Steamworld Heist 2 review: this seafaring strategy sequel will test your skill

There’s no job more complicated in the world of Steamworld Heist 2 than that of a ship captain. It doesn’t just require managing a ragtag team of mechanized crewmates, each one with their own jobs and gear. It also requires becoming an engineer, reinforcing your sea vessel with the armor and weapons necessary to survive the cutthroat Great Sea. And when danger does inevitably arise, a good captain needs to know the ins and outs of various robo factions roaming the sea so they can handily scrap them. It’s a job reserved for master strategists.

That complexity is reflected in Steamworld Heist 2, a tense tactical strategy game where every move matters. In this sequel to 2016’s Steamworld Heist, developer Image & Form Games turns the heat up on its turn-based action formula. The aquatic adventure is more expansive, harder, and filled with the kind of surprising gameplay twists that make each Steamworld game feel so fresh. It’s a follow-up that deals in escalation, and that’s an at times overwhelming evolution that’s sure to separate the captains from the swabbies.

A robot’s life for me

While Steamworld Heist 2 keeps the same core ideas of its predecessor, Image & Form Games goes the extra mile to make its sequel stand out. It’s a similar dynamic to the one present in the first two Steamworld Dig games. The first one was a surprising riff on Dig Dug that felt both innovative and elegant in its execution, while Steamworld Dig 2 subtly transformed that hook into a Metroidvania by turning a few screws. That’s been done here too, with Steamworld Heist’s turn-based tactics placed into a freer adventure format with an additional layer of exploration.

The big change this time is that players aren’t in outer space navigating a set path of missions in order to board ships and steal their loot. Instead, the sequel places its robots in a submarine and sends them off into a fully traversable ocean dotted with missions, secrets, and a bit of environmental puzzling. It’s a refreshing change of pace that keeps its proper missions from getting stale. I got just as much out of simply sailing around the map for 20 minutes hunting for floating crates filled with water (the world’s most precious resource) and rare weapons.

That all happens from a top-down perspective as I carefully pilot a submarine around the world, outfitting it with weapons and eventually getting upgrades that open up blocked-off biomes. As I explore, I bump into enemy vessels that I can take down by carefully positioning myself so my cannons and torpedoes can auto-fire them down. It’s a left-field addition that takes some getting used to, but it brings some exciting risk-taking to the table. When I clear a mission, I get bounty points that can be spent on various gear anytime I rest at a bar. If my ship goes down before then, though, I drop all of those points. Clearing out multiple missions will net me better rewards, but I might lose it all if I bump into a wandering warship or minefield that I’m not equipped to take on. It’s a rewarding hit of tension that doesn’t just make me feel like I’m wandering a needless overworld map to get to missions.

That strength combines with a cheery style compared to its darker predecessor. Rather than wandering through dreary ships, I’m exploring a picaresque painted with deep blues. The real-world Caribbean islands were a clear inspiration for the team here, and that’s reflected in a sunnier sequel with a jaunty energy to it.

Aside from set dressing, Steamworld Heist 2’s pirate theme does feel a touch underwhelming. While there are plenty of eccentric NPCs to meet and even some original sea shanties, the story boils down to a lore-heavy dissection of the robo factions sailing the seas. Narrative is never the focus of the more mechanically invested Steamworld series, but I found myself especially uninvested during my 25 hours with the main campaign. This is the fifth Steamworld game I’ve played and I feel like I’m still no closer to understanding the universe. It’s more a low-stakes cartoon where the bots play dress up with each new adventure. That’s fine, but I find myself hungry for something more substantial from the series’ longest installment to date.

Do your job

Once on a mission, Steamworld Heist’s winning tactical formula comes back to the forefront. I select a squad of one to five bots, depending on the mission, and hop into a small 2D map with its own objectives to complete. Some missions require me to find hidden loot and safely extract it, while others have me surviving waves of enemies. That’s all powered through ironclad turn-based strategy as I carefully spend two action points each turn to move, shoot, toss grenades, or trigger abilities. It once again pulls from the Worms playbook with success, as I need to carefully aim my weapons to hit foes. A poorly thrown grenade could literally blow up in my face. I hold my breath every time I need to line up a crucial handgun shot that could be the difference between victory and defeat.

Rather than shaking that system up, Image & Form carefully deepens it with a new job system that brings out the formula’s RPG potential. Each of my crewmates inherits a job based on the weapon I give them. A shotgun-toting flanker gets skills that allow them to move around a map quicker and hit enemies from behind for extra damage. Snipers are more about staying stationary and lining up exact shots with a laser sight. Each class brings its own utility that I was eager to experiment with through the end.

The kicker, though, is that all classes can be mixed and matched with ease. Each one can be leveled up five times, unlocking a core set of skills that are always equipped while the class is active. If I decide to swap a crewmate to a new class by changing their weapon, I can use cogs to equip any unlocked skills from other jobs. That seamless system cracks the strategy game wide open. I imbued one of my flankers with the skills of a sniper and engineer, allowing them to create their own cover and more carefully aim their shotgun. Elsewhere, I gave an engineer a flanker’s skill set so their handgun shots could pierce enemies. That, combined with utility items that made their critical shots more lethal, made for one dangerous robot.

It’s one thing to present tons of options like that in a game, but another to encourage players to actually experiment with them all. Steamworld Heist 2 excels in that regard. Each crew member feels useful thanks to personal upgrades that can be unlocked at a terminal. I turned my dear Rosa Rivet, a beefy tank with a pink frame, into an unstoppable beast who both dealt damage to bots when attacked and gained health back when smashing them. I set them up as a perpetual motion machine, always keeping their health topped off by drawing fire from weakened enemies. Not a single member of my crew went unused.

And, of course, the feature that really matters makes a return here: hats. Every enemy wears a hat that can be shot off and collected by grazing a bullet through it. I don’t really have anything to say about that; it’s just plain funny. Touches like that add some welcome silliness to Steamworld Heist 2.

Getting overwhelmed

Though I admire all of the new features Steamworld Heist 2 brings to the table, the sequel does have some trouble finding a way to escalate its challenges. Right from the opening difficulty select screen, which includes a long list of settings, it’s clear that Image & Form wants to give hardcore players a workout here. It does that through increasingly complex missions that require players to really focus on building their team as efficiently as possible. Some encounters almost have a puzzle-like appeal to them, as there’s an art to clearing out a room in one turn with some careful actions.

The way those challenges escalate can be a pain, though. Missions spawn more and more enemies out the longer players spend in them. The alarm-based system adds some urgency, but it can also make missions a bit of a headache. In late-game challenges, enemies spawned so often that it felt like I had to keep my team on constant cleanup duty. That slows the pace to a crawl as I try to cut down enemies so I can move on, only to have more flood in on the next turn. Self-healing can feel a bit stingy too, so I can only tank so much damage aside from bots built to do just that.

Several smaller issues compound from there. In some missions, I found myself facing off against over a dozen enemies at once and watching all their actions play out (even with a skip button, enemy turns still feel long). It’s incredibly difficult to manage a room at that point, as the fact that enemies can seemingly fire from anywhere makes it tough to get to a safe position. An ineffective cover system makes that even more difficult, as foes can just break any barrier I’m hiding behind or simply hit a bot’s head with ease.

That would be easier to deal with if Steamworld Heist 2 were forgiving in other ways, but it really doesn’t want to give players an inch. There’s understandably no undo button to reset a mistake, but the only rewind option available always sets me back two turns. In most cases, I found that if I was in need of a reset, my mistakes happened much further back. I’d just have to abort the mission and start from scratch in most cases since there are no specific checkpoints. Every design decision makes sense on its own, but they build up to make the final stretch (which introduces some especially annoying foes) a bit exhausting.

That’s the tricky part of making sequels: There’s always the drive to make something that tops the original. There’s a pressure to make something more challenging and bigger, all while peppering in enough new ideas to make it stand out. Just as one bad move in a battle can nearly cost players an entire mission, a few tactical missteps put a dent in Steamworld Heist 2’s armor. But those flaws don’t take away from another impressive feat from one of gaming’s most consistent studios. Steamworld Heist 2 goes above and beyond as a follow-up, adding new gameplay layers that deepen the core hook. That’s the kind of tactical juggling act that only a master strategist like Image & Form can handle.

Steamworld Heist 2 was tested on PC and Steam Deck OLED.