Oftentimes in turn-based strategy games, we find ourselves asking: "What if I'd done something else instead?". Into the Breach makes that concept into a whole game in its own right. A time-traveler from the future, where a giant insectoid species has brought humanity to ruin, comes back to the past (or maybe the present?) to try and fix things the only way one's supposed to fight giant insects: With giant robots.

Where this gets interesting is that you're able to see exactly what every enemy is going to do, because you've been here before, fought these battles, and so on (metaphorically, at least; the playing field is procedurally generated, so you'll be fighting a new battle every time). At the same time, you have to save the population, and more importantly, the power grid. This creates an interesting game almost akin to chess, wherein using each of your mechs "optimally" to keep people out of harm becomes tantamount. Permadeath and a sometimes harsh difficulty curve add to this, forcing the player to make tough decisions such as deciding who should "soak" damage early in the fight if things come to it. Play well (or even perfectly), and your rewards will increase, making the road ahead less difficult.

Throughout the fight to change the future, you will run into a respectable variety of enemies. Into the Breach is pretty good about easing you in, with enemies being introduced incrementally each run in addition to being added into the overall random "pool" of enemies after you've run into them once or twice (an example being that you won't run into shield bugs randomly until you've seen them by progressing far enough, then they'll come into the pool for earlier island options). You'll also crew a variety of mechs that fit various themes based on their team, often built around a gimmick. One sets absolutely everything on fire. Another takes advantage of the game's "Smoke"/"Dust" terrain and creates more smoke of its own, all of which damages enemies that are in the same tile. Yet another fixates on pushing and tossing enemies like some kind of trio of 30-foot-tall Guts Man clones. And that's only three of them!

While the game is often very fair, depending on the team selected, it is possible to go into missions that, while you might be able to win, will be an incredible uphill battle that rely on AI manipulation based on learning fundamental concepts about how bugs target both buildings and mechs. Not all teams are created equally, and some are distinctly more challenging than others (especially based on luck of the draw as to which bugs are selected for your run). I found that things would usually either snowball into a victory or defeat, which makes the game's option to "punch out" early and fight the final battle after completing just half of the possible content in a run somewhat odd. This is a game of risk management, which might drive some people off, but it's sometimes easy to get into a bad situation and realize "I shouldn't have done this thing 3 turns ago" which leads to a scenario where the player has to choose between two bad options. This in itself isn't a design flaw, but may turn you off.

Overall, Into the Breach demonstrates that Subset Games took every lesson learned from their previous title, FTL, and put it into practice. It's just as addictive and replayable as FTL was, has a similar (if not superior) layer of tactical complexity, and, most importantly, unlike FTL, the vast majority of the time, it feels like it was your fault when you lost. There are no instances where the game does things like dump surprise punishments on you, every enemy's behavior, damage inflicted, and so on are disclosed immediately, and it's a matter of selecting the right missions for your mechs after learning them.

If you like turn-based PvE, this is one of the best titles to come out this year at this price point, easily.

Oftentimes in turn-based strategy games, we find ourselves asking: "What if I'd done something else instead?". Into the Breach makes that concept into a whole game in its own right. A time-traveler from the future, where a giant insectoid species has brought humanity to ruin, comes back to the past (or maybe the present?) to try and fix things the only way one's supposed to fight giant insects: With giant robots. Where this gets interesting is that you're able to see exactly what every enemy is going to do, because you've been here before, fought these battles, and so on (metaphorically, at least; the playing field is procedurally generated, so you'll be fighting a new battle every time). At the same time, you have to save the population, and more importantly, the power grid. This creates an interesting game almost akin to chess, wherein using each of your mechs "optimally" to keep people out of harm becomes tantamount. Permadeath and a sometimes harsh difficulty curve add to this, forcing the player to make tough decisions such as deciding who should "soak" damage early in the fight if things come to it. Play well (or even perfectly), and your rewards will increase, making the road ahead less difficult. Throughout the fight to change the future, you will run into a respectable variety of enemies. Into the Breach is pretty good about easing you in, with enemies being introduced incrementally each run in addition to being added into the overall random "pool" of enemies after you've run into them once or twice (an example being that you won't run into shield bugs randomly until you've seen them by progressing far enough, then they'll come into the pool for earlier island options). You'll also crew a variety of mechs that fit various themes based on their team, often built around a gimmick. One sets absolutely everything on fire. Another takes advantage of the game's "Smoke"/"Dust" terrain and creates more smoke of its own, all of which damages enemies that are in the same tile. Yet another fixates on pushing and tossing enemies like some kind of trio of 30-foot-tall Guts Man clones. And that's only three of them! While the game is often very fair, depending on the team selected, it is possible to go into missions that, while you might be able to win, will be an incredible uphill battle that rely on AI manipulation based on learning fundamental concepts about how bugs target both buildings and mechs. Not all teams are created equally, and some are distinctly more challenging than others (especially based on luck of the draw as to which bugs are selected for your run). I found that things would usually either snowball into a victory or defeat, which makes the game's option to "punch out" early and fight the final battle after completing just half of the possible content in a run somewhat odd. This is a game of risk management, which might drive some people off, but it's sometimes easy to get into a bad situation and realize "I shouldn't have done this thing 3 turns ago" which leads to a scenario where the player has to choose between two bad options. This in itself isn't a design flaw, but may turn you off. Overall, Into the Breach demonstrates that Subset Games took every lesson learned from their previous title, FTL, and put it into practice. It's just as addictive and replayable as FTL was, has a similar (if not superior) layer of tactical complexity, and, most importantly, unlike FTL, the vast majority of the time, it feels like it was your fault when you lost. There are no instances where the game does things like dump surprise punishments on you, every enemy's behavior, damage inflicted, and so on are disclosed immediately, and it's a matter of selecting the right missions for your mechs after learning them. If you like turn-based PvE, this is one of the best titles to come out this year at this price point, easily.