Back in 2012 we received one of the most successful Kickstarter games of all time, becoming not only a triumph on PC platforms, but also iPad. FTL: Faster Than Light is a game that introduced a genre to people that had never experienced it, and it became an addiction for many. Naturally, with such a strong debut in the industry, all eyes were on Subset Games to see whether their sophomore game would follow suit or if it’d fail to enrapture people like its previous game did.

When I first saw the announcement of Into the Breach last year, I couldn’t help but be excited. FTL captured my heart when I first played it, and I spent a lot of time flying through space instead of doing my college work at the time. Whereas their previous game was more real-time with the option of pausing, this plays out more like an SRPG. You will fight against the Vek in mechs, which almost gives a feeling of the Front Mission series. The game’s battles play out in a way that is both very simple to read and understand, but requires a lot of foresight similar to playing Chess.

It’s weird to describe a game as both simple and complex at the same time, yet there’s no better way to talk about this. Of course, saying it’s easy may be a bit deceptive, as you will be dying over and over while playing. It doesn’t take much to jump into – learning the controls and how to play won’t take much time at all – but mastering the best order to attack and how to best upgrade your team will take much longer than you probably anticipate.

Starting out you’ll be given control over three mechs. These will include a melee mech with knockback, a tank type mech with knockback, and a long range artillery tank with surrounding knockback. It’s a pretty standard lineup, and one that anyone not overly familiar with the genre can easily become acquainted with. As you progress you’ll have the opportunity of unlocking other sets of mechs, each of which have their own theme. By this I mean you may have a class of mechs that specialize in certain characteristics, such as ice. Some of the weapons you’ll find on these mechs can be picked up throughout your campaigns, but these are random whereas the beginning loadout of the unlocked mechs would have them from the beginning.

The variation in mechs adds a deeper layer of strategy, as you will have a lot of new weapon choices that bring status effects that may not only affect the enemy, but you as well. While you’ll be learning all about making sacrificial choices well before using these weapons, be it taking damage to avoid an enemy spawning from underground or getting in the way of an attack that would hit a building, it’s not until you start using attacks that hit you as well that each decision will start to make or break you.

If you’ve played FTL, you’ll see a lot of similarities in the gameplay loop for Into the Breach. There are four islands for you to explore, and once you’ve unlocked them all you’ll be able to attack them in whichever order you choose – depending on your mech load-out, the preferred islands will change. Each island contains different territories that you can choose to play through, and when you win one, you’ll unlock the adjacent areas. Each territory has a different goal such as protecting assets or destroying a certain number of Vek. Complete these and you’ll boost your rewards. You only get to complete a finite amount per island though, so your territory choices are important. Keeping in mind what each island has, both in terms of environmental obstacles as well as enemies; you may decide which challenges seem most doable with your load-out.

Each level essentially has two types of way to lose – have all your pilots die, or lose enough of the power grid from the surrounding area. If your pilots die, it’s game over for you. If the power goes out, the Vek begin to take over and you go into the breach, which puts you back in time from where you just were. However, when doing this only one pilot can go back, so you’re given the option of choosing who you want to go back as. This is important as each pilot has their own skills that may buff your mech abilities in a way that make you seem unstoppable. You will be able to gain new pilots as rewards, in addition to more weapons and energy cores. Similar to FTL, you’ll need to power your mechs with these cores and then allocate that energy to what you deem fit, such as increased damage for a weapon, health, or movement.

There’s not a whole lot to dislike about Into the Breach. Admittedly, it didn’t grab me in the same way that FTL did. I’m not sure if it’s because I knew what to expect based on the trailer, or if it was perhaps too similar to their previous game that it didn’t stand out, but that’s like saying Leonardo da Vinci isn’t as good as Michelangelo. Ben Prunty once again scored the game and it turned out stellar. Not only does the soundtrack amplify the experience, but it kept me going while working my day job. Perhaps the weakest part of the game is the story, as the game focuses much more on gameplay. Easy mode will offer enough challenge for those that aren’t adept at tactical games, while the more difficult options will have masochists praising it. Despite the game being turn-based, I found myself regretting my wife distracting me during the enemies’ turn in the final mission, as there is so much going on that you really need to see each move that is made to avoid being trounced immediately. One wrong turn can mean the game, and that’s possibly one of the most disappointing and exciting factors of the game.

Into the Breach does so much for the tactical role-playing genre that I can’t help but think this will influence future games in the same vein. AAA games have a lot to learn from this, as it focuses on the gameplay for a quality experience. If you enjoyed FTL, Final Fantasy Tactics, Front Mission, or any other tactical games, you owe it to yourself to give this a go. Top notch strategy coupled with an addicting gameplay loop and stellar soundtrack makes for one of the best strategy games you’ll play this year.

9 out of 10

Pros

• Soundtrack
• Deep Strategy
• Simple to Understand
• Unlockables

Cons

• Lacking Story

Into the Breach was developed and published by Subset Games. It was released on PC February 27th, 2018. The game was provided to us for review on PC. If you’d like to see more of Into the Breach, check out the official site.

 

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