Into The Breach Review – Overview, Storyline, Pros, Cons, And More

Subset Games developed and published Into The Breach independently. They are the same folks behind the extraordinarily successful, FTL: Faster Than Light. Into the Breach was first released for PC via the Steam platform and then was later made available on Mac and the Nintendo Switch; further plans exist for a Linux version. In this Into the Breach review, we will include information on the storyline and setting, technical requirements, and comparisons to other similar titles.

Comparison Table

What Is Into The Breach?

Released in 2018, Into the Breach is an exclusively single-player game in the turn-based tactical strategy genre. Its small-scale 8×8 battlefield grids and retro graphical style are more than a little reminiscent of Advance Wars, and so its appearance on the Nintendo Switch is appropriate. It is specifically designed so that individual engagements can be played out quickly (usually only about five turns), thus giving it the feel of a mobile game. The maps, goals, and enemy configurations are random, so the player will never play through the same scenarios twice, leading to an exceptional level of replay-ability.

Storyline

No Into the Breach review would be complete without an overview of the storyline and setting. While the backstory is hardly extensive, one can sum it up by saying that the player is charged with commanding three mechs in face-offs against insectoid enemies called Vek, who are trying to conquer the planet. The game plays on four separate islands on the planet and has its own mix of terrain obstacles to contend with.

The Vek seem to always appear in larger numbers than the player’s modest mech army. However, the player has the power to jump back in time and begin the battle anew if things go wrong; this is the explanation for why the maps are randomized with each playthrough since it takes place in a different time.

Gameplay Mechanics

As earlier mentioned in this Into the Breach review, the game is played out on a series of ever-changing 8×8 grid-fields. Each turn the player moves his mechs or issues attack commands against the Vek. Each mech has different abilities, additional equipment is available to purchase, and new mechs are unlockable later in the game. What sets the game apart from others in the genre are the time-travel portals (breaches) on each battlefield, and that the player can see what the enemy is planning a move in advance (wouldn’t it be handy if they had that feature in chess?).

Difficulty

Few would argue that this is an easy game. More than one Into the Breach review out there has mentioned that even the “normal mode” (out of three levels) will leave many players in a sweat. A tutorial is included, but it only offers instruction on the mechanics and has little to contribute regarding strategy. Many will find it necessary to play through the whole game on “easy” before finding much success in the harder settings.

Product Specs

For the PC players out there, this is an old-school style title with very low requirements. The developer specs only ask for a 1.7 GHz CPU and a gig of RAM. The memory requirements for Switch are likewise very modest. Fear not; this is a game that will easily run on older machines.

Pricing

Into the Breach is a reasonably priced title. It was released with an initial MSRP in the United States of $14.99 for both PC and Nintendo Switch. As time goes by, lower prices may be found for the game on both platforms.

Into The Breach Review: How It Compares

For this Into the Breach review, we picked a few similar titles available on the market to see how they stack up.

Conclusion

In bringing this Into the Breach review to a close, let us summarize. The game brings the player a surprisingly sophisticated strategy title that is custom-designed for people who prefer their gameplay in bite-size chunks, rather than hour-long slogs. This is a game that one can pick up and put down—and then pick up again. This is a good thing. We’re a fan of anything that can keep you coming back for more.

It is a turn-based game rather than a real-time game and is exclusively single-player by design. This gives Into the Breach a more cerebral, chess-like feel as compared with real-time strategy games like Supreme Commander 2. Simultaneously, that the playing field and circumstances of each skirmish are randomized gives the title a high level of replay value. The high replay value of Into the Breach makes its $15 price tag quite a bargain.

Overall, we see the game in a positive light, as long as the scope of the game is understood. Into the Breach is both fun and smart, but lacks the depth you might find in games where one manages a larger array of forces. For what it is, it works well and offers the user a title he or she will keep coming back to for a long time, even if only to play for a few minutes at a time. If you have some time and $15 to burn, we recommend giving this title a shot.