Here's a review I wrote for somewhere else that may be of interest to any on the fence.
tl;dr - it's an excellent game, buy it.
Into The Breach
The game is, at it's heart, very simple.
When you start a new game you choose a time traveller (each one has a single unique bonus and two randomised bonuses from a common pool of four which they gain on levelling up) and a squad of mechs. When you first start you only get one squad, the Rift Walkers, which serve to gently introduce you to the concepts of the game. Each squad has three mechs, from three different classes, with varying abilities. You can also play a custom or randomised squad.
Stats are simple, mechs have a movement and a HP. They can also have an extra attribute such as flying (can move over obstacles and not hindered by water, which usually stops you attacking) or armoured (reduces damage by one, very handy). Every mech has at least one weapon, some start with two. Mechs can be upgraded with reactor cores (think power in FTL) which can then be assigned to unlock new abilities for weapons, or increase movement or HP.
Weapons come in a vast variety of flavours but the first squad come with a selection of weapons that all do some kind of damage and push enemies, the two most basic functions.
For your first play through you play the four islands in sequence but after that you can play them in any order. Each one has a different theme which leads to different playstyles. Enemies and the final bosses are randomised and you only need to beat two islands to face the final battle, so you can choose the ones which suit your mechs or strategy better. The first island you face has four enemy types and few Alpha Vek (stronger enemies with more HP and higher damaging attacks), the second has five enemies and the third and fourth have six. Some of the later enemy types are a real pain so it pays to choose your islands and order wisely.
Each island consists of seven levels and a boss. Once you win four levels the remaining three are locked and you fight the boss. Each level has differing secondary objectives; protect a certain building or object, kill 7 Vek, don't take more than 4 mech damage etc.
They also offer different rewards; reputation, power or in rare cases reactor cores.
Once you start a level you may also get a time pod, an item that must be collected or protected till the end of the battle that rewards you with reactor cores and sometimes new pilots or weapons.
So like the island order, which levels you choose to play is important depending on your squad's capabilities.
The levels themselves are small grid maps. Each one has a variety of terrains with differing effects and functions, and buildings. The buildings serve as your overall HP and must be protected. A battle usually lasts 4 - 5 turns during which more Vek spawn each turn.
You can prevent Vek from spawning by standing on the tile but this will cause 1 damage, so it's best to use other Vek for this if you can.
Each turn starts with the Vek moving and signposting their attacks. You then get a chance to prevent those attacks and save your mechs and the power grid.
Every battle is a juggling act between killing off the Vek, pushing or neutralising them so they don't hit your buildings or mechs and achieving any other objectives.
For examples pushing an object into another causes 1 damage to both, so using an attack that pushes on a Vek standing in front of a building will cause you to lose power. Instead you want to push the Vek to the side, also usually removing the building from it's attack.
But if you move all the current Vek and kill none then next turn their may be twice as many and it's no longer possible to stop every attack, you then have to start choosing what's more important; mech health, power grid or secondary objectives.
All this leads to the battles being incredibly complex and cerebral affairs. Moves must be considered carefully and consequences thought out. Sometimes an attack has unintended effects, I often find myself pushing a mech and damaging it because I didn't consider the extra effects of another mech's attack. Or killing a Vek who was blocking another's attack or another Vek from spawning.
You also get one turn reset per battle (you are time travellers) for those times when you make your moves and things didn't turn out as you planned.
After each island you can spend your reputation to buy new weapons, reactor cores or power for your grid. When your grid is maxed you can buy more power to increase grid defence, which is a small chance buildings will resist a Vek's attack.
Each mech squad has three achievements and there are 25 other achievements for a variety of tasks. Completing these gives you medals which you can buy new mech squads with. Some of these achievements require you to play the game in somewhat different ways or to specifically try and set up certain situations to get them so they increase the replayability a lot.
All in all, it's an excellent game. Is it as good as FTL? Probably not, but it's damn close. The two games are very different and whereas FTL just wins out in pure fun I think Into The Breach may be the better crafted game. It's clever, simple ideas that build into a complicated and beautiful whole that is so much more than the sum of it's parts. I've had brilliant squads defeated at the last moment by a string of bad choices and poor squads walk out of almost impossible situations because I spotted the perfect sequence of moves.
Into The Breach is a game that really rewards careful thinking and out of the box solutions, and it may well be the best tactical game of any kind I've ever played.
