StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm -Collector's Edition

I enjoyed Starcraft (the first game), and I loved Warcraft (II and III) as well as Diablo II, however I do not play internet-only games such as Starcraft II or Diablo III (although Starcraft II can be played offline, but I believe you first have to connect and register). Regardless, I can not deny that Blizzard makes what I believe to be among the best collector's edition games. As noted in the title, this is a review of the "bonus items" or the "extra swag" you get in the collector's edition. I am NOT rating the game, only the extras. My goal is to help people decide whether or not they want to shell out for the extra items.First off, if you just want to play the game, there's no point in purchasing this collector's edition, unless you want the exclusive in-game items (see below) which frankly I don't think are worth it, however I'll let you be the judge.What does this set include:*The Game: for PC or MAC on DVD. You MUST have the original Starcraft II installed in order to play this! However, I am not going to rate the game, but do keep in mind if you want to play you must have Starcraft II.*Exclusive in-Game Content: you get three in-game items, HOWEVER only one of them is for Starcraft II. The others are for Diablo III and World of Warcraft. In order to play ANY of these games, you must be online at all times (which I personally think is asinine since Diablo and Starcraft have single-player campaigns). For Starcraft II your in-game item is a "Torrasque Ultralisk" and some portraits. Apparently the Torrasque Ultralisk is only a skin, and the portraits are portraits, so this won't exactly help you dominate the field. For World of Warcraft you get an exclusive pet, which I know a lot of people love. It's a pet "Baneling" which means it's an ugly insect-like creature from Starcraft, but it's probably useful, albeit far from cute. For Diablo III you get "wings" for your character and a banner sigil. Probably not the most useful items, but apparently it's supposed to make you look "cool". Both the wings and sigil are of course from Starcraft.*Mousepad: It's a nice mousepad. Has a scene from Starcraft on it. I don't know if people collect these mouspads, but it's of good quality, although nothing I would say extraordinary.*Behind the Scenes Blu-ray and DVD: Now we're getting somewhere! Very few companies produce these, which is very unfortunate, because this is one of the best reasons to get a collector's edition game! As noted, this is the same material on either the DVD or Blu-ray, however obviously the Blu-ray is high-def. You get over an hour of behind the scenes such as interviews with the voice-actors and people who brought the game to life, but of course the main attraction here is you get the FULL CINEMATICS to the game! If you love the game, you'll certainly love the gorgeous cinematics (just make sure to finish the campaign before watching these, unless you happen to like spoilers). If you don't love the game or don't want to play the game, well the cinematics are a treat nonetheless!*Art Book: Another reason to get this! Blizzard always produces top-quality art books for their collector's editions, which they have been doing since the days of Warcraft III. Most games that have a bonus art book include a flimsy softcover book with 20 or so pages. Not here! Blizzard gives you a whopping 144-page beauty! The book is hardcover, printed in the USA (nice), has an embossed and metallic cover! This alone makes the collector's edition worth it in my personal opinion.*Soundtrack: I love video game music! I think the music to games is as beautiful if not more so than most movie soundtracks. Now, if you don't enjoy music from Starcraft, then this is NOT for you. However, if you do enjoy it, then you are in luck! This CD includes 11 tracks from the game, and is nearly 75 minutes in length! Also, it comes in a high-quality case, which is SO much better than a flimsy sleeve!To Summarize:GOOD: Lots of great bonus items if you like that stuff!BAD: If you only want to play the game, don't bother purchasing the Collector's Edition. Also, no figure for those that like that kind of stuff.Overall, I think the swag in this edition, as well as other Blizzard Collector's Editions is top notch! I only wish recent Blizzard games did not require internet connection for those that only enjoy the single-player campaigns, but unfortunately they do not. Still, I won't deny that I think this is about as perfect a collector's edition as possible, with also an excellent price ($30 more than the standard edition). Some people might want a "collectible figure" which is NOT included in this set, although Blizzard will likely have one available for separate purchase later. I'm not a huge fan of figurines, so for me this is not a problem, however keep in mind none are included. Nonetheless, the bonus items are top.

I've never written a review before, but I liked this game so much that I decided to go ahead and write a review. I will try to avoid spoilers.I am a long fan of Starcraft, since the first version, which I played multiple times even though it is not very common for me to play a game after I finish it. Additionally, I usually do not play multiplayer because I am not very good at it and I have little time to improve. So I will base my review mostly on the single player part of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.Cinematics:You first start the game and you are greated with a cinematic scene that is incredibly good, you can almost feel you are in the future the game tells, the scenery is very well done, you can see details of the game unit that makes you believe they could be real. Not all the cinematics share the same level of detail, but they are all very well done and sometimes I want to finish a mission just to reveal the next scene. Additionally, the voice acting and the expressions were very well made, in one scene one of the characters tell other a big revelation and you can feel the emotion between them and in their expressions.History:One of the great features of the StarCraft games has always been the history, which is very good to the point you feel you are watching a movie or reading a great book, when in fact you are playing a videogame in which you can be part of the history. In this game Blizzard continues the trend, creating a history that although occurs in a distant future and distant place still is something you can relate too, you can get surprised at the plots, few sorry for the characters when something bad happens to them, cheer their victories and be sad for their misfortunes. And even the alien ones you can relate to them. And this is the first zerg campaign ever that I liked them. In previous games the zerg were always the destructive force with hateful leaders, but in this game you can finally understand what is behind the zerg philosophy and how they could fit in the universe without destroying everything.Graphics:The graphics are very good, and even in a computer not very powerful I was able to enjoy the battles and maps without problems. After I changed my computer to a better one I was able to run this game in ultra settings, and I liked a lot how the overall look and detail of the game. It is fun to see now some details of the hydralisk of the zerglings I was not able to see before. And you can close up the camera to the map and then you can see a close up of the units.Gameplay:Again, I am not very good at issuing hundreds of commands a minute in a game, and I like a game to be fun without being hard. So I played the single player on normal difficult and then I changed to Hard after I finished normal. The campaign is a little smaller than the one for Wings of Liberty, with 20 missions and some 10 missions for swarm "augmentation". The campaign missions are great, I liked a lot the introduction they make of the units and the way they let you decide your own strategy based on what you already know in the later half of the game. In the end I preferred using swarm hosts, zerglings and hydras although I think most people would try something else. In previous games I almost never used zerglings so it was fun that I could use a new strategy in Heart of the Swarm. Additionally the swarm evolution missions create a good interlude for the campaign missions and are fun and very useful to understand how to next evolve your underlings.Collector items:I bought the collector edition mostly for the art book and the behind the scenes blu ray disc and I was not disappointed. The art book is very well made, with gorgeous pictures featuring multiple points of the history. It is best you do not look into it before you finish the game. The same for the behind the scenes blu ray, which show the whole history again and some videos about how the game was made. I was particularly surprised to know that Tricia Helfer made Kerrigan's voice in Starcraft II, I liked her a lot her role in Battlestar Gallactica, and here she made a great acting too.I liked the mousepad too, but because I use a mouse only in work I will not use the mousepad... my colleagues would be asking all the time what is it.Overall, when I finished this game I felt that I finally found a game that I could spend a long time replaying it, be it for the strategy mechanics, new units, graphics and history. Unfortunately Blizzard only releases like three of these per decade. Actually, I think that is fortunate because it would be hard to keep a social life, work and be able to keep up with the releases and the wish to play again and again.Sorry for the long review... well, now I will go back to play Starcraft again... and maybe I will even play again the first one and Starcraft Wings of liberty just to refresh the old memories.Finally, I strongly recommend Starcraft II Wings of Liberty and Starcraft II Heart of the Swarm for anyone who likes strategy games or a good storytelling.

I had a small issue with delivery of product was not told it was backordered, but this was expertly and quickly resolved by Amazon, I am happy with the product and to receive it at such a great price. Looks nice to my Orgrional Collectors Edition

Needed the Diablo wings!

Decent collector editionMuch better than lagacy of void

Any Starcraft fan needs this game. Any Kerrigan lover needs this edition!

Exactly what i wanted!