Into the Breach

The hype is awesome surrounding subset games, but new players should be aware that this game (as FTL) is extremely tedious. This is the first and most prevalent feeling around this. Let's put it that way : a turn based games needs you to coordinate each action of your party while predicting what the other players will do next turn. You both needs to gain an advantage on your opponent this turn, AND take into account what he can do next turn using the terrain, his own weapons etcet etcet... But here you don't need to take into account what the other player will do this turn (he is already a turn late on you) or even need to try to predict what he will do (this is given to you). The end result is that the game pretty much plays itself once you have gain a basic understanding of its mecanics. Exactly like FTL, those games might appear awesome at first glance, but will turn empty and repetitive extremely fast.

Itches my Advance Wars need rather well. :D

Into the breach is a turn based mech vs monsters game by the people who made the great game FTL. At times Into the breach feels much closer to a puzzle game than a regular strategy game, but this is one of its great strengths. While the variation between missions between different runs is rather limited, the difference between the mech teams and the general enjoyability of the game make up for it.

Would have given it 3,5 if it was possible. At the beginning, it was quite addictive. Sometimes you just have to make hard choices (like sacrificing a tank or letting a building be destroyed) but the end goal is what counts. Some battles you just can't win when there are too many enemies spawning and you have only three attacks. Sometimes the best shot to take out multiple enemies would also push them into the very building you are to protect. That, is good. The thing that I found underwhelming are the upgrades and new pilots. The new pilots often have skills that unlock under certain circumstances, which is nice, but highly circumstantial. Same with the upgrades that drop. It's random, and they often are too late or too few to really have an impact. The enemies grow harder in difficulty than you grow in strength, which is certainly challenging, but the impact of your new things are often just trivial. You may do more damage, but it still won't kill anything quickly enough - use of terrain, floods and blocking reinforcements is key in this game - sadly you just can't do it all. I liked the game, but it didn't keep me playing anywhere as long as FTL did. However, I will keep an eye on this developer for the next product :)

Into the Breach follows well in the footsteps of FTL. Sometimes a random feature can brutally impact your run, but most of the time it is a great tactical game where you try to mess with the plans of the Vek. Basically, it is like Edge of Tomorrow in reverse, you are the weird guys who can try again and again in order to defeat your enemies. The basic components which you liked on FTL are still there - you create your crew, level them up, buy new equipment, can try out different teams based on your playstyle, Ben Pruty plays relaxing tunes to your crew being massacred... Just a great follow-up.