SteamWorld Heist 2 Review

Published and developed by Thunderful Games, SteamWorld Heist 2 is another superb addition to the storied Steamworld series and one of our indie picks for Summer Game Fest 2024. Adopting a roguelite strategy RPG format this time around, players are encouraged to explore dungeons with a small team to progress the story and gameplay.

As the nearby star collapses and causes havoc on the planet, the freshwater resource Steamworld relies on is becoming scarce, causing an ominous apocalypse ahead. While Steamworld’s navy has clamped down and declared total martial law, a motley crew of rogue bots led by Captain Quincy Leeway have stolen back their submarine to find a solution to this imminent threat.

Will you succeed and save your planet from impending doom? Gather your crew and save the planet in SteamWorld Heist 2!

A League of Extraordinary Bots

In SteamWorld Heist 2, the gameplay paradigm has shifted from the original spelunking roguelite of the Steamworld series. Instead of exploring mines for loot and character improvement, players now navigate the waters of a dying planet to access unknown areas and complete story missions.

At the start of the game, you have two crew members named Daisy and Wesley. You can upgrade their classes and enhance their abilities based on the weapons they equip. Each class serves a specific role: Ravagers excel as main damage dealers, Engineers function as healers, and Heavies act as tank-type characters dealing strong close-range physical damage.

As you progress and recruit new members in SteamWorld Heist 2, you can customize your party by maximizing a particular class and creating secondary builds that utilize previously learned skills using cogs. For example, you could have a Sniper with high mobility for scouting or a Heavy with Engineer abilities to heal allies—a flexible approach to building a powerful team.

The roguelite aspect of SteamWorld Heist 2 involves managing your party members. After battles, exhausted or injured crew members need rest. Depending on your performance during exploration, you earn bounty points. These points can be spent on rare weapons, ship parts, and crew upgrades. Bounty points reset daily, even if unused.

To progress the story in SteamWorld Heist 2, you have to fulfill certain conditions set by the game, such as improving a particular upgrade on your ship, earning a high enough rank, or completing additional areas in the world map. Pretty standard stuff, but you have to spend your time wisely to level up your crew members, and get the right upgrades, as the challenges do tend to stack in later levels.

There is also a particular resource management with your loot. You earn gallons to spend on basic items such as equipment and being able to recruit crew members. Crystals are used for upgrades. Crystals are harder to get, so they should be used sparingly and wisely. After a while, the system of being able to manage this is quite simple so it’s really up to you being able to balance out your crew and having the latest upgrades as keys to victory.

There’s Something in the Water

In SteamWorld Heist 2, the gameplay starts off deceptively simple but becomes progressively more challenging. Even on the lowest difficulty setting (Story), combat can pose a significant challenge. Unlike many other strategy RPGs, where early levels are straightforward, SteamWorld Heist 2 gradually ramps up the difficulty as you advance and become more ambitious.

Each level presents a clear objective, such as collecting an item within a specified number of turns, defeating specific enemies, or accomplishing a task. Once you achieve the objective, you’re given time to extract. During this window, you can gather extra loot and epic rewards. Meeting additional conditions boosts your bounty score, potentially yielding higher rewards.

However, enemies in SteamWorld Heist 2 don’t make things easy. While early enemies are straightforward, later foes employ tactics that counter your chosen character classes or swarm you to overwhelm your limited numbers. Alarms further complicate exploration by restricting your available moves.

A clever gameplay mechanic involves aiming your shots manually using the mouse or right trigger. By following the trajectory of your shot, you can perform skillful maneuvers—such as piercing through enemies or bouncing shots off surfaces—to hit foes hiding behind cover.

This is where strategy comes along for your crew as you will have to make snap decisions on whether you forego certain rewards to complete conditions and progress the game or collect everything to get a high enough score to collect all your bounty rewards. While it is tempting to collect everything during your first run, it is best to play it safe and do a sweep on your next SteamWorld Heist 2 playthrough.

SteamWorld Heist 2 also brings back the Steamworld charm with the overall visual look, sound, and story. It’s a fun romp through this world with the familiar characters with its trademark Steamworld tongue-in-cheek humor. It’s a blast.

The title is relatively short, giving you 8-12 hours of solid gameplay and replay value. As many of your bot crews are randomized, there are many combinations of builds that you can try for speed runs or even to complete levels and collect all the loot. My favorite part though is collecting hats as cosmetic items by shooting them off enemies’ heads.

Verdict: Buy It!

SteamWorld Heist 2 is a solid strategy RPG to add to your library and a solid addition to the Steamworld series of games. If you don’t mind a brush with challenging levels and the tight roguelite requirements, you’re in for a charming submarine ride with your motley crew of loveable rogues.

Either way, there’s quite a bit of love and care put in by the Thunderful Games crew with SteamWorld Heist 2 that will give you tons of hours of gameplay and replay value. There are lots of combinations that you can play around with as well as levels to repeat on different scenarios. It’s quite a fun indie game that’s well worth your time and money.

*Steamworld Heist 2 was reviewed on a Steam Deck with a review code provided by the publisher.