Into the Breach – Short Review: PC Version
Quick Chess 2: Mecha Edition.
Into the Breach is a very simple game. I’ll not waste your time with a long winded-introduction as I’ll explain with a paragraph and picture.
It’s all mine! Top tip – Use the Control key to check enemy stats.
Within 5 rapid turns you’ll take on high stakes turn-based battles. Cleverly designed and incredibly fair. You will fail a fair few times. Each time you do, you’ll come back a little stronger and wiser.
It is not an easy game, but the campaign is quick. Some would say, faster than light. WINK!
So, now you know whether or not this is the game for you.
You’d like something a lil’ more in-depth? Come on in, why dontcha?
Oh… you wanted more? Erm. Yes. I had more… I’m not stalling or anything. LOOK! A MONGOOSE! NO REALLY!
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Welcome. I am Reviewtron6000.
Game is from Subset Games. Brains behind smash hit FTL: Faster Than Light. Recommended retail price is currently £11.39. Electronically verified.
Graphics are optimal and basic. The file size of the game is ergonomically excellent. Design is ingenious. Music is pleasing.
Reviewtron6000 is. Pleased.
Score to be calculated.
chunka-chunka-chunk.
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Look sunshine, I go where I please. But mostly one of these islands.
Wait a second! I’ve more to say! Shut it machine!
5 harrowing turns. 3 Little Mechs. Cities to protect! If you don’t, it’s game over as the power grid can only take so many hits. Who’s doing the hitting? An army of Bugs that telegraph exactly where they will attack. One wrong move and you’ll (often) enter a classic death spiral. Hey, maybe you’ll scrap through the battle and win the day? It’s bloody unlikely. The good news is you’ll whizz through the campaign in the time it takes a single battle, in a conventional turn based game. Naturally, this means you’ll have the time to start another campaign with your newly unlocked something, meaning you’ll invest way more time then initially intended. You are in danger of missing din-dins and some schmucks graduation.
Top Tip – Don’t do what I did. On my first run-through I bought new equipment, without the means to power it. Bugga!
Into the Breach is fair. The interface makes everything crystal clear and you have no excuse when you cock it up. Of course, there are occasions you simply cannot win and have to decide on what kind of loss you can live with. Into the Breach is fair when it decides how and when it’s going to fuck you. Fairly.
Everything’s a bloody threat.
Would you like an example? You don’t? Ok, skip this paragraph. The battle opens and I’ve set my troops in place. The bugs decide my artillery needs to expire and I cannot save him from the actual web he is tangled in. I cannot interrupt, kill nor move the bugs targeting him. I have lost my most powerful unit on the first turn and this mission’s already on the edge of game over, as three more bastardy-bugs will spawn on the next turn. Most of the time you can wriggle yourself out of situations. Blast a bug into the water, or persuade them to attack each other, or merely surviving till the end. No amount of clever tricks can save you when your time is up.
To combat this feeling of doom you can earn better starter pilots, and unlock whole new teams. The starter squad is a bloody struggle, but hey, they do install the most important lesson. You are overwhelmed and you will have to move the bugs around. The second most important lesson is to upgrade your team in a balanced fashion. This is almost as important as your tactical acumen.
Randomisation doesn’t mean much on such tiny maps and you’ll soon revisit the same objectives over each of the four islands. Before long, even with different squads, the choice of tactics feel strangely limited. In the majestic drive for the perfect UI more exotic ideas have been jettisoned. Into the Breach is highly addictive and perfectly streamlined but I don’t feel the need to complete the game with every squad and I can see myself tiring of it… but not this day!
Back to you for the score, Reviewtron6000!
Calculating.
Into the Breach is the most universal turn based game I’ve ever played. You will feel like a mastermind and doofus, often in the same battle.
The finest strategy game for the twitter generation.
Phew, that was a tough review wasn’t it, Reviewtron6000? It really is a great game.
Agreed. You’re are my bzzzt, best friend Scott. I love you.
Aw shucks, Reviewtron6000, you’re making me blush. Anyway, say goodnight Reviewtron6000.
Goodnight Reviewtron6000.
Mr A F Mongoose Esq.