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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. Hands-on Preview

by Aaron Kaluszka - January 16, 2015, 1:08 pm EST
Total comments: 5

Abe Lincoln, the Cowardly Lion, and Tiger Lily walk into a bar...

Code Name S.T.E.A.M. is a wholly new strategy RPG from the makers of Fire Emblem and Advance Wars. Fusing steampunk with comic book style, the game features a unique blend of character and strategic gameplay. None other than Abraham Lincoln (16th US President) has called out a motley crew of heroes from various legends and Americana to battle an invading alien menace throughout the streets of Victorian London.

At its core, the game is a turn-based strategy RPG, which tends to imply a particular style of gameplay. However, it deviates from the traditions of that genre in some pretty significant ways. First off, while moves are generally defined by square grid spaces, your view of the battlefield is not globally overhead or isometric -- you’re limited to what each member of your party can see from a third-person vantage point. You can control the camera with the New Nintendo 3DS’s C-stick nub, as well as using the face buttons or a touch screen virtual stick (especially for those on the original 3DS). This perspective means that you can’t always see what’s going on to plan out every move. Unseen enemies might be far away or close by, but hidden behind a wall.

Moves are limited by how much steam you can use. Each space on the grid uses up one steam unit and firing a weapon uses a set amount of units. For the most part, you can freely walk around the grid up the amount of steam units you have left, but if you pick up an item or get attacked by an enemy, your character’s steam use is locked in and can’t be reverted. In each turn, you can combine a variety of move, attack, and heal commands. It’s a unique system that may take a bit to get used to, but is pretty interesting to strategize with. Dealing with destructible barriers also eat up moves.

Attacks are also launched in third person; some weapons require direct targeting, while others are lobbed across the grid. Each of the characters can equip a variety of unique weapons and steam packs, which alter their abilities and range, as well as a variety of stats effects. Each weapon has a different trajectory based range, and your teammates can be hit by friendly fire, so you have to be careful to angle shots appropriately. There are close and far ranged guns, and explosives that do splash damage.

The various characters have different specialties. Lion’s (from The Wizard of Oz) rolling jump attack both dispatches enemies quickly as well as bypasses obstacles – but be careful, or you could find yourself surrounded in enemy territory. Tiger Lily (from Peter Pan) doesn’t have much attack capability, but she can heal the party. She can also toss out a banana to trip up foes. Each character has their own over-the-top special move that can be used only once per level. For example, Henry Fleming’s (from The Red Badge of Courage) Eagle Strike attack celebrates America with a flag-themed cutscene.

If you conserve some steam during your turn, when it’s the enemies’ turn, you can activate an Overwatch attack to stop their progress. But be careful – enemies also have Overwatch, and this capability in conjunction with limited visibility mean that you can easily walk into an enemy trap, ending that character’s turn. It may be a steampunk environment, but the aliens have all sorts of lasers and automatic weaponry that will force you to keep moving, disrupting your carefully laid out plans.

In each stage, you only need to get one character to the goal line to complete the area. However, there are many hidden secrets to be found by exploring the maps fully. You can revive characters using the medals that you collect, or you can save them in order to unlock new weapons. Exploring the levels introduces a major element of risk, as well as intelligent team construction.

Being immersed in the depths of the game world and not being able to account for every situation made the game feel more active and dynamic. On the other hand, if you’re in a situation where they’ve out of view, you’ll spend a lot of time looking at nothing but a tiny bar slowly incrementing as the computer plots out its moves. Unfortunately, there’s no way to fast-forward through these segments.

Aside from its indirect Fire Emblem influences, the developers also managed to sneak in characters from that series, such and Marth and Ike, who fight with their traditional swords. These characters are unlocked by tapping one of those characters’ amiibos on the New Nintendo 3DS (or the NFC accessory coming to the original 3DS). Unlike the Fire Emblem series, characters do not die permanently -- though you’ll need to rescan the amiibos of any fallen Fire Emblem fighter.

Overall, I was impressed by flexibility of Code Name S.T.E.A.M.’s unique gameplay style. The third person view changes up the usual SRPG structure in a good way, and the characters are an interesting group. I look forward to seeing how the whole game comes together when it launches on March 13 (US, May elsewhere).

Talkback

Leo13January 16, 2015

I'm currently on my second play-through of Fire Emblem Awakening.
I had been hoping for another Advance Wars, but I'll be happy to pop this into my 3DS
Hopefully it's as good as it sounds!

Leo13January 16, 2015

I see 1-4 players. Is this co-op or vs? Do we know at this point?

NeifirstJanuary 16, 2015

Is this game fairly similar to Valkyria Chronicles?  That's what the level layout most resembled to me, but I've been purposefully trying to avoid too many details.

Yes, the style of gameplay is probably closest to Valkyria Chronicles.

NeifirstJanuary 17, 2015

Quote from: MegaByte

Yes, the style of gameplay is probably closest to Valkyria Chronicles.

Well, that's all I need to make this a day one purchase then.  I loaded up on eshop cards during the best buy 15% off sale in December to last me through 2015, but I think I'm going to blow through it all before E3 at the rate Nintendo is releasing games of interest to me!

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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. Box Art

Genre Strategy
Developer Intelligent Systems
Players1 - 2
Online1 - 2

Worldwide Releases

na: Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.
Release Mar 13, 2015
PublisherNintendo
RatingTeen
jpn: Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.: Lincoln VS Alien
Release May 14, 2015
PublisherNintendo
Rating12+
eu: Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.
Release May 15, 2015
PublisherNintendo
Rating12+
aus: Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.
Release May 16, 2015
PublisherNintendo
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