StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is the second product in the StarCraft II trilogy featuring the zerg campaign and episode.

It will be released separately from the other two games and is expected to be priced as an expansion. It follows StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty chronologically and storywise.

Blizzard's storyboard team was already working on Heart of the Swarm while Wings of Liberty's gameplay was refined. A few missions ideas have been pitched, but nothing has been solidified yet, nor has its multiplayer.

Blizzard does not expect to release Heart of the Swarm in 2011. As of March 2011 Dustin Browder expected Heart of the Swarm to finish development in approximately one year.

Storyline
ziNGFBZW9nk  Heart of the Swarm is a sequel to Wings of Liberty. It focuses on Sarah Kerrigan and the development of a zerg empire. More will be seen of the Kel-Morian Combine and Umojan Protectorate.

Concept art shown at BlizzCon 2010 depicts a (number of) jungle setting(s).

Seemingly at the beginning, a Terran Dominion task force led by Nova Terra attacked a lab, seeking Kerrigan. Jim Raynor was also there, fighting and attempting to rescue Kerrigan.

Units
Blizzard is planning on new units. The lurker is a possibility but has not been confirmed. At BlizzCon 2010, the infested bunker was touted as a possible campaign unit. Concept art indicates the presence of another new zerg unit.

In addition, Blizzard is planning on un-nerfing the reaper.

Singleplayer
Ro_KwbVm6FQ The campaign operates similarly to an RPG, in which Kerrigan is focused on increasing her personal power through mutations. Zerg armies protect her as she garners this power. The greater her power, the more zerg she's able to control. Like Wings of Liberty, the player will be presented with choices as to which missions to carry out and which units to get, but such choices won't be based on cash. Both the missions and their objectives are intended to be quite different from the ones featured in Wings of Liberty. She will instead worry about evolving the Swarm.

The campaign will feature a branched storyline structure.

Multiplayer
Blizzard plans on adding "drawing" functionality for referees in Heart of the Swarm.

From a multiplayer standpoint, Heart of the Swarm is an expansion, not a sequel.

It will have a separate ladder from Wings of Liberty.

Heart of the Swarm will have the same e-sports focus as Wings of Liberty.

Possible Leaked Ending
In December 2010, a video was uploaded claiming to be the ending cinematic to Heart of the Swarm. The video was a very early rendering of the video with a temporary sound track and a watermark for The Third Floor, a company known to have done some of the cinematic work for Wings of Liberty. Blizzard did not comment on the video as part of its general policy to "not comment on rumors or speculation".