New release: Steam Marines

Word reaches me that Steam Marines, the sci-fi outer space squad-based tactics roguelike from developer Worthless Bums, has been released after more than two years in development.

True to their name, Worthless Bums haven’t provided us with a narrative summary, so I’m just going to write the game an ad hoc one from memory right here:

We’ve lost contact with the good ship Whateveritscalled in deep space! Choose a squad of four marines in steam-driven power armor; explore the ship, recover whatever can be salvaged, and make your way to the command deck. You may encounter Evil, Lethal Robots en route. Destroy them–and for the love of god, try not to die.

That pretty well sums it up, really. The game is turn-based, and runs on an action point system. Enemies in the game are ridiculously deadly, and you’ll need to rely on every tactical trick you can muster to destroy them without taking casualties.

There’s a release trailer for the game right here that shows how this looks in action:

Assuming that nothing fundamental has changed since my IndieRPGs.com Checks Out post from last November, the game is balls-hard and tactically satisfying. Anyone looking for a good tactics game with procedurally generated environments could do a lot worse.

Steam Marines is available for $14.99 for Windows, Mac and Linux on IndieGameStand, the Humble Store, Desura, and (appropriately enough) Steam.