SteamWorld Heist

This game is a joy. Tight mechanics, beautiful and interesting graphics, and just enough backstory to the characters to make them interesting. Each character is fun to figure out how to use, and mixing and matching based on the equipment you have the and the kind of level you're going up against is tons of fun. It can be hard, and losing a level can be pretty expensive, but figuring this game out is well worth it.

"Steamworld Heist" feels like a mixture of the board game "Space Crusade", a bit of "Incubation - Battle Isle Phase 4" and a pinch of "Worms" thrown in the mix when it comes to aiming, which effectively eliminates the element of mere chance in the game. No dice thrown here! And all the enervating artificial obstacles that are thrown at you in other games – they're reliably not present in Steamworld Heist. If you find a weapon as loot that you can't yet buy in stores because of your low reputation value, yes of course you can equip that weapon. Want a character to wear the same armour twice? Sure, no problem. Want to repeat a mission for extra XP and loot (and hats)? Go ahead, you play it like you want to. The strategy may not be particularly deep, but you'll take your time with those turns particularly when you've maneuvered yourself into a pickle. The only two points of critique I have are the massive focus on diegetic music, i.e. the actual brilliant songs by the "Steam Powered Giraffe" band, while you're left with two or three very short tracks total during missions. That's not enough! And the second point of criticism I have, well, come on Image and Form. Consider day one releases on GOG (and/or DRM free .exe on Humble). I assure you guys, you have a real fanbase here as well. Concerning Steamworld Heist, there's so much individual flair and character to the game. Image & Form are building their Steamworld universe with a series of games with very different mechanics, and I must say I love this approach. On to "Steamworld Quest"!

Tactics, robots, space, an average score of 4.7 out of 5, and available at a discounted… an instant buy for me! Now that I finished the game, I don’t regret buying or playing, but it was also not as memorable as the bountiful swag had promised. SWH has a lot of charm. The setting consists of broken up pieces of Earth inhabited by low-life bots, military bots, crazy bots and alien bots. The robots are diverse, colorful and silly. You can equip your bots with various weapons and items that you find or buy with swag. The penalty of losing a mission is half your swag. This is often not a problem as you want to buy new stuff all the time. However, when grinding for some of the most expensive gear (or hats?), it can mean the grind just got even longer. My biggest disappointment is with the tactical missions. A lot of explosions and trick shots are promised. What is not told is that it is static, simple and shallow, and probably more suited for a browser or smartphone. For example, sniper weapons (the only weapons that can pull off amazing trick shots), destructible cover (with tons of health), predictable AI, and late game charge weapons seems to suggest that SWH is meant to be the played at a slow pace with hardly any movement. Most missions, however, have timers which contradict a static gamestyle. I found maneuverable flanker bots much more dynamic and fun to play. Flankers do break the difficulty curve. The AI cannot react in interesting ways to fast targets, charge weapons are easy to beat and timers are almost irrelevant. Simple is not in every way bad. SWH is easy to get into, and it keeps you interested till the end by its accessible gameplay and charm: fish bots, girl bots with card dresses and for the sake of having nothing else to do, save the world… space of bots.

I'm usually very, very critical about games but here I'm truly in trouble finding anything serious to complain about. The game is turn based but sadly no initiative is implemented. There is a round for the enemy and another one for you. This limits somewhat the tactical possibilities but I'm really pulling on straws here. This is it. This is THE ONLY bad thing about this game. Now the bright side. The music & graphic are just sooo fitting into the steam punk climate. Excellent job:) Characters and abilities are also well thought through and one can easily put a few teams for nearly every mission. Sometimes I was struggling with certain crew combinations but these are really seldom cases. Depending on the scenario one can take from one to 4 characters so spreading love among you crew is necessary. Every character can take three items: A weapon and two utility items. The choice is again very, very reasonable. Also mission goals, timers and alarms causing turrets to show up or spawn new enemies are really nicely done. The story is ok. Just ok but also for a game that was for me serving as a casual time killer I cannot complain. It was really very light entertainment :) If you search for this type of game and like some strategy on top of this cream pie then do not hesitate and get this title.