It’s finally here! The sequel to the highly rated turn-based strategy game SteamWorld Heist. The original game came out in 2016 and received a lot of love. This time, we are trading our spaceship for a submarine. Let’s see if the developers at Thunderful Development can do the first game justice or if this ragtag crew should be left out at sea.
In this review, I will be going over the following topics.
- Story
- Gameplay
- Map
- Naval Combat
- Quest Locations
- Combat
- Bars
- Weapons
- Crew
- Submarine
- Collectables
- Conclusion
Story
Welcome to the wonderful world filled with steam powered robots. That is until the diesel bots moved in and started taking everything over. Now something is poisoning the Great Sea and creating a water crisis. The steam bots need clean water to survive and the diesel bots are taking it all for themselves to run their equipment.
Join Captain Leeway and his ragtag crew as they seek fame and fortune. Everyone on the ship is itching to make a name for themselves—even Captain Leeway, who is stuck in the shadow of his mother’s fame. Perhaps uncovering the enigmatic menace that threatens the Great Sea will bring fame to everyone on board.
Gameplay
SteamWorld Heist II is split into two types of gameplay. One is the real-time exploration and naval combat. The other is the turn-based combat encounters. Together they make for an incredible combination. Let’s start off with the real-time mechanics. Then, we will go over the turn-based combat and wrap up with the interesting class system and crew.
Map
The map in SteamWorld Heist II is pretty good in size. It is separated into different zones that have a set number of quests. You do not have to complete every quest in a zone to move along the story, but it does help to unlock additional content. Such as special gear once you get a perfect reputation at every location.
You travel around the map in your trusty submarine. While traveling, you will come across enemy ships, quest locations, bars, and more. The map is covered by a fog that dissipates as you explore an area. Be careful traveling too quickly into the unknown. Enemy ships are everywhere.
Naval Combat
As you cruise around in your sub, you will come across different enemy ships. Once they spot you, they will engage. Your sub can be equipped with a variety of different equipment. This includes side guns, front torpedoes, top-mounted guns, and engine upgrades. The weapons do have varying reload times, so you will want to maneuver around the enemy to a side that has weapons ready to fire.
As you continue through the game, the enemy ships will get progressively harder. Sometimes, it is best to flee and fight another day. The ships do stay in their area, so you can run away if needed. However, if you stay to fight and your sub is destroyed, then you respawn at the nearest bar. Your reputation for that day is lost, and you end the day.
Quest Locations
You will find many different locations throughout the Great Sea. Many of those are locations where your crew can gain a reputation from quests. Each quest has a set of objectives. You will gain a reputation for each objective that you complete.
Each crew member can only go on one quest daily, so ensure you are fully utilizing your team. It helps to scout out a zone to find all the locations before you go on any quests. Keep in mind that some quests require more crew members than others. You can also revisit a location if you could not gain all the reputation the first time.
Combat
The quests are where the turn-based system comes in. Before sending your crew in, you can select which members are going and what weapons and items you want them to have. Weapons and items used by a crew member cannot be used by another character on the same day.
Once the quest begins, each member has a movement and an attack action. You can cycle through your team members and play them in any order. Some skills are even free actions. This means that you can get a lot done in one turn if you are strategic with how you do things.
Positioning is very important in SteamWorld Heist II. The enemy and your crew will automatically hide behind cover if they are next to it. However, there are no percentages in this combat system. Everything is based on line of sight. That means if your character is trying to hide behind something that is half their size, then they are probably still going to get hit. Or at least have their hat shot off.
This also makes things like aim lines a very important asset in the game. Characters with rifles will have a visible aimline that you can use to set up the perfect shot. You can also use it to line up a ricochet if there is an enemy dug in behind cover. You can still ricochet bullets without an aimline, but you are stuck using your best guess as the character’s aim does sway up and down slowly.
Combat encounters usually have your crew highly outnumbered. Some even have alarm systems. As the alarms go off, more enemies enter the battlefield. This means every turn counts. You will have to be very tactical to be able to have a successful mission.
Bars
Once your team has all gone on quests for that day, then it’s time to head to the nearest bar. The bars in SteamWorld Heist II are used as a resting area for your crew. This is where you can end the day, and the team can recoup before another full day of adventure. Ending the day also allows you to spend your reputation on bounties. Bounties are rewards such as resources, weapons, and even equipment for your ship.
The bar is a great place for your crew to purchase new gear as well. You can even find ship upgrades. When your reputation gets to a certain level, there are also secret rooms that unlock with exclusive gear. So, it is definitely worth maxing out your reputation in each zone.
Weapons
In SteamWorld Heist II, the weapons determine the character’s class or job. Usually, it is the other way around, and a character’s class restricts what weapons they can carry. This creates an interesting twist and an even more interesting class system. There are six different weapon types. This means there are six different jobs that someone can have. If you give them a different weapon, then their job will change to fit that weapon.
As a character uses a weapon, they level up in that job and unlock skills. These skills can carry over into other jobs if they change weapon types. Multiclassing is actually something that is strongly encouraged in SteamWorld Heist II. There is even a story level that requires your crew to change their weapons to a different type before they can enter the mission.
Crew
Captain Leeway’s crew starts out with just two members. More members can be hired at bars as you continue your journey. Having more members on the ship means you can go on more quests in one day. So make sure you are maxing out your crew capacity whenever possible.
There are many different colorful characters that you can hire onto your team. Each with their own set of personal skills that are independent of their job skills. All of which can be incredibly useful. The options at the bar change daily if you are looking for someone with a particular skill set.
Submarine
There are a lot of things to do inside the submarine while it is docked at a port. You can talk to crew members, you can upgrade the ship, and you can even unlock passive abilities for the crew. After certain missions, some of your crew will want to talk. They usually want to talk to you about how they feel the journey is going or why they wanted to join your crew.
During your adventures, you will come across rare parts. These are used as currency to upgrade the ship and its crew. Upgrades include things like more attachments for the sub. As for the crew, you can unlock passives such as more health for all crew members. Rare parts are tough to come by, so make sure you are using them wisely.
Collectibles
One of the things that I didn’t talk about yet is the collectibles. Now, these aren’t just something that you can find lying around. The collectibles in SteamWorld Heist II are actually hats. The way to get them is by shooting them off an enemy’s head. Sadly, the hats don’t have any attributes when you equip them for your crew members. That doesn’t stop me from shooting them off enemies whenever I see a unique one I don’t have yet.
Conclusion
With all that being said, is SteamWorld Heist II worth picking up? Absolutely. There are a lot of things to like about SteamWorld Heist II. Cruising around in your submarine in real-time, as you explore the map and take out enemies, is an enjoyable way to get from mission to mission. The combat system is also a lot of fun.
Doing trick shots by lining up a shot that can ricochet off something else to take out an enemy is always entertaining. Even more so when you accidentally miss something, but the bullet bounces and still hits the target anyway. All the little things, like collecting hats, add to the fun and help prevent the game from feeling redundant.
Whether you played the first one or not, this game is a must-play for anyone looking to have a good time. With the ability to change the difficulty setting before any battle, there is nothing to stop you from playing, even if you have never played a turn-based game before. The only complaint that I could come up with was the controls. They felt a little weird to me when I first got started. It took some getting used to.
Such as using the arrow keys to move the camera around instead of WASD. However, I absolutely enjoyed the controls while playing on my Steam Deck. That is how I spent most of my time playing the game. Aside from that, I thoroughly enjoyed the game and think you will, too. Go check the game out on their Steam page.
The developers at Thunderful Development graciously provided a review key for this review.
