Into The Breach Review

Another Timeline Lost

The planet has been plagued by an infestation of giant alien bugs. As the commander of an elite squad of mech-piloting soldiers, it is your job to exterminate the threat and save humanity. Subset Games, the same studio that brought us the brilliant FTL: Faster Than Light, is back again with Into the Breach—a small-scale, rogue-lite strategy game with a heavy emphasis on methodical, albeit simplistic, combat.

FTL offered an in-depth combat system with a strong narrative presence. However, if you buy Into The Breach expecting the same level of depth, you may be disappointed. So, why not end the review there?

It may be simplistic, but I have 30 hours invested in Into the Breach and can’t help but keep playing. If this doesn’t intrigue you, let the rest of this review be a personal penance, justifying the long playtime.

What is Into The Breach?

The giant bugs are back, but this time we don’t have Chrono here to stop them. We’re going to have to rely on ourselves and these big ass mechs to crush these insects from destroying our timeline. That’s the premise and you will be hardstuck to find Into The Breach deviating from it. Each run of the game you start in your ship’s hangar with an overview of your three mechs, your pilot and the difficulty you would like. 

Upon pressing start your three mechs fall from the hangar straight into a selection of  four islands, with the final island revealing itself once you have completed two islands. Each island has their own leader and terrain type; second of which plays heavily in the combat. To earn upgrades in Into The Breach you need to complete earn energy; a currency earned from completeing missions. Once you have defeated the island’s boss the shop appears. The shop has new weapons and cores to upgrade your mechs and give them a better chance facing the final island. So, what about the enemy? how do we fight these bugs and get our mechs upgraded? Let’s look at the combat. 

Combat

Although the combat is straightforward, it is extremely satisfying and by far the most enjoyable part of the small experience; which is good seeing as the combat makes up roughly 90% of the game. However, if you don’t enjoy simplistic strategy and the thought of playing anything other than a 4X game makes your big brain cringe, you will be sorely disappointed. The meat of the combat is positioning your mechs in a way that allows you to outsmart the bugs and try to save the buildings/civilians.

The base mechs of the game which you will be using till you complete a run are: an artillery blaster, which allows you to shoot long range over obstacles. A standard melee mech which does more damage yet has the disadvantage of needing to be up close and personal. And finally a tank mech which can fire in a straight line but wont fire over obstacles. You will use these mechs to push and damage the bugs moving them around the map.

Before your turn begins the enemy will get ready for the attack choreographing their next move allowing you to plan out a way to rearrange or destroy the bugs with minimal casualties. For example there is a giant dung beetle enemy which charges in a straight line towards buildings and mechs. By simply pushing the dung beetle into a line with another bug you can watch as the turn unfolds and the crushing blow of that beetle is redirected from a building into the side of his buggy friends.

As I mentioned, I would be lying if I said it wasn’t satisfying. I could make the argument that this combat, could be recreated on a piece of paper like Tic-Tac-Toe. Yet, somehow I don’t see this as a bad thing; it helps push the game to people like my grandad who could play Into The Breach, instead of that god damned Bejeweled Blitz. And by god that’s an impressive feat. 

Combat Caveats

With that being said, I haven’t even scratched the surface of smaller parts of each combat. The little caveats that make each uniquely generated run feel slightly different. First of all, if you die it’s not the end of the world, well… I mean it is, but only for that timeline. So don’t worry about the 8 billion people you let die, there’s still another timeline and another 8 billion you could let down. Dear god, how do these pilots not have severe mental issues? 

So, each mission has a main goal and a secondary goal. The main typically is something along the lines of protecting (x) and if you don’t protect it then your run ends. While secondary goals are optional and give more rewards but require you to step out of your way in order to achieve it. For example, one mission told me to destroy a dam, which was on the other side of the map and my main goal was to protect a building on my current side.

However, it is extremely worth going out of your way; especially for the unique weapons you can unlock like an electric whip that damages whole groups of enemies. Have I mentioned just how satisfying this combat is? Well, what about the art style?

Final Thoughts

Studio “” is known for their quirky art and UI. Utilising simplistic pixel art for FTL and they seem to have stuck with this design decision. This game isn’t breath taking visually as the visuals are definitely in the backseat when it comes to Into The Breach‘s design, basically it portrays what it needs to and does its job well. However, you’re not going to see some insanely detailed animations in this title; which again isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it allows you to focus on the clean gameplay. So is the price worth it? 

Into The Breach is currently £11.39 and while that may seem like a lot for this title, I played it on the Xbox Games Pass available for £3.99 a month and this being one of the many options to play doesn’t affect my view of the games pass. Into The Breach is an extremely addictive little game which you can play while focusing on more important things. The tight combat and simplistic gameplay dont water down the strategy and while it may not be intensive its something that both hardcore and non gamers could enjoy. Therefore, I highly recommend picking this game up for the Xbox Game Pass if you can. However, if you would like to buy the game outright then I would wait for a sale as £11.39 for the experience was a bit too steep for me.