SteamWorld Heist II

More of what made the first game so good but also more of other mechanics which depending on your slant you might enjoy even more or not so much since it can get in the way of the tactical turn based gameplay in ways you might find annoying especially over time. The game also doesn't let you zoom out and the default zoom in the battle tactics mode is basically tuned for handheld gaming for like the switch or steam deck. Aiming can get pretty annoying due to having to scroll all over the place to see if the angles are possible or not on your snipe shots. Having said that the game is pretty good and fun and the navigating, exploration and combat on the seamap is great... it can just feel like a timewaster if you're moving from one end to the map to the other since there's no fast travel. Seems like the devs quit supporting the game less than two months after release and its obvious that the game needed some more QoL improvements plus bug fixing (certain items don't stack their effects while most do for instance). Don't think we'll get any more steamworld games anytime soon due to the publisher terminating their development team and the game could have used a good expansion to further elaborate on the meat of the game, the great tactical combat, but what we got here is still really good and quite unique. With any luck we'll get an indy developer or two making more 'heist-like' games... it's a very fun and satisfying gameplay loop to engage with.

I played this years after playing the original game. I did enjoy some aspects of this game much more than the original. However, some aspects were missed from the first game. The main draw of the game is of course, the ricochet bullets. They are much harder to accomplish than the first game as the aim lasers are linked to an aim stat and a sniper ability to be able to hit consistently. That being said, it is still fun to hit skill shots, but it takes a little more finesse than the first game. There is a notable departure from the game in the job system. In many ways the job system is successful, but it ends up leaving something to be desired. The game encourages grinding up levels in several jobs to combine them on each character with a couple of innate traits and unique abilities on each bot. Training skills take several missions to earn above the first couple of skill tiers. By the time I leveled up most of my bots to higher levels in each job, it was clear what the best abilities and weapons combinations were. This led to most bots ending up mostly feeling the same comparatively. It does allow the player to choose any bots they like and they should end up with an effective character. While this may appeal to some players, I did not enjoy how samey characters ended up becoming due to some poor job balance as some jobs reward higher levels much more than others. I prefer being able to specialize my characters, but the jobs are not created equally. It has been a while since I have played the original, but the maps do feel much better compared to the first game. There is more varied environments in theme, hazards, and navigation. I recall the first game including more generated maps with this game having a more handcrafted feel. If there is an addition to the game that is implemented poorly, it is the submarine overworld navigation. There is a bit too much focus put on the overworld navigation in what feels like, at most, a neat minigame. The role of the ship fights and navigation also grinds the game to a halt more than it should. The act of moving between levels becomes unnecessarily stressful as the health of the submarine slowly dwindles with each ship battle. I play SteamWorld Heist to hit sweet ricochet shots, not to do mediocre ship battles. To add to all this, the ship also takes resources to upgrade that I would rather spend on gear and abilities for my bots. If the ship battles were relegated to just a minigame I think it would be a nice break between every few levels. However, I felt forced to suffer through slow exploration and ship fights. For me the original game ran out of steam towards the final chapter and this game is no different. This game is overly long, both in terms of level design and story. The second act of the game is much longer than the first and really drags out what narrative and gameplay is available. Speaking of the second act, there is weirdly no gate between a lower level area and a higher level area. I ended up exploring the higher level area, completing all the levels, then backtracking to the earlier area. This was an odd choice to let the player do this in reverse order. There is way too many levels in the second zone. By the time I made it to the third zone the narrative felt like it was ready for a conclusion, but it then has yet another act after that. The story is decent. There are some funny jokes written for side characters you can meet at the various islands and pubs in the world. Overall, there is nothing too unexpected here. Overall, this sequel succeeds over the original in many ways, but it did add a bit too much in what ended up feeling like a less "pure" gaming experience. I want to ricochet my bullets and collect fun hats. There is a bit too much that is not in service of the main fun.

This might be my favorite SteamWorld game. I loved the shooting mechanics and story/power progression. Challenging and satisfying.