SteamWorld Heist II: Upgrading Greatness

It’s uncommon to see a brand new concept nailed on the primary attempt, however 2015’s SteamWorld Heist very a lot managed it. In an age the place squad-based tactical video games like XCOM had been massively well-liked, Heist requested a daring design query – how do you try this, however in 2D? The consequence was an experiment gone very, very proper – a tight-knit technique expertise that noticed turn-based ways given a freeform twist, the place you managed the exact angle of each gunshot, performing outrageous ricochet trickshots, striving to realize completely executed spaceship heists, and desperately grabbing a great deal of collectible hats.

Sadly, the unique Heist by no means made it to Xbox consoles, however I’m very joyful to say that its sequel will arrive in your console or PC tomorrow, August 8. SteamWorld Heist II returns with a brand new design query – how do you make a sequel to one thing that felt so full? The reply is to maintain the core of the motion intact, and make every little thing round it greater and higher. Relocating the motion from outer house to the ocean, SteamWorld Heist II affords a extra explorable world, extra participant alternative, and new methods to tinker together with your squad, all set amid a brand new robot-pirate aesthetic.

Returning gamers will instantly discover how way more expansive this appears – the place the primary recreation noticed you travelling down a broadly linear map of missions, you now management a dinky submarine, bodily guiding your vessel throughout the seas, taking down enemy ships in miniature real-time battles, and selecting the place you need to head subsequent. Missions are plentiful, and are available in many kinds – some will see a complete squad having to outlive for a set variety of turns, others could have you pitting a single character in opposition to a gauntlet of challenges.

Every mission nonetheless affords popularity (a foreign money that successfully unlocks your progress by means of the sport), but additionally affords bounty factors, which could be spent on a sequence of rewards. In a single in-game day, every squad member can solely participate in a single mission – and also you shortly realise there’s an artwork to creating positive you squeeze in each mission doable, earlier than crusing to an area bar for a relaxation, and an opportunity to assert all of your bounties.

It’s a small mechanical determination with main ramifications – as you construct your ragtag group of robots (hiring new ones alongside the way in which), you don’t simply want to consider which set of weapons and talents will go finest collectively, but additionally which smaller teams can complement each other to mean you can tackle as many missions as doable.

This leads us to a different of Heist II’s large adjustments – any robotic can tackle any class by merely equipping them with the requisite weapon, however they’ll additionally switch skills from lessons they’ve already levelled up. It permits you to tinker together with your methods to a minute diploma – aided by the truth that each new character comes with private skills that solely they’ll use.

As soon as you start digging into the probabilities at your metallic fingertips, you’ll notice there’s an unlimited flexibility right here. Personally, I’ve been an enormous fan of turning a crew member with the power to fireside an enormous laser that pierces a number of enemies right into a Flanker, providing them bonus harm for hitting enemies from behind – there’s nothing higher than travelling throughout the map to line up an ideal shot and taking out three enemies directly.

It’s one other daring transfer from a daring sequence – SteamWorld video games have are available in many alternative kinds within the decade and extra they’ve been round – and its newest incarnation reveals no lack of that very same ambition. That is greater, longer, and extra open to your interpretation than any SteamWorld recreation earlier than, however nonetheless reveals the identical spark of genius that powered the unique Heist. In the event you didn’t play the unique, now’s the time to take a dive into SteamWorld Heist II’s good blue seas.

SteamWorld Heist II involves Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox One, and Home windows PC on August 8.