StarCraft 2 HotS lends a helping hand to newbies

Blizzard's soon-to-be released StarCraft 2 expansion Heart of the Swarm will boast a plethora of new features designed to introduce gamers to the highly competitive multiplayer world.

According to a new video posted by the company, gamers can take advantage of the three-stage training mode, designed to slowly introduce the core concepts of the game before unleashing all the options.

"In training you will be able to hone the basic skills involved in amassing an army for each of the three races in the game," comments the video's narrator.

"Once you have mastered the practice options available in training mode you now posses the basic knowledge required to defeat an opponent in StarCraft 2."

Additionally, the game will soon include a 'verses A.I.' mode for those not quite ready to be bashed about by other players.

The game will "intelligently pair" players with a difficulty setting that matches their ability, determined on the results of three placement matches.

Experience points are also awarded for playing a specific race across all the modes, with rewards offered for each of the thirty levels obtained on all three races.

These rewards include dance animations to taunt other gamers and new skins for characters, among other cosmetic touches.

Take a look at the full video below:

James Lee

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James Lee is a freelance writer and analyst with extensive experience in the technology, media and games sectors. For the past few years he has provided content for internationally published industry reports, SEO companies and a variety of news-focused websites. Prior to this, James was responsible for covering news and producing in-depth features for GamesIndustry.biz while occasionally contributing to its sister-site. Eurogamer.net. In addition to this he has contributed to other notable sites such as CVG.co.uk, Edge-Online and DigitalSpy.