Into the Breach

If you enjoy the thrill of a good strategy move you've made in chess, you'll enjoy this game, too. It gives you a handful of interesting and smart mechanics. I'm pretty sure the developers didn't create something new, but they did bring some ideas from different strategy games and melded them into something special. Every time you lose advantage, it is because you didn't plan it ahead, and it's completely fair. The difficulties are well calibrated, yet challenging. You start the game with a squad of three mech suits and soldiers, and you use them to protect the power grid and fight this giant insect race called the Vek. Every suit has their unique advantages and disadvantages, and it's up to you to manage them at the end of every battle. You also get a variety of weapons you can buy, which juggle with all the game's mechanics. There are 4 islands with their different lore, terrains and missions. The let's you take the final battle after 12 missions/2 islands, but you can complete all 4 to make enough reactors to upgrade your suits. Keep in mind that after every completed island, the battles will be more difficult. The missions summarised are: protect this, destroy that, kill this many, get this little damage, don't kill this, retrieve this. Like I said, it's nothing new, but Subset Games made it pretty interesting and relevant to the lore of the world and the islands. Storywise, this game lacks plot, but that's not to say there isn't a vague enough stoy that gives the game some depth. When you finish your first game, it kinda shakes you a bit and gives you some sense of accomplishment, like you were the commander of your soldiers. There's huge replay value, because you can unlock new soldiers and mech squads, with new weapons and tactics, and it makes you want to master them all. The colors and effects are beautiful. The music is epic, and it makes you feel overwhelmed when you lose advantage, or confident when you gain advantage. Just buy it, it's that good!

I am waiting for a sale to buy this on GoG but i can review it since I've played a ton of it on the windows store version through Xbox game pass and on the epic games version that was given free in one of their giveaways. I'm just waiting to get it here because i prefer my games on GoG if possible. I thought it was going to be a final fantasy tactics type game a la Fell Seal, but i was wrong. It was similar in it's layout but doesn't play the same. It's more of a puzzle game incorporated into a tactics game. Very fun, you should check it out.

With +100 hours on this game (and a lot more I'm going to play), this is a perfect tittle to play one run from time to time. The game shows you a simple grid, which may seems child-like at first glance. But as soon as you start to play (at least in Normal level), you realize you are always outnumbered and outclassed in terms of raw power. However with your skills and crown control is extremately satisfactory to turn the balance to your favour. Especially with Judo mechs, where your job is manipulating the board to turn that enemy raw enemy power against them! It's a 60% tactical game 40% puzzle game, but randomnly generated! It has a good amount of content. Advanced edition (free DLC included) give you even more, but I would advice to disable it if you're a newbie. It also has a small strategy layer, where you customize your mechs and buy improvements for them that synergize with your general strategy. Good graphics, music, humor and controller support. If you like simple but intense turn based games, buy this! You'll love it (this is one of the rare exceptions I rate a game with 5-stars)

This game features some of the tightest turn-based strategy gameplay of any game. The game plays more like chess or a puzzle game with no randomness as opposed to something like xcom. The situation of the entire map is clearly presented each turn and it is up to the player to find the best solution to each problem. There seems to nearly always be a good solution available. The maps are small with mechs being able to cross the entire map in a few turns and it is often possible to attack any of the tiles in a turn. The gameplay is kept fresh with optional goals on each mission, varying terrain conditions on each of the islands, the ability to equip drastically different weapons on the mechs and varied mech squads with the developers adding even more with free updates. The advance content additionally provides some fun customizability and variation for each run. Beating the the game once is only the beginning. For me the game provided at least 50 hours of satisfying gameplay. The graphics feature well-drawn and animated pixel art. The soundtrack features some absolute bangers by Ben Prunty. The island finished -theme for example perfectly captures the triumphant feeling. The visual and sound effects are somewhat minimal but fitting and sell the impact of attacks well. Both the island CEO:s and the mech pilots are given some personality with portraits and dialog boxes. Unlike FTL, the story and game scope don't reach galactic levels but beating the game for the first time feels appropriately epic. There is not much variation in the story department from run to run. The achievements do exactly what I want from them: encourage experimentation with different strategies, challenge one to arrange different conditions in combat and provide some extra-hard conditions for success. The tight and satisfying turn-based puzzle-like gameplay is the the best aspect of the game. The story is somewhat lackluster, but does not detract from the overall experience.

As a great fan of FTL I decided to pre-order this game. Now I wish I had adhered to the motto of the PC Gaming Master Race "We do not pre-order". Game and Gameplay: Dull and uninteresting. It's a cliche fight of mechs against bugs. Music: No awesome music repertoire that we have been pampered by FTL. Story: Bad. Even the background is poorly explained. You are dropped into a game with islands and a corporation on each island. How did humanity get there? Why? I like a cyberpunk vibe but in this particular game I feel like things should be better explained and story-told. Things I liked: Time travel Terminator-esque feeling. I like how the time travel theme fits into us restarting a game. (the main menu background, mech + ruined landscape) Vibe from an old and underrated manga series called Blue Gender. Humanity trying to fight back an "alien" bug invasion. But it was so much deeper than that. The reason I don't give this game 1 star is that the developer is known to "follow up" their game after release and not just "fire and forget". That is the only hope for this game. I don't understand how so many people seem to like this game so much.