Steamworld Heist - Cargo Commander meets Valkyria Chronicles with Space Cowbots?

Including the soundtrack.

Will do, thanks.

Should I get this for iOS or my 3DS?

A turn-based platformer. Interesting. I heard the next Assassin’s Creed is going to be like this.

iPad? iPhone? If the former, I’d say iOS. If the latter, then Nintendo. It’s fun on the iPad but my old man eyes and non-dexterous fingers can’t handle stuff like that on the iPhone.

Oh, big ol’ iPad, should’ve clarified. I think it’s cheaper there too, just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to get bitten by any control problems or anything like that. Thanks!

No, it’s great on iPad.

I picked this up on a whim for a trip to play on my Switch and it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite games. I grabbed it on PC when it first showed up there, but didn’t put much time into it (meaning to get back to it, I think a bunch of other stuff came out around then, or maybe I got it with several other titles as part of a Steam sale or something).

I thought I’d share some screenshots I took from the first … half? of the game? Something like that? Not sure how long it is, I’ve been playing for awhile and only just got a means to warp to an entirely new map, which was cool as it means I have a lot more game left. But this is the kind of game where you…

…Explore a map and uncover fun side quests!

…Level up and command awesome abilities unique to each of your crew members…

…to then unleash in amazingly satisfying, turn based combat in a procedurally generated map (each map location is a mission with a static set of objectives, but on a randomly determined layout).

…Fight really unique bosses and unlock an honestly kind of cool story and “world” to boot!

Plus it looks amazing, it plays smooth as silk, and it’s easy to take in bite size chunks or play for hours at a stretch, just replaying missions to get more loot and XP for your crew (only crew in a mission, and that survive a mission, get XP, so I have a few I like that are way ahead of others, and when I can bring like 4 members into a fight, I tend to have one or two low level guys I wish I had taken the time to level up a bit).

Also, high level crew get some seriously useful and tactical powers. Like Sentinal crew members gain “FOCUS” where if they don’t move from the previous turn they get bonus damage, or Inspire which if you position an Inspiring character next to other characters, they all do bonus damage. It gives the combat a satisfying puzzle aspect where you can really try some great strategies out.

And if you play on harder difficulties, you’ll need them. You can select before each mission the difficulty, so if you are having trouble you can drop it down on easy. Losing a mission can be rough, you lose half your funds (Water, is the currency here) and even if you complete a mission, as mentioned before defeated crew members are reassembled but gain no XP for that mission.

In a nod to @tomchick though, playing on harder difficulties yields more XP and I think better/more loot, on top of being a more satisfying experience for those looking for something like that.

I don’t know where it will go from here, I just beat the first major boss and got to a new area, like I mentioned, but I’m getting invested enough I wanted to make sure everyone knew about this gem. It’s just incredible so far.

I should also mention last year (I think it was 2018) I picked up and played through all of Steamworld Dig 2 and haed a blast with that, but this is a similar art style and I assume the same world (universe?) but it’s a completely different game. This is a tactical combat game, sort of like Worms meets XCOM.

The events at the end of Steamworld Dig 2 explain why you’re out in space in Heist.

All three are great games, by the way.

Yeah, I keep meaning to pick up the DLC and play again - it is really good. Plus it would be cheaper than buying the tactical game I’m really gunning for - Mutant Year Zero!

I should really introduce Steamworld Dig to my son. It may be a little too laid back, but he doesn’t really like hard games much. I think the first wasn’t very challenging but they kicked it up a couple notches with parts of Steamworld Dig 2.

Glad you’re enjoying it @Scotch_Lufkin, I adored Heist on the Vita a couple of years ago! Easily one of my favourite tactical games. I rotated my characters as much as possible because I didn’t want to miss out on their potential later on – there really are some satisfying abilities and synergies. Keep us posted on your thoughts, you’ve got a fair bit more game left and more surprises to come…!

Make sure you wear your favorite hat!

The most annoying thing about the game was the fact that once your hat got shot off you had to manually re-equip it in the next mission.

Better than having to retrieve it in the mission.

I wonder if the robots in the Steamworld universe have nightmares about showing up to school or work without a hat.

How did I never know about this? Picked this up and it’s GOTY 2019 so far (think I’m toward the end of the Outskirts).

Just superbly done.

Oh did it come out on Switch this year? Been losing track of the releases. That might upset my Quarterly list because Heist is so damned good and I never got the opportunity to nominate it before…

I discovered it in 2019, thus it is GOTY 2019 ;)

Gotcha! A fine choice, carry on!

I’m spending all my water on inventory slots. It kinda sucks that equipment that is equipped to a bot counts as part of your inventory. I’m looking at doing some replays of level to build up XP on new guys + get more water as everything is so damn expensive!!

So now I’m getting pretty frustrated and I’m hoping someone can shed some light on some things. FYI I’m playing on normal.

  1. I really want to know if a floor is shootable or not because every time I shoot, my bullets ricochet, and they are beating me to death, especially this one sniper on a mission. He seemed like he can shoot anything. When I aim, if my gun is blue with a red DO NOT cross on it, that means I can’t shoot, but so many times it’s not there & it seems random whether I can shoot or whether the bullet ricochets.

  2. Cover seems like there is a RNG involved. If I’m standing next to a cover that an enemy is behind, I can shoot them, but with one or more spaces, I seem to always get ricochets off cover, yet the enemy pierces me at will.

  3. The grenade paths don’t do what they show 90% of the time. I have damaged myself so many times I’m growing very frustrated with where they end up bouncing that I feel I should either abandon them or just close my eyes and click because honestly, the pathing is FUBAR.

  4. How can I tell what classes a weapon can be used by? It’s probably staring me right in the face, but it seems like whenever I go to loadout, so few choices and when deciding whether to save something, how do I know?