Into the Breach

"From the Makers of FTL" is what is plastered across the game's title screen. I understand how successful FTL: Faster Than Light was on Steam. It was a very cheap game with lots of different ways to play the game, but Into the Breach is nowhere near the same in any aspect. I don't think the $14.99 price gives it enough justice, though the current price of $10.04 (33% off) during the Spring Sale may be a more appropriate value.

I'm just going to come out and say it: the biggest problem I had with the game was identifying what type of game it was. It isn't exactly like Advance Wars where you move pieces on the board and take out opposing forces. It isn't exactly a turn-based shooter like X-COM where you must choose your tactics carefully. It could be considered a puzzle game where you have a certain number of actions to perform with randomized encounters. I kept hearing about the "time-travel" aspect of the game but it was all a facade. You can move your vehicles around as much as you want until you perform an action. You can restart a turn... once per mission. Their way of "rewinding time" is basically equivalent to starting over with a new mission.

Technically your goal is to make it through the game. Not exactly the objective I was hoping for. Your pilots can die but your mechs will still be repaired and run by an automated program. There are a lot of different bonuses for fulfilling objectives, gaining experience for your pilots by eliminating enemy units, and preserving building energy to continue each mission. You can complete any two islands and proceed right to the end. Completing preset challenges will give you more coins to buy more squads (with a different array of mechs). Honestly, none of it really mattered to me. I found myself trying to get as many "reactor cores" as I could to deal more damage and thereby making it easier to control the outcome. I must have spent 4 hours doing all 4 islands only to find that every mission felt identical. There was no obligation to kill all your targets or prevent any damage to the buildings. The rounds ended in a total of 5 turns. The story is very brief and serves as the official backdrop to the game.

I guess you could say Into the Breach makes you decide what you are playing for. And that is why I hated the game. If I played the missions with a certain squad successfully, do I have any reason to try the same missions with a harder squad with less effective weapons? Do I want to change up my tactics to play exactly the same experience with very little difference between objectives? I would say no.

Summary: Mixing up your tactics and deciding what order to play each mission is the game. With very minor differences between each timeline, I found no desire to continue playing. However, I would recommend anyone to at least try the game for $10 and see if you can discover a much better game than I did.

 

5-10-2019