Into the Breach Review

Humanity is destroyed. The Vek threat is unstoppable. Mission failed. Let's open the breach and go back in time. This turn-based strategy game really caught my eye when it launches back in February 2018. Now, I can finally experience it myself after more than 3 years since it was released. Your mission is to control a mech squad from the future and defend the city from the Veks, a giant creature coming out from the earth, looks like an alien. Into the Breach was the second game that Subset Games has developed and it was released for Microsoft Windows in February 2018, macOS and Nintendo Switch in August 2018, and Linux in April 2020.

For the first time playing the game, I don't even know where to start. There's so much stuff on the screen so and I think it is not my area to explore yet. I open the change squad menu and you can change the mech squad by purchasing it from the shop, but you'll need to earn coins from completing achievements. There's not much you can do on the menu for the first time, so I just press Start and hope for the best.

The mechs are ready and you choose the island to drop. For the first time, the only available island is Museum Island, a regular green island. Before you enter the island, you'll offer a tutorial simulation before the entering the island. I straight up choose the tutorial. I'm sure that I will have a terrible job explaining how the game work and the mechanics, but the game did a very good job explaining how the game works. To summarize, you have a mech squad that you control to defend the city by killing the Vek, rerouting their attack to make it miss the attack, or even make them attack each other. Every building gets damaged, your power grid (your health bar) will get reduce and when it goes down to zero, you'll lose. You'll win by defeating the Vek or survive their attack after a couple of turns.

At first, I thought we suppose to kill all the Veks and be the hero of the earth but that's not the case here. You barely kill all the Vek before the level ends. You just need to survive for five turns. Even you upgrade your mech at the end of a certain level, the game will get harder and even harder to kill all the Vek. In the end, the ultimate goal in this game is to survive the Vek's attack.

If you find something new in the island, It still hints you extra valuable information. For example, the fact that you can push some Veks into the water and drown can help you win the battle.

As mention before, there're new things like a special grid that can be used to your advantage or disadvantage. For example in Museum Island, there's a forest that if gets damaged, the forest will turn into fire. Whoever mech or Vek standing on that spot will get damaged one HP every round until the unit gets into the water to cancel the effect. There're others like the special grid in other regions like there's a special grid that if damaged can create smoke so attacks will miss if standing on it, an acid that can double the damage whichever unit stands on it, and water that can drown Veks if the ice is broken.

There're bonus objectives that you can complete on the top right of the screen, you'll be rewarded either Corporate Reputation, Power Grid, or Reactor Core. Those currencies can be used to upgrade your mechs or heal your Power Grid. Upgrade mechs is an important thing to do because you'll get extra power upgrading their available weapon, or even adding a new weapon to their weaponry.

At the start, the game feels easy to understand and not very much to explore. You just punch Veks, pushing them into a disadvantage spot and you'll win the game, simple enough. But what I don't realize is that the game becomes harder and harder as you progress through the region. Veks will just keep spawning left and right and you just don't have enough power to stop them from destroying the city. Since the Veks are more powerful, I recommend prioritize upgrade the mechs as much as possible as you progress to compete with the power of the Veks.

Some of the mechs are easy to understand and easy to combo with the other mechs, but there's some expensive mech squad that is quite complicated to use since they're moving and attacking with a synergy. Also, the Veks are easy to recognize and understand. Some of the Veks are easy to deal with and some of the themes are annoying if the Vek knows what to do. Like attacking all four adjacent for two damage when two of the adjacent are buildings, literally lost four hp if we cannot deal with that Vek.

I'm sure normal people won't finish the game from their first try. You'll restart and probably changing your mech squad if you have enough coins to unlock other mech squads. In the next attempt, you'll learn how the mech works best for the squad and what they capable of.

Personally, it is a really hard game for me who's not a big fan of turn-based strategy games and never plays that type of game. I can imagine how people can play this game until it finished and redo it again with another mech squad. I'm just worried that the game is not challenging enough for the turn-based strategy player out there and they didn't feel the satisfaction of completing the game. What I said before could be 100% false so don't take my word fully.

Until now I try my best to beat the game since I only can survive until the boss level and died there. I sometimes even mad if I did a bad move that cannot be undone. So far I enjoy how the game works, I might get a little bit addicted since I never finished the game and become too try hard to finish this game. I invite newcomers to play this turn-based strategy game, and for veteran players, I want to hear your opinion. Is it hard enough? Or is it easy for you guys? Or it just right for you? Right now, I have to defend the earth once more and try not to get mad at some stupid move I made.