SteamWorld Heist 2 marks the seventh sport within the SteamWorld franchise, which has constructed itself extra as an anthology than a sequence. The identify is a playground for various concepts, loosely linked round a cartoon-robot aesthetic, quite than a linked universe of acquainted gameplay buildings and tales. Heist 2 marks solely the second direct sequel, after SteamWorld Dig 2. Since Dig was SteamWorld’s breakthrough, it appears vital that the second true sequel goes to the more-modest cult-hit SteamWorld Heist. However the proof is within the pudding, as SteamWorld Heist 2 is an enormous leap over the primary sport, increasing on just about all of its programs with out overcomplicating them or compromising its appeal.
Like the primary sport, SteamWorld Heist 2 defies simple categorization, because it actually solely performs like itself. You and your band of Steambots go on missions to tightly enclosed indoor areas, and participate in turn-based tactical fight. Whereas there’s cowl and talents with cooldowns such as you would possibly discover in a typical XCOM-like, the 2D perspective shifts extra than simply your point-of-view–in comparability to its style contemporaries, Heist 2 performs extraordinarily in a different way. Moderately than flanking round enemies, there’s an enormous emphasis on verticality, in addition to lining up trick-shots utilizing laser sight-like aimlines to bounce your projectiles off the partitions or objects to hit an enemy ducking behind cowl. And like the primary sport, you may choose up luggage of elective loot, sometimes together with one particularly well-hidden or well-guarded piece of epic loot, after which head for the evacuation level to finish the mission. How lengthy you keep to seize each final piece of loot is usually pressed by an escalating alarm system, creating a pleasant stress between danger and reward.
The place SteamWorld Heist 2 builds on the primary sport’s construction is thru a wide range of new programs, every of which feels full-fledged in itself and enhances the present loop. Major amongst these is a brand new job-class system, which is outlined by your weaponry. Any Steambot can equip any job by merely switching their main weapon in the course of the mission loadout, and the requisite expertise factors they earn in that mission will go towards the geared up job. Every job has 5 ranges to unlock, with a sequence of highly effective talents changing into accessible all through.
The actual enjoyable is in mixing and matching the talents you have already mastered to unlock new combos that may really feel gloriously overpowered. The Reaper, for instance, is often restricted to SMGs, which have a shorter aimline than most different jobs. However you may grasp its Harvest ability, which helps you to proceed to take pictures at enemies so long as you are delivering deadly injury, after which equip it onto a stronger class like Boomer or a long-range class like Sniper, permitting one unit to probably clear a complete room. Equally, you may take the Flanker, a shotgun-wielding class that is particularly cell, and apply its talents to a Sniper to present them entry to higher vantage factors. Or you may take a Sniper’s detailed aim-sight and provides it to a Boomer to see the place their rockets’ splash injury will hit. Toying with these combos is an actual deal with, and important for mastering a number of the late-game challenges.
One level I particularly liked in regards to the job system is the way it handles extra expertise factors. Usually in a sport with job courses, mastering a job presents you with an annoying selection: Stick along with your mastered job to provide the greatest shot at finishing troublesome story missions however achieve no expertise, or change to a different job to achieve expertise however develop into a lot weaker in consequence. This softly pushes gamers towards going again and grinding with different jobs, which is not terribly enjoyable. In SteamWorld Heist 2, nevertheless, you may maintain your mastered jobs geared up, and extra expertise factors earned go into that character’s reserve pool. The pool is then mechanically utilized to the subsequent job you equip and full a mission with. So you may maintain your elite-level Sniper for essential story missions, and financial institution the expertise you earn alongside the best way, then change to a different job for an older and simpler mission to use all that banked expertise and meet up with a unique job. This can be a good answer to a standard design downside, and it sands off a serious tough fringe of most job-class programs.
Your capability to equip additional talents is decided by your Cogs–slots for non-primary talents. You will have a certain quantity of Cogs by default, however this additionally performs into different programs. Sure gear gives you extra Cog slots if you wish to cook dinner up some depraved combos, or they can be utilized for different utilities like enhanced armor, sidearms or grenades, or therapeutic packs. And even inside a single job, the weapon selection is expansive–one SMG would possibly supply extra burst-fire however will not ricochet off partitions, whereas one other could supply armor-piercing or therapeutic properties. It is extremely versatile and allows you to construct out your staff to fit your playstyle.
Apart from upgrading your particular person crew members with jobs and gear, you will additionally earn particular foreign money to spend in your house base, which can go towards advancing your celebration in different methods. You possibly can select to spend it on particular person, distinctive talents for every of your celebration members, or job-class upgrades that will probably be utilized to any bot geared up with that job. My MVP was Daisy, whose final distinctive potential reduces the Cog value of all talents, making her the best tester for various job combos.
It’s also possible to use that foreign money to reinforce the submarine, your floating house base that can also be your roving battle station. Versus the primary sport, Heist 2 all takes place on a single planet nearly completely coated in water. Your submarine will transport you to missions, however it can additionally participate in thrilling real-time naval battles in opposition to enemy ships, or can be utilized to discover and discover hidden nooks with their very own particular caches of kit. As you unlock extra submarine gear slots, it turns into nearly as customizable as your characters, letting you establish which varieties of weapons to make use of, whether or not you need to prioritize pace or power, and so forth. The submarine fight looks like a minigame nevertheless it’s properly fleshed out and a very good change of tempo from the common mission fight.
The water-logged planet can also be a serious ingredient within the story. The water supply–the lifeblood of steam-powered robots–is getting corrupted and resulting in a situation generally known as the Rust. The dominant factions are the high-powered and glossy Dieselbot Navy, who pleasure themselves on not needing steam energy, and the Rattlers, a grim robotic cult whose members have began systematically changing their steel elements with bones, which do not rust.
The principle protagonist is Captain Quincy Leeway, a one-armed Steambot dwelling within the shadow of his mom, a legendary captain herself. A lot of the story revolves round Leeway studying how you can forge his personal path underneath the burden of these expectations, however he is additionally not an energetic participant in missions. As an alternative, he is the voice within the earpiece of your different mission-bound bots, giving directions and offering context for the missions. You do play as Leeway when exploring your ship or docking with a retailer, or fixing the occasional easy exploration puzzle. And whereas Leeway begins out merely on the lookout for a rating, it isn’t lengthy earlier than the story turns towards uncovering the key of the Rust corruption, in addition to getting caught between the warring factions. That is finally a story a few ragtag group of ne’er-do-well pirates who develop into a household, and whereas it may be slightly dialogue-heavy in uncommon moments, it is in service of a candy story.
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As you progress by way of the world and uncover the map–with an ever-so-satisfying cloud-clearing animation as you do–you’ll discover sure areas ability-locked to your submarine. That gating comes all the way down to yet one more system: your native popularity. To earn a particular new piece of submarine gear, you will typically have to accrue a sure stage of popularity by finishing missions within the space. Normally this implies both perfecting just a few missions, or merely finishing a number of of them. Your popularity might be cashed in for particular “bounty” rewards while you relaxation at an inn. Resting is the one solution to regain entry to celebration members you have already used, so maximizing your popularity and bounty rewards means having a deep bench of robots to finish a number of missions between every keep on the inn. It is only one extra method Heist 2 neatly pushes you towards maximizing your effectivity with one other tactical wrinkle.
What’s most spectacular about all of those disparate programs is how effectively they synergize with one another, and the way they continue to be simply comprehensible and never overwhelming. Like a well-crafted Steambot, every half and kit of SteamWorld Heist 2 attaches just-so to a different, with every bit of the system contributing and feeding into the perform of two or three different elements. The result’s a sport that performs with clockwork precision from begin to end.