It seems like I fall in love with practically any type of video game these days. Almost all the games I have reviewed on this site have received positive reception, and even if I have something to complain about they are mostly minor problems that don't affect the core experience. I love playing platformers, metroidvanias, shooters, RPGs, JRPGs, soulslikes, open worlds, immersive-sims, action adventure games, and many more. Throw any type of game at me and I’m bound to dive deep into it. However, one genre I never seemed to get into is tactical strategy. Now wait just a minute there! Didn’t you just say like RPGs and JRPGs? Well I’m being specific you mindless son of a gloin, so keep reading or get out! Well no, you’re already here so you might as well keep reading.
These games reward those who carefully plan out each move, utilize the abilities they have, and come well prepared for future battle. A few examples of tactical strategy games would probably include Starcraft, XCOM, and most notably the recent uprising of the Fire Emblem series. These titles are beloved by many, but in recent years it seems like these games have forgotten what tactical strategy really is. They feel less based on strategy and center more around chance or random number generation. Enemy patterns are unpredictable and your attack accuracy seems to be random at times. A while back I tried getting into XCOM 2 expecting a game that would be fun, challenging, and most importantly fair. Out of the three words I just listed, only one of them came true. The game punishes players drastically for making the wrong moves and what sucks is that you can’t even predict what your enemy is gonna do. The hitboxes for enemies felt wonky. I can have one of my soldiers firing a shotgun at an enemy close range and they’ll still miss, but when the enemy fires they completely kill my soldiers within seconds. I’m not saying XCOM 2 is a bad. I just didn’t have a good time playing it.
Similar to when I saw my older sister try out Fire Emblem: Three Houses. She saw a lot of lovely fanart online, was told good things about it and the story, spent a full sixty dollars on it, played fifthteen hours of it, and never touched it ever again. She didn’t like the combat of the game, said it was boring, and that battles lagged on longer than they should have. She also stated while the social aspects of the game were great, they were very restricted early on and don’t open up until you are halfway through the game. Compare Three Houses to Persona 5, a JRPG that is also longer than fifty hours but had loads of things to do within the opening hours and entertained them with fair stylish animated combat, then Three Houses kind of looks like a joke.
I lost all hope in tactical strategy, no other game could convince me the genre was good. Then I saw this one game. A small indie title that came out in 2018 and was published by Subset Games, the same people who made the well acclaimed strategic roguelike FTL: Faster Than Light. I thought it looked uninteresting at first, but recently I tried the game and honestly I have to admit it’s pretty good. Actually it's really good, maybe the first and best tactical strategy games I have ever played. The game I’m talking about of course is Into The Breach. The game began development back in 2012, straight after the release of FTL. Subset Games witnessed the successful return of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and wanted to do their take on the tactical strategy genre. Combining elements from that game with a few ideas from films like Pacific Rim, Subset Games created Into The Breach. They have not only created a fantastic new IP, but they have also shown tactical strategy games can still be fun and fair. Today we’ll be talking about why I loved Into The Breach and why it deserves your attention. So suit up in those mechs, open up a time rift, and prepare to dive into the breach.
Story
Humanity has been wiped out by a race of monsters known as the Vek, giant bugs who have emerged from the ground and smashed up whatever they could find. Several years into the future earth is left in ruins. Whatever is left of humanity is seen in a mysterious hangar looming high above in the sky. In this cryptic metal hangar giant battle mechs are manufactured by whatever is left of mankind and are sent into the past to time periods when earth was about to get invaded by the Vek. You are the commander to a small team of specialized pilots who are sent along with these mechs to fight against the Vek. Using special gateways known as Time Rifts, your team is sent to those alternative timelines to help those who are still alive. Hoping that if things go out well they may be able to save humanity and hopefully change the future. If they fail to save mankind they are sent back into the future to get ready to be sent to another alternative timeline and repeat the process again. It’s up to them to stop the Vek scum.
That’s all. That’s literally it. That’s the basic plot of Into The Breach and there's nothing else you are going to get! Nothing too complicated, but there is at least some interesting background to why you’re fighting giant bugs with mechs. If I remember correctly, I stated in my Doom Eternal review that having sometimes having a simple plotline is good, because while the plot may lack depth or character the developers focus more on the core game design. Making sure every element of the game clicks together so that players can have a fun time playing the game. You know: the damn thing they spent hard earned money on. Why have a game with photo realistic facial animation when the core gameplay is awkward and just doesn’t work? Speaking of the gameplay, let's talk about why so many gamers love the fantastic Into The Breach.
Gameplay
Into The Breach is a very simple game to play, but is very hard to master. You can literally reach the end of the game in a few hours if you plan out each move carefully, but making poor decisions can lead to a smooth playthrough ending very quickly. The goal is to clear out four islands overrun by the Vek, each island containing different hazards and several missions. You select a mission and you decide where to place three types of mechs, a tank, a cannon, and a giant robot. You can unlock new types of mechs to use for future playthroughs, but they require gold coins which are obtained by acquiring certain feats with specific teams of mechs. It is possible to beat the game with the first team of mechs you are given, and you're gonna be playing with them for a while so you really shouldn’t care. Get used to them and master their functions quickly.
Anyways, you're dropped into a square grid and you have to prevent the Vek on the battlefield from attacking buildings. Your mechs have a specific amount of health, but one mechanic that plays a big role is the Power Grid. The Power Grid is what allows you to keep playing the game. Surrounding buildings help fuel the Power Grid, and if a building is destroyed then the Power Grid drains. If the power Grid runs out completely then game over. The game clearly shows where the Vek are, what they are attacking, and what moves your mechs have to prevent them from causing damage.
All your mechs have the ability to push the Vek, this not only does damage, but it also prevents them from attacking buildings and allows the player to use the environment to their advantage. Pushing a Vek into a wall will deal double damage, pushing a grounded Vek into a body of water will drown it, pushing a Vek towards an area that is about to get aerial striked will kill it instantly, etc. However, you also have to be aware of how the environment affects you, because putting a mech in the wrong place may destroy it, leaving you with a smaller team and making battles harder.
There are bonus objectives during missions and while they are optional they can reward you tremendously for meeting their requirements. Maybe kill the Vek in a certain way or defend certain buildings and objects. You’ll be rewarded with reputation points, power cores, and sometimes electricity points that will refill your Power Grid. Reputation points allow you to purchase equipment after you complete an island. Special weapons for your mechs, electricity points, power cores, you name it. Certain weapons can only be equipped to certain mechs, and they need power cores in order to work. Power cores can also be used to increase the damage, mobility, and health of mechs. Allowing future battles to become much easier as you come more well equipped.
Once in a while a drop pod will land onto the battlefield, and you are given the choice to pick it up. They’ll mostly contain upgrades and weapons, but every so often you unlock a pilot. You can assign pilots to mechs and when a mech is destroyed a pilot dies, but certain pilots can be kept for future playthroughs as they offer special perks for your team. For example, Bethany Jones can generate a shield for her mech that can block a single attack no matter how much damage it deals. Also you can’t gain experience points for your mechs unless you have a pilot equipped, there are AIs that take over when a pilot dies but they're less efficient and won't level up.
There are also a few roguelike elements in this game. When you lose a battle and start a new playthrough you keep nothing but the special pilots you unlocked and one of the pilots who survived the previous battle. When you jump back in the world is randomly generated. Battlefields are set up differently, there are different missions from before, and sometimes new enemies will appear. So Into The Breach is a game where you have to die, die, and die again until you get things right. Overall it’s a fun game to play that isn't excessively hard or filled to the brim with anime girls. That was a joke, ahah! Hopefully you can stop the Vek and save all of mankind from extinction.
Thoughts
Into The Breach understands the core features that make a good tactical strategy game. It’s fun to play, satisfying to master, and rewards those skilled enough to go through battles without having a single building harmed. There were times when hell broke loose on the battlefield and I thought I was about to lose, but with careful planning and analysis I was able to turn the tides against my enemies. Drown them, burn them, crush them, push them off a cliff, or blow them up using an aerial strike. You could complain that the game is short because there are only four regions and the end stage per run plus it takes roughly about five hours to achieve your first successful run, but that’s understandable since the game is made by a small indie studio and due to it’s roguelite design Into The Breach was made to be played over and over again.
There are a couple of minor complaints I have with the game. One of the most major ones I have is with the mech squads and how you change up your playstyle for each run. You do unlock new types of mechs to use, but you're more likely to stick to the beginning team The Rift Walkers, because you’ve gotten so used to them and they're the most efficient. The punching mech does a good amount of damage, the tank has good range, and the cannon’s missile has enough force to push enemies into hazards without even directly hitting them. One of the first squads I unlocked was the Zenith squad and one of the mechs for that team is a charge mech that rams into enemies but receives damage in return. At first I thought it was pretty useless only to realize that he pushes enemies farther than the punching mech from the Rift Walkers team, and there's also a laser mech that can shoot a row of enemies using a laser beam so that’s useful. Another squad I unlocked was the Blitzkrieg squad which consists of mechs that practically have to work together to get the job done right. You use the pull of the grapple mech and the push of the rock launcher to line up groups of enemies so that the lightning mech can zap them all at once. They're fun to use as long as you don’t zap the rest of your teammates in the process.
The bosses at the end of each region can be quite annoying, because while you can cancel their attacks they have more health than they really need too have and it’s hard to focus on them when more enemies spawn each turn. The bosses also have the ability to kill your teammates within a single hit, so in the end you have to play very carefully. It's not too bad though, because killing boss fights are more about prioritization and a bonus objective you can fulfill for an extra reward rather than a priority which is nice. Besides that there isn’t much to complain about.
Like most indie games Into The Breach achieves what it sets out to do and exceeds some of the goals it set up. Sure it’s not for everyone and it can be really challenging at times if you come underprepared for later missions, but unlike Fire Emblem or XCOM the game balances out it’s steep learning curve with smart design choices that make the experience feel fair. I never got tired of combat, because battles usually last less than three minutes if you play efficiently. I also think the calm soundtrack adds to the decisiveness of the gameplay. It's not a superb soundtrack, but it's one that keeps you focused and has a certain rhythm to it. Overall I strongly recommend you to try out Into The Breach, and if you are a fan of other tactical strategies like Fire Emblem, XCOM, or Starcraft then give this one a try. For the price of fifthteen dollars I say it’s worth it. In the end I am going to give Into The Breach a solid 9/10 for being excellent at best. May even have convinced me to give other tactical strategy games a shot.
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