players have already heard in the initial release of Starcraft II and the concepts included, from the future of the Zerg swarm to the revenge missions that Kerrigan and Raynor are on, are some that make sense within the game universe.
The game developer has stated “Blizzard Entertainment does not comment on rumors or speculation.”
The company has not said when it plans to launch Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, but a 2012 date has been mentioned as being the most probable.
The next installment in the series should push the single player narrative forward while also tweaking the multiplayer side of the game.
Here's the video in its full early days glory, but be warned that the upload could be taken off at any time, as it has already disappeared from YouTube and Vimeo a few times already: