A sequel from an outer space scenario to a naval one seems like a strange change, but SteamWorld games have never been afraid to be strange. It is their entire endeavor. Though they take some time to reveal, SteamWorld Heist 2’s ridiculous swashbuckling plot and the original’s (2015) original feel very different from one another. Instead, you take control of a submarine and a crew full of silly robots in a vibrantly cartoony ocean. The quest is set on an unexpectedly enormous overworld area, filled to the brim with challenging and strategically intricate turn-based missions as well as lighter side activities. I spent about 40 hours finishing them all.
The ensuing story revolves around Quincy Leeway, our barely proficient one-armed captain, and is suitably lighthearted and entertaining. In an attempt to escape his well-known mother’s shadow, he is assembling a team to find the cause of a rusty corruption that is contaminating the water. Its robotic heart is firmly in the right place, but I would not describe any of the revelations as shocking or any of the characters as particularly memorable (I think it would be simpler to adore them if their language had a full voice).
The music, which plays as you visit pubs in between missions, is what makes the game distinctive. The incomparably charming band Steam Powered Giraffe has returned with 15 deliciously catchy original songs. Frequently, I would stay a little bit longer than necessary to allow them to complete a verse on how wonderful it is to be a robot before returning to my ship.
The 2D turn-based tactical gameplay in SteamWorld Heist 2 is remarkably similar to that of the previous game, but there are still some minor mouse and keyboard lag issues. It is a challenging task of efficiency to move your team of one to five bots (depending on the mission) around a side-scrolling level to line up shots and grab loot within their two-action turns. Many missions have an exciting ending where you have to escape an endless stream of enemies as you complete a specific objective, rather than just trying to clear the map.
It has more life than most turn-based games because it has manual aiming.
A bit more life than many turn-based games is added because all targeting is done manually by adjusting the angle of your bots’ gun arms, in the vein of the old Worms games. Observing the trajectory of a shot from a penetrating sniper rifle is quite entertaining. You can move it around till it goes through multiple opponents, then release it at the perfect moment to see it softly swing. Despite this, many of those feel more like fortuitous strikes than accomplishments because it would take a mathematical genius to forecast which combination of bank shots you could line up without first traveling to a location and observing where the guideline ultimately points.
Although you can level up each character’s native class at first, it is highly recommended that you eventually transform them all into hybrid animals that combine skills from the six separate trees. Once you get rolling, the system is incredibly clever and adaptable, but a large portion of the unlocking process feels mandatory because it calls for a bot to do missions using the trademark weapon type of each class. For example, it would be silly not to enable the Sniper and Boomer’s first-tier abilities on most characters. The former enables you to employ Perfect Aim, which adds a prediction line and eliminates wobble to any weapon, while the latter enables you to load a third inventory item. It is also true that, after utilizing a class for just one mission, you may purchase an upgrade that unlocks the first two complete levels of its skills, which made me regret my decision to spread out my experience points so widely until then.
If that seems too much to handle, be aware that there are no repercussions for failing a mission; instead, you simply try again (and there is no cost to fix your bots, unlike in the original SteamWorld Heist). While you can save-scum your way through a mission, it is not quite as simple as erasing the one awful move you just made because you can also reload a checkpoint from two turns back. It is ideal that failure is a real possibility because there is no real way to know and prepare for what kind of bot would work best for a mission before you jump in.
Verdict
The fun adventure of SteamWorld Heist 2 enhances the original game’s brilliant turn-based fighting with a customizable mix-and-match class system and custom-made areas that emphasize teamwork to complete objectives and escape uninjured. Additionally, it provides a lighthearted and enjoyable real-time naval exploration game to break up the intensity of battles, and switching between them keeps things interesting for over twice as long as the initial game’s fifteen hours. Although there are moments when the game becomes bogged down in the grind to get to the next section and the skill system wastes a lot of experience points if you do not know what is coming, there is plenty of treasure, hilariously oddball robot characters, and amazing original folksy music to be found along the way.
