They took the first game and enhanced the mechanics in pretty interesting ways. The class of your character is now tied to the gun they're using and you're very much encouraged to switch them around often. As you level up different classes - you get to pick some of the perks from your "side" classes to accompany your "main" one, allowing you to mix and match the skills.

Not sure how I feel about 2.5d style and the global map, but otherwise the game is just as great as the first one.

This is an incredibly good continuation of an already incredibly good 2D turn-based tactics game Steam World Heist. Lovely presentation and music, really addictive "just one more mission" gameplay, highly customizable difficulty (you can even run missions with incomplete crew), a story that does its job (there also are a few cool references to other games in the SteamWorld series) and fun exploration.

The exploration part is a new addition and I think it fits well. You need to pay attention to it though and make timely upgrades to you submarine, otherwise it is easy to miss the Unsinkable achievement like I did as there is no reloading if you've died on the world map.

I've played the entire game on Steam Deck and it was a really smooth experience. If you play on PC, make sure to use a controller, as the submarine is probably clunky to control with a keyboard.

I've payed the day 1 price for it and it was well worth it.

In short: SteamWorld Heist but better in every conceivable way with additional QoL changes, game mechanics and party flexibility. Plenty of hours of fun content, from unlocks to achievements. Worth the buy.

In long: An engaging 2D turn-based tactical shooter with a stellar soundtrack written by Steam Powered Giraffe (who also wrote songs in the first game). The mission-based gameplay loop is very fun and, as you will discover through your playtime, is highly customisable through the introduction of classes, perks and utility items - unlike the first game where each crewmate was limited in what weapons they could use, reducing their versatility. Furthermore, you're encouraged to train your crew in multiple jobs since you're able to merge perks from different classes together which allows you to finely tune your ideal party lineup and loadout.
The story is about what you'd expect from a SteamWorld game - it's enough, nothing stellar but it keeps your attention and helps tie together the two types of gameplay: mission stages and naval combat.
Naval combat, much like the rest of the combat, is quite customisable and interesting. As you explore the world you can purchase, loot or find various ship upgrades or weapons to help yourself buoyant while fighting various enemy ships. I very much like this type of gameplay (more than I initially thought I would if I'm honest) although I often found myself being very careless, throwing caution to the wind late-game as I rammed and face-tanked every hit using hull upgrades - perhaps this approach isn't viable on the highest difficulty but I wouldn't know. As an aside, do yourself a favour and find speed upgrades ASAP since your default speed is...slow... to say the least.
You'll find yourself spending the most time in those aforementioned missions with turn-based combat. To many, this sounds like a turn-off but in reality this gives you time to think carefully about each decision you make and to better take advantage of the aimline system. Most guns have sway and an aimline which, if timed correctly, can allow you to pull of the nastiest of trickshots possible or just miss entirely. As each shot may be crucial it could be very annoying to miss thanks to random aim sway but thanks to the versatile job system you can just assign a point into greater aim skills (just one of many upgrades that can make up for any issues you may run into regularly).
Stability-wise, it runs great for me and I only ever encountered 1 "bug" where a loading screen took 10x longer than usual, but besides that it was a smooth ride (also if you go to places that the game doesn't anticipate, you may find dialogue too early which kinda breaks immersion or just downright wouldn't make sense in context).

Honestly a great buy and a great addition to the SteamWorld franchise. You can think of it as what Steamworld Dig 2 is to the original but in the Heist series. Oh yeah and the game just looks gorgeous. I don't know how they did it but damn it looks, feels and sounds good.

Solid pick.