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

I expected that I'd like Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. – what I didn't expect was to love it. This is a game that fires on all cylinders right from the start and never lets up – it's seriously challenging, charmingly funny and packed with entirely new design ideas every step of the way. Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is a triumph. [Issue #14: Old vs. New – March/April 2015, p.68]

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is a devastatingly unique strategy game with the pedigree to back it up. Fun and challenging, blending turn-based tactics with third-person shooting, there's nothing like it on the market.

Code Name S.T.E.A.M. represents an exciting new direction for Intelligent Systems. More than once, we found ourselves intending to complete just a mission or two, and wound up playing for five or six hours straight. It may not have the long legacy of other strategy titles, but the game proves that in many ways it’s just as capable.

Code Name S.T.E.A.M. is a decent action strategy game.

So if you can be comfortable diving flag-first into a cartoon nerd empire built with ad hoc literary appropriation and Lovecraftian ice menaces, one that is completely sincere, you will be rewarded.

Intelligent Systems has proved its value as strategy-developer for Nintendo more than once. Unfortunately in Code Name Steam the team takes turn-based strategy to a whole other level and it is not a good one.

So, there's my deep dark secret, I didn't finish Code Name STEAM. Sneer all you want, but the credit scroll would literally have to include a treasure map to a working jetpack before I'd consider finishing this brutally misguided, horrifically dull debacle.

I love this game, and I'm usually very fickle about turn based games. Yes, it is annoying how the aliens' turns don't go faster, but I can accept that for all the good things elsewhere in the game. The comic-like cut scenes are awesome, and I don't own a single comic book. The difficulty level is challenging, but not enough to kill my motivation to keep playing. This game is quirky and refreshing. It's almost surprising it got made, considering how unusual it is. It reminds me of previous games that have developed lasting fandoms, like The World Ends With You or Jet Set Radio.

Code Name: Steam has a unique combat system, a good story, and flashy art style, but all that is overshadowed by it's mediocre at best level design.

This is their first time making a 3d strategy game I think so I won't bash them about it. However, in the beginning the characters are pretty underpowered and the mechanics where the enemies can attack you while if it is your turn can be a cheap way to make the game challenging.

Like others have said, this game will probably be a lot more fun when it becomes a sequel. As it is, it's just too rough. While I like the turn-based gameplay concept, I found that the enemy turns take far too long, and I was spending a vast majority of the game just waiting for them to finish. It might have been better had we been given a full map view during these moments, but we're stuck to the POV of one of the characters. This also does get better as you progress through a level, but again, if I'm spending the majority of my time putting my 3DS down, waiting for something I have no control over to pass, that's a problem. The camera also has some issues. The over-the-shoulder approach is fine, but I found it difficult at times to determine exactly when my character was considered hidden, or about to run face-first into an enemy that would then proceed to shoot me. As it stands, this game just isn't up to snuff. I'd pay maybe 5 bucks for this. I haven't completed it yet, but I'm pretty certain this is also going to be a pretty fast game in the end. I'll definitely be checking out the sequel, but for now, this is a big pass. The overall aesthetic of the game, while interesting, is also flawed. The art style isn't bad, but it's very goofy, and with the lacking gameplay, I kinda felt like I was playing a Kids TV show tie-in game.

weeew man, this game is STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINKY. if i wanted to play a good turn based game, id just play Advance Wars or Fire Emblem. the Amiibo DLC didn't even help.