Simultaneously announced and revealed at the Nintendo Indie World Showcase
I briefly posted about this inThe Maw, but was unsure at that point ifSteamWorld Heist 2was coming to PC day and date with the launch on Switch. That date is August 8th, by the way, and the answer is: yes it is! Though it was revealed at Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase earlier this afternoon,strategyaction-adventure-with-robots sequel SteamWorld Heist 2 isn’t a timed platform exclusive, so that’s fun!
The new setting comes with some other new stuff, including a job system to customise abilities and equipment, which sounds similar to theFinal FantasyXIV/some-of-the-Yakuza-games system of assigning classes. There’s also a big world map where you can sail around between missions to explore and do some real-time naval shootin'. The meat of the game is once you’ve boarded an enemy ship for a mission, though, which is when you do the turn-based strategy bit. Key to success is setting up trick shots, where you can ricochet bullets off the environment to hit your bad guy of choice.
The story, meanwhile, is about solving the mystery of “a deadly water crisis that’s causing metal limbs and mechanical hearts to corrode”. That’s a neat twist on the usual type of water crisis, which is when you don’t have enough water. It also makes you ponder the fragility of being a Steambot. You are powered by water, but also water may destroy you. Ah, what is life??
Both of the SteamWorld Heist games are part of a larger SteamWorld universe, notably includingSteamWorld Digand the more recentSteamWorld Build. I don’t really have much experience of the extended Steam universe, but I’ll get on board with robot pirates. That’s sort of the only place to be in a seafaring situation, afer all. SteamWorld Heist 2 is onSteamnow, and releases on August 8th. Kat Baileyat IGNhas some more details from an interview with producer Petter Magnusson.
