Steamworld is hitting the high seas with Steamworld Heist II, the sequel to its critically-appreciated tactics game. As revealed in the initial trailer during Nintendo's Indie World Showcase, Steamworld Heist II will retain the turn-based richochet strategy of the original game, but also add new elements like an interactive world map.
Set in a tropical environment called Carribea, Steamworld Heist features a new cast led by Captain Leeway and a host of other crewmembers. It is the seventh entry in the burgeoning Steamworld universe, all of which are connected by a single timeline, and according to producer Peter Magnusson it is a "milestone of size and scope for the series," with a deeper story, a greater emphasis on crew customization (though the hats will remain), and more weapons.
Its most immediate difference is its setting. The original Steamworld Heist, which was first released in 2015 for the 3DS before heading to several other platforms, bore more of a resemblance to Firefly, with much of the action taking place aboard spaceships. Its sequel, however, resembles nothing so much as a steampunk Pirates of the Caribbean or One Piece, though art director Brandt Andrist says that the team decided early that it wouldn't be a "yo-ho pirate game."
A key addition is Steamworld Heist II's new world map, which includes ship-to-ship combat and a heavy emphasis on exploration.
"We managed to revisit a feature from the original game that we thought about a long time but unfortunately had to cut but thought about for a long time, and that is the interactive world map...where you sail around the sea and explore these various nooks and crannies and kind of allow yourself to set your own path in a way that was impossible in the first game," Magnusson explains..
But while in many ways Steamworld Heist II is very different from its predecessor, the sequel looks to retain the tactical gameplay that formed the backbone of the original game, which would broadly described as a side-scrolling XCOM-style strategy game built around pulling off trick shots to defeat enemies. Bullets, explosives, and other ordinance can be aimed and directed for perfect headshots, but once fired will bounce chaotically off walls until they hit something — even your own characters.
The sequel has all that, but it adds in a new job system in which characters can equip any weapon type, each of which will unlock new abilities that carry over to other firearms. So if Daisy Clutch unlocks accuracy-based abilities with a sniper rifles, those abilities can be mixed and matched with jobs like the explosive-based Boomer to create new builds and strategies.
Steamworld Heist II will try and get the series back on track
The Steamworld series has long had a close relationship with Nintendo — Steamworld Dig 2, among the most popular games in the series, was an early hit on Switch — but lately has been spreading out to other consoles. While Steamworld Heist II was announced at the Indie World Showcase for Nintendo, it is also releasing on PlayStation consoles, Xbox consoles, and Nintendo Switch. Meanwhile the growth of the series has come with a fall in review scores, with 2023's Steamworld Build dropping into the 70s.
Asked if Thunderful is worried about diminishing returns, CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson said, "You're always worried. You always want the next game... the game that you're making right now... you always want it to be the best game in the series, and I think that keeps us on our toes... so the day we stop worrying is the day we're on thin ice. That said, we're quite happy and quite proud of the games we have made, and I think they have sort of resonated well with fans when they have released."
Talking about SteamWorld Heist II specifically, Magnusson added, "We're kind of approaching each different game with a different mindset...We've been working on this game for a long time now and we generally feel like Steamworld Heist II is an awesome game independent of the other titles."
Fans will get to see for themselves whether Steamworld Heist II is able to carry on the legacy of the series when it launches on August 8.
Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
