Swedish Indie dev team Image & Form recently announced the release date of the upcoming SteamWorld Dig 2 - September 21st, though I believe that's just for the Switch version - which feels like kismet, because I only just started the excellent SteamWorld Heist earlier this week. I tend to leave most of my Indie Games of the Week playthroughs for Thursday, hence why this weekly feature occasionally rolls over to Friday if I feel more "research" needs to be done, but SteamWorld Heist is going to occupy a very important and specific gaming slot for me for the next while: my incremental 3DS playthrough of choice. For most of 2017, that's been Professor Layton and the Last Specter and Picross 3D: Round 2, and since completing the latter a few months ago I've been looking for something new to fill that intermittent gaming gap.

Turns out SteamWorld Heist is perfect for the job. Based in the same universe as Image & Form's other SteamWorld games, Heist puts you in the metal shoes of pirate "Cowbot" captain Piper Faraday and her ragtag crew as they attempt to take on the villainous "Scrappers" by robbing them of everything they own. These heist missions are portrayed as 2D turn-based gunfights across semi-randomized starships, each with a certain amount of enemies to destroy and loot to sweep. A lot of the time, you'll also be given extra objectives and obstacles to overcome. These can range from destroying generators to open doors to having to deal with reinforcements or turrets after a certain number of turns have passed. Like XCOM, the game often forces you to choose between a cautious approach that uses any available cover, or to risk bodily harm for the sake of expediency in missions where time is of the essence. Your team increases in levels and can be equipped with better gear, so as long as someone survives you can always regroup and upgrade if you're trying to get that perfect score on a stage.

It's definitely the kind of game best suited to a portable platform, where each sortie generally lasts around 10-15 minutes and the game auto-saves after every heist and visit to local vendors or quest sponsors (the game also conveniently lets you check how long it's been since it last auto-saved before quitting, just in case you're as paranoid as I am). As in SteamWorld Dig, I'm also enjoying the mechanical steampunk/cowpoke mish-mash of themes and the way you can garner little tidbits about everyone's personalities and backstories by talking to them on your ship. I'm presently rocking a crew that includes a circus strongman (or strongbot), a farmer's daughter who ran away from home to shoot things for a living, and my salty first-mate who seems to survive every battle through sheer gumption.

Similar to what happened when I played Zeboyd's Cosmic Star Heroine recently, I'm amazed at the economical shortcuts Indie games take when they recognize that they neither have the time nor their audience the inclination for a lot of filler content, so instead every individual battle is carefully and deliberately bespoke in how they're always suited to your current challenge level and almost always result in another game changer that defines how you approach the next battle. Whether that's finding a grenade launcher to replace my heavy assault guy's shotgun, which'll require a slight tweak in how I approach enemies with that character i.e. from a much longer distance, or finding an accessory that does extra damage to enemies within melee range that'll encourage me to close the distance more often with whomever I equip it to. The crew's also big enough now that I can mix-and-match the members of my raid team to figure out an ideal all-round complement, or perhaps craft one best suited to the task at hand: a recent stage began with a surprise self-destruct countdown, which meant I had to move quickly to find the escape pods while collecting as much loot as possible along the way. I handily beat that stage without incident, somehow, but using my speedier crewmembers with the right upgrades would've made it even easier. It's that sort of capacity for learning from your mistakes and overcoming anything a scenario might throw at you with the right level of preparation that makes games like this tick; if it was pure skill or reflexes (though there is some manual aiming to be done, Yoshi egg-throwing style) I'd be dreading the later levels. As it is, I know I can defeat anything the game might throw at me with the right amount of forethought. I love that feeling, and it keeps me motivated to continue.

I'm not quite sure how long the game is yet - I stopped just before a tough looking boss fight, and I'm hoping it'll be end of the first "episode" of the game rather than the finale - but I hope it can keep surprising me as I continue raiding my way through space hulks and building up a team of combat specialists.

Rating: 5 out of 5.