Ditching the space exploration of the original, SteamWorld Heist 2 is a swashbuckling tactics adventure that places you in the shoes of Captain Leeway. He takes to the Great Sea with his ragtag group of Steambots to solve the water crisis, deal with the oppressive navy making things worse, and prove he can live up to his legendary name. The game's writing is undoubtedly charming and has you rooting for the crew. This also extends to the various taverns and areas found on the Great Sea, which are filled with fun, humorous characters that never outstay their welcome, and make the world feel lived in.
The gameplay loop breaks down into two sections. There's an overworld in which you traverse the waters in your submarine. This includes battling navy ships (and perhaps even other enemies) as you explore the seas to find missions. While it's cool to find hidden areas and shortcuts, this is probably the weakest part of the game – especially the further you get into the adventure.
The other half, and the main event of the game, are the turn-based battles. These are 2D tactical fights featuring the same things that made the original game so great. This time around, there are six unique classes available, which is good by itself, but where it really shines is the cog system, which allows you to level up in one class and transfer some of the abilities to another, leading to some deadly combos (the Engineer's cover is fantastic for the Sniper, for example). You can also recruit specific Steambots from taverns, who in turn have their own unique abilities to add an extra layer. These are backed up by a unique number of mission types, such as capturing a specific piece of loot in time, beating a boss, or just simply surviving.
SteamWorld Heist 2 does everything the name implies. It has the copious amounts of charm and strong world-building found in the wider series, while building and improving on the excellent gameplay foundation introduced in the original SteamWorld Heist. This seafaring adventure isn't one you should miss if you're after some top-tier tactics, and the improvements over the original make the almost-10-year wait more than worth it.
Comments 7
Yep, one for the wishlist for when it goes on sale.
Appreciate the review.
Loved the first one (and all Steamworld games) so looking forward to this. Glad it’s kept the charm of the original!
I loved the first so I’m def getting this day one but I’m disappointed that they ditched the space theme even though I love pirate stuff too.
Is it just more of the first one? I tried and failed to get into that one.
I'm excited but the price tag is high for I assume different level of production and that's clear in the screenshots but at the same time to me the exploration of the seas and islands/ports/whatever else and like this review says are weak I mean the original was a space background with only few branching optional paths so to me them expanding it and as not sure how they were going to go about it I was skeptical and still am.
I know it's not open world levels of things but still, time/tedium does matter to me.
I always found the combat to be fun, even tried the 1st one again briefly on hard or normal difficulty and it's still fun.
No quick restarts is kind of annoying though to see as a factor for this one. I can understand why they would have done this but still annoying.
The leveling I was questioning if it would get more depth or not (can go either way these days, especially with how sick and tired of skill trees at this point and how boring the stats/perks are that I avoid games with them) but seems fair I guess. The abilities to another is nice, swapping guns will still be there. Hats maybe even though didn't really care regardless as don't care for cosmetics.
Particular mission types hmm, while I like the idea, in many games whether racing or combat ones it can go either way depending on HOW particular they are though. But I've never hated challenges in games that offer them to spice up a game with more things to do or play a certain way (meaning I don't care for trophies but if they are there it's fair for them to be there, I only go for some in games depending on how useful I think it is or easy enough).
Classes can go either way though. That screenshot makes me think it's level unlocking which is fair I guess it's not an obnoxious skill tree I guess and just unlocks in a menu but still menus, why not just a mission perk unlock or found somewhere why always MENUs. Sick of it. 'We made enough of the game and don't want to alter more so a menu while are what they are to develop is more safer for us' it's just lazy and annoying, at least in AAA more so.
Weapon swapping was fine and the different dialogue/whatever differences they did have based on maybe items I think it was the additional slots and hats were cosmetics so I do forget how not as full that aspect was but it didn't bother me really, some games with too much gear/focus on gear can be just boring to me and stats become annoying for what 1-10% changes and how enemies/party members are is so annoying of their differences.
I am patiently waiting for SteamWorld Dig 3.
@Svark Same for me. I was going to get at launch (I loved the original) but there's a few quirks which will mean I'll try to wait. I think the alarm system sounds bad (other reviews note it too) and also wish the characters still had classes, rather than your weapon choosing the class (seems like a backwards step to me)
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