This game is so much better than Steamworld Heist 2.

[RIP Val Kilmer]

It's incredible how much worse the sequel is to this game. Everybody should buy this one since it's cheap.

[Stormer]

whats wrong with 2, I was planning on getting it later on

[ᗩSᕼᑘᐺᗩ᙭]

Or ill just buy both 👌

[Ting🍊]

Originally posted by Stormer:

whats wrong with 2, I was planning on getting it later on

It's like 1 but you have to manually navigate through the overworld with your slow ass ship (pointless waste of time), your characters need to rest after each mission despite being robots (pointless waste of time), which wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't encourage you to grind different builds which you do by replaying missions, which you then have to backtrack through the map and have to rest every time (pointless waste of time), the "difficulty" relies on most levels spawning endless reinforcements instead of any actual strategy (pointless waste of time). Anyone that praises 2 for being "longer" doesn't realize that at least 1/3 of its playtime is literally filler. Heist 2 is not bad, it still retains the core gameplay that makes Heist good, but basically everything they added to it is just bloat.

[Soli]

Not sure which one is essentially better, but Heist 1 is definitely "more robust". It does what it does, and it does it well: turn-based, aim-to-shoot 2D tactics.

The paradigm they went for 2 was DEFINITELY a mistake, instead of focusing on inter-mission gameplay (naval battles), they should've either expanded on the combat, or developed the game as a quasi rogue-lite.
I.E: The game already capitalizes on random loot, just have random levels and enemies too. Center it around rotating "biomes" / "zones" and ♥♥♥♥, and you got a game that has massive replayability.

I think Heist + Deep Rock Galactic-ish (the idea of spelunking underground and such) would've been a smash hit.
Heist 2 lacks replayability, because you're stuck wasting time floating from one zone place to another.

Ting wrote it very well.
Too bad they shut down these studios down, and didn't went for the "obvious" ideas...

[mejorqvos]

Damn, this IS a major issue for me. Filler will never be entertaining.

- Forced grinding
- Forced slow backtracking
- Forced cooldowns
- Forced navigating (quite literally)
- Less strategy by spawning enemies

All for the sake of the "35h of gameplay" I suppose.

EDIT: I'll be holding my purchase until they do something about it.

[Macdallan]

Originally posted by Ting🍊:

Originally posted by Stormer:

whats wrong with 2, I was planning on getting it later on

It's like 1 but you have to manually navigate through the overworld with your slow ass ship (pointless waste of time), your characters need to rest after each mission despite being robots (pointless waste of time), which wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't encourage you to grind different builds which you do by replaying missions, which you then have to backtrack through the map and have to rest every time (pointless waste of time), the "difficulty" relies on most levels spawning endless reinforcements instead of any actual strategy (pointless waste of time). Anyone that praises 2 for being "longer" doesn't realize that at least 1/3 of its playtime is literally filler. Heist 2 is not bad, it still retains the core gameplay that makes Heist good, but basically everything they added to it is just bloat.

Thanks for explaining all this, was thinking about buying SteamWorld Heist 2 but now I won't. It sounds a bit like what happened with Darkest Dungeon 2 where they changed the wrong things and added too many needless and annoying game mechanics (driving the carriage for example in DD2) and other useless time wasters that add nothing to the game. Neither sequel seems to measure up to the original. Too bad, really.

[beez-one]

I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread because I was actually on a fence of buying SWH2 with current discount but was sceptical about "sunless London-lite" boat part and now I see that my suspicions was confirmed.

I also think art style in part 1 has more sharpness in it and looks better overall.

[RIP Val Kilmer]

I'm just glad Ting posted because he posted all the thoughts I had but wasn't really able to articulate.

[Soli]

Originally posted by mejorqvos:

Damn, this IS a major issue for me. Filler will never be entertaining.

- Forced grinding
- Forced slow backtracking
- Forced cooldowns
- Forced navigating (quite literally)
- Less strategy by spawning enemies

All for the sake of the "35h of gameplay" I suppose.

EDIT: I'll be holding my purchase until they do something about it.

I just want to point out, that navigating around the world "slowly", is honestly not that much of a hassle. It's fine. It's chill. It's okay.
From a replayability POV, however, yes, it i very weak. It adds fodder, like unskippable cutscenes, where you just "want to play the game". But on your first playthrough, there's nothing really wrong with it, unless you are really against the idea of doing anything but doing the heist missions.
I just finished playing Calisto Protocol, and wanted to try newgame+ -- but there are so many cutscenes in between, unskippable segments where you slowly crawl around, that....Yeah, it's very story-orientated, which means there's no point repeating it for its gameplay. But on the first run? Serviceable.

I also think art style in part 1 has more sharpness in it and looks better overall.

Aiight, now replay Heist 1 and tell me it looks better. That's crazy.
Heist's 2 art is so much more of an improvement, it's like saying Dig 1 is better looking than Dig 2...


P.S: Really trying not to seem like a mindless shill for Heist 2 here. Just saying, guys -- I had fun playing Heist 2, I think it was worth the money, even with all the criticisms against it.
Too bad we're not going to get any more / other Heist games, at least for a very long time, though. It's a shame, after they FINALLY returned to what actually worked (after the crappy Fantasy and Build games...)

[ShinyRayquaza9]

Originally posted by Soli:

Originally posted by mejorqvos:

Damn, this IS a major issue for me. Filler will never be entertaining.

- Forced grinding
- Forced slow backtracking
- Forced cooldowns
- Forced navigating (quite literally)
- Less strategy by spawning enemies

All for the sake of the "35h of gameplay" I suppose.

EDIT: I'll be holding my purchase until they do something about it.

I just want to point out, that navigating around the world "slowly", is honestly not that much of a hassle. It's fine. It's chill. It's okay.
From a replayability POV, however, yes, it i very weak. It adds fodder, like unskippable cutscenes, where you just "want to play the game". But on your first playthrough, there's nothing really wrong with it, unless you are really against the idea of doing anything but doing the heist missions.
I just finished playing Calisto Protocol, and wanted to try newgame+ -- but there are so many cutscenes in between, unskippable segments where you slowly crawl around, that....Yeah, it's very story-orientated, which means there's no point repeating it for its gameplay. But on the first run? Serviceable.

I also think art style in part 1 has more sharpness in it and looks better overall.

Aiight, now replay Heist 1 and tell me it looks better. That's crazy.
Heist's 2 art is so much more of an improvement, it's like saying Dig 1 is better looking than Dig 2...


P.S: Really trying not to seem like a mindless shill for Heist 2 here. Just saying, guys -- I had fun playing Heist 2, I think it was worth the money, even with all the criticisms against it.
Too bad we're not going to get any more / other Heist games, at least for a very long time, though. It's a shame, after they FINALLY returned to what actually worked (after the crappy Fantasy and Build games...)

This defintely, the only time exploration felt slow was the very start, and the amount they let you explore is great, as a huge steamworld fan, I'm shocked to see hate here. The only issues I had were some hiccups in the story (mostly involving the heist one stuff) and a ng+ would have been nice. Also was sad to see no hats referencing other titles or having a worlds collide hat

[DiseasedProject]

Hard disagree on a lot of opinions voiced here. Let me begin by saying I really like both games and I'm currently replaying the first game after a few years. A couple of counter-arguments in favor of Steamworld Heist II:
- I don't think the overworld exploration is tedious. Sure, your ship starts off pretty slow, but it's not very long until you get your first speed upgrade. There's actually a little bit of Metroidvania elements in the overworld exploration. Combined with the sea battles, I like it. It's a nice change of pace from the tactical missions.
- The rest mechanic is there because of the bounty mechanic. You get better rewards the more missions you do before resting (also, it prevents you from getting OP gear too early). This encourages you to utilize all your characters and level them up equally, instead of resting after every mission.
- You most definitely do not need to replay missions. You can (if you didn't get all the loot and/or hats), but don't have to. There's plenty of missions to max out your primary class and get a lot of levels on secondary classes as well.
- Speaking of secondary classes, it makes the characters a lot more versatile and opens up a box of new possibilities and combos. Multi-classes have been a thing in games for decades. Every bot can now use every weapon, and that's a good thing: it means you can basically customize each of them to your personal liking. Want to have the most timid, small-framed runt to be an absolute melee beast? You can.
- "The difficulty lies in enemy spawns"....um.... wasn't this the case with the first game as well? I really don't understand this argument. More enemies naturally means more difficulty. There are difficulty options, like in the first game as well. You can make the enemies stronger too, if you want to. It's really dishonest to argue that the difficulty lies entirely in numbers: it does not.

Now, Steamworld Heist II is a pretty long game, yes, and it does get somewhat same-y at some point. However, I don't think any of it was filler, and I had a really good time throughout the whole game - mostly since the tactical missions are just so much fun. Besides, one major positive that was conveniently left out among all the criticism: Steamworld Heist II finally has free mouse aim, and therefor controller usage is not a must anymore.

Steamworld Heist I is a really good game, but I think Steamworld Heist II saw what could be improved in the first game and made those improvements. Steamworld Heist II is a much more refined and expanded take on a Steamworld Heist game. I say don't be encouraged to get the sequel: if you liked the first one, there is a really good change you enjoy the second one as well. The negative opinions here are really, really exaggerated in my opinion and I feel like they were made by someone who expected a complete carbon copy of the first game.