In tactical RPGs, it’s easy to fall into a familiar rhythm. You’re always gonna wanna take on missions with your long-range attacker, your up-close attacker, and maybe a support class of some sort. These classes will usually gain ultra-powerful abilities that assist in their effectiveness at doing what they do best. But rarely do you see games that allow for a single character to equip top-tier abilities from two separate classes at the same time. Even heralded classics like Final Fantasy Tactics and Baldur’s Gate 3 put a damper on complete class freedom in the interest of game balancing.
Which is why it’s so wild to see SteamWorld Heist 2 throw a lot of that out the window with one of the most free-wheeling class systems I’ve ever seen.
SteamWorld Heist 2 follows the format of the original: It’s a 2D, side-scrolling take on turn-based strategy games like XCOM where a small squad of soldiers uses its wits to overcome hordes of rival robots. Rather than revolving around chance-to-hit percentages, all of the combat in the game is determined by where you’re aiming. But when you’ve got an arcing rocket launcher without a laser sight, hitting a shot from across the map can be easier said than done.
To help get the edge, squad members level up after missions, earning new passive and active abilities appropriate for their equipped class. A melee-centric Brawler might get the ability to move after a kill, rather than having their turn immediately end, for example. Or a Sniper might come equipped with an enormous laser sight by default, letting you nail a perfect ricochet shot off two walls and into a rival robot’s noggin.
But here’s the thing: your squad members aren’t locked into their starting class. At any time, simply equipping a different primary weapon can change a character’s class entirely. Give a Sniper a shotgun and suddenly they’re a Flanker, with way more movement abilities and the chance to deal extra damage by hitting an enemy from behind.
That character will start out as a level 1 Flanker, but they’ll keep their Sniper level, and any skills they previously unlocked as a Sniper can be equipped using “Cogs.” As you level up the different classes, more Cogs become available to you, giving you much more freedom in how you create your classes.
If you took that Sniper all the way to max level, and then proceeded to fully level three more classes, you could equip the final skills from all four of those classes at the same time — and probably have some more Cogs left over. The end result is a Sniper who can shoot a weapon that fires twice per turn, set guys on fire, heal themselves for every kill, and mark a random enemy on the field to take bonus damage. It begins to get a bit absurd.
If you think this will make the game too easy, the developers have tossed in a wide range of difficulty options to tweak all aspects of enemy AI, so you can ensure there’s still a challenge. In my playthrough on the default difficulty setting, there was never really a moment when I thought I had a total edge on the opposing side. I also found that knowing my crew of death machines was fully handcrafted made the whole experience far more rewarding. The SteamWorld franchise continues to innovate in exciting ways, and I’m looking forward to seeing what genre it’ll set its sights on next.
SteamWorld Heist 2 was released on Aug. 8 2024 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series S/X. The game was reviewed on a SteamDeck using a pre-release download code provided by Thunderful Publishing. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
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