Review Steamworld Heist 2 (PlayStation and Switch)

Price: £24.99 eShop (sale price, £16.24 until 1st November, copy provided for review), 

£24.99 on PSN (Bundle with original, £32.99, sale price £23.09 until 23rd October)

Developer: Image & Form/Thunderful Development

Publisher: Thunderful 

Players: 1

 The Steamworld universe is a joyous little place of burbling bots and chaotic destruction. And it is great to see publisher Thunderful and developer Image & Form not cramming the release schedules with rushed projects to "maximise return on the IP's value yada yada!" Although a true pirate would want all that plunder! 

Eight years on from the first Steamworld Heist release, the sequel sets sail with a new crew and an adventure set across open water, rather than plodding through those dusty space lanes again. With the water turning toxic and deadly to droids, it is up to down-on-his-luck Captain Leeway to build up a new rag-tag crew and equip their submarine with all the weapons and systems to take down the nefarious Royal Navy and the mysterious source of the toxins.

At the heart of each hats-to-shoot and pun-laden part of the story is Heist's perfectly crafted exploration and turn-based combat system, set across enemy vessels or within mystery bases and secret locations as the plot unfolds. Rarely is there a straight shot to be had at an enemy Steambot, requiring careful weapon selection, and use of the scenery to ricochet shots that will do the most damage to beat the clock. 

Vita fans of the Steamworld series will be delighted to know that Remote Play from the PS4 works very well, with clear text as the developers focus on accessibility, the experience should be even sharper and groovier with a PlayStation Portal for PS5 players or on a Switch. However you play, there's always the option to take it cautiously or try and steamroller through a level, with the more carnage the better.   

Teamwork makes the steam work

Even more so than the original, a spot of teamwork is key to dispatching the enemies in time to get the maximum rewards (and respect) from each level. And with the random positioning of enemies, you can't necessarily rehash successful techniques on a retry. Matching collaborative skills and traits can improve your odds, or you can stick with tried and tested heroes as the scudding clouds part to reveal a new stretch of water and missions.  

Steamworld Heist 2 all feels very familiar until you start breaking through into new territory, larger seas and as the story hits in bursts of surf. Exploring the high seas and desert island beaches unveils secrets and new parts of the story, but the naval combat feels rather light with turrets, cannons and torpedoes largely on autopilot. It could definitely do with hint of Sid Meier's Pirates, and even some local trading to broaden the appeal slightly. 

If you're impatient to get on with the story, that's handy, but the expanded splashy world of Heist II has a lot of too-and-fro, and the need to build up the motley crew of characters, learning how their special abilities can prove useful in later missions. Handily, there's always trash to pickup after combat where you might find something useful, and its good to feel like the real Ocean Cleanup crew.

Building up the team with snipers, boomers and multi-shot reapers or flankers creates some interesting gameplay ideas, and your ultimate team can stomp through missions, collecting the cogs and crystal fragments to power-up equipment and the submarine. 

Even so, the progress isn't completely smooth and some missions will require a few (or many) tries to master, but there are plenty of difficulty modes if one damn dam is really jamming your progress. With charming characters, an appealing pace to the game, and another fantastically realised world, Steamworld Heist II should be a game everyone plays rather than wait for the next PlayStation or Nintendo remaster! 

In this clanky and cranky, defective/detective world of Steambots, there's plenty of humour and the joyous surprise of a trick shot well done. Or one that delivers an exploding world of unintended consequences, all of which add to the fun! A little dragged out maybe, but whatever platform from Switch to PlayStation, this a great autumnal robotic heart-warmer. 

Score 4/5

More reviews