If there is one thing StarCraft fans are good at, it is waiting. After waiting more than ten years for Blizzard to release StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, fans knew to expect a bit of a gap before the next installments. The game was always planned as a trilogy within itself, with three campaigns each telling a different story from a different race’s point of view. We still don’t have a release date set for the next chapter, but now there is hope, as a new trailer has been released showing off the next expansion, Heart of the Swarm.
Technically, calling it an expansion is bit of a misnomer—it is actually a full new game that will be packaged and sold like an expansion, but with a new set of protagonists and a new story that should rival the original Terran campaign in length. When StarCraft II came out, the title Wings of Liberty was not a subtitle for the game, but rather just the name of the campaign that shipped first. The plan was always to release three full campaigns: The Terran campaign, Wings of Liberty, was released with the full game. The second upcoming campaign featuring the Zerg, titled Heart of the Swarm is due next year. And a campaign featuring the Protoss titled Legacy of the Void will finish off the trilogy…someday.
Although Blizzard have released a trailer for Heart of the Swarm, there is no set release date yet for the game, or even an official release window. Based on clues dropped by the developer, Heart of the Swarm will be released in 2012, possibly in the Spring, but that could easily change. No clue on when to expect Legacy of the Void, but 2014 seems possible.
But with E3 looming, Blizzard seems to want to remind people that they have a game in progress. So check out the trailer for StarCraft II: Heart of the Void, and look for it on PC whenever Blizzard feels like releasing it.
