It’s been a whopping eight years since the original SteamWorld Heist. The world has changed so much in that time, new consoles have released, new genres have emerged. The sequel is a breath of fresh sea air, and is a return to form as if no time has passed. SteamWorld Heist II is the very definition of sequel, improving and expanding on things to enhance over the previous in fantastic ways. This is a follow-up I never expected, but definitely wanted and SteamWorld Heist II delivers.
As the story goes, Earth has exploded and the water has gone bad. As resources are scarce, with the salty water that can’t be drank, piracy of the seas returns. You play the son of SteamWorld Heist‘s protagonist, Captain Leeway. You have some big boots to fill of your mother, but even with a missing arm, you aren’t going to let that stop you from doing the right thing. There are five difficulties to choose from, allowing anyone with any familiarity with this genre to find something for them. There’s story, moderate, experienced, veteran, and elite. there’s even a custom difficulty to where you determine naval combat difficulty to enemy damage to bounty requirements – all done in sliders to actually dial in what you want. You’ll hire veterans and rookies alike to outfit your crew and maximize effectiveness.
This is a turn-based combat game, existing on a 2D plane. There’s a tutorial that will teach you all the basics if you’re unfamiliar. This is a skill-based game, where your shots from pistols, shotguns, rifles, and the like require precision. You can aim your shots with a trajectory of its path, and can be used to bounce hard to hit shots to absolute perfection. As you embark on each mission, there’s an overarching goal to maximize the looting opportunities. Doing so will allow you to upgrade and expand easier. There’s loot that will go away if not reach in time, hats to shoot off of enemies and take for yourself before you extract. Over time there will be more challenging enemies and more complex ships, but this is a game that goes deeper than the ocean it rests on.
SteamWorld Heist II is up to 58 missions over the 45 or so missions over the last game. This means you’ll easily be spending thirty or so hours in the game, up from the twenty or so hours it took to complete the first game. Captain Lee doesn’t have an arm due to an accident, so the crew has to carry the weight and embark on these missions without him. Spending more time with all of the new systems and mechanics is exactly what you’d want, because everything works in concert with one another.
Completing missions will earn you a star rating based on how you performed. If you lost a “steammate”, then you’ll lose out on a star. It’s very likely you won’t get all loot or all stars the first time you do a mission, and that’s okay. You can replay the mission to get all the missing rewards. If you fail a mission out right, there’s no penalties for it. You can just reconfigure the crew you roll with, and go again. It’s very forgiving and not unnecessarily difficult like other games. You’ll notice that mission XP rewards are low, or at least giving you numbers in single digits. While that’s a bit jarring, you do level up at a decent pace.
If a crew member partakes in a mission, they will either be tired or injured afterwards, and cannot be used on future missions that same day. Often you’ll have to rest at bays or inns to replenish your crew’s energy, and start a new day. There’s no penalties for just ending your day, and starting anew. It does seem like a system to ensure you’re going to places to remind you to purchase upgrades and enhancements.
You’ll be given the basics on how to upgrade your sub, but it becomes a necessary component for survivability and offensive capabilities on the open seas. In each slot, you can only equip one kind of piece of equipment like gun, armor, and more. You can sail around and take on patrols that will drop cargo in the form of water or the upgrade currency of gem fragments. Collect enough of these and you can purchase new equipment slots, crew slots, or weapons for missions.
