Into the Breach

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Into the Breach for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[Truk_Kurt]

Into the Breach is theexample I always bring up when people ask the question of which game did you go back to and end up loving. I gave it a try many years ago and played 2-3 hours of it but not really getting it and growing frustrated of having to start from the beginning every time I failed the mission due to its roguelike nature. At that point I wondered whether the roguelike genre just wasn't for me. Then in 2020 for some reason I decided to give it another go and fell in love, to the point where it is now in my top 3 games of all time. The question of whether a game can be perfect is sometimes brought up and whilst I wouldn't say ItB is perfect in every aspect that a game can be, I think in pure gameplay terms it is perfect and if not then it is the most perfectly balanced game of all time. Every single squad seems equal in terms of their abilities so that I really couldn't say that one is better than any other, they each have their strengths and weaknesses on the battlefield so that I could happily play a run as any of them and feel as though I have just as an equal chance of succeeding the run as any other squad I may have chosen. The same can be said of the pilots. Then there are the enemies which also feel finely tuned and balanced to perfection. A 10/10 game and the best indie game I have ever played.

[designermatt]

Travelling every week for work this year, I wanted a solid mobile game I could enjoy on the train and was surprised to read that Netflix were offering Into The Breach for iPhone. I remembered it being on some best games of the year lists for PC and had always meant to keep an eye out for it on a platform I owned, so I jumped at the chance to try it.

I found it really punishing at first, but with a little perseverance, I gradually learned how the mechanics worked and how to get the best out of my little mech team. Within a few games I was properly hooked and having a lot of 'just one more go' moments. It's a great strategy game with surprising depth, a lovely, pixel-art style to its tiny map and characters, and just the right amount of brain exercise that when I succeed I feel a real sense of accomplishment. It's staying on my phone and I know I'll keep going back to it.

[Jon Cheetham]

Into the Breach is no less than one of the greatest games ever made. Subset’s famous “design by subtraction” approach to this yielded a game that does everything it needs to perfectly, and has nothing it doesn’t need.

Since 2019 I’ve poured maybe 70+ hours into this across three platforms and never get bored with it. It was the first game I purchased on the eshop when I got my switch, it’s the game I play when I’m away on holiday, it’s what I distract myself with when I can’t sleep. When the Advanced Edition came out I went back into this in a big way, and the enemies and abilities it has added are fantastic across the board.

Even with the amount of time I’ve spent with it, I feel there’s still so much potential in terms of mixing up different squads, playing random squads and challenge chasing. For a tiny download of 257MB this is one of the most endlessly rewarding games I’ve ever played. It’s now also one of the best reasons to have a Netflix subscription!

[Hallam Akbar]

I heard so much great things about Into The Breach when it launched. My brother absolutely loved the game, as well as all the critics, it seemed. I was playing Breath of the Wild at the time and didn't start playing this game for a few years after it launched. I'm not a huge fan of strategy games, but some of them I absolutely love. I was so surprised by how hard this one was. I stopped playing, thinking I just wasn't smart enough to beat it. I had to constantly replay maps to have what felt like a perfect game. After a break, I thought I was going to go back and play on easy, but what I experienced in the game just wasn't fun enough to make me want to start back up. I'd still like to play it (on easy) one day, but ,y backlog is big enough, I don't know if I will decide to start over again.

[Tleprie]

I've only played 5 or so games of Into the Breach, but it is an all time favorite, not for games to play, but games I am inspired by while working on tabletop game designs. I love the simplicity and compactness of it, and would be thrilled to make something half as good as it someday.

[psychohype]

When I saw that a mobile version of Into the Breach was coming to phones and tablets for Netflix users in 2022, I was thrilled for the chance to finally give the game a go. I enjoyed it right off the bat, even if it took me a few failed runs to get the hang of how everything worked.

Even though I've put a decent amount of time into the game, I've still only tried out four of the squads so far: Rift Walkers, Zenith Guard, Blitzkrieg, and Cataclysm. I've gotten to the end credits with each of them at least once. To be honest, even if the developers had only included the original Rift Walkers squad, I would have thought this was one of the best puzzle-strategy games I'd ever played. But learning how to adapt my strategy for the other squads has been a great bonus.

The thing that most impresses me with Into the Breach is the design itself. Everything is so cleanly spelled out. This is where each enemy is going to attack. Here is the order of their attacks. It's all vital information for you the player, and there's very little that's actually left to chance—more on that in just a sec. I imagine it was no accident that the team at Subset Games decided to use an 8-by-8 playing field, just like a game of checkers or chess.

Probably my favorite moment in the game was during the final battle with my Zenith Guard squad. I was only going for a 2-island victory, so I didn't have a ton of opportunity to level up or overpower my mechs. It's a decent squad, but not the easiest group to work with, in my opinion. I got to the final round okay, but on the enemy's second turn, they had already overwhelmed me. Or so it seemed. I pored over my options for probably way more time than the game deserved. There was just no way around it. I was going to have to take some hits to the power grid, and probably sacrifice at least one my pilots to boot. Anytime you're looking at taking a pilot off the board just to stay alive, you know you're in a desperate situation. Somehow I managed to get to the final turn of the final round. The only problem was I had one bar of energy left on the power grid, and no choice but to roll the dice on letting an enemy take one last swing at one of my unprotected pylons. With only an 18% chance of avoiding damage, it was still the safest bet I had. Well, what can I say? The gods of RNG smiled on me that day. The bug attacked. The pylon withstood. And I squeaked through with the unlikeliest of wins.

While it's definitely fun to blast through a 4-island victory with barely a scratch on your mechs at the end (hello, Blitzkrieg!), I think the game is probably at its best in those moments when it looks as if the odds are completely stacked against you and yet, somehow, your brain manages to unlock some crazy combination of maneuvers that suddenly turns everything in your favor ... at least until the next turn.

[Alex79]

As a fan of their previous game, FTL, I was interested to see what Subset Games came up with next. When I heard it was a turn based strategy game I felt a little disappointed, with this genre having always been a bit of a turn off for me. So when I tried it and bounced off it I wasn't overly surprised.

And then last year I played, and loved, almost 100 hours of X-Com 2 so decided that perhaps turn based strategies were not the dead end I'd thought they were, and I gave the game another try.

This is the happy ending where I say I ended up loving Into The Breach and it's cemented itself as one of my all time favourites, right? No. I still didn't like it. Far more simplistic than X-Com, but seemingly more challenging with that, I can see why this appeals, but it just doesn't do it for me. I found the game to be frustrating and annoying, and I never quite managed to get the hang of it. I'm disappointed, but I guess it's okay not to like every game!

[Angry_Kurt]

I really didn’t click with it at first and bounced off it, then tried it again in 2020 and now it’s an all time top 5 game for me and my favourite indie game. The chess comparison I can totally see. My one gaming related life ambition is to get all the in game achievements. The only one I’m really struggling with is beating the game on hard. I’ve been close so many times