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SteamWorld Heist takes the series into space with turn-based ship boarding in early 2015

Steam rises

SteamWorld Heist takes the series into space with turn-based ship boarding in early 2015

Image & Form has announced SteamWorld Heist, which is its next game in the series after the Platinum-Award-winning SteamWorld Dig.

After the events of Dig, a cataclysmic event shattered the planet and all the steam-powered robots have been forced to survive in space.

Yep, no more dustbowls here, Heist is all about boarding enemy spaceships as a ruthless space cowbot.

As you can imagine, water is hard to come by in space, which is what fuels all characters and machines in SteamWorld. As such, a vicious, cut-throat style of life has taken over.

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To survive, you'll need to recruit what robots remain into your crew and scavenge the remains of the destroyed world below.

As you explore space, you'll encounter a number of enemy ships. Unlike Dig, the combat in Heist is turn-based rather than real-time, giving it a bit more of a strategic edge.

Nintendo Life went hands-on with an early demo to reveal more. It seems that combat will mostly involve ducking in-and-out of cover to shoot at your opponents across 2D battlefields.

To succeed, you'll need to take into account how to best use the weapons of each member of your crew, and instruct them accordingly.

You'll want to get a shotgun up close while a sniper should stay hidden, if possible, for example.

SteamWorld Heist

Combat upon boarding enemy ships only occurs if you hang around for too long, though. There's a counter for the number of moves you can make, stealing loot, before the opposing crew moves in on you.

If you do end up in battle, permadeath (in the current build) means that tension is high as losing just one crew member could be devastating.

Luckily, you can buy more crew members with the money you earn from heists. But that doesn't mean that they'll fit into your crew as well as your previous member did.

SteamWorld Heist will be coming to 3DS and Vita (and PC, Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One). Image & Form is currently aiming for the first release in the spring of 2015.

Look out for more details to come on the game's website.

Chris Priestman
Chris Priestman
Anything eccentric, macabre, or just plain weird, is what Chris is all about. He turns the spotlight on the games that fly under the radar.