Into the Breach takes the familiar concept of turn-based strategies, where players should control the flow of battle by predicting enemy actions, and turn it upside down. In ItB, you know what is going to happen next turn, and your goal is to use that knowledge to disrupt the enemy as much as possible. It's a very fresh look on a classic gameplay mechanic, and the game is very well made. It doesn't have a lot of action (not as much as one could expect from a game where skyscraper-sized robots battle enormous aliens), but the game is not about big explosions; it's about planning. Devising a clever plan and seeing as it plays out is surprisingly fun! The fact that ItB is disgustingly well balanced only makes the game more charming. I've never encountered a truly hopeless situation, there is ALWAYS a way to do what you want, and figuring it out is the best part of the game! I can already see that the possibilities for replaying the game are nigh endless, so do yourself a favour and buy it, it's definitely worth your money.
Since The Guild 3 is a game about medieval times, one would expect it to have some of pandemics. Sadly, this game is plagued not by Black Death, but by myriads of bugs that render it barely unplayable. The game's current optimisation is so bad that even medium graphics settings bring the most powerful PCs out there to their knees. One could argue that it's okay to have bugs and bad optimisation during Early Access, but after reading the official devblogs (and playing other Early Access games) I expected the game to be a bit more polished, especially for its price; currently in my country this barely playable Early Access version costs more than Divinity: Original Sin 2, and, according to developers, the price will increase at launch. Don't get me wrong though, the game itself is not actually bad. Like previous The Guild titles (and other titles made by GolemLabs), it has a very fun and engaging concept that plays well, but is ruined by bugs and awful UI that's outright hostile to players. It makes me bitter because it seems like developers have learned nothing from their previous mistakes. Even though almost every problem the game currently has will probably (hopefully) get fixed during Early Access period, and even though I'm a big The Guild series fan, currently I do not recommend purchasing this game, as in its current state it's barely more than an engine demo, and definitely does not live up to standards set by other Early Access games. Wait until it's released and pray that developers fix everything.
Building - the core gameplay part - takes a lot of grind and doesn't feel satisfying at all, as currently the game simply does not have enough blocks to allow players to build something to be proud of. Building things requires you to produce materials, and currently this process cannot be automated. If one material requires another material in order to be built, you must build everything manually. I personally find it extremely frustrating, as it forces players to waste a lot of time. Building vehicles is possible, but is a bit cumbersome, and currently you can only use wheels. As a result of the game's tedious crafting system, building even the most basic platform-on-wheels will take a lot of time and grind. The game looks beautiful and the landscapes are pleasant to look at. Performance is acceptable, I have 8 GB of RAM, i5 3570k and a GTX 970 and I didn't experience any harsh framerate drops, although the game still struggles to keep stable 60 FPS on ultra settings. I had some problems with the UI, as its transparency cannot be customised - and I think that it's too transparent. If you're interested in the game - wait for it to develop further. I cannot recommend buying it in its current state, unless you're a very passionate fan of this genre.
