Fighting robots plus brain-taxing logic-style puzzles? Sounds like a winner! Bureau of Steam Engineering, from the author of The Codex of Alchemical Engineering, is a visually stark game of planning, building, testing, tweaking, and building some more. You are an engineer outfitting robots who are about to go into battle with deadly weapons. Using pipes and valves you must connect each mechanical part to an engine and ensure it functions properly before unleashing the machine.
Bureau of Steam Engineering shares a lot with its Alchemical Engineering cousin. Both are difficult to learn and even tougher to master, but the rewards for doing so are so enormous you'll want to invest the time. The contraption filling most of the screen is a top-down view of your robot's innards. Two steam boilers sit at the bottom corners — each one provides power to whatever mechanisms you attach them to. At the top of the screen you'll notice an array of pipes, valves, weapons and more. Simply drag and drop parts, holding the [ctrl] key and clicking to rotate them when necessary. If you want your robot to move or crouch, you also have to connect the mechanisms at the top of the screen to a boiler. Finally, valves that switch when a certain amount of pressure has built up can be tweaked by clicking the wrench icon at the bottom of the screen.
Now comes the first big decision: what do you want your robot to do? The goal is to build a machine that can defeat a specific opponent, so read the hint printed under the "intelligence" tab first. Robots have two basic kinds of attacks: long- and short-range. Your machine has space for two weapons, but attaching them and supplying them with the power they need are two entirely different matters.
To start, try clicking on the "melee weapon" tab and placing a flamethrower on the left side of the robot. Next, attach a series of pipes leading from the left steam engine to the valve on the side of the flamethrower. Assuming you have all open pipes sealed, if you clicked "fight" your robot would face off against its foe with flamethrower a'blazin'. This doesn't do us a lot of good, however, as the enemy is too far away to receive any damage. Now we need to get the robot to walk. Run a series of pipes from the right-side steam engine to both valves under the walking mechanism. On the left side, place a fuse valve so the pressure feeding into the gear will alternate, allowing the robot to move. Now click "fight" and see what happens!
Making everything function in Bureau of Steam Engineering is often a complex engineering feat that can only be arrived at through trial and error coupled with precise planning. Make liberal use of the "help" screen (the ? icon on the left side of the screen) to familiarize yourself with all the parts of the machine.
Analysis: Another deep, heady game, Bureau of Steam Engineering takes some time to get into, but once you do, you're thoroughly hooked. It's rightly called a "game for engineers", as it's all about solving problems and building a machine to your specifications. I'm no engineer, however, so the game does have appeal to the rest of us gamers out there. It doesn't have the near-infinite solution set as The Codex of Alchemical Engineering, allowing you to slide into a more comfortable routine of building pipe configurations to accomplish common tasks.
A keyboard shortcut for removing pieces would be superb, as sometimes you'll find yourself halfway down a failed engineering road and must manually drag every component off the screen to rebuild from scratch. Right now there are only four robots to defeat, making the game last just one (long) afternoon, most of which you'll spend learning how to play. The "ending" hints at further episodes, however, which would be more than grand!
Complex at first, but after you mount the steep learning curve, more rewarding than most puzzle games around. Bureau of Steam Engineering is a true challenge that's worth every minute of head-scratching and valve tweaking.
Walkthrough Guide
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Here's a quick guide on how to get the weapons to work. They may not be the most elegant solutions, but they'll give you a good starting point:
My basic walking/ducking construction is almost always the same:
A weapon goes on the left, while the right features a control valve with one side hooked to the ducking valve, the other to the right side of the walking gear. Then flip the switch and go forward, flip it again to duck. Great for robots who fire shoulder-mounted cannons at you.
Another nice trick is to connect a flamethrower to the right side and set it to the same side of the control valve as the ducking mechanism. That way, when you duck the flamethrower ignites, but when you walk it's out. Bonus damage.
Flamethrower:
All this requires is a connection to a boiler. Simple. The trick, however, is to conserve fuel until you're near the enemy. Either use a fuse valve set to a high PSI to delay the flames, or wire it to the control valve so it goes off when you tell it to.
Repeating rifle:
Connect an alternator valve to the rifle's valves, then put a fuse valve between that and the boiler. Set the alternator to 10, the fuse to 30.
Steam cannon:
Stick two joint connectors right next to the cannon, each with a steam vent. Then pop on a fuse valve set to open at 60psi and connect that to a steam tank. Connect the tank to a boiler and you're good to go!
Buzzsaw:
Just connect it to a boiler, let time do the rest.
Jackhammer:
Connect an alternator valve to the jackhammer's valves, then put a fuse valve between that and the boiler. Set both to open at 50 psi.
Sledgehammer:
Place an alternator valve next to the sledgehammer's valves and set it to switch at 60psi. Connect the piping to a boiler. I'm sure there's a better way to do this one, but it works, so that's a start!
Posted by: JohnB
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January 21, 2009 4:31 PM
Praise JohnB!
I used your tips to beat the game!
I do have a better way to use the sledge hammer though...
Because you get the sledge hammer on the last level (where there is no need to move)... Use an alternater at 50psi on the joint to the hammer, then attach it to a control valve with the other output on a steam cap, then attach the input of the control valve to a boiler.
Here is how you use it if you set it up my way...
If you can't figure it out, have the hammer go up, switch to the steam cap, get in range, and then switch back to the hammer and it should fall fairly quickly.
Posted by: JNinjaz
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January 21, 2009 5:35 PM