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Bjorn

Steamworld Heist

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So I totally missed that Steamworld Heist got released earlier this summer!  It's conveniently currently on sale for $15 (normally $20).

 

It's real good y'all, like I put about 4 hours into it this evening and could have played for hours more I think if I didn't need to crash.  2D, turn based squad combat invading randomly generated ships.  The charm and character of Steamworld Dig are all present, but definitely a radically different game.  Really, Dig's only downside for me was that it really wasn't all that mechanically interesting or challenging, it was just a very chill game.  Heist is a much more robust game. 

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Yes! This is my second favourite game of this year. Having picked up the Outsider DLC, which adds a new character and a few new missions, I'm currently doing my second playthrough. :D

 

Also decided to finally get around to Steamworld Dig, but I gotta say I'm not feeling it. Too grindy. :/

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Heist is rad. I'm slowly playing through it at lunchtime in work and it is just good fun.

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wtf steam powered giraffe are in the soundtrack???

 

they're one goofy ass novelty band but really good so this excites me

 

i feel like i must've known this at one point and then forgot

 

..

 

i think i'll just buy the game

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This game is really good. The hats are a lot of fun.

 

My criticism of it is I think the balancing falls apart towards the end of the game. There was a huge difficulty spike starting around the last few missions of the 2nd board, but then in the 3rd board you get super OP weapons, and the new enemies you encounter have new powerful abilities except that the AI doesn't really know how to use those abilities at all, so the 3rd board ends up becoming a bit of a breeze. The difficulty spike is forgivable though since you have the ability to change the difficulty of the game any time you start a mission, but the AI's inability to provide a challenge on the 3rd board was disappointing.

 

Still, this game is great as a quick, fun tactics game and it got me inspired to get back into XCOM 2 which I'm also really enjoying too, so it gets a full recommendation despite the criticism I have.

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This game is really good. The hats are a lot of fun.

 

My criticism of it is I think the balancing falls apart towards the end of the game. There was a huge difficulty spike starting around the last few missions of the 2nd board, but then in the 3rd board you get super OP weapons, and the new enemies you encounter have new powerful abilities except that the AI doesn't really know how to use those abilities at all, so the 3rd board ends up becoming a bit of a breeze. The difficulty spike is forgivable though since you have the ability to change the difficulty of the game any time you start a mission, but the AI's inability to provide a challenge on the 3rd board was disappointing.

 

Still, this game is great as a quick, fun tactics game and it got me inspired to get back into XCOM 2 which I'm also really enjoying too, so it gets a full recommendation despite the criticism I have.

 

I'm only like a fourth of the way through the first board, so obviously super early.  But I was also thinking about a comparison to XCOM 1 and 2, and how much I like a tactics game that doesn't depend on dice rolls at all (at least not on the player side, I have no idea how the AI makes decisions or handles aiming). 

 

I started on the next to last difficulty tier, and most enemies can't be one shot unless I setup to do it (using one or more special abilities).  And the difference in quality of aim between a sharpshooter weapon and the usually more powerful assault or pistols is a big deal.  Whether I hit or not with those weapons isn't dependent on a dice roll, it's entirely dependent on my ability to position myself, and then manually aim.  And controlling for the drift is exactly the kind of thing you have to do while firing real guns.  Aim drift is a thing I can find annoying in a lot of shooters, but it works well in a turn based game. 

 

I did make a foolish early mistake where I had falsely assumed that Guarding was a kind of Overwatch, but NOOOOPE.  It doesn't appear to do anything other than end your turn.  That's the only mission I've failed so far. 

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Probability and dice rolls have never bothered me, but I enjoy statistical reasoning so I like trying to figure out how to play the odds in a strategy game. But yes, the drift is a clever and satisfying mechanic to play around with. It works really well for the game's 2D presentation, although I imagine it could work just as well in a game with a top down perspective.

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Probability and dice rolls have never bothered me, but I enjoy statistical reasoning so I like trying to figure out how to play the odds in a strategy game. But yes, the drift is a clever and satisfying mechanic to play around with. It works really well for the game's 2D presentation, although I imagine it could work just as well in a game with a top down perspective.

 

I binged on this over the weekend, and spent more time thinking about the aim drift mechanic and how it compares to XCOM, and continue to really love it.

 

Like, I had a few times when I blew a shot with one of my snipers, where I was trying to richochet a shot multiple times to get to someone I couldn't otherwise hit.  Because of the distance and the number of the bounces, the aim movement was pretty pronounced at the end point.  In a game like XCOM, that might have translated to a "30 percent" chance to hit or something.  Whereas in SH, it's my own skill in hitting the button at the right time, and watching the shot ricochet around.   And possibly ending with knocking the hat off the enemy's head rather than blowing their head off.  It makes misses....not less infuriating, but more understandable.  Also, knocking hats off people's heads on a near miss is a really cool mechanic. 

 

I'm only two missions away from the end.  I could have finished it last night, but I elected to grind everyone up to max level and mess around with some weapons and items I hadn't tried out instead.  I really dislike the weapons where you can't move and shoot.  Mobility is almost everything in this game, to the point where a utility slot on everyone is dedicated to a movement boost, and in one case a character gets two mobility boosts.  I kind of wish it weren't that way.  There would definitely be a different playstyle that could be done if mobility boosters weren't present at all, with having a variety of gear on everyone.  I feel like some of the utility items take away from the uniqueness of the characters, in unfortunate ways.  Like the scientist gal gets a timed ability where she can jump up to ledges and gets a big movement boost.  But, there's also a jetpack utility item that gives everyone the ability to jump to ledges and a small movement boost.  Her and the wheeled frog gambler would be so much more unique if their innate movement bonuses weren't available to everyone thanks to gear.  Same thing with the old man sniper and his pierceing shot.  I now have two different heavy weapons that naturally pierce, and that essentially makes the old man pointless because one of his biggest bonuses is just something that can be equipped on another person.  The DLC character Fen has a super unique ability with a piercing laser that has to be charged...except then I got a heavy laser that literally does the exact same thing for the same damage and can be fired every round.  So I can get the biggest benefit of Fen on Ivan plus all of Ivan's tankiness.  Things like Pipers Inspire radius and the farmer's multi-kill ability remain completely unique to them, and I think it makes them more compelling characters to use mechanically because of that. 

 

Okay, enough nitpickiness.  I totally love this game and I think I'm being picky about it because I want it to be even better and longer.  I'd love it if there were another 20+ mission instead of just 2.  I may end up starting a NG+ run (you apparently keep all your characters and hats, but not items/weapons) and do the early levels with wildly different character combos.  I suspect that the melee fish would be much more useful in the early game versus the late game, where his damage just doesn't keep pace with all the crazy stuff the other characters can do. 

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Sighhhh. No sign of a GOG release yet. I even shot the devs an email... never heard from them again. Even though Steamworld Dig is on GOG... and I've completed the darn thing four times... :(

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Finished it!  Great game, loved it, wish there was more.  I started an NG+ run, but really don't feel like re-treading the opening third of the game.  What I'd want is to continue playing with all my fully developed characters, not take the time to re-level all of them from scratch. 

 

And I just learned that there is another Steamworld game, SteamWorld Tower Defense that was only released on the DS.  And now I'm sad, because I'll never get to play it. 

 

So SteamWorld now covers tower defense, platformer (kinda) and turn based strategy.  Assuming they continue, and given the success of the games, I imagine they will, I can't wait to see what they do next.  Selfishly, I'd dig seeing them try their hand at a roguelite.  I think they've already got a lot of the building blocks in place with everything they can draw on to make a really cool one. 

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Going to buy it soon. It's finally getting the Wii U release this week on Thursday.

Steamworld Dig was fun and Heist has looked really promising in all the trailers I've seen of it. There's also a neat 33% discount since I own Dig already.

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So SteamWorld now covers tower defense, platformer (kinda) and turn based strategy.  Assuming they continue, and given the success of the games, I imagine they will, I can't wait to see what they do next.  Selfishly, I'd dig seeing them try their hand at a roguelite.  I think they've already got a lot of the building blocks in place with everything they can draw on to make a really cool one. 

 

SteamWorld Dark Souls plz.

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SteamWorld Dark Souls plz.

  :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

 

 

 

SteamWorld is kind of shaping up to be a modern Oddworld, now that I think about it.  Multiple games in different genres exploring different mechanics.  I highly approve of this as a franchise structure.

 

Speaking of Oddworld, something in the vein of Stranger's Wrath would work really well too. 

 

OMG, a 3D action game where instead of armor and guns and swords and stuff like that, you swap out parts of your body as your "inventory".  Fuck, that could be really good. 

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