1. I dig what Image & Form Games seem to be doing w/ their SteamWorld IP. They built the world and the lore and are now making games in whichever genre they see fit, each w/ its own uniquely SteamWorld twist. Specifically, they are having pretty remarkable success giving games a casual, approachable sheen and then still providing deeper gameplay for those who want it. You know, cool people like us. *High five*
2. The way they do this w/ SteamWorld Heist is to take X-COM-style turn-based combat and flip it to a 2D plane like a platformer. The change this makes is more psychological than it is practical. Really, most movement in most strategy games is only on two axes. Having those two axes match w/ the two used in Super Mario Bros. makes the whole thing seem a little more familiar.
3. This game is probably the closest we will likely get to a game based on Joss Wheaton's Firefly. It goes as far as to subtitle the game "You can't take the swag from me" when the credits roll.
4. You play as a motley crew of smuggler ro-bots. As you go about you mild mannered piracy, it is revealed that the government is up to some funny business, which you unravel to find yet more insidious machinations underneath the surface.
5. Combat is mostly gun-based w/ some melee and ranged explosive attacks mixed in for good measure. The characters have different special abilities and can only use certain guns, making them each serve a unique potential purpose in your crew.
6. Characters gain experience and become more powerful as the game progresses. You can replay levels as much as you want which lets you grind power-ups for your character. However, this process is pretty slow going and that encourages you to try new strategies rather than just tank up and take
everything head-on.
7. It's easy enough to just roll through w/ your initial default crew but most new characters prove useful right away because you can give them current level gear even if they're at a lower level themselves.
8. In addition to the turn based aspect of the combat, there is an added real-time element when aiming your guns. Your hand wavers just a little bit and you have to hit the shoot button at the right moment. It turns combat into a bit of a mini-game w/o breaking flow.
9. This was originally developed for the 3DS and its turn-based nature make it a great fit for that platform but I personally enjoyed playing on the PC simply because the larger screen really showed off the beautiful artwork. It is not pixel-art quite but does have something of a nostalgic vintage gaming tinge to it, though of course in modern resolutions.
10. I can't say enough good the music. It's all done by Steam Powered Giraffe, who are a group that seems built from the ground up to make music for light-hearted steampunk video games. A really nice detail is the band is included in-game and is shown performing unique tracks at each of the bars you visit on the way--complete w/ vocals. You can buy the SteamWorld Heist soundtrack off their Bandcamp page and you should.
11. Difficulty is adjustable before each mission and it does more than just give the enemies more less hit-points or add or subtract enemies from the game. Upping the difficulty changes the strategy you will have to use to beat each level. You have to leverage your team's strengths much better on higher difficulties because most levels have additional waves of enemies that come after a countdown and those can be pretty beastly as they get more powerful. For what it's worth, the default difficulty, "experienced," is well-chosen as it allows you to play somewhat carefully, make some mistakes and still win. It gives you a stiff punishment for failing but not one that will ever become insurmountable.
12. Most of the replayability here is going to come from either wanting to try higher difficulties or play through w/ different combinations of ro-bot combatants. To this end, it offers an new game+ mode that allows you to use all additional characters you acquire on your first play from the very beginning of the next.
13. This game is what I would describe as deceptively good and can really provide a lot of things to a lot of people. You can knock the difficulty down and get a pretty, light game to spend some spare clock cycles when you have an extra moment or you can dig in and get some pretty dense strategy going--and SteamWorld Heist is actually good for both.
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