SteamWorld Heist

Steamworld Heist is a Turn-Based Tactics game, although unlike most which are top-down, this is a side-scroller. It is probably my favorite tactics game I have played so far. It is simple, effective, and always has more to throw at you.

You are space cowboy "Steambots" that are boarding, raiding, and escaping enemy spacecraft. The combat is done by aiming your guns in specific trajectories around the enclosed spacecraft. This along with procedurally randomized cover, hazards, and layout, makes the game interesting every time.

Part of the problem with this genre is that it can often feel like the same thing again and again. You don't experience enough variety that make you re-evaluate your strategies. But this game never rests on its laurels. It keeps throwing new hazards and enemies at you at every turn. And by the time it's out of ideas, it's over. It's not actually that long a game.

Aside: This game (along with Into The Breach) have taught me that the whole concept of "Chance to Hit" is unnecessary to the entire genre. Turn-Based Tactics are essentially trying to evoke Chess and Chess-like strategy, where you are constantly predicting your opponents future turns with mostly perfect information ("Perfect information" is where there isn't any hidden information, like Chess or Go which has no randomness, agility, cards, fog-of-war, etc). Randomized chance-to-hit honestly ruins this effect, even when it is pretty lenient. Games that forego chance-to-hit show that the choices every turn can be quite interesting and complex without it.

The aesthetic is this goofy flash-animation-style which all the Steamworld games have. The steambots are all fun and colorful. The vectron are successfully evil and terrifying in their own weird way. The story has a whole lot of stick-it-to-the-man in it which is always good and fun.

If you enjoyed Turn-Based Tactics like XCOM, Massive Chalice, or Into The Breach, you should absolutely check out Steamworld Heist.