14 DAY TRIAL // Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm is nothing if not classic in its approach to real-time strategy, with base building and worker management that has changed little since the first game in the series was launched and battles that play out in ways similar to how they did in 1998.
This has created a conundrum for the development team at Blizzard because gamers are expecting an interesting single-player component for Starcraft, but the core gameplay mechanics are preserved in order to keep multiplayer interesting.
After about five single-player missions, the magic starts to kick in and the campaign of Heart of the Swarm starts throwing curveballs, scenarios that have clearly been designed to turn on their head all expectations that fans have of how the game should play.
There are incentives to constantly push forward rather than use the classic turtle and then try to boom to defeat an enemy.
There are side missions designed to introduce new units and Blizzard constantly delivers other objectives to change up the missions’ dynamic and Achievements that could lead to replays.
It’s an impressive arsenal of ideas that Blizzard manages to deploy to make Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm seem modern, but it’s not enough to mask the lack of innovation.
I understand why the experience remains the same and I’m sure that plenty of players like it that way and want as little evolution for the third entry, Legacy of the Void, as possible.
But I do believe that there’s a lot of untapped revolutionary potential in Starcraft and I wish that Blizzard were courageous enough to split the franchise into two.
One strand could remain classic in its expression, serving mostly multiplayer requirements, while another could revolutionize its own nature and compete with modern titles like Company of Heroes 2.
As the Zerg campaign teaches players, evolution is necessary to long-term survival.