Code Name – STEAM

Code Name – S.T.E.A.M., known in Japan with the subtitle Lincoln vs. Aliens, is a turn-based strategy video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS handheld game console. The story is set in an alternate steampunk-based history and features a Silver Age comic book art style and a cast of characters from across American literature and folklore. The gameplay blends turn-based strategy with third-person shooter elements in a similar vein to the Valkyria Chronicles series. The game’s narrative framing device is that it is a comic book being read to the player.

The story opens in a steampunk fantasy version of London on the opening day of the Steamgate Bridge. Henry Fleming (based on the protagonist of the same name from the novel The Red Badge of Courage and voiced by Adam Baldwin) is going over security detail at the American Embassy, when suddenly the city is attacked by an unknown enemy force. He manages to escape and meet up with his old friend John Henry (voiced by Michael Dorn). The two are then rescued by an airship called the Lady Liberty, captained by the once-presumed-dead President Abraham Lincoln (voiced by Wil Wheaton).

He explains that the city is under attack by aliens and conscripts the two into the strike force S.T.E.A.M. (short for Strike Team Eliminating the Alien Menace). Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is a turn-based strategy game controlled in the style of a third-person shooter, similar to Sega‘s Valkyria Chronicles series. The gameplay involves a team of characters controlled by the player known as the “Agents of S.T.E.A.M.” facing off against an opposing team of alien invaders. For the player, both movement and attacking requires the use of “steam”.

A resource that depletes whenever a character moves around or uses their weapon, in the latter case depending on the type of weapon be used. By saving up the same amount of steam required for the character’s weapon to be used, certain characters can perform “overwatch attacks” during the opponent’s turn, letting them attack enemies that wander into their line of sight with the added potential to stun them for the rest of the turn. However, the opposing alien team can also perform this strategy, so caution is encouraged. Before each level, the player selects up to four characters, with more becoming available as the story progresses.

Each character has their own unique primary weapon that suit different play styles and strategies and a secondary sub-weapon that can be swapped between characters before each level. Every character also has a unique innate ability that remains active even during the enemy’s turn, such as moving around crates, passively buffing nearby allies, or surviving potentially lethal blows. Finally, each character has a unique special move that can be used once per level and does not cost any steam. These special moves range from area-of-effect attacks to temporarily buffing or healing party members.