SteamWorld Heist brings both style and substance.
By Dave Rudden
SteamWorld Heist starts with a top-notch concept: wild-west-style robots engaging in shootouts via tense, turn-based 2D tactical combat. Even better, it completely delivers on that concept with an epic space-faring quest driven by a band of quirky robots armed with interesting weaponry and their own unique skills.
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A successor to the completely different SteamWorld Dig, SteamWorld Heist has you build a ragtag crew of androids in order to take on evil throughout the galaxy (be they plundering pirates, an oppressive monarchy, or a mysterious alien force). The overarching story isn’t all that gripping in the early going, as you’re basically just battling a procession of robot foes, but the characters you’ll meet along the way help the adventure build steam.
While the animation is a bit on the simple side, each robot on your crew has a distinct personality that’s conveyed through well-written dialogue, and smart visual design. Piper’s streamlined look fits with that of a robot leader, Sally has the countrified look of a (robot) farmer’s daughter, and Ivanski mixes old-timey strongman with brutish Russian to perfection. It’s a bit of a shame that the 2D style doesn’t employ many effects or tricks to take advantage of the 3D, but between these quirky animatronic pals and the fun intergalactic travel, SteamWorld Heist’s adventure felt a lot like a playable version of Firefly, except where everyone’s a robot.
What Heist lacks in power, it makes up for in style.
Even more alluring is the expertly crafted strategic combat. Breaching an enemy ship with one to four of your robot gunslingers as you take on enemy forces and seek out loot is a great experience because of the many variables at play. There’s weapons like laser-sight sniper pistols and multi-projectile shotguns to vary the core of the combat, and then you have each bot’s unique skills, like Piper’s ability to inspire nearby crew, or Ivanski’s one-turn invulnerability trick. These all synergize in rewarding ways when coordinated properly.
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Not to be overlooked are accessories like grenades, health kits, and armor that can fill in any gaps in your team’s repertoire (and will probably save your robot hide on more than one occasion). And while they’re purely cosmetic, you can pick up hats from downed foes to wear into battle and add a slight bit of customization to your squad.
Every new recruit brings new skills and most level ups tweak those even further, so there’s a draw to mixing up your crew as much as your hat selection. There’s even a choice to change up the experience gains in every single mission by tweaking the difficulty to earn bonus points and taking fewer crew members on a mission in order to increase shares.
Every new recruit brings new skills, so there’s a draw to mixing up your crew.
My only real gripes with SteamWorld Heist was when some of the systems got in the way of enjoying new items and skills. Despite buying new inventory slots at every opportunity, I was constantly forced to sell stuff off to make some roomwhich sometimes discouraged me from buying new items for combat.
I also felt that the punishment for death was a bit severe. Even though SteamWorld Heist doesn’t have permadeath, any downed ally during battle will automatically deduct vital experience stars, which are necessary to unlock new recruits and areas on the map. A dead bot also doesn’t gain any experience, which makes them tough to take into battle the next time around when they’ve fallen behind level-wise. Granted, I was still having a ton of fun, but a few quality of life tweaks would have made all the difference.
Steamworld Heist stole my heart. The characters are charming, the combat is addictive, and the Firefly-style adventure made every battle a blast. Besides some annoying instances of post-battle maintenance, I rarely felt the need to power down these robots.
