SteamWorld Heist 2 marks the seventh sport within the SteamWorld franchise, which has constructed itself extra as an anthology than a collection. The title is a playground for various concepts, loosely linked round a cartoon-robot aesthetic, slightly 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 a large leap over the primary sport, increasing on just about all of its techniques with out overcomplicating them or compromising its appeal.
Like the primary sport, SteamWorld Heist 2 defies straightforward 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 may be 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 another way. Somewhat 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 possibly can 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 threat and reward.
The place SteamWorld Heist 2 builds on the primary sport’s construction is thru a wide range of new techniques, 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 through the mission loadout, and the requisite expertise factors they earn in that mission will go towards the outfitted job. Every job has 5 ranges to unlock, with a sequence of highly effective skills turning into accessible all through.
The true enjoyable is in mixing and matching the talents you have already mastered to unlock new mixtures that may really feel gloriously overpowered. The Reaper, for instance, is normally restricted to SMGs, which have a shorter aimline than most different jobs. However you possibly can grasp its Harvest talent, which helps you to proceed to take photographs 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 possibly can take the Flanker, a shotgun-wielding class that is particularly cell, and apply its skills to a Sniper to present them entry to higher vantage factors. Or you possibly can 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 mixtures is an actual deal with, and important for mastering a number of the late-game challenges.
One level I particularly cherished concerning the job system is the way it handles extra expertise factors. Sometimes in a sport with job lessons, 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 acquire no expertise, or swap to a different job to achieve expertise however grow to be a lot weaker consequently. This softly pushes gamers towards going again and grinding with different jobs, which is not terribly enjoyable. In SteamWorld Heist 2, nonetheless, you possibly can hold your mastered jobs outfitted, and extra expertise factors earned go into that character’s reserve pool. The pool is then robotically utilized to the following job you equip and full a mission with. So you possibly can hold your elite-level Sniper for essential story missions, and financial institution the expertise you earn alongside the best way, then swap to a different job for an older and simpler mission to use all that banked expertise and meet up with a special job. This can be a good resolution to a typical design downside, and it sands off a serious tough fringe of most job-class techniques.
Your capability to equip further skills is set by your Cogs–slots for non-primary skills. You may have a certain quantity of Cogs by default, however this additionally performs into different techniques. Sure gear will provide you with extra Cog slots if you wish to cook dinner up some depraved mixtures, 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 provide extra burst-fire however will not ricochet off partitions, whereas one other could provide armor-piercing or therapeutic properties. It is extremely versatile and allows you to construct out your staff to fit your playstyle.
Other than 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 skills for every of your celebration members, or job-class upgrades that will probably be utilized to any bot outfitted with that job. My MVP was Daisy, whose final distinctive skill reduces the Cog value of all skills, making her the perfect tester for various job mixtures.
You can even use that foreign money to boost the submarine, your floating dwelling base that can also be your roving battle station. Versus the primary sport, Heist 2 all takes place on a single planet virtually completely lined in water. Your submarine will transport you to missions, however it should additionally participate in thrilling real-time naval battles towards 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 virtually as customizable as your characters, letting you establish which kinds of weapons to make use of, whether or not you wish to prioritize pace or energy, and so forth. The submarine fight looks like a minigame but it surely’s properly fleshed out and a great change of tempo from the common mission fight.
The water-logged planet can also be a serious factor within the story. The water supply–the lifeblood of steam-powered robots–is getting corrupted and resulting in a situation often 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 metallic components with bones, which do not rust.
The primary protagonist is Captain Quincy Leeway, a one-armed Steambot dwelling within the shadow of his mom, a legendary captain herself. Many of the story revolves round Leeway studying the right way to forge his personal path below the burden of these expectations, however he is additionally not an lively 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 searching 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 in the end a story a couple of ragtag group of ne’er-do-well pirates who grow to be a household, and whereas it may be just a little dialogue-heavy in uncommon moments, it is in service of a candy story.
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As you progress by 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 right down to one more system: your native popularity. To earn a particular new piece of submarine gear, you will usually must accrue a sure stage of popularity by finishing missions within the space. Normally this implies both perfecting a number of missions, or merely finishing a number of of them. Your popularity could be cashed in for particular “bounty” rewards whenever you relaxation at an inn. Resting is the one approach 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 approach Heist 2 well pushes you towards maximizing your effectivity with one other tactical wrinkle.
What’s most spectacular about all of those disparate techniques 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 gadget contributing and feeding into the perform of two or three different components. The result’s a sport that performs with clockwork precision from begin to end.