One would be forgiven for assuming that Image & Form would capitalize on the success of Steamworld Dig by pushing out a by the numbers sequel. And in fairness to Dig, that wouldn't have been a bad thing. It's a great game. However, the canny geniuses over at Image & Form have decided to keep their universe in place and scrap pretty much everything else from the first game. Where as Dig was a sidescrolling exploration and mining game that took place on a 2d plane, Heist is a 2d, sidescrolling turnbased tactical RPG. Taking inspiration from XCOM, Fire Emblem and then throwing a wicked twist into it with slick controls, simplified but by no means simple mechanics, customizable difficulty and Image & Forms by now trademark top notch visual design and humor, this is a game you should grab as soon as possible.
You take control of Piper, captain of a smuggling ship. Shes joined by her pilot Wonky and Seabrass, her shotgun toting sidekick. Other party members can, of course be recruited but I'll touch on that in a moment. At the beginning of the game, a charming, genuinely funny and well voice acted movie plays out in 1930's British Public Service Announcement style. Think Fallout here, complete with cheesy voiceover, period perfect music and grainy almost sepia toned imagery. It describes the Scrappers who are moving into moving in on the territory where Piper operates, as well as the Royals army and even hints at some fiendish alien threats. You are then dumped straight into a rescue mission and it's away you go into the games roughly 12 hour campaign. Oh, by the way, everyone is a robot. And speaks in gibberish. It's stylish and adorable.
Gameplay is simple, intuitive and fun, but hides plenty of depth. Gone are fiddly AP points. Instead, Steamworld heist has a simple color-coding. You know how far you can move when you stop being able to move your cursor. Run to far, and you can only regain your breath after the sprint. Juggle your movement right and you can move to cover and fire. or fire and move to cover. Or throw a grenade, punch someone with a spiked set of brass knuckles, use a repair kit....theres a lot of diveristy here. Thankfully, Image & Form have made some very smart design decisions. Your menu of combat choices never feels overwhelming. Instead, it feels precisely metered and finely tuned, gradually ramping up the options available to you to keep combat fresh without drowning the player in buttons and icons. As characters level up, they gain access to new abilities that further tweak combat. Seabrass for example gains the ability to deal massive damage to an enemy after he's already been damaged. Sally on the otherhand gains an ability that allows her to fire an extra shot after she kills an enemy. This allows you to effectively use Seabrass and Sally as a one two sucker punch to devastate enemies.
The environment also plays a big part in Heist's gameplay. Certain floors can be shot through, most cover is destructible, explosive barrels litter the decks and you have to keep an eye out for turrets and reinforcements that can be deployed after a certain number of turns. This gives the game a way to ramp up the difficulty throughout a level without feeling cheap. And then there are the ricochets. Most weapons can be angled to bounce around a simply ludicrous number of times. This can allow you to pull of insane trick shots to nail that enemy crouching behind a barrel. Some scoped weapons include a laser sight to aid in this process, and thats when you notice that you also have to allow for the breathing of your robotic party members. The enemies themselves take great advantage of this mechanic as well, especially one particularly epic boss.
One of the only nitpicks I have with the otherwise excellent combat has to do with screenspace. Sometimes it can be hard to see enemies, forcing you to use the 3DS's analog stick to move the camera over, potentially taking your character and their weapon out of the frame. This is a complaint I imagine will be largely addressed on larger screens, but is something to bear in mind on the handheld. I rarely found it to be to much of a problem though.
I've mentioned smart design a few times, and it doesn't end at combat. Image & Form have wisely allowed players to customize the difficulty of the game before each mission. Since the higher difficulty levels can punish failure by relieving you of a portion of your total supply of water, the game's currency, while lower ones do not, this becomes a great way to get past a tough spot and make some progress. Inventory systems are streamlined and easy to manage and even shopping is a pleasure thanks to the cast of characters that pack the bars dotted around the game's map. These bars also contain recruitable party members. New members can be recruited once you have enough reputation, represented by stars. There are three stars available in each mission, awarded for clearing the objectives, not having party members die and picking up the Epic Swag in each level. Epic Swag is usually a cool new gun or piece of equipment and is worth grabbing on it's own, even without the incentive of that extra star. Reputation also grants access to new areas of the map as well as a few difficult missions. Its a nice way to gate progress without being to unfair and the flow it establishes soon becomes familiar.
I haven't touched much on sound and graphics and both are fantastic. Colors pop, character and ship designs are charming reflecting the combined Steampunk and Wild West sensibilities of the Steamworld universe. The music is good in levels, but the bar music really stands out and I found myself listening to it while writing this review. Your party members and enemies speak in an amusing gibberish, clanks and ricocheting shots are all great. The 3d effect on the 3ds is also rather striking, adding a bit of pop and clarity to the game without being distracting. In short, the presentation of the game is everything I've come to expect from Image & Form.
Finally, a few little notes on the game. There is a New Game+ mode which doesn't do anything overly dramatic, but is a nice edition. And then there are the hats. Many enemies wear hats that you can shoot of of their heads with well placed shots. They don't actually do anything aside from giving you an extra customization option for your party members. And there are 100 of them. In addition, there were a a few times where I didn't feel totally connected to the story or world. its not that they aren't good, its just that the larger galaxy narrative didn't pull me in like the smaller drama of Steamworld Dig did.
All that being said, Steamworld Heist is a fantastic game. Polished, funny and combining the systems and ideas of great tactics RPGs like XCOM and Fire Emblem (and others) into a package that has it's own twists and amazing editions, I can safely recommend picking this one up on your console of choice.
Score: 9/10
Available On: 3DS, *PC/Max/Linux, *PS4, *Wii U, *Xbox One, *Vita
- Due to Image & Form's small size, Steamworld Heist's launch will be staggered to ensure they can maintain consistent quality. As of time of writing, not all dates are finalized. Updates to follow.
