I’ve recently acquired StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm a few days ago. I’ve been juggling between HOTS and WOW since. So far, I’m enjoying HOTS a lot. StarCraft II has definitely gone through a huge change from this expansion. There are a lot of new units, all great in my opinion. In-fact, the entire game so far has been extremely fun for me; However, a lot of the hotkeys have changed, which to a lot of us old school StarCraft players, means a lot. As most RTS players know, every second counts towards your goal for victory, so messing up on hotkeys because you’re used to the old layout is definitely a big negative in my book, but do not fret! Why? Well, StarCraft II allows you to input your own hotkeys. You can change your hotkeys for EVERYTHING. Yes, from units to buildings. It can all be changed to whatever you want it to be. What’s that? You don’t want to go in and edit every unit and buildings assigned keys? It’s okay, you can choose between a lot of different presets for this. I’m an old school StarCraft player, so whenever I play SC2, let alone Heart of the Swarm, I ALWAYS switch my hotkeys to the “Classic” preset.
The story of Heart of the Swarm so far feels exciting, but yet bland at the same time. Mind you, I am not finish with the game. In-fact, I’m probably close to the half-way mark at this point; However, I have played a lot of Multiplayer (if you’re not yet used to HOTS, expect to drop in your ladder and maybe even your league). I’m not going to spoil the story for those of you interested in this game. Just know there’s suspense and a lot of action, as usual for StarCraft. The only problem I have with it is that it feels like the story of every other StarCraft- Zerg, Protoss, and Terran play the same roles as always and act in the same way.
One great thing I’m really enjoying about HOTS, though, is the great customizations you can do with your units. You can enhance your units through DNA or enhancements to make them faster, stronger, etc. Also, HOTS has pulled a bit from WarCraft III and introduced Hero characters, which definitely makes the game more fun, but at the same time, kills the challenge (at least for me) of the game.
I’ll definitely have more on HOTS later as I play through it. As I’ve stated before, I’m juggling between HOTS and WOW (can’t let my Guild down by not showing up much). On another note, I should be doing a God of War: Ascension review soon, as well. I still haven’t received it in the mail just yet, but it’s expected some time this week or the beginning of next.
For now, HOTS has breathed new life into the game and my heart, once again, beats like the Heart of the Swarm.
Logging off,
Aaron “Ehpik”.
