Heart of the Swarm unit stats/lore and beta access

[Kimera757]

You can find up-to-date info on Heart of the Swarm unit stats on this Blizzard page: http://us.battle.net//sc2/en/blog/8218586 (Naturally the wiki will be updated with this info soon.)

Beta access is now freely available for everyone who preordered Heart of the Swarm before December 18th, and will still be available if you preorder afterward (although in waves, rather than immediately). Link: http://us.battle.net//sc2/en/blog/8218587

[TcheQuevara]

Thank you mr. Head! I'll be reading them. Keep the good work with the wiki.

EDIT: Just read it.

My overall impression: most of the entries just say "someone designed a new weapon".

Isn't lore supposed to add flavour to a game? Those lore entries have no flavour at all. You see, maybe they didn't want to add any ney element to the lore. For example, marine and zealot lore pretty much define a big part of their races' personlities. So maybe they didn't want to add more information because they thought that could change things too much.

But an unit doesn't need to be relevant story-wise to be fun. Reapers and firebats, for example, have fun information about them that doesn't change anything in the game universe.

The only actual backstory we got here is:

- Kachinsky's late brother designed the Widow mines (loved it)

- There is an order of young dark templar who can manipulate time.

And that's it. All the rest of it are basically descriptions of what the units do.

I don't think the writers asked themselves this question: "if anyone remember this unit's lore, is it going to add any flavour to battles?"

[Hawki]

Technically the widow mine is inspired from Victor's old designs. He was long dead before the Second Great War occured.

Looking at the entires, I know what you mean, but I'm not too put off by it. We got plenty of unit lore in WoL via the armoury, so chances are we'll get similar treatment, at least for the zerg (in that, their core genuses aren't specified as I'm guessing we'll assimilate them during the campaign itself). And the Tempest and mothership core, I think there's more going for them than you say. New motherships being built, new war machines being designed, the Oracle possessing extremely advanced technology...looks like the protoss are getting back in action. Not sure how that'll factor into LotV, if at all, but time will tell I guess.

I'm more put off by the widow mine though - its unit description seems to harken back to outdated game mechanics. Go figure.

[Gradius]

Gradius's checklist to making cookie-cutter zerg unit bios:
1) Mention "parasitic symbiotes".
2) Talk about "viscous" fluids.
3) Give us gameplay information instead of actual lore.

Other than that the descriptions were ok. I yearn for the days of the SC1 lore manual.

[Visions of Khas]

The responses on there are pretty depressing. But am I the only one who's just pissed at these half-assed unit portraits? I feel like I could break that Dark Templar's neck, and the Swarm Host looks atrocious.

[Kimera757]

I wouldn't be upset at the first. You're talking about a psychic scholar, not a warrior.

[Visions of Khas]

It still seemed incongruous to me to see a frail Protoss, regardless of profession or caste. It strikes me more as a wizened elder than a youth.

But I agree that the Widow Mine has the best entry so far. :]

EDIT Oh hey, you can rotate the 3D models! SWEET!

[DemolitionSquid]

These asshats have had weeks to edit this, and they still say the Mothership Core has Energize and the Viper siphons heath.

I wish the world had ended this morning. We no longer deserve to reign.

[Turalyon]

I suppose the lore entries are intentionally spare so as not to spoil their introductions in the game itself.

Then again, I too miss the actual lore descriptions of the units like in the original manual. Pure fluffery at it's best.

[Triceron]

We can only hope for a 'Book of Cain' for SC2, but I have a feeling Warcraft would get one first.