Heist, heist, baby
I’ve yet to discover a SteamWorld game I don’t like.
It barely matters, as long as it results in some good puns.
The studio is a perpetual notion machine.
Unfortunately, the water is going bad, making the clean H2O required for steambot engines scarce.
Our heroes are out to discover what’s behind this water crisis.
The characters are simple but genial.
The one-armed Captain is living in the shadow of his notorious mother.
It’s a bit like playing an arcadey twin stick shooter between the meatier tactical missions.
It is in such missions where the really compulsive tactical stuff shines.
These are battles full of bouncing bullets, XCOM-like movement, and moreish decision-making.
The arms of your bots are unsteady, swaying gently as they aim.
Other classes, like the machine-gunning Reaper, will get an extra turn after landing a killing blow.
At this point Heist 2 could have left the classes alone, like any other turn-basedstrategy game.
Instead, it pushes things a little further.
Ah, death from the shadows.
There is a catch, of course.
At first it feels like this is a slow way of creating multiclass characters.
I did also find myself investing far more in some classes than others.
Not that I sympathise with the enemies too much.
Then there is Big Steve.
Ah, Big Steve.
Which can make opening some doors feel like an instant difficulty multiplier, a sometimes-irrecoverable misstep.
On the plus side, there are no consequences for failing a mission at all.
Even a total team wipe results in nothing but some lost time.
Aborting a mission partway through is likewise no big deal.
Though I could see some people immediately turning the music off in the options.
My friends, why do you not welcome the earworm’s embrace?
There is peace here, in listening to crooning sailors as you give a shot to sleep.
But that’s maybe because the particular joy of SteamWorld games is so simple and pure.
From a designer’s standpoint, they are little metal marvels, proof of a long-practised craft.
These things are simple totems of happiness.
SteamWorld feels this way for me.
The worst you’re free to say of them is that they play safe.
And yet a safe harbour is something every player of games can use.
Once again, I’ve yet to play a SteamWorld game I didn’t like.
SteamWorld Heist 2 is not bucking that trend.
