Steam Squad

Set in an alternate steampunk version of World War I, ‘Steam Squad’ is a turn-based tactical strategy game where players command small units across diverse missions such as area conquest, VIP rescue, sabotage, and infiltration. Control infantry, artillery, and other forces from three distinct factions, utilizing strategic planning to navigate varied scenarios in a world where history and steam-powered technology collide.

Steam Squad: A Forgotten Steampunk Gem Unearthed

Introduction:
In the crowded pantheon of indie tactical games, Steam Squad (2014) by Bretwalda Games stands as a curious anomaly—a steampunk reimagining of World War I lost amid the algorithmic churn of digital storefronts. With its hand-drawn Miyazaki-esque aesthetic clashing against grim trench warfare and diesel-fueled mechs, Steam Squad dared to ask: What if the Great War collided with Chinese imperialism and arcane technology? This review argues that while flawed by ambition-over-resource constraints, Steam Squad remains a fascinating artifact of indie creativity, merging tabletop tactical rigor with narrative world-building rarely seen outside AAA studios.

Development History & Context:
Steam Squad emerged in 2014 from the then-nascent Bretwalda Games, a studio aiming to translate niche tabletop wargaming sensibilities (name-checking Warhammer and Infinity the Game) into digital form. Built on Unity engine, the game faced era-standard constraints: small team size (credits list just 8 contributors), budget-limited asset creation, and the pressures of Steam Early Access’s then-unregulated landscape. Released alongside titles like Door Kickers and Invisible, Inc., Steam Squad entered a market hungry for tactical depth but increasingly skeptical of janky execution. The studio’s vision—per developer comments on Steam forums—was to create “a physFics-driven love letter to alternate-history wargaming” unshackled by historical accuracy. Sadly, post-launch support evaporated by 2015, leaving the game stranded in incomplete obscurity.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive:
Steam Squad constructs a dieselpunk alt-history where the Tianxia Empire (a Han Chinese superpower) colonized Siberia before Russia, igniting a global conflict with the British Empire and Holy Roman Empire (HRE) circa 1914. Players command 8-unit squads across 30 missions—sabotaging supply lines, defending VIPs, or spearheading assaults—while wrestling with three core themes:
– Techno-Imperialism: The HRE deploys clockwork automatons; Tianxia fields lotus-shaped airships and qi-powered armor.
– War’s Dehumanization: Units permadie à la XCOM, underscoring the fragility of human life amidst industrial carnage (e.g., mission “Siberian Requiem” tasks you with rescuing POWs while artillery flattens villages).
– Cultural Collision: British stiff-upper-lip radio chatter clashes with Tianxia’s poetic fatalism (“The crane falls where the wind wills”).
Dialogue, though sparse, suggests layered politics—leaked HRE documents reference a “Black Sun Society” orchestrating the war—but lack of cutscenes renders much lore inferential.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems:
Steam Squad’s turn-based tactics blend Frozen Synapse’s planning phase with Valkyria Chronicles’ unit customization:
– Unit Roles: Riflemen, Engineers (build sandbag fortifications), Saboteurs (plant steampunk IEDs).
– Physics-Driven Combat: Bullets ricochet off armored vehicles; mortar trajectories account for wind drift.
– Resource Economy: Scrap salvaged from downed mechs funds upgrades like tungsten-core shells or smoke launchers.
Unfortunately, clunky UI—rotating cameras often obscure elevation changes—and unbalanced factions (HRE’s Panzerhunds dominate mid-game) mar the experience. The Battlecam system, aping silent-film vignettes, grates when spammed mid-mission. Yet buried beneath jank lie moments of brilliance: ambushing a Tianxia scout walker by collapsing a barn onto it via timed explosives never loses its thrill.

World-Building, Art & Sound:
Visually, Steam Squad channels Hayao Miyazaki’s Laputa via painterly European hamlets juxtaposed with Tianxia’s crimson pagodas. The destructible environments sell the setting: shrapnel shreds poppy fields; HRE flamethrowers leave charred skeletons of cherry trees. Sound design is minimalist—distant artillery booms, metallic clangs of reloading bolt-actions—but Nicholas Varley’s piano-heavy OST evokes Ramin Djawadi’s The Pacific, balancing melancholy and menace.

Reception & Legacy:
Critically ignored at launch (only Gameplay Benelux reviewed it unscored, calling it “aardige” – decent), Steam Squad found a cult following among <500 Steam users (70% positive reviews praise its “weird ambition”). Its legacy is two-fold:
1. Proto-Iron Harvest: Inspired 2020’s Iron Harvest to refine the dieselpunk-RTS formula.
2. Modding Ghost Town: Abandoned tools birthed niche mods like “Tianxia Reborn,” adding playable Korean resistance fighters.
Commercial failure ensured Bretwalda Games’ collapse, but annual Reddit threads (“Anyone remember Steam Squad?”) testify to lingering intrigue.

Conclusion:
Steam Squad is a flawed masterpiece—a beta test for triumphs unfurled elsewhere. Its half-realized systems and skeletal narrative frustrate, yet its world-building audacity and tactical earnestness remain unmatched. For historians, it exemplifies indie gaming’s “golden age of overreach” (2012-2016); for players, it’s a poignant relic best enjoyed through the lens of nostalgia-curiosity. Not essential, but unforgettable for those who brave its rusted gears. 6.5/10 – A diamond buried too deep to polish.