SteamWorld Quest
A steampunk deck-building RPG with sentient robot heroes.
SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech blends turn-based role-playing with deck-building mechanics, and belongs to the SteamWorld series. Developer Image & Form and publisher Thunderful Publishing brought it to Nintendo Switch, Windows, macOS, Linux, Stadia, and Amazon Luna. The story follows a group of sentient steam-powered robots on a journey through a steampunk fantasy realm to battle evil. Critics generally praised the game, highlighting its visuals and gameplay.
The plot is framed as a fairy tale within the sci-fi universe of *SteamWorld Heist*, with no direct story ties to earlier games. It centers on two friends, Armilly and Copernica, whose small adventure grows into a much larger quest.
Gameplay is side-scrolling, with small explorable areas to loot for treasure. Enemies trigger turn-based battles. Attacks rely on punch cards that robots use to execute programs. Steam pressure acts as mana, and players build custom decks from character-specific attack cards.
On Metacritic, the game holds an aggregate score of 81. Matt Masem of RPGamer rated it 4.5/5, calling it an "excellent adventure" with "beautiful" animation and a "wonderfully executed" story, though he noted it was "standard RPG fare." Tom Marks of IGN gave it 8.6/10, praising the combat system for offering an "insane amount of choice." Nadia Oxford of USgamer rated it 4/5, criticizing it as "light on character and worldbuilding" but calling it a "fun, airy RPG."
Quick Facts
- Title
- SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech
- Developer
- Image & Form
- Publisher
- Thunderful Publishing
- Series
- SteamWorld
- Platforms
- Nintendo Switch · Windows · macOS · Linux · Stadia · Amazon Luna
- Released
- Nintendo Switch / April 25, 2019 / Windows, macOS, Linux / May 31, 2019 / Stadia / March 3, 2020 / Amazon Luna / October 20, 2020
- Genre
- Role-playing, deck-building
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
SteamWorld Quest is presented as a fairy tale told within the otherwise science fiction universe of SteamWorld Heist and is not directly linked story-wise to the previous games. It follows Armilly and Copernica, two friends who set out on a journey that spirals into a much larger one. The game is a side-scrolling video game separated into small explorable areas that the player is encouraged to loot for treasure. Enemies may be encountered and battles engaged. Attacks are performed by collecting punch cards that the robots can use to execute programs. The game uses role-playing game elements, with steam pressure representing mana, and the player must build their own deck of attacks using character-specific cards.
Reader's Guide
SteamWorld Quest received an aggregate score of 81 on Metacritic. Matt Masem of RPGamer rated the game 4.5/5, calling it an 'excellent adventure' with 'beautiful' animation, and calling the story 'wonderfully executed' despite being 'standard RPG fare'. Tom Marks of IGN gave the game 8.6/10, saying the combat system offers an 'insane amount of choice'. Nadia Oxford of USgamer rated the game 4/5, criticizing the game as 'light on character and worldbuilding' but calling it a 'fun, airy RPG'. The game's significance lies in its hybrid of turn-based RPG and deck-building mechanics within the established SteamWorld universe, offering a distinct gameplay experience that was generally well-received by critics for its graphics and combat system.
Did You Know?
- SteamWorld Quest is a hybrid of turn-based role-playing and deck-building games.
- The game is presented as a fairy tale within the science fiction universe of SteamWorld Heist.
- Steam pressure serves as the game's equivalent of mana.
- The player builds a deck of attacks using character-specific punch cards.
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