![]() ![]() To further belabor the point, bosses, though few and far between, are utter bullet sponges and they constantly call in reinforcements, which often resulted in me losing chunks of my crew in a bid to outmuscle the opposition. Often you’ll be trying to reach whatever the level’s McGuffin is and find yourself overwhelmed before getting to it. This in and of itself isn’t an issue, but the reliance on it within the second area and beyond make things feel like a chore. At first there are a few missions where if you don’t meet your goals or are trying to trek back to the exit, an alarm will go off and turrets or more enemies will sprout to hinder your forward advance. Where my interest turns to frustration is when Heist tries to up the ante and difficulty by what feels like arbitrary means. In addition, you can give them their own kit, armaments and hats, so you can personalize each mission to your own tastes. Each crew member you acquire levels up, which in itself is always an engaging mechanic, but this also means they have abilities such as taking extra turns or getting an extra shot by killing an opponent, which makes each worth investing your energy into and taking into battle. ![]() I appreciated the breather in between turns, but made sure to watch my foes as they are far better at strategizing advantages than they are at aiming. The moment to moment action in SteamWorld Heist is infectious being both fast-paced but meticulous all the same. Their aim isn’t as fair, but considering some of the issues I have with the game as a whole, this turns out to not be such a bad thing. The enemy variety is solid, with many having the same options you do as far as strength, distance and trajectory are concerned. At the worst you can fling their hats off and collect them for your own haberdashery. The satisfaction of pegging enemies never stops being fulfilling, even more so when you ricochet your shots off of walls and ceilings. When you’re ready to attack you have to manually aim at your target and hope your angle is fair. The game feels equal parts Worms and Fire Emblem, with you moving and playing your pawns in different areas or behind cover in the hopes of finding an advantageous position. In Heist, each new ship you board will for the most part have different layouts that are distinguishable, making repeat plays feel markedly different. While Dig touted its randomly generated mines, it didn’t amount to a whole lot beyond loose superficial differences in subsequent playthroughs. However, plot is only part of the compulsion of SteamWorld Heist the gameplay, even as disparate as it is from Dig, has an equally brilliant flow of completing capers, finding new crew members and upgrading/outfitting your party. It’s an interesting progression system that seems similar at first blush, but fleshes itself out with more answers and a satisfying conclusion. Much like Rusty from Dig, things aren’t as they first appear. This is where we find our ragtag band of ne’er-do-wells, led by Captain Piper Faraday, trying to eke out a living in the midst of oppression. People are scraping by, trying to scour water in order to survive in a world that’s dominated by a regime of diesel-fueled automatons. Flash forward a few millennia and this world built upon the remains of humanity’s stupidity has blown itself up as well, stranding the cowbots in space. SteamWorld Heist is the unconventional follow-up to SteamWorld Dig, a game that came as if from out of nowhere and charmed the living hell out of gamers everywhere with its steampunk-cum-western story about a robot who takes over his uncle’s claim, only to find a larger adventure as to what’s really been going on underground. The best way to follow up your award-winning post-apocalyptic mining adventure game with a highly-addictive gameplay loop is to make a game that’s an award-winning post-apocalyptic strategy game set beyond the first post-apocalyptic world with an equally addictive gameplay loop. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |